One of the biggest storylines of the year so far has been the stalemate between NASCAR and the team owners regarding a new charter agreement. The current one ends after this season but it does not seem like any headway has been made to sign a new one. Denny Hamlin has been one of the most vocal critics of NASCAR but his 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan has been relatively silent on the matter. Well, the NBA legend has finally broken his silence and he believes that the sport could be on the verge of dying unless a fair deal was agreed upon.
As per a report in On3, Jordan said that there was nothing from the business side of things to draw owners towards a new deal. NASCAR’s propositions have not been well-received and they have not been on board with most of the owners’ demands. One of them is a permanent charter, which would safeguard teams from losing their place in the Cup Series.
NASCAR can take away a team’s charter if they don’t perform well or are unable to field cars every week. That’s what most owners want to protect their teams against.
“If you had permanent charters, then you could create a revenue stream, either with new investors or different types of sponsorships that would subsidize that type of variance between ownership and the league. That’s a big, big miss right there. If you don’t correct that, this sport’s going to die not because of the competition aspect, but because economically it doesn’t make sense for any business people,” the NBA legend said.
While Jordan was quite civil with his criticism of NASCAR, the same cannot be said of Hamlin. In a recent conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on a Dirty Mo Media production, the 43-year-old went on a tirade and it was so brutal that Junior had to cut him off at one point.
Denny Hamlin’s brutal tirade against NASCAR’s aversion
Hamlin believes that there is a disconnect between the organizers and the team owners. The 23XI Racing owner mentioned that the primary reason for that is the gap in revenue. As per the current television rights deal, teams receive 25% of the total TV revenue, tracks get 65% and NASCAR pockets 10%.
Reports suggest that teams are pushing to get 50% of TV earnings after the new $7.7 billion deal TV rights deal was signed. However, NASCAR has reportedly been averse to teams even asking for a third of the total revenue.
“We just wouldn’t show up when we don’t need to. The Clash, we won’t show up at the All-Star Race, wouldn’t show up at… Maybe there’s some races that pay less. We just won’t show up to those. It’s just not financially good,” Hamlin mentioned before stating that others team owners would not be too pleased with him going public on the matter.
If that really is the case then the JGR driver makes a valid point. NASCAR would be nothing without its teams and these teams have been very disappointed with the organizers of late.
