Dover to pay $11.689 million in purse and sanction fees for 2009 Cup events
HAMPTON, Ga. – Dover International Speedway will pay $11.689 million in purse and sanction fees to NASCAR for its two Sprint Cup Series races in 2009, its parent company disclosed in its annual report.
Purse and sanction fees are $6.15 million for the June event and $5.539 million for the September event, according to Dover Motorsports Inc.’s annual report filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company reported it will receive a total of $22.482 million in television revenues for those two races. Using the formula that the tracks receive 90 percent of the television revenue for the event and the teams receive 25 percent of the television revenue as part of the purse, approximately $6.245 million of Dover’s revenue went toward the purse for the two Cup races.
Dover Motorsports owns Dover, Nashville Superspeedway, Memphis Motorsports Park and Gateway International Raceway. It has agreed to sell Memphis for $10 million to Gulf Coast Entertainment, which is building Alabama Motorsports Park. Dover will have a 2 percent interest in Gulf Coast Entertainment and has an agreement to manage both facilities.
Other highlights from the annual report:
• The company remains under the control of Chairman Henry B. Tippie, who owns more than 50 percent of the voting stock.
• The company did not report what the total NASCAR live broadcast revenue was for 2008. But it did say that for 2007, NASCAR live broadcast revenues were $473.43 million for Sprint Cup (93.75 percent of all broadcast revenues), $29.03 million for Nationwide (5.75 percent) and $2.52 million for Trucks (0.5 percent).
• Ancillary media rights will generate approximately an additional $800,000 for the company this year.
• The Sprint Cup races at Dover International Speedway make up 70 percent of the total revenues for each of the last three years.
•Admissions revenue companywide dropped from $33.923 million in 2007 to $31.034 million in 2008.
• The company will pay $8.357 million in federal income taxes from 2008, an increase of $992,000 from 2007.
• Dover reiterated its estimated values for its Midwest facilities – Nashville is worth $51.5 million (down from $57.5 million in 2006) while Memphis and Gateway are worth $10 million. In 2006, it estimated the value of Memphis at $12.7 million and Gateway at $17.2 million.
On Nashville and Gateway, the company reported: “There is an assumption that these two facilities will continue to operate as race tracks and it is our intention to continue operating them unless it is determined that future prospects no longer justify such action.”
In a general statement of its Midwest tracks, the company stated: “These facilities generated negative cash flows for several years and we expect that these negative cash flows will continue as we monitor industry and Nationwide Series changes made by NASCAR while continuing to reduce operating expenses and increased revenues.”
