Oh dear, this is familiar. One of my *favorite* race tracks, Dover Speedway, has been acquired by none other than Speedway Motorsports Inc.
Let’s define the players here. Dover Speedway, a one mile, oval, high-banked, high-speed race track in Delaware has been hosting NASCAR races since the 1960’s, I believe. I have been attending races there since 1983, and absolutely love the sensation of seeing the drivers hurl themselves into the turns, generally to emerge intact out the other end. These words are pathetically insufficient to describe the experience, and the sheer guts required to execute this particular activity lap after high-Gforce lap are most enviable.
Speedway Motorsports Inc. (due to author laziness I will refer to this as SMI) is, for lack of a better description, a publicly-traded company formed to extract money from the business end of motor racing, or so it seems. Run by longtime CEO Bruton Smith, and now son Marcus Smith, the company has been a stockholder-pleasing powerhouse in both IndyCar and Nascar racing, second only to NASCAR itself in owning tracks where the events are run. It has acquired tracks in New Hampshire, North Carolina, and more along with building (largely cookie-cutter, but that’s a topic for another blog day) tracks in Texas, Kentucky, Las Vegas and more. It is a money machine, designed to squeeze maximum profit from the business of motorsports.
Clouding this picture, SMI is now negotiating with the city of Nashville (TN) to renovate and then conduct events at the long-underutilized Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. There hasn’t been a NASCAR-sanctioned event there in decades, but the dealings resonate with the whisperings of bringing a top-tier event there. And here’s where the story starts to stink.
NASCAR hasn’t added a race at a venue since 1993 without first taking a race from a track that already hosted one. My ‘home’ track, New Hampshire, acquired one from the deal where Bruton and Bob Bahre split the spoils from their acquisition of North Wilkesboro. Nashville Superspeedway only got a top-tier race by the relocation of one of the Dover fall date. Pocono, the only track not owned by one of the two powerhouses, has already lost a weekend. And so it goes on.
SMI acquires Dover Motorsports and the glowing press release claims immediate benefits for the shareholders, the track cities, the employees, and the fans. But the history of corporate America belies these statements; let’s face it, the employees are likely roadkill (I base this opinion on a zillion or so corporate acquisitions that touted the benefits to current employees, all of whom were subsequently fired), the fans are s____ out of luck (when Dover’s race is sent to Wilkesboro or Nashville), and the new hosting city is setting itself for decades of financial misery (Nashville the city is issuing $50 million, with an M, worth of bonds for the track renovations, which will largely benefit SMI). (As an aside, any city that ponies up such monies is a chump, in my opinion; there’s always a higher bidder city, somewhere, not too long from now.)
The language is always pretty predictable regardless of the type of business being acquired; the combined entities will bring endless opportunities for employees, greater economy of scale of benefit to customers and will result in the creation of the ‘premier’ ________ (fill in the blank with track, store, bank, realtor, any business of your choice) in the region. As well, the press releases all carry the message that no immediate changes are planned.
There, friends, is your sign. Words to chill any employee’s heart.
In no particular order 