PRN-MRN dispute over New Hampshire continues

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

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With fewer than two months before Sprint Cup cars take to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval, there is no resolution on the question of which radio network will broadcast the events.

The dispute between Motor Racing Network and Performance Racing Network for the radio rights for New Hampshire races will remain in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire for the time being.

Both sides had filed lawsuits over the rights, which stem from the sale of the track from the Bahre family to Speedway Motorsports Inc.
earlier this year.

The track has a contract with MRN, which is owned by International Speedway Corp, a track-operating rival of Speedway
Motorsports.

Speedway Motorsports owns PRN and wants PRN to broadcast its events. PRN filed suit in New Hampshire a day before MRN sued PRN in Florida in March. PRN claims the contract is unenforceable.

An injunction hearing was scheduled for today in Florida state court, but it has been postponed because the New Hampshire case was filed first.

MRN has now asked for the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire to issue an injunction to allow it to broadcast the events this year. No hearing date has been set. The NASCAR race weekends are June 27-29 and Sept. 12-14.

MRN’s contract with NHIS requires it to give the track 25 percent of all advertising revenues. That has resulted in revenues of more than $750,000 for the track in the last seven years, according to court records.

That would mean that MRN has taken in approximately $3 million in advertising revenue for New Hampshire events the last seven years, averaging approximately $429,000 a year.