Attorneys representing 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have asked courts in New York and Colorado to order Liberty Media Corporation, owner of Formula 1, the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball to share financial documents showing how each league shares revenue with its teams.
The two Cup teams asked the court in a March 31 filing to compel the NFL, NBA and NHL to produce documents requested. The two Cup teams filed a memorandum Monday for the court to compel Liberty Medial to share requested financial information.
This is a part of the antitrust lawsuit 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed against NASCAR last year. The case is scheduled to go to trial Dec. 1. NASCAR is contesting the suit and countersued the two teams on March 5.
In court papers, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports stated why documents from the other leagues are important: “NASCAR has exploited its monopoly power to impose anticompetitive terms on the teams that compete in Cup Series races, including by providing teams with lower shares of revenues (such as TV revenues from NASCAR’s $7.7 billion media rights deal) than they would receive in a competitive market. … Plaintiffs’ subpoenas to the leagues seek financial information relevant to proving antitrust injury and calculating the damages incurred by Plaintiffs under the well-accepted “yardstick” measure of estimating damages in an antitrust litigation.”
The two Cup teams seek documents that show team and league revenues and how those are split. The two Cup teams also seek valuations of expansion or current teams in those leagues. The two Cup teams seek information from Jan. 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2024. NASCAR’s charter system debuted ahead of the 2016 season.
In court documents, the two Cup teams state that the NHL, NFL and NBA have refused to provide information on revenue and valuation information. Major League Baseball, citing the start of its season, requested additional time to respond.
The NFL and NBA objected in court documents, stating: “The Subpoena is based on the flimsiest of premises: that because Plaintiffs are suing NASCAR, they can obtain -by way of federal process - financials, financial projections, research, studies, analyses, and other highly confidential, proprietary, and commercially sensitive information belonging to almost every other major sports league in the United States. To be clear, there is no legitimate basis for any assertion that the information sought has any direct connection to the substantive dispute between the parties or that the Subpoena complies with the strictures of the Federal Rules.”
Liberty Media stated, in court documents, its objections to the sharing its financial info, noting, among other reasons, that “Liberty Media objects to the Subpoena because it is overbroad and unduly burdensome and seeks documents that are neither relevant to claims or defenses in, nor proportionate to the needs of, the Action.”
