State shouldn’t let opportunity race by

The Kansas Speedway has turned 1,200 mostly vacant acres on the outskirts of Kansas City, Kansas, into one of that state’s most powerful economic engines. Officials there say they cannot understand why Washington would pass on an opportunity to build a car-racing track near Marysville in Snohomish County.

International Speedway Corp. last month selected 850 acres just off Interstate 5 for a three-quarter mile track that could seat about 77,000, 2,000 of those in luxury boxes. ISC would put up $50 million of its own money, with the state to issue about $200 million in bonds to cover the remaining development costs. Other state and local funds would be needed for road improvements in the area.

The specifics of the financial package would have to be ready for legislative action next year if the track is to be ready by 2009.

According to a Seattle consultant, the track could create 1,600 jobs and $98 million in economic activity in Washington, 1,800 jobs and $122 million in economic activity region-wide. The state can expect as much as $4 million in tax revenues, local jurisdictions as much as $4.5 million more. That’s assuming there are two major national events each year, and one regional.

That’s only an assumption, albeit a fairly safe one. ISC would own the track, as it does 12 others around the United States. NASCAR, stock car racing’s governing body, assigns race dates. Tracks must resubmit bids for dates each year. Tracks with no races are next to worthless.

But the France family, which founded NASCAR and continues to exercise control, also has a substantial ownership in ISC. The company’s president is Lesa France Kennedy.

Stock car racing, with 75 million fans, is the fastest-growing sport in the United States. Anyone who has seen the heavily decaled cars and patch-laden uniforms of the drivers knows what a marketing machine the sport has become.

ISC reported more than $156 million in revenues for the quarter that ended Aug. 31.

But the Northwest is a huge void for ISC and NASCAR, which continue to build their brands across the U.S. The closest races are held in southern California. Yet Seattle is the 12th largest television market.

The Midwest was once a blank, too. When Kansas officials heard NASCAR was looking for a site in that region, they offered a heap of help to build a track, including $92 million in bonds backed by sales tax and property tax revenues from the track premises, a $10 million grant from the unified city-county government, and $34 million in road improvements from the Department of Transportation. ISC kicked in $82 million of its own money.

The speedway opened five years ago. President Jeff Boerger says an economic impact study done in 2002 estimated new business activity outside the track produced more than $150 million in ancillary taxes. Last weekend, the track’s premier event drew 230,000 fans over three days. The venue holds more than 200 revenue-generating events a year, from barbeques to charity races to 40 days of instruction from the Richard Petty Driving Experience. (As opposed to the I-5 parking experience.)

Former Kansas Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer was among the officials who courted NASCAR, as was state Director of Business Development Steve Kelly. Both say the speedway economic benefits have more than repaid the investment by state and local government.

“It’s been the catalyst for all kinds of economic growth,” observes Kelly, who says Kansas badly needed an attraction that would draw tourists from other states. New restaurants, hotels, stores, even housing, have been constructed around the track

NASCAR season ticket holders arrive from all 50 states, Sherrer says, and boy, do they spend on tickets, concessions and souvenirs.

“It’s just amazing what goes through the cash registers,” he says.

If state taxpayers are not at risk, asks Sherrer, how does Washington lose?

Brad Owen, Washington’s lieutenant governor, asks the same question. Owen says he will withhold judgment until officials negotiate a package that can be submitted to the Legislature, but adds he is impressed by preliminary financial projections done for a track in the state, and by Kansas’ experience.

More than half the fans expected to attend events at Marysville will come from out of state, bringing new dollars into Washington’s economy. Each weekend a major race is held is the business equivalent of a Super Bowl, Owen says, with the potential payback far exceeding that the state and King County have realized from investments in Safeco Field and Qwest Field.

Bonds repaid from track-related tax revenues will not pull resources away from other state projects. Capital expenditures are set apart from Washington’s hard-pressed operating budget.

“You’re not utilizing funds that could go someplace else,” Owen says, adding “We’ve got to find ways of generating economic activity in the state of Washington.”

There are plenty of those stereotypical NASCAR dads in the Northwest. Maybe Marysville is the place for them, just as long as there’s no sugardad in Olympia.