Imagine the boost to Snohomish County’s economy if Everett hosted the Super Bowl every year.
While the example is far-fetched, the economic impact of that is about equivalent to what a NASCAR racetrack could bring here — more than $200 million annually.
Which is why business and governmental leaders are accelerating their efforts to attract such a track.
"It would be a huge deal," county Councilman Jeff Sax said. "I think the economics of it are the most intriguing part. We don’t have any other business like it."
International Speedway Corp. of Daytona Beach, Fla., has made no secret that it wants to build a track in Washington or Oregon. As the Puget Sound area represents the nation’s 12th-largest television market, it’s an attractive place to expand.
"We’re certainly interested in it because we feel the Pacific Northwest is an underserved region," said David Talley, an ISC spokesman, adding the next closest tracks regularly host major National Associations of Stock Car Auto Racing events are in Southern California and Nevada.
In Snohomish County, officials have suggested two sites for such a track development, which needs at least 500 acres: Monroe, already home to the Evergreen Speedway, and a rural area between Marysville and the Arlington airport. Earlier, Darrington also made a pitch to the racing company.
ISC has told county officials that the track facility, which would accommodate 70,000 to 80,000 people, could generate annual revenue of $87 million and another $58 million a year in state and local taxes.
A Seattle firm is preparing a study on the larger economic impact that a new NASCAR track would have specifically for the Puget Sound region. But reports on other areas with large race tracks look promising.
In Arizona, the ISC-owned Phoenix International Raceway injected more than $270 million overall into the state’s economy in 1999, according to an Arizona State University study. That included more than $124 million in spending by out-of-state visitors.
For comparison, when Phoenix hosted the Super Bowl in 1996, the economic impact was estimated at just more than $300 million.
The Kansas Speedway, located west of Kansas City, Mo., generated $300 million for that state’s economy in its first year, according to Kansas state officials. A sprawling retail complex is part of that speedway development, and something similar could be built here, said Sax, who’s visited that race track.
Talley said one of ISC’s best-known tracks, the Daytona International Speedway, has an even bigger footprint on central Florida. The annual economic impact of the track is estimated at $1.8 billion, he said.
What is clear is that the potential benefits are hard to ignore, which is why a statewide task force has formed to work with International Speedway Corp. In addition to the Snohomish County sites, the company is considering Kitsap and Thurston counties for its new track.
Richard Chapman, vice president at the Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County, helped to convene the new committee, known as the Checkered Flag Task Force. The group includes business and governmental representatives from the three counties, as well as state officials.
ISC initially approached King County, but finding a suitable swath of undeveloped land there seemed to be an obstacle.
Still, if a new track in Snohomish County created $200 million in spending and other benefits, Chapman estimates King County would get about $50 million of that. He said some fans, as well as drivers, would opt to stay in downtown Seattle’s first-class hotels and enjoy the sights and nightlife there.
One of Snohomish County’s representatives on the Checkered Flag Task Force is Gigi Burke, a vice president with Arlington-based Crown Distributing Co.
"It’s a sport that’s growing at such as rapid pace, Burke said. "There’s a ton of people from the Northwest who follow racing and travel great distances to see the races themselves."
In fact, according to studies done in Kansas, the average season ticket holder travels 500 miles for the major races at the speedway in that state. With legions of loyal fans, NASCAR is the nation’s largest spectator sport and second-biggest sport on TV.
And NASCAR, which is controlled by the same family that owns the majority of ISC, is looking to expand its audience by moving into markets such as the Puget Sound and New York.
"This is their chance to build up the sport by going to the large markets," Talley said, adding that NASCAR’s audience has broadened greatly as it has moved out of the Southeast. For example, 40 percent of the sport’s fans are women, he said.
One local businessman who’s worried about what will happen if a new track comes is Mickey Beadle. He’s president of International Productions Inc., which is entering its 26th year of staging races at the county-owned Evergreen Speedway.
"If they put lights in so they could hold Saturday night races … and I assume they’re going to, it would hurt us. I don’t know if we could survive it," Beadle said.
Conversely, if the ISC track didn’t host nighttime races, its arrival here would probably boost crowds at the Evergreen Speedway. A number of fans who come for day races at the large track would be likely to check out the smaller track, he said.
But, he noted grimly, many large tracks are installing lights to accommodate night racing.
Beadle still has some time, however. Talley said that ISC is in the early stages of choosing a site. After that happens and agreements with the state and county in question are hammered out, construction alone can take up to two years.
For a county that’s been hit harder than the rest of the region by troubles in the aerospace industry, it’s understandable that enthusiasm is building over the possibility of a new race track. Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon has flagged the issue as a priority.
"He’s very interested in seeing a NASCAR track here," said Mark Funk, a senior analyst on Reardon’s staff. "We would help them find the space they need."
Even after ISC chooses a location for the new track, issues remain. The track could cost more than $200 million, which means the Legislature probably will eventually have to decide the state’s role in helping to finance it.
Sax added that if the track were built in Snohomish County, the state might agree to reprioritize its transportation projects to finish those that would handle traffic to and from the track.
While state and county officials continue to woo ISC, Burke said that most of the reaction she’s gotten from other local business owners has been positive.
"I just think it would have an incredibly positive impact, both economically and in other ways," she said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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