Now that Snohomish County and Marysville have dropped out of negotiations to build a NASCAR track in north Marysville, the race to land the project again is wide open.
But chances for alternative sites in this county appear slim. Leaders of the Tulalip Tribes were upset that the talks fell apart because they were considering chipping in money. Even so, they turned down overtures last week to build the track on reservation land.
The race among Washington and Oregon locations is so wide open that the eventual winner may not even have arrived at the starting line yet.
“It would not be inconceivable that the ultimate choice would be a site that has not been identified,” said Drew Mahalic of the Oregon Sports Authority, a major-league sports booster group.
Most of the previously identified sites in Washington and Oregon did not match all the criteria of International Speedway Corp., the NASCAR-affiliated track developer. Most failed the grade because they were too far from Seattle or Portland or they posed I-5 access problems.
Earlier this year, ISC passed over sites in Bremerton, Monroe and Yelm. In Oregon, a site in Scappoose was deemed too rural, and one closer to Portland in Troutdale was not available.
“We’ll be looking to see if there is (a site) we missed that still fits the parameters,” Mahalic said.
The race began all over again on Monday when Marysville’s bid suddenly fell short. Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon and Marysville Mayor Dennis Kendall ended talks with ISC after the company refused to increase its initial offer of $50 million for the $250 million project. ISC balked because the site preparation costs came in too high.
Such failed negotiations are not unprecedented.
John Graham, vice president of business affairs for ISC, said, “Finding a site and arriving at financial arrangements in which all parties win is often a long and arduous process, and often leads us to different sites than the first sites.”
Chicagoland Speedway, for example, appeared to be headed for Plano, Ill., but late in the race Joliet offered a better deal. ISC and its partners opened that track in 2001.
Graham said no new site has yet emerged in the Northwest.
Snohomish County may be out of the race entirely since it probably wouldn’t be able to come up with a better site than the Marysville location south of Arlington Municipal Airport.
After the Marysville deal fell through, ISC officials called the Tulalip Tribes, said John McCoy, general manager of Quil Ceda Village and a state representative. “They did ask us about moving the location to the reservation,” McCoy said.
Tribal leaders rejected such an offer in 1996, and after some consideration rejected the most recent offer as well.
The only undeveloped Tulalip land big enough for a NASCAR track is the tribe’s forested conservation area, which covers its aquifer, McCoy said. “That was not a viable solution,” he said.
Still, tribal leaders supported the Marysville track project, and McCoy was upset that the negotiations were cut short. Besides helping plan the site’s environmental restoration, the tribes were considering contributing money to help ISC make a better offer, he said. They had not come up with any actual figures, though.
The tribe wanted to explore a number of options with ISC, McCoy said. “Then all of a sudden, the county and city pulled out.”
Monroe Mayor Donetta Walser tried unsuccessfully for months, starting a year ago, to land the track for her city. Walser was unavailable for comment, so it’s unclear whether she will renew the effort.
Last week, Reardon said one problem was that Monroe did not have a site with enough contiguous acres.
Two other sites in Washington also had problems.
Strong opposition to a proposal to build the track in Yelm made the Thurston County Economic Development Council cautious about taking on the project.
“I haven’t heard from ISC, and I certainly haven’t sought them out,” said Michael Cade, the group’s executive director, on Wednesday. “We’re in a kind of wait-and-see mode. My board hasn’t had an opportunity to meet yet, so we haven’t discussed whether this is something we want to reopen.
“If it’s not a good deal for Snohomish County, I can’t imagine that kind of deal would be good here,” he said.
The Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council had not heard from ISC yet, either, said David Porter, the group’s executive director.
“We still think we have an appropriate place to put a track” near Bremerton, he said. “We are interested in having discussions.”
The Bremerton proposal was never made public, but Porter said transporting large numbers of people to the track from Seattle on ferries was the biggest hurdle for ISC.
“That certainly kept coming up,” Porter said.
Graham said ISC will look at all sites, old and new, and won’t rule out reconsidering some of its criteria.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
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