Dover Motorsports, traded on the
New York Stock Exchange as DVD, is the company that owns
Dover International Speedway along with 4 other tracks. These tracks are
Gateway International Raceway,
Memphis Motorsports Park,
Nashville Superspeedway, and the
Toytoa Grand Prix of Long Beach. Throughtout a year, more then 100 million people, in 34 of the top 50 advertising markets come in contact with the company. At each of its track one can find either
CART,
NHRA,
NASCAR or
IRL.
Dover Motorsports receives income from adminsions (ticket sales), broadcasting fees, food and beverage sales, and sponser revenue. However, for the year ending in 2003, Dover actually lost money, due to reduced ticket sales and other events including the threat of the war in Iraq.
In 1967, Dover Downs, INC was incorporated and began hosting motorsports and harness racing. This company would later be restructured into Dover Motorsports. After this restructing, Dover Downs, INc, became the head of the gaming part of the raceway. Dover Downs has since become Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment Inc.
In January of 1998, the company aquired Nashvill Speedway, USA. INC. Dover then built a 1.33-mile concrete superspeedway which can seat up to 15,000 seats, if the demand requires it. Currently there are two Busch Series races, a Craftsman Truck Series race, an IRL event and various regional events.
In July of 1998, Dover acquired Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, INC.. The Grand Prix has been run for over 30 years in the Long Beach area. This CART sanctioned event has the second highest paid attendance (with the first being Indy). Along with the race in Long Beach, Grand Prix organized the Grand Prix of Denver, but due to CART declaring bankruptcy, Dover Motorsports reached an agreement with Centrix Financial LLC to take over the rights and organization of that race.
As part of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach INC acquisition, Dover Motorsports became the proud owner of Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, in view of the famed Gateway Arch. This facility includes a 1.25-mile paved oval track, a drag strip and a road course.
The final venue accuired with the Grand Prix aquisition was Memphis Motorsports Park. This site is located just outside of Memphis in Millington, Tennessee. The .75-mile tri-oval track can seat about 16,000 people and the site also includes a .25-mil dirt track, and a road course.
As of December 31, 2003, Dover employed about 156 full-time people and also has about 28 part-time workers. Due to the fact that is business is seasonal, there maybe more temporary workers based on which course has an event going on. Dover lost money in 2003, but hopes 2004 will be a much better year. However, its profits are tied to sport popularity, the economy, and the whims of Nascar where most of its money is earned from.
Some information was taken from http://www.nascar.com/races/tracks/dov/index.html and http://www.doverspeedway.com/aboutUs.html. However a vast majority of the facts and figures were taken from the anunual report to the stockholders. Aren't public compaines a great thing