On a final note....... Back the Track!

This entire process of blogging has been quite interesting. I have found myself becoming more passionate about getting a track built in Washington through doing this blog. After researching this topic it just makes since to put a track in Washington State. It is the only major market without a track. Washington State needs an economic boost and yet the annual income of Washington residents is high. With the Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Sonics, and Seattle Mariners the state is filled with die hard sports fans.


The state is also filled with tons of local race tracks, so racing is not foreign to citizens in Washington. Two of NASCAR's biggest stars hail from the state (Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle).
It would be beneficial to voters in Kitsap county. The track would bring in more tourism from California, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia. I could go on and on about the facts, but the reality it is right behind the NFL with the largest fan base and its facilities hold more people than a NFL stadium and each track is always packed.

Washington needs a track, Washington deserves a track, that is why I hope voters and representatives say yes and back the track.

Greg Biffle Wins Final Race at Homestead

Washington native Greg Biffle won the final race at Homestead in Miami. This is his third straight win at Homestead. Rookie Martin Truex Jr. finished a close second. Jimmy Johnson clinched his first championship. As the season ends at such a fun track, racing at night, fireworks going off and plenty of fan fair to entertain, it brings me back to why I really want a track built in Washington State.

I believe with the amount of die hard sports fans in Washington in combination with the excitement of racing, a track in Washington will be a truly unique sight. I have talked about the economic impact, the pros and cons, I have defended fans being in Washington State and now I just want to evoke my emotion behind how exciting it would be to have a NASCAR track in the state I love. There needs to be a track in Washington State!

The Season is over: # 48 team wins the Championship

With the 2006 NASCAR season coming to a close this past weekend, I think it will be important to keep NASCAR in the publics mind over the off season. Jimmy Johnson and the #48 team finally won their championship after four years of being close. Jimmy Johnson is origionally from Orange County so his victory should make plenty of Californians very proud. NASCAR starts their two month vacation. The sport will return with the Daytona 500 in February. This is their biggest race of the year. While NASCAR is on their two month vacation, I will have plenty of time to come up with more persuative material for all the publics involved in determining if a track will be built in Washington State. I am remaining positive about the possiblities of a track being built. ISC returns in Janurary to talk again to the State about moving forward with building a track. But, until then I will remain hopeful

In the Spotlight: Some Great Foundations !

After the last post I just wanted to give some extra attention to couple of Foundations I love. The first one comes from another Washington State native Greg Biffle.

The Greg Biffle Foundation for Animals was founded in 2005 by Greg Biffle and Nicole Lunders to create awareness and serve as an advocate to improve the well-being of animals by engaging the power and passion of the motorsports industry. The foundation donates to local Humane Societies, no-kill animal shelters, spay and neuter clinics and the Animal Adoption League. Every year they produce a NASCAR PETS calendar with the proceeds helping to fullfill their mission to help animals. If you would like a calendar you can purchase one at http://www.gregbifflefoundation.com/.


Another popular Foundation is the Victory Juncion Gang Camp.The Victory Junction Gang Camp enriches the lives of children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses by providing life-changing camping experiences that are exciting, fun, and empowering, in a safe and medically sound environment.

Drivers Giving back to the Community

At the race this weekend Kasey Kahne brought down a couple kids from Washington State that participated in his Kasey's Juniors program at a local racetrack in Washington State.

HOW MANY KIDS DO YOU BRING DOWN FOR THIS RACE ? "We bring a couple down. Its a deal,Kasey's Juniors. The race track I started racing at is a mini sprint track in Washington. Kids under 16 race there. Last year there was like 20 of them. This year its 30 something that raced. We do a deal with the sportsmanship award. I pay for a lot of their race weekends to help the families out. The sportsmanship award and the kid that wins the points for the season come down to this race with their families. My dad always sets that up. He goes up to that track a couple times a year and hangs out with them and takes pictures."

