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France Family Facing Increasing Pressure To Reverse Sliding NASCAR Attendance, Ratings

The France family, which owns NASCAR and Int'l Speedway Corp., is "being criticized by drivers and team owners, who fear the Frances are incapable of reversing the fade in fan interest and retreat by sponsors," according to a front-page piece by Mickle & Bauerlein of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Brian France serves as NASCAR Chair & CEO, while his older sister Lesa France Kennedy is ISC CEO. Sources said that one of the most "daunting problems is how the siblings' power is divided, which causes tensions and makes it harder to implement far-reaching changes." Brian and Lesa said that their disagreements "don't hurt the sport." Kennedy: "We have very strong personalities and express our opinion, but when we get together, we say: 'What's best for the industry over all?'" The siblings "won't disclose their exact ownership stakes" in NASCAR. Sources said that Brian France "sold his entire stake in the company more than a decade ago." But France said that he "still holds equity in the family-owned company." The sources said that France "essentially works" for his sister and uncle, ISC Chair Jim France. That means Brian France "runs the sport on a day-to-day basis but is supposed to seek approval from Ms. Kennedy and their uncle for major changes." Meanwhile, recently retired driver Tony Stewart last year said that Brian France should "pay more attention to the sport and attend more races." France said that he "went to roughly half of the race weekends last season."

HOW IT LOOKS ON TV: Mickle & Bauerlein note NBC pays NASCAR about $440M a year to broadcast races and shoulder programming. In October, Brian France and Kennedy visited NBC Sports HQ, as TV ratings for the NASCAR season were "headed for another decline." NBC execs "pressed Kennedy and France to make radical changes." NBC Sports President of Programming Jon Miller said that the net's execs have "raised the possibility" of moving some NASCAR races to the middle of the week. That would "limit the number of Sunday races that compete with NFL games for viewers, possibly boosting TV ratings but hurting attendance in person." However, Miller said that the idea "hasn't been discussed since the fall and isn't a priority right now." Meanwhile, Kennedy said that she is "doing whatever she can to recapture longtime fans and cultivate new ones at her racetracks." She oversaw the recent $400M "Daytona Rising" project at DIS and also "wants to install Wi-Fi at tracks and add luxury suites or clubs that attract more affluent ticket buyers." In December, NASCAR "gathered racing-team executives, drivers, track operators and TV executives at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel," though France and Kennedy "didn't attend." The group and NASCAR "decided to divide each race this season into three stages" as part of an overhaul to its points system (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/22).

BRIAN'S SONG: Motorsports writer Jeff Gluck noted the WSJ story “raises interesting questions about NASCAR’s leadership,” mainly “should Brian France still be in charge?” France “makes rogue decisions, does not show up to the majority of the races and is not very engaged in key planning for the future -- all while presiding over the biggest decline in the sport’s history” (JEFFGLUCK.com, 2/21). ESPN’s Marty Smith said “people want to know where” France is on race weekends. Smith: "I've asked him in the past why he's not more visible. He doesn't feel like he needs to be. He feels like he has a great management structure in place but in the past, drivers loved that they could walk into an office, talk to his father and his grandfather about what was wrong in the sport and fans really fed off of that in the past” (“GMA,” ABC, 2/22).

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