Andretti F1 - 2025

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Tourer

Re anti-trust, how does it work in the US with sports such as NFL & NHL? Don't they use a franchise model that restricts the number of teams?

I really don't follow the big US sports such as American Football, Baseball, Basketball, etc. I do think they occasionally bump up against anti-trust laws. The Sherman Act is quite old (created in 1890). I believe there was an explicit exception created by law for Baseball (There is a saying here... "As American as Baseball, Hot-dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet"). So don't mess with Baseball! I think the NFL was given an exception to negotiate broadcast rights for all teams collectively.

NFL has 32 clubs (newest in 1993), NBA has 30 team (newest in 2004), NHL has 32 teams (newest this year?). Someone who follows this stuff can comment. I really don't know the history.

Overall, I expect they don't run into trouble as there is a process for new teams, a large number of teams and while the requirements are probably generally high (probably even financially higher than the F1 anti-dilution fee), they are achievable. The controlling organizations are not actively working to prevent any new entries as F1 is. If someone wanted to create a new team it probably wouldn't be anywhere as difficult as it is within F1. F1's problem is they say they are structured for 12 teams, but are at 10. Define objective requirements (like the anti-dilution fee, etc.) which were met by Andretti/GM, but also have very squishy subjective requirements that feel quite random and arbitrary. So the exclusion (particularly the published reasoning) of someone such as Andretti smells very much like Sherman Antitrust issues. Particularly collusion to prevent competition and the subjective and arbitrary nature of if you allowed in/out. It also doesn't help F1's case that FIA gave Andretti/GM a thumbs up.

As to the political side of this. The FOM reasoning likely will get little or no traction here in the US. They effectively said Andretti had no marketing value (which doesn't fly here because it's clearly wrong) and as Andretti is a partner with GM, GM ended up being painted poorly by association (remember that "Chevrolet" (GM) is right up there with Baseball, Hot-dogs and Apple pie!) . Layer on top of this, that it is a US company with someone like Stefano Domenicali as CEO of F1. Right, wrong, fair, unfair, nationalistic or not messaging from Domenicali as a non-American, falls on deaf ears. He just comes across as a European protecting European interests. Particularly European commercial interests. This is why there is a potential for the anti-trust angle to get traction here. However I don't hold much hope.

Richard