Andrew Murstein, co-owner of Richard Petty Motorsports offer bold idea to NASCAR CEO Brian France for fixing outrageous NASCAR spending
Andrew Murstein, co-owner of Richard Petty Motorsports offered a unique idea to NBC Sports. Should NASCAR team owners need to agree to a spending cap? With the goal of creating a “level playing field” in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Murstein discusses his idea.
“Every single league has a cap now these days, it creates a level playing field,” Murstein told NBC Sports.
He continued, “It’s salaries … its wind-tunnel time, it’s the whole kit and caboodle. It’s better for the fans, I think, if there is a level playing field. No one can outspend the other guy. It’s better for the owners. It creates more competition, more excitement.”
Medallion Financial Corp is publicly-traded finance company with leading positions in niche markets. Murstein is the founder of the company and might know a thing or two about finances.
His family once owned 500 taxi medallions. In the 1970’s they opted to sell a bulk of them. They were unable to find a bank willing to provide financing. That sparked the idea to create their own financing company, Medallion Funding Corp was born. Since, it’s loaned over $3 billion to the taxi industry.
Murstein brought his NASCAR spending cap idea to the top. At a dinner last month, he presented the idea to NASCAR CEO Brian France. That dinner also included John Tisch, owner of the NFL’s New York Giants.
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The NFL has had a spending cap installed since the 1994 season. In it’s debut year, the cap was issued at $34.608 million. That number has raised significantly, each year since. The 2016 NFL spending cap is now an astounding $155.27 million.
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“(Tisch) was shedding a lot of light on why that league was so successful,” Murstein said, “both from fan interests and from the economics of the sport.”
How did Brian France react to the NASCAR spending cap idea? Murstein said France appeared open to his ideas “if we came up with some more details.”
Andrew Murstein is relatively new to the NASCAR world, from a team owners perspective. In 2010, his company purchased a co-owner role. He says a NACSAR spending cap would be revolutionary for the sport. I would take his statement a bit further, it would be revolutionary for motorsports.
Why does he say it will be revolutionary? Currently, NASCAR finances, are for the most part, top secret. A spending cap would more or less open the books. financial information and athlete contracts would no longer be kept secret.
What happens if a team goes over the limit? Murstein has a plan. A luxury tax.
He concluded, “Kind of punish the ones that don’t care about spending and that extra money goes into a pool that would help the other owners, and hopefully they would use their money to make their cars more competitive, too.”
I like it!
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