NASCAR VP Brett Yormark Leaving Company To Become Nets CEO

By Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large, The Sports Business Daily

Yormark Leaving NASCAR To Become Nets CEO

BRETT YORMARK, one of NASCAR’s biggest rainmakers in recent years, is leaving the stock car circuit to join the Nets as CEO. For the 38-year-old Yormark, the move is his third position with the Nets, as he started his professional career as an Account Exec in ’88 and later rejoined the franchise in ’94 as VP/Sales. Yormark joined NASCAR in ’98 as Dir of Sponsorship Sales and developed the company’s corporate marketing office in N.Y., eventually rising to VP/Corporate Sponsorship on the basis of impressive corporate sales. Yormark helped grow NASCAR’s N.Y. office with a spate of deals that included the record $750M title sponsorship by Nextel and Sunoco’s subsequent ten-year deal to become NASCAR’s official fuel worth a reported $8-10M annually in barter and cash.

NETS’ GAIN: NASCAR staffers were told about Yormak's departure yesterday, and were informed that “no quick decisions” would be made about his successor. Of course, with sponsorship sales for the upcoming season wrapped up, NASCAR has the luxury of time in naming a successor. While Yormark is a consummate salesman and the Nets won't have many big deals to complete until a new building and the team's potential move to Brooklyn is approved, his move to the Nets puts him in senior management at a top sports organization — a move that would have been unlikely at NASCAR, given the tenure of COO GEORGE PYNE and the fact that NASCAR is family-owned and run. Ironically, Yormark may end up competing with the pending NASCAR track in N.Y. for naming-rights dollars (THE DAILY).

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