Fairgrounds Speedway Racetrack expansion to 30,000 seats

[Argo]

On 11/28/2023 at 2:04 PM, Bos2Nash said:

What's kinda nuts to me is everyone seems to be so onboard with the IndyCar race, but that race (while is loads of fun) is literally closing roads and taking up space in the downtown core for multiple weeks every year.

Why is IndyCar applauded and the idea of Nascar denounced? Hell, the IndyCar race is going to even more disruption next year when it creates a closed loop around multiple residential towers! 

 

I'll tell you why.

It rhymes with 8.

[PaulChinetti]

https://nashvillebanner.com/2024/02/23/nashville-fairgrounds-affordable-housing-charter-revision/?utm_medium=email

Seems relevant, if it’s another thread we can delete. 

[Bos2Nash]

The eyeroll presumably can be taken as me being against affordable housing, luckily folks that know me (and my post history) know that is not the case. It is this continuious war on auto racing that is driving me up a wall and has clearly been driven at the highest levels of city government by multiple administrations.

If it was purely about affordable housing, the administrations and neighbors would be pushing for it on all the available land, rather than diligently working to take away a use that has been in place for so long. 

[markhollin]

The Metro Charter Revision Commission voted Monday to certify a petition to remove auto racing and add affordable housing to the Fairgrounds Nashville amendment.

By officially approving the petition, the commission gave the petitioners approval to accept signatures to get the charter revision onto the ballot for a vote. There is a 30-day waiting period to allow an appeal for the commission's decision.

If there is no appeal, the petitioners have 90 days to collect signatures from 10 percent of registered voters so as to have the issue on the November ballot. 

Kenny Byrd, a former fair board commissioner, and Heidi Basgall, a founder of Neighbors Opposing Track Expansion, filed the charter revision petition.

More behind theNashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/politics/metro/proposal-to-remove-racing-add-affordable-housing-at-fairgrounds-certified/article_96a208e6-dfd5-11ee-9b2d-e3b7d065529e.html

[samsonh]

Not sure if anyone here caught the Bristol race yesterday, but attendance looked to be in the 30-40% of capacity at most. This used to be a special race. 

 

Back when I used to watch it was always the most exciting racing. 

Edited March 18 by samsonh

[Bos2Nash]

Unfortunately the Bristol races have not been the same since the days of Rusty's/Dale's/Jeff's dominance. I remember the exciting race where Elliot Sadler took the Wood Brothers to victory lane with an awesome strategy call. From an attendance perspective though, 146,000 seats will do that to a venue. For reference, 30% of Bristol's seats would be more than 13,000 above what the Fairgrounds renovation is proposed at. Selling 15,000 to 30,000 is also a hellva lot easier than 146,000. The speedway is also almost 10 miles south of Bristol, TN and about 20 miles north of Johnson City. When you compare that to a setting like the Fairgrounds, you are able to attract a much wider net of people and the infrastructure for said wider net is more established. Just gotta get the right deal in place.

It was a tough actual race from what I heard. I guess the tires were shredding similar to what happened at the Brickyard in 2008. The thing that really kills me is how Bristol has gone from a bottom feeders track to the a high groove track. Whether it is the traction compound or progressive banking. There are alot of theories on what "happened" to Bristol. Reddit has a rather opinionated thread on what has happened to the track over recent years.

[Luvemtall]

With the current success of the SuperSpeedway, now hosting Indy Racing plus NASCAR and other events throughout the year, and Mayor O’Connell’s energy going into the Transit Plan I think it’s going to be a hard sell to see any movement toward racing at the Fairgrounds. Nashville basically has major racing in its portfolio with the SuperSpeedway, it really needs affordable housing and a transit center at the fairgrounds site. Especially a transit center, bus people to events and games and help the parking situation there. 

Just look how far Atlanta Motor Speedway is for downtown Atlanta. It’s definitely okay to have such a facility outside the city limits 

[smeagolsfree]

Speedway Not Dead Yet???  From the Banner

O’Connell, staff to continue NASCAR talks in Nashville - Nashville Banner