Dover Motorsports' Largest Shareholder Recommends Sale

Dover Motorsports' Largest Shareholders Recommends Sale Of Track

Marathon Partners LP Manager Mario Cibelli, whose company is the largest outside shareholder of Dover Motorsports Inc., Thursday sent a letter to Dover's BOD “urging the company to sell” Dover Int'l Speedway, according to David Newton of ESPN.com. Dover, Pocono Raceway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway are the only independently owned tracks left on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit, and Cibelli said, “We’re really getting down to the end of a consolidation of the industry. It’s clear Dover does not have an independent future. In my opinion, it’s time to do something now.” Cibelli said that he “hasn’t talked to another shareholder that doesn’t agree with his position.” Marathon Partners owns 7.5% of Dover Motorsports Inc. (ESPN.com, 5/29). Marathon Partners also owns 1.3% of the voting stock (SCENEDAILY.com, 5/29).

WITHER LAS VEGAS? In Las Vegas, Jeff Wolf writes with SMI Chair & CEO Bruton Smith last week announcing a deal to purchase Kentucky Speedway, the prospects of getting a second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS) “seem to be off the front burner, if not removed from the stove completely” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL, 5/30). An “oft-repeated rumor had Smith closing Pocono and moving one of its races to Kentucky Speedway and the other" to LVMS. However, that rumor was “quashed this week” when Pocono co-Owner Rose Mattioli said that she and her husband Joseph “had no intention of selling the track to Smith or anyone else” (LAS VEGAS SUN, 5/30).