Even some of the big spenders in the legislature are appalled by the requested handout for building a race track in Kitsap County: "Projected big spending by NASCAR fans draws questions"
[state Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton] said the company hasn't paid attention to the problems with the location — accessible only by a two-lane highway. She said on a scale of 1 to 10, the project's chances of getting through the Legislature are "a negative 1."Good. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 19, 2005 09:13 AM | Email This
Let's hope the resistant ones don't vote for it in "trade" for some pork in their districts.
Nahhh, that never happens....
Posted by: Jeremy on December 19, 2005 09:26 AMI don't see why the hotel and entertainment people in Seattle and environs aren't all over this.
Kitsap won't get bennies, but the metro areas will. People will fly in and recreate in Seattle/Tacoma, get on a bus and head out to the races, get drunk and then come back to Seattle or hit the airport out of town.
On-site Washington won't get tax bennies from the races.
And if you read the fine print, NASCAR isn't guarnteeing any 'big boy' races in exchange for the handouts.
Posted by: swatter on December 19, 2005 09:42 AMYeah, and they could build ONE MORE bridge from Tacoma to the Peninsula to handle the traffic! And it could be a Toll Bridge for everybody, even those not going to the races! The opportunities are endless. And if they really wanted to get cute, they could make all the Tacoma-Peninsula bridges one way so that no one gets back, has to take the ferry over to la-la Seattle land, and then drive back to Tacoma on the disgustingly congested I-5. Maybe even just abandon their cars and take a bus or train back! The revenue generating prospects are mind boggling.
Posted by: katomar on December 19, 2005 10:40 AMNASCAR fans are very passionate fans. I agree that spending public funds is unreasonable, but so is creating a "Walking Path" for our furry friends on I-90 for a meer 11 million.
Or Raising our taxes when "someone" promised they wouldn't.
Or financing "pet projects" that will need continued support knowing the future funding will not be around in 2007.
Just status quo in Olympia.....I feel my pocketbook lighter everyday, and have for the past 20 years......mmmmmm possibly the result of a state ran by democrats???
Posted by: Chris on December 19, 2005 11:05 AMBecause NASCAR is beneath them. They view it as a sport for white, uneducated, drunk, redneck inbreds. It's not sophisticated enough in their elitist view (never mind car racing is HUGE in Europe). There was a editorial about a year ago in the PI where they went on an ego trip and stated all the great things about Seattle... and one of them was no NASCAR in the area.
Personally, even though the sport bores me, I think having NASCAR in the area is a great idea... it would be a far bigger money maker than, say, the Sonics. But having it in a place where the only way to get to it is via a two lane highway or ferry is idiotic. Put it in Moses Lake or someplace like that.
Posted by: Mike H on December 19, 2005 11:38 AMUnfortunately, the s***** condition of the roads in Puget Sound, i.e. non-existent infrastructure, renders the proposal DOA. Kitsap couldn't handle 175,000 fans attending an event on a Sunday afternoon.
Posted by: Danny on December 19, 2005 11:38 AM1) Local governments at all levels have no business whatsoever funding facilities for private buinesses.
Of course, this principle has been routinely violated in WA-football and baseball stadium funding.
So, why not racetracks? What is the difference?
Answer:
2) The loon liberals must consider football and baseball as harmless, but NASCAR is definitely unacceptable because it is
-from the South
-patriotic
-involves those demon, gas guzzling American cars
with V8s: Very evil and wasteful and stupid
I for one am torn, we should not be subsidizing private business, but we do, and we WILL NOT touch NASCAR because the liberals think it stinks.
Hypocritcal a**holes....
Posted by: THS on December 19, 2005 11:53 AMIf you saw people buying all the nascar stuff from the vendors it would blow your minds. I'm guessing $250 a person is a conservate estimate since many are rabid fans.
I could also see that if people came to a Northwest race that others would stay additional time and take in things like Ferry rides, The Space Needle, Monorail (when not wrecked), Mariners Games, Pike Place Market, Local bars and Clubs, Mt. Rainier or St. Helens.
Although labelled as a redneck crowd, its not unlike my fellow 300 level people that go to Seahawk games and spend their entertainment dollars.
Was Smokey Point a good deal? No. Is Bremerton the best remaining location? Also no. Is Nascar worth investing in? I believe it is, this might not be the business model that works.
Having others (many from out of state) enjoy an activity and spend their money within our state is not a bad thing. To make this successful though, races for an extended time period have to be guaranteed before moving forward.
Posted by: Marmstro on December 19, 2005 12:32 PMIf NASCAR really wants the track in the last market they are missing one they'll build it on their own dime but they are no dummies. After all Boeing got Billion$ to lay off thousands of workers to build the 787 here and a billionaire got a 1/3 of a billion for stadiums NASCAR they had to try.
NASCAR's mistake is not knowing how to deal with politicians dumber than 90% of their fans. Arrogant Reardon of SNOHOCO blew the opportunity to have the superbowl sized crowd and CASH show up 2x per year and tried to blame NASCAR!!
Folks they spend the cash in buckets (been to 16 races since 1991) and are no dumber than the end zones at the Seahawks game and are just like you and me (well maybe not we really know what is going on in the race and not just there because they got 2 free tickets near home plate).
I love torquing my ball and stick sport protagonist at work with the fact that I don't support using the state's bond capacity and remind him of the $1 billion illegally shook down by Gary Locke from us for his teams.
If NASCAR got the $ they'd more than pay for the bonds. On the other hand every 787 that goes down the runway and every homerun and every touchdown scored in this town has come out of our pockets forever. At least finally we have a precedent to point to and say no more $$ for businesses. But But But….as importantly it shows how in danger our pocket books are every moment they are trying to think…Boeing/Hawks/Mariners/Sound Transit good investment….a tiny percentage of that that will break even or make money very bad so bad as to be worse than evil!!
As an earlier poster noted there is not buckets of money coming from the tribes or anywhere else for that matter and NASCAR is a buncha hillibillies that vote for evil Repubs and Sam Reed so, yes, this is proposal is Black Flagged but for all the wrong reasons. Next up maybe we can stop the WSDOT from building the refrigerated apple cars to send apples to the east coast…great use of tax money and an excellent ROI! See it at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Rail/Freight/ProduceRailcars/
This ain't the place for NASCAR. They best go south into Orygun or possibly Idaho, where there is a bit more of the redneck crowd down there and slightly less lame ass legislature to lend support.
Posted by: KS on December 19, 2005 08:35 PM