OLYMPIA – Is the land of lattes ready to join the NASCAR nation? The sport’s leaders are betting on it with a bold pitch for a racetrack in Kitsap County, the second attempt in two years to lay track in the Northwest.
The region is the home of two of NASCAR’s hottest drivers – including Greg Biffle, this year’s second-place finisher – and is a nagging dark spot on the map for one of the country’s fastest-growing sports.
But those who control the state’s purse strings don’t seem sold on the idea, with some saying they don’t hear much clamor for the South’s reigning entertainment export.
“It’s sort of like if I said, ‘Gosh, I really would look beautiful in this fur coat,’” said state Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, head of a powerful budget committee. “And you would say, ‘Do you really need it?’”
Northwest NASCAR supporters disagree, claiming the proposed 83,000-seat facility would bring a windfall of tourist spending and development to Kitsap County.
For Tammy Kahne, a racetrack near her home would mean more than another chance to see live racing. For one thing, she’d be able to see her son Kasey, NASCAR’s 2004 Rookie of the Year, a bit more often.
“I think we’re getting more and more of a fan base in Washington. NASCAR’s growing like crazy,” said Kahne, as customers browsed through official shirts, hats, lunch boxes and other paraphernalia at the official Kasey Kahne merchandise store she runs in their hometown of Enumclaw.
The plan for the Kitsap County NASCAR track was unveiled earlier this month by officials from NASCAR’s sister company, International Speedway Corp. of Daytona, Fla.
ISC’s vision of a Northwest raceway would cost $345 million, and the company says it’s willing to put up nearly half the cash and cover any cost overruns. The rest would come from state-backed bonds financed by a portion of state sales tax collections and a new levy on racetrack admissions.
The track would be publicly owned on land in rural Kitsap County, and would be accessible by bridge and ferry – although many scoff at the area’s ability to handle race day traffic. A similar plan for a track in north Marysville died when officials recoiled at the price tag.
An ISC subsidiary would lease the racetrack, preferably for at least 50 years.
Racetrack backers say the plan carries a sure-fire economic benefit for the state, not only paying its own way with increased tax revenues but returning $43 million to public coffers over the 25-year life of the bonds.
“We’re putting $166 million of our stockholders’ money toward this. We’re not going to do that if we can’t deliver on making the thing a success,” said Grant Lynch, ISC vice president.
The new track also would spread NASCAR’s influence at a time when the sport is moving into the top echelon of national spectator sports. ISC has been negotiating to build a racetrack on Staten Island, N.Y., in the heart of the world’s top media market.
“To truly be a major sport by today’s standards, you have to have an imprint coast to coast, north and south, and we have a big void in the Northwest,” said Jim Hunter, a top NASCAR spokesman. “At one time, we had a big void everywhere but the Southeast.”
But does the Northwest really offer a plum audience for NASCAR, a sport more often associated with blue-collar than blue-state politics?
Ed Newbold, a wildlife artist who sells prints of orcas, salmon and other wildlife from a shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, ran advertisements in both of the city’s daily newspapers, asking: “How about nothing for NASCAR?”
Newbold criticizes auto racing as a male-dominated sport “that promotes risk-taking, speeding, fossil fuel waste and noise pollution.” And he compares drivers unfavorably with other professional athletes, “who don’t use gasoline to do the hard work.”
But beyond any cultural conflicts between the Northwest and the NASCAR nation, Newbold thinks the real problem is the money.
“They’re good people,” he said. “But why bust the treasury for them?”
For Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a Democrat who hails from the track’s target area, the answer is simple: The track would bring bundles of new taxes, floods of visitors and national media attention.
“The impression is that you’re going to have a facility there that is full of backyard mechanics and guys in muscle shirts and grease under their fingernails. But that’s not the case,” Owen said. “You’re getting everything from the everyday Joe and Jane to the very wealthy.”
ISC officials have waged a high-dollar campaign to influence policy-makers, hiring a top Seattle public relations firm and helping to pay for trips to other racetracks for Owen and state lawmakers.
That effort, however, may not give the proposal much traction in the Democrat-controlled statehouse.
Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire hasn’t taken a position. Even state Sen. Tim Sheldon of Potlatch, a conservative Democrat who represents the track’s construction area and was one of ISC’s guests at a 2004 race in Daytona, isn’t offering unconditional support.
Lawmakers still remember the furor over state-financed stadium deals that gave baseball’s Mariners and the NFL’s Seahawks shiny new homes.
Sheldon, who thinks the track would be an economic boon, was a leading opponent of the deal to publicly pay for the Seahawks’ stadium. He’d like to see ISC pay for the entire racetrack proposal, as it has pledged to do in New York.
“One individual wrote me a letter and said, ‘I don’t need a racetrack. I already own a baseball stadium and a football stadium,’” Sheldon said.
Prentice, the chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said ISC officials will get their opportunity to pitch the plan when the Legislature convenes in January.
But she hasn’t heard much support from colleagues; at a recent Senate caucus, she asked for a show of hands from racetrack supporters, and not one hand went up.
“For us to even be seriously considering it, there would have to be a groundswell of support,” Prentice said.
Associated Press
Tammy Kahne, mother of NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne, runs a store where Kasey Kahne merchandise is sold in Enumclaw.
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