JOLIET, Ill. – Don’t give away the farm.
That’s the advice Joliet residents and community leaders have for Marysville and Snohomish County, which are competing against other Northwest areas for a NASCAR racetrack.
Some folks in Joliet say if they had to do it over again, they would make sure they got more tax money. They warned Snohomish County leaders not to fall for the economic hype and not to give too many tax breaks to lure the track.
Others insist that without the tax breaks, Joliet wouldn’t have landed the track.
Joliet has the following advice for communities considering a NASCAR track:
Financing a racetrack
Many people recommended taking a tougher negotiating stance with the International Speedway Corp., which is part-owner of Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet and would be the exclusive owner of a track in the Pacific Northwest.
Joliet beat out other communities by offering International Speedway deep reductions in property taxes for 10 years. Also, public entities do not get any percentage of the ticket prices in Joliet, which range from $195 for grandstand seating to $2,150 for luxury camping spots.
“I hope your city, your township and your county, they all better make sure they get a big cut,” said Joyce Marino, who lives one-eighth of a mile from the track and has been a key opponent.
“Our county officials were stupid. You guys should say, ‘We want a dollar a head.’ “
Others agreed.
“I wish we could have gone into the negotiating to get a portion of the tickets, even 50 cents or $1,” said Arlene Albert, president of the Joliet Township High School District.
Despite the tax breaks, Joliet earns almost $203,000 a year in sales taxes and schools get about $70,000 annually in property taxes from the $130 million track.
Pat McGuire, another school board member, said cities in the Northwest might have more bargaining leverage than they think when dealing with NASCAR folks.
If the location is good, “it’s not a deal maker or a deal breaker” if such generous tax breaks are given, McGuire said.
But racing fans in other nearby areas that lost out in the speedway race to Joliet disagreed.
Roger Fuhrman, who lives near Plano, about 30 miles away, said that area was left out of the running because it did not offer as much as Joliet.
“The city of Joliet had the right government in place,” Fuhrman said. “It’s been a big boost to the economy. People out in Plano, I don’t think they know what they’re missing.”
John Mezera, Joliet’s city manager, said giving the tax breaks was important, but Washington state law prohibits that kind of deal here. Instead, Marysville’s proposal would use bond money to build the track, and sales taxes from the track would pay off the bond.
Mezera urged Snohomish County leaders to make sure taxpayers aren’t ultimately responsible for paying for the $300 million track.
“Go for it,” he said. “Don’t pay for it, and don’t be on the hook for it.”
Nextel Cup is key
Before a NASCAR is made, Marysville must make sure it is guaranteed a Nextel Cup race, said Timothy Sullivan, an economics instructor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
The Nextel Cup practically guarantees NASCAR’s top cars and drivers will be there, and celebrity status is key to the success of the sport.
Sullivan has done a variety of sports-related economic impact studies, including one for Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. Gateway was built in 1999 with hopes of landing NASCAR’s big Nextel Cup, but it never happened. The Nextel schedule has no more open weekends, and new tracks only get the race if NASCAR takes it from some other track.
“They’re at a point where they have to cannibalize themselves,” Sullivan said of NASCAR.
The St. Louis-area track has had to rely on less popular racing series, and has struggled economically. That’s because many minor-league sports don’t attract money from outside their metropolitan areas, he said.
“If you get the Cup race, it’ll bring in outside money,” Sullivan said. “If you don’t, it’s another sporting event with relatively little economic impact.”
Gateway’s scenario is not likely to happen in Marysville, because while the St. Louis track is not owned by the NASCAR-affiliated International Speedway, a track here would be.
Route traffic correctly
Deputy Chief Fred Hayes of the Joliet Police Department said traffic doesn’t have to be a nightmare on NASCAR weekends.
He listed tips in developing a traffic plan:
* “Don’t charge for parking. You can’t take the money fast enough. You just can’t.”
* Track ZIP codes of ticket buyers to anticipate the heaviest traffic patterns.
* With race tickets, include maps with preferred routes for fans to take.
* Steer cars to preferred roads first. When those fill up, swing traffic to alternate routes. Block back-road shortcuts.
* Chicagoland Speedway, which is three miles from Interstate 80, is a good distance, Hayes said, because it gives room on several roads in between to back up cars before the interstate is affected. Marysville’s more residential site one mile from I-5 would be more challenging, he said.
Communicate well
Open communication between track officials and neighbors is important.
That didn’t happen at first in Joliet. City officials approved the track in about a month, catching residents off-guard.
Some neighbors are still miffed. “To me, that was wrong,” said Ken Smith, who lives next to the track.
Hiring track manager Joie Chitwood during the construction process helped, said Joyce Marino, one of Smith’s neighbors. “That man, whatever he said held up,” she said.
Chitwood met with neighbors monthly, maintaining a list of complaints.
“He really turned the reputation of the operation around with the neighbors,” said another neighbor of the track, Mary Bernhard.
Still, problems developed. Track employees dug drainage channels from the parking area through neighbors’ back yards, which flooded during big storms.
“We had corncobs and soot flooding into our back yard,” Marino said.
Track officials paid the neighbors $15 an hour to clean up the messes on their own properties, she said.
Her neighbor Tod Masters, a NASCAR fan, said one homeowner’s basement flooded. “I don’t think he got restitution like he should have,” he said.
John Greuling, president of the Will County Center for Economic Development, also recommended having good relations between the community and the track – but from a different perspective.
“Get close to the ownership group,” he said. “You don’t want the racetrack not to feel involved in the community.”
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@ heraldnet.com.
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