Kasey is a perfect example of how all the NASCAR drivers give back to their community. NASCAR has its own foundation that supports a varietyof foundations including the Make A Wish Foundation, Dale Earnhardt Foundation, Dale Jarrett Foundation, Ernie Irvan Race2Safety Foundation,The Green Foundation ,The Greg Biffle Foundation ,Hendrick Marrow Program ,The Jeff Gordon Foundation, Jimmie Johnson Foundation,Racing for Literacy,All-American Soap Box Derby,Speedway Children's Charities, and the Victory Juncion Gang Camp, and the list goes on and on.

Elections: Democracy

Last week was elections of course and as a voter in Washington State I am thinking of removing my voting rights. There were a couple of propositions that got passed that got me emotional. Proposition 937 requires that our energy corporations buy 15% of our energy supply from wind power which is fine except for now California is going to buy are cheap hydro power from us because we can no longer use it, because this proposition got past. Now lets talk about 933 which rolls back county state regulations which would be beneficial to tax payers on the Eastside but instead it didn't pass.

One thing I am happy to see is a proposition that would of gave Seattle the right to use tax payer money for the new Seattle Sonics Arena without the public vote. I think it is important to have the publics vote in passing a sports facility, when their tax money is being used.I don't want to see the track passed without voter approval. This is a democracy.

Who are NASCAR FANS???????

It is interesting to be a fan of NASCAR and realize that I don't fit the stereotype for a NASCAR fan and therefore I am always answering questions. I grew up in the Northwest, I currently live in Southern California. So, therefore I am not from the south, I am not a redneck(at least I don't think so). Oh, yeah and I am not a middle aged beer drinking man.

This thought led me to a study conducted in 2004 on NASCAR fans. The research was done by the NASCAR marketing department to find out if they were expanding their market. I know that the NASCAR stereotype is ridiculous because NASCAR has really reached a wide range of people in the United States. It is currently the premier racing organization in the United States surpassing IRL and Champ Car. I consider myself to be well versed on the NASCAR market but, I have to say these results even surpassed by perspective on the sport. When this study was conducted the researchers expected for the market to expand even more. I can only assume this has occurred in the last two years as the popularity has continued to increase.

Average Household Income for NASCAR fans is $68,267.00

AGE DEMOGRAPHICS
11% of NASCAR fans are age 18-24;
21% of NASCAR fans are age 25-34;
26% of NASCAR fans are age 35-44;
19% of NASCAR fans are age 45-54;
15% of NASCAR fans are age 55-64
9% of NASCAR fans are 65 or older.
GENDER
59% Male, 41% Female
MARRIED/SINGLE
60.6% of all NASCAR fans are married.
ETHNIC 24.5% of NASCAR fans are African American
9.0% of NASCAR fans are Hispanic
66.5 % of NASCAR fans are Caucasian
EDUCATION 60% of NASCAR fans have some college education.

NASCAR is a Lifestyle

What makes Washington State such a prospect for a NASCAR track is it holds Seattle one of the top ten media markets in the United States. Portland and Seattle are the only two cities not reached by NASCAR. The track in Washington State would cover that void as it would only be a couple hours from Seattle and five from Portland. The benefit to the economy is that most people travel and stay near the track or at the track for a four day period. This would boost the economy with 250,000 people attending the track like in Texas, that's a large amount of people needing somewhere to eat, sleep and have some fun... (wink, wink).

Unlike other sports NASCAR is a four day weekend almost like a concert at the George. Every race weekend is comparable to the economic impact of the Superbowl (the biggest sporting event of the year). NASCAR runs 36 weekend out of the year. From February to November. In addition to the NASCAR events. Each track has weekend local racing events year round.

HELLO TEXAS

BEST WEEK EVER: JOE GIBBS


This weekend NASCAR raced in Texas. Tony Stewart won the Nextel Cup race making it his second win in a row. I would also like to mention it was Terry Labonte's final race after 29 years of racing, and Texas Motor Speedway went all out in order to salute him in his final race. The track was sold out. 250,000 people showed up and thousands of people like I were watching it on TV.

