NASCAR team owners “have been increasingly disillusioned” with the pace of negotiations to extend the sport’s system of “charters” — which are “licenses akin to major sports league franchises that guarantee entry into, and money from, all 38 of NASCAR’s premier Cup Series events,” according to Gluck & Bianchi of THE ATHLETIC. NASCAR Chair and CEO Jim France has been meeting with other teams who are “willing to accept an invitation to one-on-one sessions” and “thereby avoid” the Race Team Alliance and its preferred “Team Negotiation Committee.” At this year’s CAA World Congress of Sports, NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell announced that a “new charter agreement is’very close.'” Some clubs instantly protested and disputed that allegation, but not all.
Gluck & Bianchi notes a “major sticking point” in conversations for now is the “length of the charter extension.” Teams want the charters “to be permanent” while France has told teams that he “can only commit to them for as long as someone commits to him” — which “is seven years, reflecting the new TV deal.” Gluck & Bianchi notes France has told multiple people that giving permanent charters “is an absolute non-starter,” leading to “increasing frustration among some older team owners who view the current negotiations as a legacy-making moment.” Owners strongly believe having charters with no expiration dates “would allow them to invest more into their teams — and thus the sport — because the charter values would continue to rise.” There are fewer than 250 days to strike a new deal, and sources said that “significant hurdles remain, despite the teams’ attempt to jumpstart the process in March 2022″
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