Michael Jordan Wants NASCAR Teams To Be Less Reliant On Sponsors

NASCAR teams seemingly are not happy with the revenue split under the sport’s current media rights deal.

As it stands, teams receive 25% of the revenue, leaving them heavily reliant on sponsors to supplement their financial earnings.

Michael Jordan, co-owner of the 23XI Racing team with Denny Hamlin, and his longtime financial adviser, Curtis Polk, are ready to use their experience with other sports teams to introduce new concepts to the NASCAR landscape.

“One of the things we’ve learned is the economics of the sport, and I think the sport is a sleeping giant, but from the team ownership side it’s very sponsor dependent and we need to address that model,” Polk recently said, according to Sports Business Journal.

“Michael and I could add a lot of info we’ve learned from being with the NBA for many years and also owning a major league baseball team,” he added. “So that’s what we’ve been working on a lot with Denny is to help educate him as to what a better economic model might be and to help develop that and hopefully we’ll have a lot of ears that will listen to us.”

NASCAR’s current deal with FOX and NBC does not expire until 2025, but that’s clearly not stopping some of the sport’s most influential investors from speaking about new ideas. (Jordan also has stakes in the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Marlins.)

NASCAR president Steve Phelps spoke last week on “The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast” about how “important” having NASCAR on regular network TV is to its executives. Ultimately, though, the most intriguing aspect of the next media deal might be how much of an influence digital streaming platforms have on what Phelps hopes is another decade-long pact.