Brad Keselowski isn’t sure where the narrative that teams were ‘coerced and threatened’ to sign what sounds like a take it or leave it charter extension offer from NASCAR but says RFK Racing said the time was right to move forward.
The comments were made on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway one day after every team with the exception of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports signed the agreement.
“We want to run NASCAR for a long time to come and signing the charter agreement is a statement to our commitment to doing just that,” said Keselowski, who owns RFK with Jack Roush and the Fenway Sports Group. “We’ve got great plans for the sport and excited to see that continue on for quite some time.”
Signing the deal also doesn’t mean that he finds it to be fully fair but he also doesn’t know what that would even realistically have looked like anyway.
“One of these agreements is only good when everybody is just a little bit jaded, and I think there’s things, obviously, we’d like to have better,” Keselowski said. “But there’s pieces we really like and there’s pieces not so much. But it’s hard to use the word fair because I don’t know if I know what that means.”
He also pushed back on the Associated Press reporting that those who signed were ‘coerced and threatened.’
“I don’t know where that’s coming from but forced is a really strong term,” Keselowski said. “We are getting to a spot where it’s important to get things settled.”
By all accounts, it seems as though teams are getting a raise on broadcast rights percentage but also conceded that much of the recent stagnation in the process was a result of comparisons to how major stick and ball sports revenue sharing agreements are structured.
“We’re glad the economics are improved to go where the media (rights) landscape has moved,” Keselowski said. “We’re certainly glad to see the sport perpetuate, and right now, this sport lives and dies off the media rights deals and there’s no getting away from that.
“So, when the media rights deal gets done or got done, that was a big, big, big deal for the sport and now you’re seeing the dominoes fall behind it. Don’t forget what the first domino is.
“There are a lot of comparisons between us and the other sports leagues. I think, this industry is looking over its shoulder at the NFL and NBA and what such, and seeing their situation dramatically improve and we want the same. So, that creates an expectation or standard that drives some of those negotiations.”
And that stick and ball sports philosophy was largely driven by Curtis Polk and Michael Jordan, who co-own 23XI Racing and have extensive experience negotiating with the NBA over media rights and revenue splits.
Keselowski said RFK just felt like this was the time and deal, where 23XI Racing and Front Row did not.
“Certainly, (I) respect their decision-making ability and the autonomy that comes with that,” Keselowski said. “But you know, for us, it felt like it was right to do a deal and move forward.”