NASCAR and FOX Push to Seal Media-Deal Transcripts and Agreements During Charter lawsuit trial

NASCAR and FOX Sports plead the court to keep the media rights deal and transcripts private during the public trial on 1st December.

NASCAR and FOX Push to Seal Media-Deal Transcripts and Agreements During Charter lawsuit trial

Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan (via NBC), NASCAR's deal with FOX Sports (Via NASCAR)

NASCAR has currently found itself at the center of multiple lawsuits and court cases. The pinnacle of stock racing has had multiple new cases recently, with the most recent one being its row with 23XI Racing and FRM regarding the charter status. While the sport has achieved some wins in the case so far, they are now partnering with FOX Sports to keep the private media deal transcripts and agreements hidden from the public, so as to preserve their deals with other partners.

In the 23XI-FRM charter lawsuit, the team alleges that NASCAR is running a monopolistic business, especially with its charter system. Even some of the sport’s greats believed that the sport put itself in trouble after introducing the charter system for the teams and giving them a lot of power. Now, NASCAR has multiple media deals with worldwide corporations such as FOX Sports, NBC, Amazon, and many others.

To keep the public trial fair on 1st December, 23XI-FRM requested that the money inflow for NASCAR be made public for the reporters and the courts to investigate. Although this would prove whether the sport is running a monopolistic business or not, it might reveal the exact costs and deals with the various media giants. Now, NASCAR and FOX both are pleading not to make their deals publicly available and keep them preserved.

Reportedly, NASCAR’s biggest money source is the media rights deal with various giants, approximately worth around an astonishing $7.7 billion. FOX Sports requested three specific documents to be sealed and not revealed publicly. Namely, FOX is requesting the transcription of the deposition of Jordan Bazant, then the draft of the Sports Broadcast Agreement, and the fully executed FOX Broadcast Agreement with NASCAR to remain behind the curtains.

Until now, NASCAR has supported the motion by FOX and is in favor of their request to keep the three documents hidden. However, the sport has one-upped the media giant and requested that nine other documents be kept a secret in the legal matter. If these documents are revealed to the public, they would certainly be an interesting read for many people involved with the pinnacle of stock racing.

What would it mean for 23XI Racing and FRM if the NASCAR-FOX documents get public?

23XI Racing and FRM both do not have concrete evidence in their current case about NASCAR actually running a monopolistic business. The courts and the teams are unaware of how much money the sport holds for themselves and how much they actually share between the teams. If these documents are made public, it would mean everyone would know the money ins and outs for the sport and leverage this information to slice a better deal for themselves.

NASCAR's Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan
NASCAR’s Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan (via Getty images)

In simple words, NASCAR would lose a lot of its advantage on various deals if its money structure were revealed to the public. Moreover, 23XI and FRM will know for sure if the business is run by a monopolistic structure. The teams would also win the PR battle as everyone would know just how much of benefits the sport is enjoying because of the teams and drivers.

In addition to this, the teams that currently do not care about the legal battle would see how much money there is in it for them and jump into fighting with NASCAR. All the teams would want a better deal with the sport right away and even file other lawsuits in order to further destabilize the sport’s money-handling ways.

Notably, it is highly unlikely that the court will fully reveal all the confidential documents about NASCAR and its deals with various media giants. Though the documents can definitely be interpreted by people via the summaries of the court hearings and the heavy redactions in the legal files. For now, FOX and the sport are likely to hold their own in the legal battle and hope to achieve yet another win in the case.

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