NASCAR for sale? France family considering selling a majority stake

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nascar-m-a-exclusive/exclusive-nascars-majority-owners-explore-sale-sources-idUSKBN1I825P

Exclusive: NASCAR's majority owners explore sale - sources

Liana B. Baker, Jessica Toonkel, Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) - The majority owners of NASCAR, the company which operates the namesake U.S. car-racing series and other motorsport events, are exploring options that include the sale of a majority stake, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Brad Keselowski (22) leads the field during the PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, February 25, 2017. John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports/File Photo

The move comes as NASCAR grapples with an aging fan base, stricter safety rules and a competitive media landscape that have weighed on its popularity and made it less attractive to advertisers and sponsors.

The France family, which controls NASCAR, is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) to identify a potential deal for the company, three sources said, cautioning that the deliberations are at exploratory stage and no agreement of any kind is certain.

The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential.

NASCAR and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

NASCAR could attract interest from media companies and private equity firms, according to the sources. The company’s exact valuation could not be established, though the sources said it could be worth several billions of dollars.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc237.2

GS.NNew York Stock Exchange

+2.26(+0.96%)

• GS.N
• ISCA.O
• FWONA.O

The company was founded by Bill France Sr. in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1948. Drivers in its races, such as Dale Earnhardt Sr, became household names, and major companies rushed to have their brands affiliated with NASCAR.

But as its loyal fans grew older, younger consumers showed less enthusiasm for the sport, driving TV ratings down. There is still, however, a lot of competition between broadcasters, technology companies and cable operators for live sports rights, as advertisers seek events that viewers want to watch real-time.

“In a time period that is attractive for live event and live entertainment, Nascar has struggled,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG. “There is absolutely a desire to own rather than license content but everything has a price.”

NASCAR has been dabbling in so-called e-sports in a bid to reach younger audiences. Earlier this year, 704Games, NASCAR’s exclusive video game licensee, said it would bring NASCAR Heat Champions to Daytona International Speedway during the Daytona 500 weekend.  

As a privately held company, NASCAR does not disclose earnings. However, International Speedway Corp (ISCA.O), which hosts the Daytona 500 rally and owns 12 of the 23 NASCAR Cup Series tracks, reported a 1.6 percent year-on-year drop in admissions revenue in its fiscal 2017, blaming it “substantially” on NASCAR events.

In 2017, Liberty Media Corp (FWONA.O) spent more than $8 billion, including debt, to acquire international motor sports league Formula 1, ending a long-running saga surrounding the sport’s ownership and potential flotation. The new owners have shaken up its management, and put a sharper focus on new media markets and boosted its presence in North America.

Reporting by Liana B. Baker, Jessica Toonkel and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Bill Rigby and Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

It's hard for anyone to pay attention to a 500 mile race when the modern public has a 6 second attention span.

In reply to BoostedBrandon :

They do more than race at Daytona.

Attention span isn't the issue.  Fighting for their attention certainly is.

There's a perception issue, the NASCAR fan as an ignorant redneck is difficult to shake.

The changes from an inexpensive option for families to one with significant monetary investment aren't helping.

Moving away from some of the races and tracks for multiple events at some locations sours their core audience.

Changing the rules the races are run under has been a huge issue for many.

Ultimately?  They've missed the boat of what their core audience enjoys and are willing to spend money on and they've not managed to attract new fans with their changes.

The last 5 years, the format has been confusing as all berkeley. 

You know what will get me watching again? Dirt. 800+HP cup cars on dirt. 

When it’s all the same thing out there.... zzzzzzzzzzz

In many ways Nascar is a losing proposition these days due to its audience.  If they change they lose audience for not staying true to its roots, if they don't change they lose audience as they die off, or as their "favorite" driver retires, among other issues.  You can argue that the cars are no longer relevant, the races too long, and it was oversaturated starting about 25 to 30 years ago.  I think it will eventually level out, but I don't think you will it rise again to its past glory unless something drastic happens.  Maybe if a new owner gets it and blows it up, but who is going to want to spend the type of money it will cost?  They're currently is a lose if they do, lose if they don't scenario.  

Appleseed said:

You know what will get me watching again? Dirt. 800+HP cup cars on dirt. 

I've been to the truck race at Eldora and I didn't find it that entertaining. Once you've seen  adirt modified or winged sprint car a NASCAR truck is pretty slow.

I'll never go to another NASCAR event that's for sure. Eek!

Going back to Bristol this year for the night races after a 4 year hiatus.  We’ll see how the races are before deciding if this is my last hurrah.  Honestly, I am not sure who about half of the cup drivers are anymore ... 

They need to make a few changes no Doubt. they need a dirt show or two they need a Bunch of road course races and the Mile and a half tracks have become boring not to mention Daytona or Talladega where they Can't Get out of each others way much less make a Pass.  500 miles used to be an Endurance Race, cars are so well made Today It's a Fast walk in the park .

I think the current ownership does a terrible job of promoting the technology in the cars.  Some fundamental changes could do them some good.  Like freeing up the suspension geometry constraints so that teams can actually pursue mechanical grip.  Yeah, aero is important, but the geometry is so bad in the cars the mechanical grip could be greatly improved, which could only help the racing.

