Speedway Motorsports Inc. said cold, wet weather during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway dampened total revenue for Q1 this year. The company, which owns nine motorsports facilities, generated $84.5M in total revenue for the quarter, a slight uptick from the $84.2M in revenue during the same period last year. Admissions revenue fell slightly from a year ago to $21.3M and event-related revenue from sponsorships, concessions and other business areas was flat at $24M. Broadcast revenue rose to $31.7M from $30.4M a year ago. SMI managed to show a profit of $1.8M for the quarter by reducing total expenses to $81.5M, a $4.7M decrease from the same period last year. SMI COO Marcus Smith in a statement said, “We are encouraged that many of our event related revenue categories such as sponsorships and camping reflect stabilizing revenues, along with continuing increases in our track rentals, luxury suite and certain other event related revenue categories. We, like most other sports venues, continue to face long-lasting difficult and slowly improving economic conditions. However, the demand and appeal for motorsports entertainment in our markets has remained relatively strong even in these challenging times." At presstime, shares of SMI were trading at $18.32, down 0.94% from the close of business yesterday.
