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NASCAR Plaza at the Hall of Fame


redjeep77

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If I had the disposable income to not care how much it cost for me and someone else or it was heavily discounted, I would probably go and enjoy it. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a nice place to visit, but when I'm on a budget, Studio Movie Grille or the other museums, even more expensive White Water Center or Carowinds is more appealing. I just don't have the disposable income to be like "eh, I'll check out the HoF for my partner & I then maybe go watch a movie".

And I'm just saying that while I'm sure it's a nice museum, it sucks that Id imagine it doesn't draw too many field trips. Maybe it can be?

I've taken about 150 kids on a field trip to this museum for the past 4 years. This year's trip is in April. I doubt my school is the only one that goes.

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  • 5 months later...

Too expensive.  Every floor you go up in construction makes each floor under it more expensive to build.  They also would have had to plan for additional parking.  Those added costs would have made getting financing harder as well. 

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The placement of the convention center and NASCAR center together lends itself to empty, dead streets. I found it quite sad. At one point I found a little corridor by the convention center that had a wall covered fountains and greenery, empty of course.Those kind of spaces aren't cheap. The whole thing smells of bad business to me.

In the end, it's a gimmick.

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New businesses and residential areas shouldn't follow to support that silly NASCAR center. It's a failed business. 

Use what little space is remaining to try to create a memorable high quality urban space. Eliminate the parking craters, try to attract small (if not expensive) shops, and several different types of housing. Temper traffic a bit and give pedestrians a chance to enjoy the area without being run over. It's very possible. 

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New businesses and residential areas shouldn't follow to support that silly NASCAR center. It's a failed business. 

Use what little space is remaining to try to create a memorable high quality urban space. Eliminate the parking craters, try to attract small (if not expensive) shops, and several different types of housing. Temper traffic a bit and give pedestrians a chance to enjoy the area without being run over. It's very possible. 

Sure lets just advocate scuttling a huge monetary investment, instead of figuring out a way to fix and enhance it. Honestly if the Nascar Hall of Fame were in Daytona, I think it would be thriving. Its an excellent Museum, its just located in a town with 0 tourist draw.

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I think having a large open plaza can be an asset for the city in the future.  It's dead right now, but as the area grows more, it'll be nice to offer these kind of large spaces for events and such.  Even now, they utilize it for the skating rink the winter, and also use the large area to serve the Thunder Road Marathon (at least in previous years).  The Plaza at Wells Fargo can seem dead at times too, but it was packed with people this past weekend who were involved in the whole "National Dance Day" thing.  As the density inside uptown continues to increase, these types of spaces will become more and more valuable.

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Charlotte Agenda had a half-baked idea for the HOF plaza that is somewhat relevant to the thoughts on this thread.  In my mind, this idea would require minimal (relative) investment, while creating income -- although it takes a lot of beer to pay for a giant video board.  Now, I don't know who wants to watch games in a plaza, but maybe that's the half-baked part.

 http://www.charlotteagenda.com/6044/4-half-baked-ideas-to-take-charlotte-to-the-next-level-part-2/

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Turn the NASCAR Hall of Fame plaza into a “public” beer garden for local sports viewing.

Let’s face it; compared to expectations, the NASCAR Hall of Fame has been a failure. Half as many people have passed the turnstiles as expected. The city had to give the Hall of Fame about $5 million and its creditors forgave almost $18 million in loan interest and principal. Suffice it to say, NASCAR and its “Shrine to Itself” owe the city a favor.

So that’s why I say, in a show of good faith, NASCAR should pay to enlarge the screen that sits outside the NASCAR Hall of Fame to a mammoth outdoor TV (I’m thinking 150 ft x 40 ft should cut it) and designate the massive front patio as an outdoor beer garden. Then, show sporting events for Charlotte area teams on the big screen so that you can have a massive local crowd watching sports all at once. What I envision is those large outdoor parks that are set up for World Cup games, but for Panthers or Hornets games, or even a series where you watch Knights games.

The building as it stands now is virtually useless to the majority of new Charlotte residents who have no connection to NASCAR, so put it to work. It’s a cool space and fantastic location; the inside just isn’t the draw it was once thought to be. The only downside is we might rip a hole in the space/time continuum if that Prudential Commercial with the giant dominos that was filmed there is shown on the screen.

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The city had to renegotiate debt for that financial failure and throwing more money at that thing will not change it.

Giant, big 'too big to fail' boondoggles are not affordable for this city anymore.

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The building as it stands now is virtually useless to the majority of new Charlotte residents who have no connection to NASCAR

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So, this was only built for the locals who like NASCAR and all the new, more sophisticated transplants don't really even understand what this NASCAR thing is? I grew up here and I'm not a NASCAR fan, but that statement comes off as incredibly offensive. Aren't there NASCAR tracks in NH, NY, Ca and the like? Where do you think these newcomers are from that have NO connection to NASCAR? I would think they are just as likely to have a connection as not. NASCAR is a pretty popular sport.

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NASCAR's popularity has been declining for years. The tracks are removing seats, TV ratings are down, they've stopped releasing attendance numbers. I don't think it's far-fetched at all to say that most newcomers have no connection to NASCAR. Heck, I grew up in a family with NASCAR fans (I knew who the drivers were and could usually tell you who won a given race), and I'd say I have no connection to NASCAR except for memories of how bored I was when the TV was commandeered to watch Dale Earnhardt drive in a circle.

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NASCAR's popularity has been declining for years. The tracks are removing seats, TV ratings are down, they've stopped releasing attendance numbers. I don't think it's far-fetched at all to say that most newcomers have no connection to NASCAR. Heck, I grew up in a family with NASCAR fans (I knew who the drivers were and could usually tell you who won a given race), and I'd say I have no connection to NASCAR except for memories of how bored I was when the TV was commandeered to watch Dale Earnhardt drive in a circle.

As I said in my above post, I am not a fan either. I'm also not so insulated as to think that NASCAR attracts fans from all over the US. It's not too much of a logic stretch to realize that some of those people who move to Charlotte from other areas are also NASCAR fans. And, as to your point of NASCAR tracks removing seats, if I'm not mistaken, CMS is adding seats.

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Because two-ton cars, driving three-abreast at over 200 mph is boring.

I've never enjoyed it. As a kid, it was horrible. Hours and hours of people driving, when I could've been playing Legend of Zelda? Later I developed an appreciation for other forms of racing, but I still find NASCAR dull. Sports car and formula racing are more interesting -- although anything on a complex track is better than ovals.

And, as to your point of NASCAR tracks removing seats, if I'm not mistaken, CMS is adding seats.

Unless it has changed very recently, nope.

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  • 1 year later...
14 minutes ago, lewy2000 said:

Anyone heard any rumors that a certain MLM company based out of Concord is planning a move to Uptown, specifically this building?

Interesting if you are talking about ACN. They have a lot more space that what is available in NASCAR Plaza even with the Chiquita sublease which the Charlotte Observer took half of maybe the top execs? 

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