Actually, evidence, in the form of many North American sports series, shows that if there are enough competing parties at the table, good rules can be concocted.

The drivers get a representative, the teams get one, the track owners get one, FIA gets one FOM gets one. All parties sign an arbitration agreement. All parties want to make money. And because all the parties want to make money and have a season, it pretty much always works out.

There have been strikes, and some problem with expansion franchises (of course, expansion teams would not be an issue in racing nor would franchising necessarily work) but face it: Every season, every years for decade after decade, we turn on out TVs and watch NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL.

Somehow they make it work, and have for several decades. Saying it can't work flies in the face of the evidence.

can't say that it will turn out, but I can certainly say that in most others sports it has and does.

Actually there is a lot of evidence that this management style can work—all the many popular North American sports.

The track owners get a representative; FIA and FOM each get a representative; the teams get a representative, and the drivers get a representative. All parties want to make money and all parties want a racing season, so all parties come to an agreement. And all parties agree to third-party arbitration if talks fail, which scares everyone into compromising a little more.

Sure there have been strikes, and problems with expansion franchises (of course, franchises might not work in racing, and expansion teams would be a good thing,) but still, for several decades—several decades—we have been able to turn on the TV and see the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB. Somehow all those huge egos, greedy players, owners, stadium owners, and marketing people manage to work it out.

And I see know reason to think the people in any other sports are less greedy or narcissistic or ego-driven than in racing. again, just reading the news belies that notion.

I am not saying it will work. I am saying experience—real-world observable experience—shows it can work.

Yes, it works more or less in stick and ball sports where revenue sources are far different from motorsports. But as I pointed out with my MLS example, the last major stick and ball sport trying to setup a league. MLS was setup as a single entity ownership of all teams. This was done to avoid the problems of escalating salaries by few teams in previous incarnation of professional soccer in the US, the NASL. Over $350M later in losses, the MLS is starting to sell off some teams to other owners, I believe Red Bull paid $100M to purchase the NY team which along with the LA Galaxy is probably the most valuable franchise in the system. Over time they will sell off the other teams to owners and hope to recoup the losses they incurred since 1996 and show some return on their investment. When I mentioned they hope to have all teams profitable in the next couple years, that does not mean they have recouped their original investment yet.

I am sure you could dream up a hypothetical franchise motorsports series. But it would be a closed system and only those playing in it could participate. If a manufacturer would want to enter the sport, they would have to buy an existing team and could not leave the sport until they find a replacement for their slot. Else the whole series collapses. How many manufacturers do you think would sign up to do that? The DTM is about the closest concept to a franchised motorsports operation and it went from 3 manufacturers to 2. The series has stringent cost controls and the two manufacturers are the largest revenue stream to the series. It has nearly collapsed on several occasions since its rebirth of the current format.

With all the options available in motorsports, trying to build a franchised motorsports series will be a failure. Potential participants and manufacturers are just going to enter a series that offers less hassles and more freedom. NASCAR managed to reach its popularity without a such a system and one could argue that changing it to a franchised system may be better for the sport in the long term. It has reached that critical mass, but I see no way that you could build it from scratch and try to reach the level of NASCAR, when you are competing against NASCAR.

Suffice to say, there are those in the sport who do think its a worthwhile endeavour to attempt. Meetings and discussions are going on now.