Speaking of TV I would like to express how excited I am that NBC will no longer be covering NASCAR. NBC has the worst sports coverage by far in my opinion. They have way to many commercials and I know that is odd considering I am in Advertising. But, they go to commercial at the most inappropriate times and then when they come back from break they don't even update you on what happened. Luckly NBC has only covered these lastsixteen races because I have never yelled at the TV so much, and NASCAR has a very long season. I even decided well let me watch football on NBC maybe they just don't know how to cover racing like FOX,ESPN and ABC. I was trying to be optimistic but, then again I say " NBC has the worst sports coverage."

Ok, Back to my point about TEXAS. I mention them because they are owned by ISC and have a similar track to the one being proposed in Washington State. This race was fun to watch as the drivers were going near 190 mph. There has been a different winner at almost every race there since the track opened ten years ago. Washington native Kasey Kahne dominated in the spring race and was running competitive all day against Stewart until his engine blew with 7 laps to go.

TEXAS hasn't been a track I normally get pumped up for but, I have to say they put on quite a show and everyone there seemed to be having a blast. On a final note I have to say thanks to Texas for a great race. Oh, I got kinda a fun fact for sports fans. Tony Stewart who won the race is the veteran driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. Joe Gibbs is the coach for the Washington Redskins. On sunday the Redskins beat the Cowboys and Joe Gibbs racing also took home the NASCAR trophy. So who's had the "BEST WEEK EVER" JOE GIBBS.

Protecting the Community

ISC the company that wants to build a NASCAR race track in Washington State has built several of the most successful tracks in America. Some of the tracks included Daytona Speedway as well as their most recent tracks in Kansas. In every community where they build a track ISC puts effort into the environment and local community surrounding the track.ISC recognizes that a clean, safe, and healthy environment is critical to the well being of their employees, customers, guests, and other persons in the communities where our facilities are located example, Safety-Klein handles disposal and recycling of petroleum-based materials and other race-related wastes at all our facilities. They also have several partnerships with companies like Waste Management and Sweeping Corp. of America to conduct waste removal and recycling at our facilities. Sunoco, as the official fuel of NASCAR, maintains and monitors their underground fuel tanks at our facilities in full compliance with government regulations. And NASCAR has announced a shift to unleaded fuel in the near future.
In addition to pre- and post-event clean-up, they implement environmentally friendly initiatives throughout our portfolio of facilities including:
- The upkeep and enhancement of federally protected wetlands areas at our facilities in Michigan and Darlington.- Richmond International Raceway's maintenance team conducts a monthly clean up of local neighborhood roads, mostly near Richmond Henrico Turnpike, to "beautify the neighborhood."- California Speedway hosts several community events annually to recycle such items like gas-powered mowers for electric and older toilets for new low-flo environmentally friendly toilets. The old toilets are recycled - crushed and used as road base. Finally, the facility is a drop off point for proper disposal of old televisions, computer monitors, etc.

