Before NASCAR can rev its engines in Colorado, citizens should decide what they’re willing to pay, if anything, to lure one of America’s favorite sports here.
Executives from Daytona Beach, Fla.-based International Speedway Corp. want to build a mammoth racetrack in Adams County, in either Aurora or Commerce City.
We welcome the possibility of bringing the fast-growing sport to the metro area, and we don’t doubt that a track would draw thousands of fans to either city. However, before either municipality opens its coffers, a detailed cost-benefit analysis should be completed and shared with residents.
A NASCAR track may bring cash to an area, but it would be coupled with increased traffic, noise and dust on race days. One official also suspects a speedway would increase demands on law enforcement, too. Those are important issues to a community and must be weighed before a city rolls out the welcome mat of tax incentives.
ISC officials, still smarting over Staten Island’s rejection of a racetrack, say they announced their intentions to build here early in the process so they could build support for the project. They have pledged to build only where they have public support. It’s a smart move, and we hope it’s the beginning of an open and transparent process.
Plans call for building a track for at least 75,000 spectators – Invesco Field at Mile High holds 76,125 – and the company has identified two possible parcels of land. But it may need as much as $150 million in public money.
Aurora officials can’t say yet how much they might be willing to pony up, but voters there approved a city ordinance about eight years ago that limits the number of incentives the city can offer a racetrack.
Commerce City is no stranger to offering incentives for sports stadiums. The city in 2004 gave $107 million in tax incentives to Kroenke Enterprises to build a professional soccer stadium.
Mayor Sean Ford said citizens will get a vote on any formal racetrack proposal. We’re guessing since the site is just a few miles southeast of Reunion, the new 1,200-home community that’s changing the face of the city, residents there will want to weigh in.
An ISC raceway that opened in Kansas City, Kan., in 2001 generated $150 million in economic activity in its first year, and has sparked a host of surrounding commercial development. The city chipped in $150 million of sales-tax refunds and public financing to build the track, along with $90 million from ISC. Officials there couldn’t be happier with their investment.
We hope with some careful planning, that could be the case for Aurora or Commerce City.