In the interest of keeping thing somewhat positive, there are a few things NASCAR is good at:

-The onboard camera feeds on all the cars are pretty well done.

-The barrier to entry is successfully kept low.  With all the money the big teams (SHR, JGR, Hendrick, Penske, Ganassi, et. al.) are throwing at their programs, it's refreshing to see some of the smaller teams that aren't that far beyond a grassroots budget competing in some of the big races.

-For the speeds they race at, the cars are extremely survivable.

New owners could be a good thing.  For better or worse, NASCAR has created an absolutely massive industry, and there's a lot of talent and engineering horsepower that could be steered in some pretty entertaining directions by the right leadership.  Let the teams run 3-links, free up the front geometry a tad, run some more road courses and see what happens.

1) get rid of restrictors at Daytona and Talladega

2) less aero and downforce

3) open up the tire wars again

4) no race sectors, a 500 mile race is a 500 mile race. If you want to shorten it without effecting strategy then mandate smaller fuel cells, make the tires stickier at the expense of wearing out like a pencil eraser and drop the length to 300 miles. 

5) Get rid of the chase. 

In reply to Stefan :

Probably because the average fan IS a redneck. (I know, I know not all of them are)

I Most Certainly am Not,  Lol. 

   In 1968 or so National Geographic Magazine called our Town (Smyrna Ga. ) A Typical Red Neck City.

So were Famous

They shot themselves in the foot around 2012 (trying to recall).  Ticket prices for the average fan to bring their families had soared to more than $100/ticket, at least locally.  They've since dropped prices back to what I consider reasonable, I think we paid $50/ticket last fall with my FIL military discount.  I think they priced too many families out of attending and burned those crucial bridges.  

Everything inside the race costs a fortune, it's as bad as going to an amusement park in that regard.  The races aren't as interesting now with the rule changes and stages, as was said above it makes it 3 mini races, rather than 1 500 mile grind. 

But, you can bring your own beer into the race.  IMO, that's the best thing going for it.  

In reply to markwemple :

Not the welcoming kind either!

pretty much sums it up

There are too many races. The season stretches across 10 months.

The races are typically more of a parade than a race.

The TV experience is essentially just as good or better than the live experience, and it's far cheaper.

The cars aren't relevant to anything you can buy today, and there's not enough differentiation to make things interesting.

It's just millionaires going around in noisy billboards while they huck a thousand different products in your face in order to make even wealthier people more money.

BoostedBrandon said:

It's hard for anyone to pay attention to a 500 mile race when the modern public has a 6 second attention span.

Except that the NFL is still the most popular thing on TV and those games last 3+ hours.

I think they grew too fast in the 90s and 2000s when they were experiencing a boom. They expected to be able to sustain that growth, and when they couldn't, they got desperate and started doing contrived crap like the Chase and the COT. Now they have cookie-cutter cars, cookie-cutter tracks, and cookie-cutter drivers (with a few exceptions) and it's just not that interesting anymore. Their solution is to keep throwing new gimmicks at the problem, but the bottom line is that it's a niche sport that enjoyed a moment in the sun 15 years ago, but has since gone back to it's niche.

I think contracting the schedule to get rid of a bunch of the Charlotte clones would help, as would opening up the rulebook a bit so there's some differentiation between the cars.

What I find interesting was that when they created the Truck series, it took off and was starting to eclipse the Cup cars.  Then suddenly it all but disappeared and Cup was being promoted like crazy.

So they were trying to manipulate fans and the media for a single product, instead of letting the market drive that.  Now those chickens have come home to roost and the series is struggling for fans and sponsors.

I'm all for making it closer to Australian SuperCars, where they race hard in spec cars on tracks that go left and right with long and short races throughout the season.

If road races were the answer, there'd already be huge spectator turnout at SCCA and IMSA races. and for those of you complaining about nearly identical brightly colored race cars, I present Spec Miata. And FF and FVee.

This sort of racing has always been about the driver, not so much the car. And circle track racing has been a staple of fairgrounds and local tracks going back to Roman times, where spectators could easily see the whole track and it's footprint fit on a fairgrounds easy enough.

The Chase was a problem, in that it was hard to make a bracket sort of playoffs for this sort of sport, though I think it was inevitable that some sort of system was put in place. But the stage racing can go, it's worthless.

Funny what happens when you bleed dry a goose that lays golden eggs.

In reply to Chris_V :

I have friends that race Spec944 and SpecMiata and used to race FF.  So I can safely say you're missing the point I was trying to make.

V8 SuperCars is completely different to watch and experience than those series mentioned previously.  Think of it more along the lines of NASCAR went Touring Car Racing, complete with all of the aggressive and assertive driving and cars that are actually fast enough to be fun to watch and listen to.  SpecMiata/944/E30 are a hoot to drive and for the driver's friends and families, a blast to watch, everyone else tires of the constant drone of the relatively uninteresting sounding engines and lack of outright speed with the occasional tire slide or even a crash.

Go watch a SpecMiata race and a V8 SuperCar race and come back to tell me which one is more exciting for the average person to watch.  I'll wait.

NASCAR on road courses is an absolute blast to watch and its some of the only races of their's I'll actually watch.  The short tracks were also interesting before they mostly went the way of the dodo.

Word is, it will be sold in stages.