Dover Motorsports sees admissions revenue drop 17.3 percent, asks for two Truck-Nationwide doubleheaders for Nashville
Dover Motorsports saw its admissions revenue drop 17.3 percent in 2010 primarily from its tripleheader weekend at Dover International Speedway and its two Nashville race weekends, the company reported Thursday.
There also was a profitable NHRA event at Gateway that is included in the company’s financial report.
For the first six months of 2010, Dover Motorsports saw its revenues drop 8.5 percent, with the most significant being admissions revenue dropping from $11.953 million to $9.883 million. On a conference call with investors Thursday, chief financial officer Timothy Horne said the Dover International Speedway weekend – held the week after Mother’s Day in 2010 instead of its traditional week after Memorial Day – saw admissions revenue drop 15 percent overall for the Truck, Nationwide and Cup events.
“Paid attendance was off from last year but in line with current industry-wide results, so we don’t attribute any impact on the results of the weekend to the new, earlier date,” Dover CEO Denis McGlynn said on the call.
“We believe the key driver of current industry performance continues to be the state of the economy.”
Event-related revenues from concession sales and sponsorships dropped 15 percent from $8.779 million to $7.458 million. Dover’s revenue from the NASCAR broadcasting contract increased 2.7 percent from $14.938 million to $15.334 million.
The company announced Wednesday that it would not ask for NASCAR events at Gateway International Raceway for 2011. The track, which had two Nationwide events and one Truck event on its 2010 schedule, was devalued Wednesday from $10 million to $2.036 million, which is primarily the value of the land.
“This was obviously a difficult decision, but with expenses rising and the economy continuing to exert pressure on revenues across the industry, we just didn’t feel that we had a choice,” McGlynn said.
The Gateway races will not be realigned within the Dover portfolio, which also closed Memphis Motorsports Park after the 2009 season.
Dover has asked for its Nationwide race at Nashville in June and its Truck race at Nashville in August to be combined into a doubleheader during the Cup off-weekend in July, where Gateway had a doubleheader scheduled in 2009. That would give Nashville two Truck-Nationwide doubleheaders – one on Easter weekend and one in July – on Cup off-weekends.
NASCAR has not yet announced whether it would approve the schedule request.
The write-down of Gateway’s value resulted in a loss of $6.284 million during the first six months of 2010, compared with a loss of $800,000 for the first six months of 2009.
On an adjusted basis for the period from April-June, Dover Motorsports earned $3.491 million (10 cents per diluted share), down 10.2 percent from $3.888 million (11 cents per diluted share) last year.
The adjusted profit was apparently enough to satisfy Wall Street as it allowed Dover to end Thursday with its stock up 1 cent from $1.60 to $1.61 a share.
In other Dover financial news:
• Moving the Truck race this year from Memphis to the Nationwide race weekend in April at Nashville helped the company save $300,000, Horne said, primarily from less expenses by having both races at one site.
• The salary for McGlynn has been reduced from $300,000 to $250,000. McGlynn also draws a separate salary from the Dover Downs gaming division.
