The last time a major auto-racing circuit was for sale, Braves owner Liberty Media bought it, paying $4.4 billion for Formula One in 2016.
So with this week's news, first from Reuters, that the France family is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs to explore selling the family's majority stake in NASCAR, might Liberty Media again be a potential buyer?
At this point, it seems unlikely, based on comments of Liberty executives on a quarterly conference call with Wall Street analysts Wednesday.
“NASCAR is a fairly different franchise for us,” said Chase Carey, who runs Formula One for Liberty. “You look at the fan base; the regionalization of it in the U.S. is not really even a broad-based U.S. sport.
“Both race cars,” Carey said of Formula One and NASCAR. “I’m not sure beyond that there’s a lot that would really make it a natural fit for us. It would certainly give us scale in the U.S., and we could use that scale to build, but I think there probably are more differences than similarities. Our priority is really making Formula One everything it can be.”
Formula One’s 21-race schedule this season is spread across the globe, with races in 21 countries on five continents. Eleven races are in Europe and one in the U.S.
Although Colorado-based Liberty Media has previously expressed a desire to grow Formula One racing in the U.S., the company’s CEO, Greg Maffei, also sounded skeptical about a theoretical NASCAR deal.
“I think it’s not as clear what the synergies are between the two assets, and I would note the trends have not been perfect in NASCAR,” Maffei said. “Unless we had a good thesis on how and why we could fix them, it’s not an obvious to us.”
NASCAR trends have included lower TV ratings, declining attendance revenue and the departure of some sponsors.
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TODAY’S LEADOFF LINKS
> The Braves extended their road winning streak to seven games with a 5-2 win at Tampa Bay. See David O'Brien's report here.
> Atlanta United's eight-game unbeaten streak ended in a 2-0 loss to Sporting KC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in what was billed as a possible MLS Cup preview, Doug Roberson reports.
> An earlier start to the season and operations at The Battery Atlanta fueled an increase in the Braves' first-quarter revenue, according to financial results disclosed Wednesday. But as usual for MLB teams in the first quarter of a year, the Braves posted large operating losses. See story here.
> The Braves, who last month announced plans to sell the residential portion of The Battery Atlanta, also could consider selling off other parts of the mixed-use development adjacent to SunTrust Park. See story here.
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