Flaws in the Survey

As I stated before I recently came across a site called C.H.E.C.K. this group is against a track being built in Kitsap County.They recently conducted a survey in Kitsap where only 46% of the 300 people they surveyed were for the track. When I read over the way the survey was conducted I was very suspect of the survey and it seems their were others who were too. The way the survey results are presented by C.H.E.C.K. make it appear as if voters in Kitsap are against the track, when not a large enough section of the county was surveyed. The most vital information for why the survey should be thrown out is the financing proposal on the survey was incorrect. I think this shows absolute irresponsibility because the finacial proposal for the track has been available since early 2006.The following are Grant Lynch's response to the survey.He is the President of GWS.
"We are very pleased with the recently released results of the Kitsap County NASCAR Survey. Despite some inaccurate characterizations of our financing proposal, county residents demonstrated a strong level of support for the development of a motorsports and multi-use recreational facility south of the Bremerton Airport. In fact, 46 percent of respondents stated they were in favor of the project.
“However, we were disappointed that the survey included questions that inaccurately characterized our financing proposal. Our plan was positioned as being 'similar to the way that other facilities in the state have been financed' when in fact, our financing proposal is unlike any other public/private partnership presented to the state. First, the survey failed to mention GWS’ $166 million investment - the single largest private investment for a sports facility in the state’s history. Second, our financing proposal will not create new taxes, nor will it raise current taxes. Finally, and the most significant difference, out-of-state tourists and visitors to the facility during race events will generate the necessary revenue to help finance the part of the construction not being paid for by GWS. Also, revenue generated by the spending of out-of-state race fans will be captured across Washington state, not just in Kitsap County, and will be applied to construction.
“Despite the inaccuracies, the results of the survey demonstrate that residents recognize and value the significant potential economic benefit of our project. In addition, results from Kitsap County’s 2006 Citizen’s Satisfaction Survey showed that 64% of residents believed the revenue from a motorsports and multi-use recreational facility would be a major benefit to the county. In fact, the facility could generate over $4 billion in economic benefit to Washington, including $1.1 billion to Kitsap County and thousands of jobs. Moreover, tourists will attend races, spend money locally and stay to visit attractions throughout the region.
“We are very encouraged by the survey results as well as by the very positive feedback we have received at the numerous community events which we have attended in recent weeks. In fact, we have collected over 17,500 petitions in support of our project to date. We are thankful to the local communities for allowing us to take part in their events including the quicksilver Hydroplane races, the Kitsap County Fair and the Bremerton Blackberry Festival. Some of these events have a long-standing tradition in the community and we are proud to have been a part of them.

Kasey Kahne Backs the Track

Kasey Kahne Driver of the #9 Dodge is a native of Washington State and is currently competing for the Championship title in the NEXTEL CUP SERIES. The frenzy surrounding Kahne began early in the Washington state native's life. In 1994 he won four Micro-Midget events racing a car prepared by his father. In '96 he won 11 of 14 Mini-Sprint events to win both the Hannigan (Wash.) Speedway and Northwest Mini-Sprints championships. Kasey has won six races this year, the most recent win came at the Charlotte race two weeks ago. This weekends race is at Atlanta Speedway where Kasey captured the spring 2006 race and is predicted to repeat.

The City of Enumclaw, the Enumclaw Chamber of Commerce, and Allstate Insurance co-sponsored a celebration in honor of one of Enumclaw's favorite sons - Kasey Kahne, 2004 NASCAR Rookie of the Year and Winner of the 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Race at Richmond International Raceway. Kahne is another supporter of the track, Kahne believes Washington State would be a perfect place to host a summer race.

Publics for a NASCAR track in Washington State

C.H.E.C.K, the group I was talking about in a previous blog that is against the track because they believe that it will not improve the economy in Kitsap and Washington State. My question to C.H.E.C.K. is if your statement is true how come the experts on economic growth in Kitsap County and Washington State are for the track? The following are a list of press releases from several publics stating their support for the track. Primarily because of the economic impact on Washington State. Might I add these are only a selected few, there are plenty more.

July 18, 2006
ISC proposal to WA. Legislators went favorable for Speedway: A pair of South Sound congressmen have added their support to a Florida company’s proposal to build the Northwest’s first NASCAR speedway. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, told a group of state lawmakers Wednesday that he and Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, would push for federal money to help pay for transportation and other improvements associated with the possible $345 million track in rural Kitsap County. Smith said the proposal from International Speedway Corp. could finally provide the region with a major sports tourism draw somewhere other than King County. And more importantly, he said, it would generate more out-of-state tourism dollars than Safeco Field, Qwest Field or any other sports venue in the state. “It could really help us grow in the South Sound region,” Smith said during a meeting with legislators at the Port of Seattle headquarters. ISC representatives and local officials, including Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, spoke about the benefits a racetrack could bring to Washington. (News Tribune)

