Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing team sues NASCAR and CEO Jim France \ stacker news ~Stacker

I was waiting to see this lawsuit hit once the news came out that 23XI was not signing the new charter NASCAR wanted them to. Charters are NASCAR's version of franchises in a way as it guarantee a starting spot in the field every week and a guaranteed payout but owners of the charters do not get much say in the direction of the sport. While it was never really clear to me what the issues were from what I have found over the last couple of weeks were

The France Family stranglehold on the organization by owning not only NASCAR but also a majority of the racing tracks

Teams have argued they deserve a bigger percentage of the television rights deal, a reported $1.1 billion per year deal announced in November 2023 that runs from 2025-2031 with FOX, NBC, Amazon, Warner Bros. and TNT Sports (and CW for the Xfinity Series). Under the previous deal, teams were paid 25 percent of the television revenue through the race purse, while NASCAR took 10 percent and the tracks (more than half the tracks are owned by NASCAR) getting 65 percent.

Sources have indicated teams are getting a greater portion of that money as part of the new deal (about 35-40 percent) but also gave up rights in other areas that could generate revenue, such as ancillary media rights, driver appearance requirements and a cut of the charter sales.

Issues had been previously seen with two incidents that took place a few months ago. The first one happened at the Southern 500 race where 23XI Racing investor Curtis Polk had a sign on his back that read "Please don't ask me about my Charter. I don't want to disparage NASCAR and lose it." In the new Charter it is rumored there was language about an anti-disparagement clause.

The second issue was even more public and was when 23XI driver Tyler Reddick won the regular season title at Darlington and no one from NASCAR's leadership participated in the trophy ceremony. That is something that is expected so that absence was a big deal and led to some speaking out.

How this shakes out will be interesting and makes me wonder if the France Family could end up in trouble for the stranglehold it has on racing in the US. Formula One is rapidly growing and NASCAR has so far failed to keep up.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 2 Oct 2024

Thanks for sharing. I didn't even know Jordan had a racing team.

40 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 2 Oct 2024

I knew he had one I had no idea how good they were though! Pretty surprising that such a big/winning team has reached the point of standing up to the France Family.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Satosora 2 Oct 2024

They just want to make more money off the backbone of the family that pushed nascar to where it is?

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 OP 2 Oct 2024

I wouldnt say that. So when you purchase these Charters you don't build wealth or really acquire an asset. The other team that did not sign that is what the guy pointed out was that they pay these fees but if they step out of line or if they decide to leave the sport they don't have anything to sell. It isn't like sports teams that increase in value the Charters don't and often the teams have to take out loans to make ends meet.

The France Family... they are not innocent in this. Prime example was adding the anti-defamation clause which would have prevented teams, drivers, etc. from being able to speak out. Plus they have the ability to just revoke the Charter leaving you with all sorts of expenses/things like your shop without a way to recoup money so you are losing it.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 2 Oct 2024

Seems like they know what they are doing when they sign the contracts.