Our favorite Canadian Gear Head brings us NASCAR news from the Great White North
NASCAR is feeling the pinch in the US, so while the NHL looks for more and more ways to get out of Canada.. NASCAR is looking for a way in.
To steal a famous line from an equally famous movie, "If you build it they will come", I know it should be 'he' instead of 'they' but quit being picky - geesh.
This modified famous line is the exact thinking that some people are having around where I live, and I don't know if I should remind them of what has transpired in Kentucky these last few years.
If you remember, a NASCAR-style race track was built in Kentucky a few years ago under the premise "If you build it, they will come" with 'they' meaning NASCAR. Well NASCAR came, but they never brought their number one series with them and the powers that be at the race track decided to try to sue NASCAR into bringing a Cup race there and the suit is still in the courts. Although, I don't think the track owners have a leg to stand on there, NASCAR never promised a race to them.
Well someone else is building a NASCAR-style track just a short drive away from the Great White North, though no promise from NASCAR that they will come once it is built. They are only going on the statement issued by some NASCAR official a while back that they want to hold a top-tier race in Canada.
O.k. what exactly is top-tier? Nationwide? Craftsmen Truck? Sprint Cup? I would consider all of them to be top-tier compared to other racing series, but I digress.
Anyway, the track will be located just outside of Niagara Falls in the community of Fort Erie. There is great highway access and it is a short drive to Buffalo - approx. 20 minutes.
The proposed track would seat 65,000 to begin with and would be expanded to 100,000 if NASCAR came. The $200 million (est) 1-mile oval (with a 2+ road course in the infield) is being built to NASCAR specifications and would employ about 1,200 people to build it. The track would then require about 120 full-time employees to operate it throughout the year and would generate about $35 million in new tax revenue. I'm unclear what percentages of that would be Federal and Provincial though.
Where is the initial $200 million investment coming from? Good question. Kuwait. The Kuwaiti Islamic investment bank Bayt Al Mal Investments to be exact. In fact representatives from both the Provincial and Municipal governments went to Dubai to finalize the deal.
I'm glad they are building a NASCAR-style track here, and I hope NASCAR comes with its Cup series in tow but the way the current NASACAR schedule is they'll need snow tires to run here because the only weekends open on the racing calender are in December and January.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a Cup race in my own backyard, but just because we have a NASCAR-style track doesn't mean NASCAR is coming, but this is a bit of a Catch-22 too because I also feel that if we don't have a track already built then NASCAR certainly will not come. Damned if you do and damned if you don't I guess.
