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NASCAR Hall of Fame


cityboi

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The Daytona 500 is on Feb 19. Any announcement on the HOF that weekend would obviously be that they have chosen Daytona, so let's hold our breath that we get thru that weekend without an announcement! On the up side, I think if we do get past the 500 weekend, that bodes well for either Charlotte or Atlanta getting the HOF.

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The AJC has an interesting article about the Hall of Fame in it's business section today. It mentions the new GA Aquarium has a "leg up" for Atlanta, but says that France said Charlotte has two advantages over Atlanta: secure funding and plenty of nearby Nascar drivers/headquarters for their annual "red carpet" thing.

Check it out online at ajc.com for the full article. quite interesting.

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The AJC has an interesting article about the Hall of Fame in it's business section today. It mentions the new GA Aquarium has a "leg up" for Atlanta, but says that France said Charlotte has two advantages over Atlanta: secure funding and plenty of nearby Nascar drivers/headquarters for their annual "red carpet" thing.

Check it out online at ajc.com for the full article. quite interesting.

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I am getting a bad feeling about this one--I really hope I am wrong but......NASCAR originally said they would make a decision by the end of last year, then they delayed their decision til the "1st quarter of the year" (seems like an odd somewhat specific date to choose unless you are wanting to coincide with the DT500 race--why not just say the decision would be delayed til sometime in "early 2006"?), they have a sell-out crowd of 200,000 fans and 35 million more watching on NBC---and we all know how much NASCAR loves a "show"...not to mention the fact that the Frances (with all their Daytona connections) are on the board making the decision---so watch the start of the race that day, and hold your breath that we don't see a NASCAR official stepping up to the mike before they drop the checkered flag.

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oh and I forgot to mention they got Bon Jovi there too! (DT is looking for 1700 extras to pose as "fans" for the show if you're interested in being a groupie--check out their website)

also--apparently others are sensing something might be in the works for a Feb 19th announcement too-let's just hope this is just a lot of Daytona boosterism...see this article:

http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/sto.../06/story2.html

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Another article from the AJC today about Brian France's visit to Atlanta on Wednesday for a conference. He also took a tour of the new aquarium with Bernie Marcus where talks about the hof appaerently took place..

The right place for the NASCAR shrine is Atlanta, NASCAR Chief Executive Brian France told Georgia Aquarium benefactor Bernie Marcus during a walk through the city's new fish tank Wednesday. But Charlotte, Atlanta's chief rival in the hall of fame heat, has more guaranteed money on the table, Marcus told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

"If they felt comfortable with the finances, everything would point for them coming to Atlanta," Marcus said of his conversation with France. "He's got much more on the table right now from Charlotte. What he has from Atlanta is not firm. It's all promises."

Money race on for NASCAR hall

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Another article from the AJC today about Brian France's visit to Atlanta on Wednesday for a conference. He also took a tour of the new aquarium with Bernie Marcus where talks about the hof appaerently took place..

Money race on for NASCAR hall

Sounds like it will be Atlanta that gets the HOF, unless politics get in the way. I've reached a state of ambivalence about this. If we got it, great. If not, I think it would make the arts package much more palatable. When you think of the arts package we'd be getting so much more in the way of variety than the HOF.

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Sounds like it will be Atlanta that gets the HOF, unless politics get in the way. I've reached a state of ambivalence about this. If we got it, great. If not, I think it would make the arts package much more palatable. When you think of the arts package we'd be getting so much more in the way of variety than the HOF.

I don't think Atlanta will get the HOF based on demographics. Atlanta's population is dominatly African American and doesn't have that large of a fan base within the city. NASCAR is really pushing diversity right now and my personal opinion is that Atlanta is still in the race only as diversity vehicle. I think when its over Charlotte will have the HOF. As for Daytona, they already have a NASCAR Museum and I that could be taken into consideration, It makes sense to spread things out. I don't know just my opinion on the matter.

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I don't think that argument carries a lot of weight. Charlotte is pretty racially balanced. (It might even be a "majority-minority" if you were to just forget Bill Jones' district, and look only within the 485 ring.)

Atlanta is in the running because they want it... and they have population, media, money... and their legistlaure is behind them.

