Posted on 08/10/2010 5:32:24 AM PDT by southernnorthcarolina
A report from the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s first three months of operation shows the $200 million racing museum will likely fall short of its first-year attendance projection, and could struggle to balance its budget.
After 90 days of operation, the hall has attracted 102,731 visitors, an average of 1,140 people a day. If that pace continues, the hall would have about 410,000 total attendance for its first 12 months.
Before the hall opened in early May, hall officials estimated it would attract 800,000 visitors through the end of June 2011, a nearly 14-month period.
“I’m not going to get into projections,” said Winston Kelley, executive director of the Hall of Fame. “I feel like we could have done a better job with a range of numbers, rather than one number. That was an upper-end number.”
Kelley said he was pleased that attendance was “steady” and with the feedback from customers, and that the majority of visitors are from out of town.
The hall is finishing what is expected to be one of its strongest periods of the calendar. There were two top-level NASCAR races in the May along with the Speed Street festival and the hall’s first induction ceremony. And the summer has been a strong period for families, when school is out.
A hall survey found that 45 percent of its visitors are families. And 70 percent of its customers live more than 100 miles from the hall.
Because it will be more difficult for families and out-of-town visitors to see the hall during the school year, Kelley said the hall will be targeting locals.
“We want that local and regional family market,” Kelley said.
Projections downsized
It’s important for attendance in the fall, winter and spring to keep pace with the summer.
Money from admissions has been budgeted to make up more than 70 percent of the hall’s projected revenues of $16 million, according to its fiscal year 2011 budget. The city of Charlotte built the hall of fame, and the taxpayer-supported Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority operates it.
When the CRVA released its budget for the upcoming year, it assumed 575,000 people would visit the hall in the first year. That was a downsizing of a consultant’s projection of 800,000 for the first 14 months, which had been touted by hall officials.
Attendance has been pegged at 400,000 annually in future years.
Through May and June, the hall generated $1.8 million, $65,385 more than it budgeted.
The hall generated far more revenue in May than it projected, and far less money in June than it originally thought.
In June, the hall generated $509,754 from ticket sales and $175,732 from other sources, such as simulator rides.
If June’s total revenue of $685,000 is indicative of the rest of the year, the hall would generate about $8 million in revenue.
The CRVA budgeted $15.3 million in expenses. (Some of the expenses are for royalties to NASCAR, which include 10 percent of admission revenue. If the hall sells fewer tickets than projected, its projected royalty payments decline.)
Tim Newman, chief executive officer of the CRVA, said he believed the early attendance numbers were “a good base” to plan for the rest of the year.
He said it’s too early to use early revenue data to project for the rest of the year. He said the hall has been rented for special events more than projected.
“That’s been heavier than we thought,” Newman said. “I don’t think you can draw any conclusions.”
Visitors like what they see
The hall also said the average distance driven to visit the hall in its first 10 weeks of operation was 368 miles.
Kimberly Meesters, a Hall of Fame spokeswoman, said that shows the hall is fulfilling its mission of creating tourism.
Kelley said he was pleasantly surprised by how far people had come to see the hall.
“When we first saw that number, I wondered: Is that skewed upwards because of race week?” Kelley said. “But it’s consistently been more than 300 miles.”
The hall has gotten positive reviews from the media, and Kelley said the hall’s surveys show people are pleased with their experience. The hall said 552 people were surveyed during the first two weeks of July, and 95 percent said it met or exceeded their expectations.
“We will continue to build on it,” Kelley said. “We’re just building our brand. Word of mouth will help tremendously.”
The hall drew 62,558 people in May and June for a daily average of 1,228 people, according to the hall. Attendance was 33,312 in July (1,074 average) and 6,751 from Aug. 1 through Sunday (844 average).
The city built the hall, primarily through a 2 percent increase in the hotel/motel occupancy tax. Those tax revenues have slumped because of the recession. The city has said it has reserves of roughly $24 million to cover any short-term shortfall.
The city also took out a $21.5 million loan from Bank of America and Wachovia backed by the sale of corporate sponsorships for the hall. The hall also has to pay back an additional $5 million to the city, with the money also coming from the sale of sponsorships.
The hall so far gotten 10 corporate sponsors — NASCAR Performance Group, Lowe’s, Mars, Belk, Food Lion, Sunoco, Bank of America, Wachovia, Coke and Panasonic — which have committed $4.5 million total.
If the city can’t pay off the loan, the banks have no way get their money back. The hall’s original plan was to pay off the loan in 12 years, and said it is "focused on achieving that objective."
WHY should the government be funding ANY of this?
How does this fit in with “protect and defend”?
Mike
I agree. If NASCAR wanted a HOF it should have built one with NASCAR revenue. Why should my tax dollars be paying for this crap.
* Adult
* $19.95
* Military/Senior
* $17.95
* Child
* $12.95
Even if I liked NASCAR, I wouldn’t pay to see this.
I love NASCAR but think the fans should pay for it with their tickets.
Tough times for Redneck Roundy-Round.
All sounds good to me.
Also the market photos in your about page remind me of the markets through out Seoul when I was there.
Absolutely beautiful.
On a related NASCAR note, I wanted to throw my ashtray through the TV this week watching the Watkins Glen race, when NASCAR’s politically correct “Race for Diversity” ads ran.
As far as I am concerned, I am ALREADY at the point (and have been since I was a child) that I don’t give ONE SINGLE DAMN about the color of a driver’s skin. And don’t really CARE what their genitals look like. I’d LIKE them to speak English first, but if not, I can deal with it....
NASCAR really irritates me by running stuff like this—insinuating that the fans are group of racists who HAVE to have women and blacks and foreigners shoved down our throats. Hey, LET anyone who qualifies to race, RACE. Period.
Worthless welfare queens. Why is the taxpayer always paying for crap like this? Whether it is a stadium, an arena, or some other type of venue, it is always professional sports that are constantly on the welfare dole, always demanding a handout. These are multi-billion dollar businesses, surely they can pay for their own toys.
I’ll bet they could get the attendance numbers way up if they disinterred Dale Earnhardt and put him on display like Lenin.
I go to the race at Darlington (Southern 500) every year. I love racing my Tax dollars should not be paying for crap like HOF or Stadiums. Maybe NASCAR should have charged a $1 fee on every ticket for the new HOF.
I live within hearing distance of MIS. Its been an economic boon to the area precisely because it isn’t taxpayer funded.
how do these people make such estimates? Whenever I have made estimates I used some established benchmarks and guesstimated from them. To estimate twice the actual, something they used was out of whack.
The football hall of fame was funded in 1963 by private donations and a grant of land by the City of Canton. This type of progam is very common.
The price of things has changed a lot since we went to the movies for under a dollar. The Baseball Hall of Fame was started by a hotel owner in Cooperstown. Now they get 350,000 visitors each year, and while NASCAR is popular I doubt that it can draw 3 times as many people as baseball. The NASCAR admission is also about $3.00 higher in all categories to Baseball, but the football hall charges $20.00 per person.
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