No sooner have I digested the news that state and local leaders are prepared to pony up a $32.4 million incentive package to lure the proposed NASCAR Hall of Fame to our capital city than I learn that the folks at NASCAR are not particularly impressed by this show of generosity. North Carolina, it seems, is ready to fork over $102.5 million to bring this shrine to Charlotte. (Isn’t it just a bit ironic that two such cosmopolitan-wannabee cities clearly doing their darndest to shed their regional identification are slugging it out to host a shrine to a sport that, for all its newfound national appeal, still conjures up images of ‘shine-hauling Bubbas trying to out run the revenooers?) In any event, determined not to be out done by their Tarheel counterparts, some of our lawmakers reportedly stand ready to up the ante and show that we have our heads on straight here in Georgia by making a racing museum a state priority.
Before that happens, perhaps we should look at what we would be getting for our current, apparently inadequate, offer. First there would be an estimated state tax take of as much as $36 million over the next decade. Since we are reportedly offering an estimated $6.4 million in upfront sales tax exemptions on construction materials, our net ten-year tax take would thus actually be less than $30 million on a $32.4 million expenditure. Apparently, the financial adviser on this investment is the same guy who steered me toward Delta bonds.
But wait! NASCARAMA itself would also create an estimated 116 new jobs and supposedly “hundreds of indirect jobs.” This sounds mighty good on the face of it, especially given the projected loss of 2,100 jobs when Ford shuts down its Hapeville plant. All jobs aren’t created equal, however; direct or indirect, once construction is finished, the service and retail positions generated by the new tourist attraction are not likely to be nearly so remunerative as those lost in Hapeville or in dozens of other Georgia towns whose manufacturing facilities have recently gone belly up. In 2004, for example, the average manufacturing worker in Georgia earned over $41,000, the average retail clerk $24,128.
I’ll grant you that servers in high-end restaurants and hotels downtown do pretty darn well when the tips are tallied. NASCAR’s PR flacks can’t say enough about their own polling data suggesting that its fan demographic has risen dramatically enough on the socioeconomic scale in recent years to put it roughly at the national average for family income. On the basis of close observation, however, I would venture that there is an important distinction between those who enjoy watching an occasional race and those for whom the sport is a consuming passion, and my sense is that there are a lot more blue collars than white ones in the latter category. As a group, the sport’s devotees show a propensity for free-spending where NASCAR-endorsed products and memorabilia are concerned, but loading up on Dale Earnhardt bobble-head dolls is one thing and dropping a couple of C-notes and then some in downtown hotels and eateries is another. My guess is the balance of the NASCAR manna shower would actually fall on the Days Inns and Ryan’s Steak Houses out along and beyond I-285, places where breakfast is self-served and dinner tips run a lot closer to $3.50 than $35.00. Actually, the most reliable plan to recoup the revenue dished out to win/buy the NASCAR museum might be to swear in some more “smokies” and “county mounties” and station them on the outskirts of town. After watching all that video of ol’ Fireball, Richard, and Dale, those NASCAR pilgrims are likely to feel not only a mite light-headed but a little lead-footed as well.
The initial version of this piece ran in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Feb. 21.
