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[darwin dali]

In the light of the announced takeover of F1 by Liberty Media, here's some financial background info:

[overboost]

Is Ecclestone on the way out? Eddie Jordan says so.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/formula-1/20 ... -f1-reign/

However this extraordinary claim, made live on Channel 4, was immediately scotched both by Ecclestone and Donald Mackenzie, the chairman of CVC. “I would be very surprised if there was any announcement this week,” Mackenzie said. “As far as I am aware, Bernie is going nowhere. Nothing has changed.”

Ecclestone described reports of a deal as “b------t”.

On a confusing day even in the chaotic world of F1 politics, what is clear is that Liberty Media is in the running to complete a deal to buy the sport, which would be the first change of ownership in more than a decade.

[darwin dali]

ESPNF1:
[...]
The group has released an overview of what the main areas of focus will be in the next few years. Under the sub-heading "Big Opportunity at Formula One", Liberty sees the "opportunity to develop the sport for benefit of all stakeholders (fans, teams, partners, shareholders)", before narrowing it down to five select opportunities:

Increase promotion and marketing of F1 as a sport and brand

Enhance distribution of content, especially in digital

Establish broader range of commercial partners, including sponsorship

Evolve race calendar

Leverage Liberty's expertise in live events and digital monetisation

Speaking at a conference call on Thursday, Carey outlined his vision for F1 and how he values the European market as highly as other continents the sport has recently ventured into.

"In terms of developing markets, clearly new markets are opportunities as a global sport, and we're excited about that, to grow the sport, expand the sport in places like the Americas and Asia," Carey said."But I want to be clear that, certainly, the established markets -- the home and foundation of Formula One is Europe in particular -- are of critical importance.

"Building the sport in Europe, building on that foundation, has got to be second to none. We do want to take advantage of the global footprint of this sport, we want to focus on it."

Carey also thinks F1 is going to have to take a long-term strategy to other key markets.

"In the longer term, markets like the US and key Asian markets are opportunities to develop. We're not going to do that overnight.

"But there are huge audiences there. If we reach those fans using digital platforms and some of the tools that haven't been exploited aggressively, we can build a whole new generation of fans in places that, historically, have been as significant a part of the Formula One fanbase."

[myownalias]

It's good to hear that Liberty will continue to stick with and develop the European season; when I read about developing the Asian and Americas markets, I immediately thought it would be at the cost of European races. The other concern to me is that expansion of the calendar; we already have 21 races and the longest F1 year ever, is Liberty talking about adding more races to the calendar or dropping races to expand into these markets? The smaller teams are already struggling financially to make it to 21 races, let alone additional races.

[darwin dali]

Contractually I think the limit would be 25 races.

[myownalias]

Which is too many, that's almost one every two weeks every year. And contracts can be changed when the next Concorde agreement comes up. Will teams still have to unanimously agree to allow for changes to calendar length and other changes to the sport in general?

[darwin dali]

I think Bernie is going to be in charge for the next Concorde Agreement - and then leaves the mess behind when his 3 years are up.

[darwin dali]

ESPNF1:

Liberty Media Corporation announced Wednesday afternoon that it acquired Formula One from a group led by CVC Capital Partners, which bought the majority stake in the racing organization in 2006.

The total price paid will be $8.5 billion, $4.4 billion being the determined equity value of F1 and $4.1 billion in debt.

Chase Carey, who helped launch Fox Sports in the mid-1990s and also served as CEO of DirecTV, will become the new chairman of Formula One. Bernie Ecclestone, who will make roughly $230 million from his 5.3 percent stake in the business, will stay on as CEO. The 8.5 percent stake his family trust has in the business is now worth $375 million in the cash out.

CVC Capital Partners comes away with approximately $6 billion from its $2 billion purchase a decade ago.

Like the Atlanta Braves and SiriusXM, which Liberty also owns, the investment will be converted into a tracking stock that will allow investors to invest in the F1 business.

With American owners, one area of growth for the brand could be the US, which has never embraced F1. Haas became the first American-owned F1 team in three decades this year. There is, however, not an American driver racing on the circuit.


Hopefully good news for us stateside fans...

[myownalias]

I've just been reading that Liberty Media will be inviting teams to buy shares in F1... which I believe would be bad as only the top teams will be able to buy significant shares, stacking the deck even more in their favor, pushing the lower half of the grid teams further towards the exit door. I would say that teams having ownership would be a large conflict of interest.

[darwin dali]

I've just been reading that Liberty Media will be inviting teams to buy shares in F1... which I believe would be bad as only the top teams will be able to buy significant shares, stacking the deck even more in their favor, pushing the lower half of the grid teams further towards the exit door. I would say that teams having ownership would be a large conflict of interest.

Yes and no - I was thinking in the same vein. However, on the other hand, with the top teams having an actual financial stake in F1 as part owners, this should theoretically ensure that they work for the common good and prosperity of F1, which includes smaller teams.

[myownalias]

I've just been reading that Liberty Media will be inviting teams to buy shares in F1... which I believe would be bad as only the top teams will be able to buy significant shares, stacking the deck even more in their favor, pushing the lower half of the grid teams further towards the exit door. I would say that teams having ownership would be a large conflict of interest.

Yes and no - I was thinking in the same vein. However, on the other hand, with the top teams having an actual financial stake in F1 as part owners, this should theoretically ensure that they work for the common good and prosperity of F1, which includes smaller teams.

Maybe I am just an old cynic; but I don't believe any team (business) will do anything for the common good. Given that Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda (McLaren) are in it to benefit their road car business; if F1 did nothing for their commercial bottom line, they would exit the sport like BMW, Toyota and Honda previously as quick as possible.

Even if they had shares in the sport; they could exit and still get a ROI on their shares from outside the sport.

[gdh]

Hopefully the new owners will expand the number of races in N Am to 5 adding Watkins Glen, LA and Vancouver or Toronto. With Mexico and Brazil the teams could spend much of the fall in N Am. build a fan base. I'd like to see some of the famous old European tracks upgraded and brought back. Admittedly F1 would have to change hw they operate to garner the N Am fans as there s plenty here competing for sports entertainment $. The sport maybe the pinnacle of racing from a technological stance but it falls far behind as entertainment. Watching a procession and trying to get excited over who will be the best of the rest won't cut it here for long. Liberty Media wants to add excitement and make changes, looking fwd to watching what transpires. Hamilton must be very excited about this as he is one of the best with connecting with fans, N Am and all its $$ potentially awaits.

[overboost]

Hopefully with F1 in American control the series can be straightened out and run like a proper business. And yes to more races in NA!

[myownalias]

I don't see more than one more North American race happening, maybe a race in the Northwest in addition to COTA and Montreal + Brazil and Mexico in South America. I think they will be concentrating on the Asian market as that market is already F1 nuts, it'll take a lot to pull people away from NASCAR in the US.

[gdh]

Expansion in N Am would hopefully force the series to be more competitive. NASCAR, NFL, MLB etc are hugely successful in part because of the competition. If F1 is too expensive for many of the teams to be truly competitive maybe it's time to move away from factory teams. Teams can buy the most current and best chassis, engines etc or complete car and modify more like the old days of F1. A freind of ours who works for the network that carries F1/Sky in Canada asked us last week how we like Sky vs BBC that they used for years. I said that the pre and post coverage was much better but the races are same old. We record it all watch the pre fully, after the start usually speed up the recording playback. We don't see who won first but just don't find the races interesting enough to sit through in real time.