Taxpayers would help finance more than half
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Taxpayers would finance more than half the cost of a new NASCAR racetrack in Western Washington under a financing plan released Wednesday.
The track, which would be located in southern Kitsap County near the Bremerton airport, would cost about $345 million. It could hold more than 83,000 people, and would open in 2010.
Florida-based International Speedway Corp., the nation's largest owner and operator of such racetracks, would pay $166 million for the project. The remaining $179 million would come from tax-financed bonds.
Grant Lynch, a company vice president, called the proposal "historic."
"It's the most balanced public-private partnership proposal for a stadium complex that's ever been proposed to the state," he told The Associated Press.
The racetrack plan still must earn the blessing of state legislators, who return to Olympia early next year.
Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, chairwoman of the Senate's budget committee, said she hasn't sensed much support for the proposal from constituents or other lawmakers.
"For us to even be seriously considering it there would have to be a groundswell of support," Prentice said. "We're barely coming out of the economic doldrums, and we just need to be very careful about what we're doing with what we've got."
The company's plan would create a new public stadium authority to issue bonds for the project.
Some $166 million in debt would be repaid by diverting a portion of state sales tax collections over 25 years. The remaining $13 million would come from a special admissions tax on the racetrack.
The company would commit to bringing two major racing events to the track annually for 25 years, working to make one of them a NASCAR Nextel Cup race.
State Treasurer Mike Murphy is a vocal critic, questioning the value of using public money to pay for a private enterprise. Murphy also has said he is unsure about projections for how much money the track would generate.
Speedway Corp. officials, however, maintain the track could leave the state's general fund with a $43 million cushion from new tax revenue over 25 years.
The company's biggest commitment, Lynch said, is the company's pledge of $166 million in stockholders' money.
"We're not going to do that if we can't deliver on making the thing a success," he said.
Skeptics also have questioned whether the proposed Kitsap County location could handle heavy race-day traffic.
The company's proposal says a new Tacoma Narrows bridge -- under construction -- and ferry service could help shuttle fans to the site, and proposed improvements to local surface roads would help as well.
Speedway Corp. officials also said they plan to use about 500 buses to bring fans from park-and-ride lots to the track.
Prentice, however, said she doubts rosy projections about traffic flow to the stadium. The company's proposal for moving people across Puget Sound, she said, "just shows they haven't lived here.
"Just the location for it presents an insurmountable obstacle, and I can't believe they haven't thought this through," Prentice said.
Wednesday's announcement followed an abandoned bid last year to build a NASCAR track along Interstate 5 near Marysville.
Under that plan, the company pledged to spend $50 million in exchange for $200 million in public financing.
Local leaders withdrew from negotiations in November 2004, saying the project posed too great a financial risk for taxpayers.
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press
