Quote:
Originally Posted by Pooka
I know how much money the city of Fort Worth spent to get the NASCAR track north of town.
ZERO.
The owner of the track paid for everything. All he wanted from the city was to become a part of it so he could get police and fire protection from them. He also pays what the city demands for these services.
This was such a shock to the city that they did a big investigation into the track and turned him down. He asked the city if they would rather have the Super Bowl instead, which would bring in about 80,000 people once every twenty years.
They said yes to this.
So he told them the Super Bowl was not coming, but his track would bring in 120,000 people eight times a year. They then said yes to the track.
A race day there sells out hotels for about 80 miles in every direction and the city of Fort Worth has still never paid a dime to the track.
Perhaps there is a lesson here for other cities on how to deal with sports team owners?
Pooka
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All this is facinating. Problem is the cities are too selfish to stand united. IF they would, they could save themselves a bunch of money. Problem is that if your city won't do it, another one will. So, what leverage will you have? Oh, you don't want to build my stadium here? No problem. Fawk you. The other city will. Madison, WI didn't want to give Holiday Inn a break when they wanted to build their hotel. Middleton did so Holiday Inn builds a hotel 10 feet into Middleton and has all the benefits of Madison without the higher taxes.