{"id":333015,"date":"2025-12-08T19:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333015\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T19:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:44:10","slug":"michael-jordan-vs-nascar-trial-resumes-as-economist-testifies-on-leagues-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333015\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan vs. NASCAR trial resumes as economist testifies on league\u2019s tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 The second week of the NASCAR antitrust trial<\/a> opened with expert testimony from an economist who said NASCAR\u2019s actions in response to potential threats showed strong signs of anticompetitive conduct.<\/p>\n

Dr. Edward Snyder, the former dean of business schools at Yale University, the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia, said the evidence shown in the case so far marks \u201cnegotiations between a monopolist and teams who have no other option\u201d in the contentious charter dealings that are at the heart of the dispute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s either \u2018go ahead and participate in the sport \u2014 or not,’\u201d Snyder said.<\/p>\n

Snyder said the market in question \u2014 premier stock car racing, in which Judge Kenneth D. Bell has already ruled NASCAR is a monopoly<\/a> \u2014 requires three elements: Racetracks, race teams and race cars.<\/p>\n

In each area, he said, NASCAR has taken steps to \u201creduce the likelihood and viability of entry\u201d from a competitor series, which thus caused financial harm to the teams.<\/p>\n

For example: Snyder found NASCAR paid racetracks a net total of $311 million while requiring each one to have an exclusivity clause that prevented other stock car racing series from competing there and aligned the timeline of those deals for when teams were negotiating an extension of their charter agreements with NASCAR.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree words: Paying for exclusivity,\u201d is how Snyder said he viewed the sum of money flowing into the tracks.<\/p>\n

He compared it to nearby Bank of America Stadium, which is home to the Carolina Panthers but also hosted the ACC Championship Game last weekend. The ACC, he said, was not prevented from playing at the stadium due to an exclusivity agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe restrictions were supported by payments to the tracks,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cIt tied up the tracks and protected NASCAR from entry (by a competitor). The impact was to extend their monopoly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is anti-competitive. Clear and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snyder also noted restrictions that prevented NASCAR teams from competing in other premier stock car series \u2014 \u201cless supply of potential team owners for a rival,\u201d he noted \u2014 and restrictions on using NASCAR\u2019s Next Gen car in a non-NASCAR event despite teams buying the vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, as an economist, this situation bothers me,\u201d Snyder said of the car usage restriction. \u201cTeam owners are building the car. They technically own the car, and it\u2019s their most important piece of equipment. But they cannot use it outside of NASCAR. That\u2019s anti-competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snyder said he estimated damages to the teams by comparing Formula One as a benchmark, since the two series have similar models. But in F1, he noted, an average of 45 percent of league revenue goes to teams; in NASCAR, it was 25 percent during the four-year period in question.<\/p>\n

F1 also does not have exclusivity agreements with its racetracks or race teams, Snyder noted.<\/p>\n

Snyder, who also testified in the \u201cDeflategate\u201d trial, noted one internal NASCAR document with a menu of strategy options for how to combat a potential breakaway league.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder \u2018What are our options?\u2019 you don\u2019t see \u2018Pay the teams more,’\u201d Snyder said.<\/p>\n

Snyder is set to list out the damages he believes NASCAR owes the teams, and NASCAR is set to cross-examine Snyder later Monday afternoon. That will be followed by testimony from an accountant. Later, NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps is scheduled to testify.<\/p>\n

Team owner Richard Childress and NASCAR chairman and CEO Jim France are the plaintiffs\u2019 remaining witnesses before turning the trial over to the defense to present its case.<\/p>\n

Two teams \u2014 23XI Racing, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and current NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin \u2014 and Front Row Motorsports brought the suit against NASCAR following a bitter negotiation over the sport\u2019s newest charter agreement. Charters guarantee the teams that own them entry into races and certain revenues.<\/p>\n

In September 2024, 13 of the 15 teams signed the latest agreement, with 23XI and Front Row the only holdouts. Soon after, they filed their lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Race Team Alliance director concludes testimony<\/p>\n

Also Monday, Jonathan Marshall \u2014 executive director of the Race Team Alliance, a consortium of the 13 charter-holding teams \u2014 continued his testimony that began Friday, further speaking to the extent the group examined starting up a rival racing series called the United States Racing League.<\/p>\n

But during the evaluation process, the RTA determined it wasn\u2019t viable due to a lack of high-quality tracks that weren\u2019t already locked into the exclusivity agreements with NASCAR that are a major piece of the plaintiffs\u2019 case against NASCAR and NASCAR CEO and chairman Jim France.<\/p>\n

Marshall said starting a rival series was considered as a way to create leverage amid the protracted and contentious negotiations leading to the 2024 charter deal. That study, Marshall said, was abandoned when the shortage of tracks became apparent.<\/p>\n

Jurors were presented evidence last week related to exclusivity agreements, including NASCAR senior leadership working to better align with Speedway Motorsports, the second-largest track-holding company in premier stock car racing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 The second week of the NASCAR antitrust trial opened with expert testimony from an economist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82,575],"class_list":["post-333015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}