Top ISC Execs See Pay Increases In '09 While Revenue, Profits Fall

By Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

Revenues and profits may have fallen in '09 at International Speedway Corp., but the pay of top execs did not, according to the company’s proxy released Thursday. In '09, declining admissions revenues and the collapse of the company-owned merchandise and licensing division contributed to net incomes falling to $6.8M from $134.6M. ISC Vice Chair & CEO Lesa France Kennedy earned $874,234, a 14% increase from '08, and the proxy noted she received 60% of her targeted bonus amount. Her bonus was $58,703. ISC Chair James France was the only one of the top five paid execs to see pay decline. His pay dropped to $728,780 from $1.04M. ISC President John Saunders received $664,446, up 4% from '08, while Exec VP & COO Roger VanDerSnick received $559,204, up 10%. ISC CFO Daniel Houser earned $378,836. His pay for ‘08, which encompassed 11 months as he started employment February 1, was $362,559. “In determining Ms. Kennedy’s base salary compensation for 2009, the compensation committee considered the performance of the company in fiscal 2008, the general trends of company performance over the prior several years, outcomes related to growth and development activities and strategic initiatives, market conditions, as well as the responsibilities of the position and her strategic value to the Company,” the proxy said. Similar standards were used for the other execs’ compensation.