Our own Michael Lowrey stands athwart the NASCAR steamroller here and yells stop, explaining to reporters that higher taxes are not a painless thing. Further on down you’ll note some interesting claims, I presume, from the city’s Hall booster team arguing that just like the
Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio a NASCAR Hall will spin off revenue decades into the future.
But you won’t see mention of the fact that upon its opening in 1963 and for years afterward, the Canton Hall was regarded as much too small. It was not until an expansion in 1971 (at about double the original space’s cost) was added that attendence really took off. And
then there’s the claim that over the past three decades the football Hall’s “attendance has exceeded 200,000 visitors a year.” This obscures much.
All-time attendence peaked way back in 1973 with 330,000 visitors and only once since then has it topped 250,000 mark. In fact, attendence seems closely correlated with new expansions, and the last one in 1995 worth $9.2 million boosted attendence to 227,000. Since 1997, however, visitors topped the 200,000 mark only once. And since 2000 the average has dipped to 177,600.
But hey, look on the bright side. Steadily falling attendence and increased costs gives a whole new meaning to that NASCAR Valley stuff, don’t it?
