Loss of race would cost state millions
NASCAR may move some races; S.C. track could lose one of two it hosts
By JIM McLAURIN
Staff Writer
DARLINGTON - William Knox, co-manager of the Bi-Lo down the street from Darlington Raceway, treats the track's two racing weekends a year like a big picnic.
"All your grilling-type items - steak, barbecue sauce - anything you can throw on a grill, the sales of it will increase on a race weekend," Knox said.
Throw in the price of more than 60,000 race tickets (from $45-$125), plus parking, hotel rooms, T-shirts and driver caps, and you get an idea of how much a weekend at the races is worth to the local economy.
Knox and many others in the seven-county Pee Dee area might be missing a lot of income next year if NASCAR decides to take away Darlington Raceway's spring race.
On Jan. 21, Bill France Jr., who runs NASCAR and the International Speedway Corp., which owns Darlington Raceway, put several tracks on notice: Be better or be gone.
France pointed to Darlington and Rockingham, N.C., as well as Atlanta and several others, as tracks thatmight have to give up one of their races to better-performing tracks if business doesn't pick up.
Several tracks in bigger markets - such as California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. - have only one race and want another one. Another new track, Kentucky Speedway outside Cincinnati, is seeking its first Winston Cup race.
Losing a race at Darlington would leave a big hole in the South Carolina economy, Gov. Mark Sanford said.
"What you're looking at is about $50 million of additional economic activity that comes as a result of these races taking place," Sanford said. "The math is real simple. If you don't have the race, the $50 million disappears, period."
The loss of a Darlington race, according to Tom Regan, chairman of the University of South Carolina's Sports and Entertainment Management Department, would be more keenly felt.
"It's all new money," Regan said. "A very small percentage of the fans are from that area. If you get 100,000 people in there, if 10,000 are from the Pee Dee, you're doing good. The (majority of the) people at Darlington are coming from 34 states and four nations, who would never, ever be in the Pee Dee for any other reason."
The impact won't be felt by just the motels and restaurants. Temporary workers come from all over the area to fill a variety of roles at the race - everything from picking up trash and parking cars to serving food in the concession stands, even to providing music in the "hospitality villages."
"It's going to have a very large trickle-down effect," said Fran Willis, of the Pee Dee Tourism Commission. "It's not just the chain motels... . Because it's a gated event, part of the ticket price (2 percent) goes to the admissions tax, at the state level. That is used, in turn, for grant funding for statewide events or regional tourism offices. That money would be cut."
The nickels and dimes taken in at the mom-and-pop motels and restaurants, the privately owned parking areas near the track, and locally owned burger joints and souvenir outlets, all add up.
Darlington Raceway president Andrew Gurtis believes that should the spring race be taken away, the Southern 500 weekend on Labor Day would become a bigger event, and some of that money will come back into the community.
"At that point, the Sunday race sells out, the Saturday Busch race grows, and the Friday truck race grows, and we get back on the building curve of putting up seats each year to accommodate the demand," he said. "I think we'd make up that ground slowly by having sold-out events and the growth of the support events."
Regan, who just completed a study of the economic impact of the race, doesn't necessarily buy into that theory.
"If anything is lost, it won't be back," he said. "I don't care if it's the Heritage, the Family Circle, or Darlington. If you lose it ... just go up and ask the people in North Wilkesboro if they miss it."
Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president for corporate communications and former Darlington Raceway president, said it's premature to assume Darlington will lose a race in 2004.
"People who are hearing about realignment and schedule changes automatically think that Darlington is going to lose a race," Hunter said. "I don't think that's the case.
"But after we talk to all the tracks and work out the schedule, Darlington and Rockingham are certainly among the tracks that are candidates, due to the fact that they don't sell (all) the tickets."
Regan said losing a race also would hurt the state's prestige.
"This is our major league," Regan said. "We're not a dirt track. (NASCAR) is the fastest-growing sport, and we've got the major league teams sitting right there two times a year. We've got the all-star game twice a year. And we've had it longer than anybody else.
"You look at other states: We don't have an Atlanta, where you have a Georgia Dome. You're sitting in a small state, a fairly poor state, that has some great events - tier-1 level. You can't get any better."
This weekend, Knox and many in the Pee Dee area could only estimate how much race fans would spend at the NASCAR triple-header at Darlington. But they know that by Sunday night, the coffers will be full.