Can F1's Madman Stop The Sport From Burning Out?

Imagine two of the NFL's small-market teams—say Tampa Bay and Green Bay—suddenly going bankrupt. What if they just didn't show up on Sunday, unable to afford travel and player salaries? To top it off, imagine a few other teams, also financially strapped, threatening to sit out in protest of spiraling costs. It would be outrageous, right? Unthinkable.

Yet that's what happened in Formula One (F1) last weekend, when just 18 of 22 cars took part in the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Neither Caterham nor Marussia—whose driver Jules Bianchi was severely injured in the recent Japanese Grand Prix—participated for financial reasons. Alexander Rossi, an American, was set to replace Bianchi but was denied his debut. He would have been the sport's only American driver.

The NFL and F1 are obviously quite different from a sporting standpoint, but, in a business sense, the two are more similar than they might at first appear. Both sports generate billions of dollars in revenue, and both split that money up among their various teams.

In 2013, NFL teams are thought to have split about $6 billion among the league's 32 teams. F1 generated less—something in the neighborhood of $1.7 billion in 2013—but rather than split that money equally among the 11 teams, the sports governing body takes 50% off the top, and the payouts each team receives vary dramatically.

The situation is dire. Overall viewership appears to be declining as are the sports live audiences, putting the teams in difficult situations with their individual sponsors. If they can't come together and figure out a more equitable revenue split, there might not be a 2015 F1 season.

Bernie Ecclestone, the CEO of the Formula One Group and the sport's supreme leader, bears responsibility for this mess, as the BBC explains:

Ecclestone has struck private financial deals with all the teams over the last few years and the result has been a revenue split that is heavily in favour of the big teams.

The contracts are secret, but Ferrari are believed to have been paid more than $200m (£125m) for the 2013 season, in which they finished third in the championship, including $90m just for turning up.

By contrast, Marussia earned a reputed $14m (£8.8m), and Caterham a little more than double that.

The costs for a midfield team to compete in F1 for a season are believed to be about $120m (£75m).

How Marussia is supposed to turn $14m into $120m, or more if they want to turn a profit, which one imagines they do, is anybody's guess. The situation seems to have scared Ecclestone. He told the gathered press before last weekend's race that even he didn't know how to move forward.

"The problem is there is too much money probably being distributed badly, probably my fault," Ecclestone said. "But like lots of agreements people make, they seemed a good idea at the time."

"I think the situation is such that if enough people want it resolved, we can resolve it," he continued. "It's a case of the people that are involved in the sport will have to want to look after the sport and be prepared to make some sacrifices."

If there's a silver lining here, it's that Ecclestone—one of the sports world's most colorful characters—is no stranger to controversy. Among other indiscretions, he has twice equated Danica Patrick, the American female racecar driver, to kitchen appliances. But when it comes to controversy, his specialty is the kind involving debt and shady deals. He "paid $100 million earlier this year to end a German corruption case," and narrowly dodged a bribery case in the US, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

In other words, expect Ecclestone to make some new deals. He may be responsible for the current F1 crisis, but if anyone can get things straightened out again, it's him.