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Purchase raises worries that race might shift out of New Hampshire
By Michael Smith Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Published on Sunday, Nov 25, 2007
Bruton Smith admits that, at $340 million in cash, he might have overpaid for New Hampshire International Speedway and its two Nextel Cup races.
''Maybe I did pay too much,'' Smith said. ''I wouldn't disagree. But there were four or five other entities that wanted it. I'd prefer that it ended up the way it did.''
Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., now must determine how he's going to make his money back, which to a large degree could determine whether NHIS keeps its two Nextel Cup dates or one shifts to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, an SMI track Smith calls the greatest in the world. Las Vegas currently hosts one Cup date.
In the days after the Nov. 2 announcement, Smith was noncommittal about his plans for NHIS, while others in the sport were convinced he had made the acquisition only to get a second date for Las Vegas, where he has spent an estimated $120 million over the past few years to make over the track.
''Bruton is a lot brighter than I'll ever be, but he'd be foolish to move a race from here,'' said Bob Bahre, who sold NHIS to Smith. ''If he wants another one in Las Vegas, he ought to take it from Atlanta (another SMI track). That place never sells out.''
The specter of taking a Cup date out of New England has generated considerable hand-wringing from those who are concerned about the sport's stagnant attendance and sagging TV ratings. The rub with such a decision is whether NASCAR can afford to take a highly popular race out of the populous Northeast, where the sanctioning body has so much room for fan growth.
The track serves the Boston market, which is 89 miles away, as well as a motorsports-hungry part of the country that's known for its short-track racing. Since NASCAR decided to take its Cup series to NHIS in 1993, the speedway has filled its grandstands (101,000) every event.
''Familiarity breeds fans,'' said Dennis McAlpine, a financial analyst. ''If the fans up there don't see racing as often, NASCAR's not going to get nearly as much attention from the fans and companies in the Northeast, and there's a lot of them. . . . NASCAR should not let them move a race out of the Boston area.''
As Smith examines ways to increase revenue from this acquisition, raising ticket prices might not be an attractive option. Grandstand tickets to NHIS Cup races range from $60 to $110, putting them in the upper echelon of NASCAR.
Moving a date to Las Vegas, which has about 40,000 more seats and more robust corporate sponsorships, represents the quickest revenue solution.
If Las Vegas acquired a date in the Chase between September and November, however, it might threaten Cup races at California and Phoenix, which also hold races during that period. Two-thirds of the fans at Las Vegas' spring race come from out of town.
Speculation has centered on shifting New Hampshire's September date to Las Vegas and then swapping that with the November date at Texas Motor Speedway. That would put Texas in the leadoff position for the Chase and the second Las Vegas race would fall in November, the week before Phoenix. New Hampshire would be left with a single date in late June or early July. The other option would be to insert Las Vegas as the first Chase race.
Moving a race date from one track to another within an ownership group is not uncommon, although NASCAR must approve. One NASCAR official said he couldn't remember a request that had been denied.
Moves in the past decade or so, though, have taken dates from small-market tracks in Rockingham, N.C., and Darlington, S.C., to larger markets in Texas and California. A move from New Hampshire, which counts the Boston market as its base, would mean a shift from the No. 7 television market to Las Vegas at No. 43.
Bruton Smith admits that, at $340 million in cash, he might have overpaid for New Hampshire International Speedway and its two Nextel Cup races.
Get the full article here.
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