Supercars teams may soon release their collective shareholding in the category as a sale process comes to a head.
It’s been well-documented that a decision on a new owner could be made as soon as next month with Archer Capital eager to offload its majority stake.
Two parties remain in the hunt: the merged bid between the Australian Racing Group and TLA Worldwide/TGI Sport, and the Brisbane Broncos in partnership with a Peter Adderton-led consortium.
While it appeared ARG and TLA were previously only vying for Archer’s share when their bids were separate, it’s now known that whichever contender is successful will move to also buy out the teams’ 35 percent in Supercars.
That will give a new owner complete control to take the category in its desired direction.
Both candidates would probably stamp some sort of authority on the critical Gen3 project – possibly delaying its introduction from mid-2022 to the start of 2023 – and ring upper management changes.
While it’s not clear which individuals could be inserted into key positions, Speedcafe.com has learnt the ARG/TLA bid would likely not shift Mark Skaife into a CEO-type role.
Skaife has long been involved in the TLA bid and is particularly close with the sports marketing/management company’s boss Craig Kelly.
However, the assumption that Skaife could subsequently become a championship head honcho seems wide of the mark, with the general consensus pointing to the five-time Supercars champion being a consultant (if ARG/TLA is successful) and retaining his broadcast duties.
Archer had set a price tag in the vicinity of $60 million for its circa 65 percent stake.
Whether teams would relinquish their stakes, and thus control, was a question mark – but it’s believed they may be convinced by a proposed restructure that would guarantee them higher revenues.
That in turn could see a minimal purchase price for that 35 percent of the business.
It’s understood prospective buyers will present to teams in September.
Either way, almost the entirety of paddock sources Speedcafe.com has spoken with agree new, emotionally invested owners will be a step forward for Supercars.
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