Some fear Charlotte's NASCAR Hall of Fame bid is too low

06:46 PM EDT on Thursday, June 16, 2005

By MARIA KOTULA / 6NEWS

6NEWS

Projected visitors

Center City Partners looked at building plans for a proposed NASCAR Hall of Fame Thursday. But 6NEWS found out that if NASCAR is looking mainly at attendance projections the Queen City better get on the right track.

“I think the estimate provided to NASCAR for Charlotte is on the conservative side. I think it’s going to be closer to a million once it gets up and going,” said Jerry Gappens with Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

The race is on for five cities in the chase for the hall of fame. And they are positioning themselves with projected attendance numbers. The line up stacks up like this:

• Atlanta predicts 1 million a year.

• Kansas City is counting on 750,000.

• Richmond comes in with 700,000.

Daytona and Charlotte get smoked by estimating only 400,000 visitors per year.

“Just here at the speedway with the events we do, we are at 1.1. - 1.2 million. So there is a good foundation that would head into uptown. Then you have surrounding race teams and gift shops. Hendrick Motorsports, DEI, those are big draws,” Gappens said.

6NEWS

Attendance numbers

The attendance numbers 6NEWS got Thursday from Lowe’s, DEI, the North Carolina Racing Hall of Fame and Hendrick Motorsports add up to 1.9 million people. Gappens also pointed out those are racing attractions that already draw the target market.

“We are going to hit Yates racing, going to see Mr. Bush. We are here at the Hall of Fame for North Carolina and we will see whatever else we can find,” said a racing fan visiting from Road Island.

“I would hate to miss the bid because we went to conservative on the number,” Gappens said.

Just to give an even better perspective on the numbers. The city predicts 400,000 visitors per year. Lowe’s Motor Speedway sees 400,000 visitors in just 10 days in May.