June 1, 2006
The Master Builders Association (MBA) of Pierce County has endorsed the proposed NASCAR racetrack in the Bremerton area, according to a statement released today. “The economic benefit that will be enjoyed by both Kitsap and Pierce Counties from the racetrack and associated business growth is great,” stated MBA President Todd Lord. “Pierce County will also enjoy the synergy between the LeMay car museum and the racetrack -- the sum could be greater than the parts.” The MBA of Pierce County is a non-profit trade association comprised of more than 950 builder and associate member companies employing over 10,000 people in Pierce County. (Daily Index)

Jan. 20 2006
Add the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce to the list of business groups supporting a plan to build a speedway in Kitsap County. The chamber issued a written endorsement Tuesday speculating that race fans would spend a lot of money locally, that the proposed financing package would not cost local taxpayers additional funds and that the facility could be used for other purposes. "We see the potential for use by the Scouts, youth groups, car clubs, camping groups, equestrians and more," Chamber board president Gene Straw said in a press release. "It will bring people into our area from all interest groups and allow us to showcase the best aspects of life in the Northwest." International Speedway Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary Great Western Sports, proposes a $345 million NASCAR-style speedway on 950 acres near Bremerton National Airport. The Silverdale chamber's announcement continues a trend of business organizations that are offering support for the plan. The Bremerton, Port Orchard and Shelton chambers, the Kitsap Peninsula Visitor & Convention Bureau and the Kitsap Economic Development Council all offered earlier endorsements.

Dec 10, 2005
Tourism Bureau supports speedway: Acknowledging the tourism benefits of NASCAR, Kitsap Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau became the first organization to officially endorse a plan to build a major motor speedway in South Kitsap. Given the information currently available, there is no question that the tourism industry will benefit from the track, which International Speedway Corp. proposes to build.

NEW YORK : The Competition

I was searching on the internet and I came across an article about a proposed track in Statan Island, NEW YORK. I had heard some rumors about it but wasn't sure if it was seriously being considered. There is currently a road course NASCAR races at in NEW YORK but nothing like the track being proposed. The track would be the largest sports facility in NEW YORK.Near the racetrack would be a new mall and apartments. I found this article from the Gotham Gazette. Even though New York is on the other side of the country, they are faced with similar problems in getting a track built. Plus, they are a threat, ISC is less likely to build a track in Washington State right away if a track gets passed in NEW YORK first.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/landuse/20050614/12/1442

Build a Track and They Will Come and Bring money! Well that depends on who you ask!

I was researching publics who were against a track being built in Washington State and I came across a group called C.H.E.C.K. ( Coalition for Healthy Economic choices for Kitsap). There quote "evidence" for why they don't support the track got me fired up not just because I am a race fan but because I am also a voter! So after examining their website I went on to find publics that support the track in order to lift my spirits back up. I found an article that talks about the Lt. Gov of Kitsap and his views on bringing a track to Washington. The following are some quotes from the interview.

Lt. Gov. Owen, who lives in nearby Shelton off Route 3, said he is a supporter of bringing NASCAR to Washington, not because he is a racing fan but because of the projected economic impact.
"I've always felt that the track was a tremendous economic opportunity for the state that would be foolish to pass up," Owen said.
Economic development agencies throughout the region have competed in efforts to lure the track, which could generate $87.3 million to $121.8 million in business a year, mostly from out-of-state tourists, according to a study commissioned by supporters.
ISC owns most of its 11 tracks outright, but the proposed track near Marysville would have been publicly owned and leased to the company for three car races a year -- the same number contemplated at the Bremerton National site.
Company officials said a similar partnership is part of the new plan.
ISC officials said they were eager to build a racetrack in the Pacific Northwest, which now has at least 11,000 ticket-buying fans, because the Southeast market is well-saturated and the nearest West Coast track is in Sonoma, Calif., about 40 miles north of San Francisco, Lynch said.
"When you look at the map, there's basically a quarter of the country that we're not serving," Lynch said.