The incredible world-spanning Formula 1 circus is scheduled to hit the road again for the 2024 season in just about a month, and the series is perhaps stronger today than it ever has been. Much of F1's recent success can be attributed directly to it having been purchased for $301 million by Liberty Media in 2017, bringing the series into the modern world. Its efforts have been successful, as the series has seen record-breaking in-person attendance and television audiences, and it has even added extra rounds to the season. All of this growth has seen Liberty listed by Forbes as the “most valuable sports empire” in 2024 with a value of more than $18 billion.
In addition to negotiating better television deals and developing the wildly successful behind-the-scenes “Drive To Survive” show with Netflix, the series has expanded its reach with efforts to get drivers and series personnel engaging with fans on social media, also pushing e-sports. Liberty Media, an American company, has even managed to figure out how to crack the U.S. audience that F1 has been chasing for decades, growing the sport from three races in North America to five.
It’s important to note that Liberty Media owns more than just Formula 1. Liberty is a 35-percent owner of Live Nation Entertainment, the company that basically holds a monopoly on booking and promoting events. It also holds 76 percent of Sirius XM. Under its motorsport arm, Formula One Group, Liberty also holds positions in the Drone Racing League, Ball Arena in Denver, and 30 percent of IndyCar team Meyer Shank Racing. The company was actually worth more at the start of the 2023 calendar year, as it spun off a $2 billion stake in the Atlanta Braves baseball team.
Even with Liberty’s decrease in holdings, it is still larger than other members of the Forbes list, including Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (which owns the LA Rams and Arsenal FC) or Fenway Sports Group (owners of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Liverpool FC, and NASCAR’s RFK racing). It’s fair to say that Formula 1 is worth more in 2024 than most other sports entities, which says a lot about the growth in popularity of motorsport in general over the last decade or so.