Michael Jordan’s race team seeks F1 financial info to boost suit against NASCAR

Sports

add

Michael Jordan’s race team is seeking to make Formula One turn over some of its most sensitive financial information to aid in an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR.

23XI Racing, the team Jordan co-owns with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, has been embroiled in an ongoing suit over NASCAR’s franchise-like “charter agreements” along with another team, Front Row Motorsports.

Now it is asking a federal district court in Colorado to compel Liberty Media — F1’s owner – to turn over five key categories of financial information, including the famed Concorde Agreement, which concerns the commercial and governance of the sport. When contacted by The Athletic, Liberty Media and the teams did not comment on the matter. F1 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The motion is rooted in 23XI and Front Row’s desire to perform a “yardstick comparison” to calculate what their revenues would have been in a major racing circuit that the teams claim has a more favorable business model than NASCAR.

23XI and Front Row also requested similar information from the NFL, NBA and NHL in a March 31 filing in a New York district court.

But in its Colorado filing this week, the teams said F1 has “refused to produce the requested information” despite already narrowing their original request, which they made Feb. 19.

“F1 has no valid basis for its refusal to produce the requested information,” the teams said in their motion.

A look into the F1-related subpoena’s details

Those requests include five pieces of information regarding F1:

• Which revenues (media rights, tickets, concessions, etc.) are split between F1 and its race teams
• The formula that identifies the revenue share percentage between F1 and the teams
• The amount of revenue shared or retained by F1 and the teams
• The valuations of F1 teams, both current and expansion
• The Concorde Agreement, the contract between F1 and its teams that governs how the sport operates

According to the motion, the teams did not “demand any custodial email searches of any F1 executives or employees” but made their request based on “documents sufficient to show basis” for four requests. That essentially limits the scope of the request.

When Liberty Media first received the subpoena in February, it called the NASCAR teams’ request “overboard” because it sought sensitive documents that would “result in the disclosure of material relating to trade secrets, financial information or other confidential, proprietary and commercial information” protected by law. Liberty Media said it had “no connection” to the NASCAR suit and also noted the burden of the request.

However, the teams argued there isn’t an undue burden on Liberty Media, given they are requesting “documents sufficient to show” rather than every document. They feel the “requests are modest and targeted — they are focused on salary cap and government documents that are readily available to Liberty Media and F1.”

The Concorde Agreement, for instance, is highly confidential and protected by agreements to keep the details private. Even how the revenue is shared with the teams or how it is split up is not public knowledge.

Despite the confidential nature of the requested documents, there are potential legal means around the barriers. Monday’s motion reads, “Confidentiality concerns can be addressed by marking sensitive documents highly confidential under the court-ordered Protective Order in the underlying Litigation, which will ensure the documents are only seen by counsel, experts, and the court.”

23XI and Front Row are currently in the discovery phase of their upcoming trial, which is scheduled to begin Dec. 1. The race teams won a preliminary injunction against NASCAR to allow them to race as charter teams this season while the legal action is pending, thus allowing them guaranteed entry to compete in each race and earn the accompanying financial rewards for 2025.

The F1-related filing was first reported by TobyChristie.com. The existence of the other major league filings was first reported by Fox Sports.

(Photo: Logan Riely / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Scheffler favored at Masters, but books feel ‘this is Rory’s best shot to do it’

golf

Next

trending_flat

„Einschüchternd und aggressiv“ – Ronaldo engagiert Knallhart-Bodyguard

Bodyguard