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Indeed. I don't think this is an issue of what the local population will support, but rather how much support will get get from a national level. Would putting it in Atlanta over Charlotte help that? I don't know. Personally I don't think anything placed in downtown ATL is going to benefit much from being in downtown ATL. To the outsider, the kind that Nascar would want to attract to this place, Atlanta has a reputation of being crime ridden and dangerous. I'm not saying this is the case, but that is the prevailing opinion amongst many who don't live there. They would be better served placing it at the intersection of I-75 and I-285 given the dynamics of that place.

I think we are in a period now of the France family working the cities against each other for the best money deal. The offer on the table right now is in Charlotte's favor and it's pretty obvious to me they went to ATL and threw the gauntlet down and said "put up or lose out to CLT". The question will be, will CLT up the offer if that happens. I hope they do as a museum such as this will go a long way towards adding a bit of much needed diversity of entertainment options to downtown.

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How much money did we acquire (incentives) for this place? I know about Charlotte's incentives but how much did the State of North Carolina put up on their behalf to get the HOF? It seems we are resting on our laurels and don't think any other city is a competitor.

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Well, I'm not sure of where Bill Jones' district is but if we're talking about Charlotte as a whole

then the fact is that Charlotte is 60% white, (http://charlotte.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm) this

is hardly a "majority-minority". But obviously we are talking about the national audience that the

city is going to attract and I think Charlotte is more appealing to Nascar fans than Atlanta and would

attract more fans to a HOF.

I don't think that argument carries a lot of weight. Charlotte is pretty racially balanced. (It might even be a "majority-minority" if you were to just forget Bill Jones' district, and look only within the 485 ring.)

Atlanta is in the running because they want it... and they have population, media, money... and their legistlaure is behind them.

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Actually I think his name may be Bill James (the Ballentyne area). I dunno. I didn't vote for him.

The 2000 census was 6 years ago. I think Charlotte has already changed quite a bit since then. But I'll let it go-- this is the NASCAR thread. We can debate the new diversity with the 2010 census. :)

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BofA to become the new "Official Bank of NASCAR" replacing Atlanta based SunTrust. Score one for Charlotte's Hall chances. One of Atl's biggest pluses was its large number of NASCAR sponsers... Maybe Hugh McColl help orchestrate the deal in exchange for the Hall. Maybe I'm over analyzing.

It seems pretty logical to me that, given the importance of luring people to Charlotte for Bank of America's workforce availability, BOA would make itself heard on the subject while negotiating its sponsorships. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch of imagination, but the timing looks to be a bit too much for coincidence. The question is, how much does NASCAR care what BOA wants? On the flip side, if given signs that CLT is out of the running or not favored, would BOA pull their deal in disgust?

In each scenario I can think of, this is a positive for Charlotte's chances.

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The Georgia legislature is upping the ante--and more incentives are planned---appropriately following on the heels of Brian France's comments last week that Atlanta was the "right place" for the HOF but that Charlotte had a better financing plan--

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/busine...egisnascar.html

Do you think NASCAR is just using Charlotte's bid to bump up the free $$$ they can squeeze out of Atlanta?? I'm glad we didn't change our bid.

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The Georgia legislature is upping the ante--and more incentives are planned---appropriately following on the heels of Brian France's comments last week that Atlanta was the "right place" for the HOF but that Charlotte had a better financing plan--

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/busine...egisnascar.html

Do you think NASCAR is just using Charlotte's bid to bump up the free $$$ they can squeeze out of Atlanta?? I'm glad we didn't change our bid.

I'm sure they want the attendance that Atlanta will generate with the financial support offered by Charlotte. If they can get their cake and eat it too, why not? Barring unforeseen sentimentality by the Frances, I'm thinking we're toast. But, as I noted before, I hope that a rejection will lead to a new determination to complete our arts package.

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I'm sure they want the attendance that Atlanta will generate with the financial support offered by Charlotte. If they can get their cake and eat it too, why not? Barring unforeseen sentimentality by the Frances, I'm thinking we're toast. But, as I noted before, I hope that a rejection will lead to a new determination to complete our arts package.

I agree. I'm thinking we need to go ahead and assume it will be in Atlanta (as soon as the GA legislature matches Charlotte's financial package). Then if we somehow do get it, we can all be pleasantly surprised. Charlotte has a vibrant growing uptown with or without the HOF.

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