GM to NASCAR: Gravy train's over boys

Don't care for = hate?

 

Something that's always amused me about the faux chic dismissal of NASCAR. It is a sport enjoyed by millions of people who actually do the real work in this country. It is a sport responsible for putting a lot of food on the table in areas that really need it. Yeah, I want to see that die.

 

Is this THE David Poole? It can't be. No way.

 

So I guess baseball fans, football fans, basketball fans, soccer fans..etc. don't do any real work?

Please explain to me how NASCAR puts food on tables. I'm listening.

 

: Yes, that is THE David Poole.

 

Been to a race? It's a small city on a 40-week traveling circus selling tens of millions of dollars of merchandise and food, filling tax coffers and providing thousands of good-paying fulltime jobs coast to coast and tens of thousands seasonal jobs in areas that are often economically depressed. NASCAR is big business and pumps millions into the economy. And most (not all) of the tracks aren't built on the backs of taxpayers.

 

Think that the auto industry is hurting now? Wait until a bunch of cash-strapped Murricans wake up one day and say, "hey, honey, why are we paying $399 a month for 36 months for a car that we don't own at the wend of the term? We'd be better off buying a car and driving the piss out of it for 10 years."

 

http://www.businessnc.com/ed/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=Racing&category=Home&PHPSESSID=1dd65e17b524ad


Auto racing already has a $5.9 billion annual economic impact on the state, according to an analysis prepared in 2006 by John Connaughton and Ronald Madsen of the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Motor sports helps underpin an automotive cluster that employs more than 140,000 at more than 1,000 companies. Nearly $4.6 billion of motorsports' impact is concentrated in the 12-county Charlotte region, which also has about 73% of the state's 27,252 motorsports-related jobs.

But racing's impact extends across the state. No region gets less than $112 million a year from the sport, according to the UNC Charlotte study, which was completed in 2003 and has been updated. The study was commissioned by the North Carolina Motorsports Association, a Concord-based trade group that boasts about 200 member companies and organizations. "NASCAR is the engine that drives a lot of different industries," says Andy Papathanassiou, the association's executive director.

 

Why thabk you, lono, my Blackberry didn't allow for that sort of erudite reply.

 

I have a problem with studies done by the racing industry about the economic impact of the racing industry. Of course its gonna say, "fuck yeah, motherfuckers, it has one helluva' impact on our state's economy." Otherwise, what's the point of doing one. Its like the old saying: if you have enough money, you can get a study that will say anything.

Not saying there isn't any truth to it, just saying I'm skeptical. Kinda like I'm skeptical of a school district that's spent $300 million on building projects that cries that its teachers pensions and health care benefits, not the new $20 million gymnasium, that is a drain on the budget.

 

You're right BYM2, 150,000 in Darlington, S.C. one weekend just come and camp in their tents and eat ramen in the infield. They don't fill a few thousand hotel rooms charging quadruple the normal rate. They don't help the hundreds of locally owned restaurants do a fifth of their business for the year. They don't buy any sunscreen at the pharmacies or $4 panchos from the disabled guy that can make the profit last for six months. Nah, not important ... To you.

 

The study was conducted by the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, not the racing industry.

And if you've ever spent any time in the Charlotte metro area, you might be a little less skeptical. The top three teams in NASCAR - Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing - employ a total of about 1,500 people themselves. And the jobs pay well. So do the ones at the teams that field the other 30 or so Cup cars every week and the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series races.

In the Charlotte area, there are bankers who specialize in dealing with race teams. There are vendors who do everything from dry cleaning hundreds of uniforms every week to designing paint schemes to creating marketing programs to catering hospitality events, building transmissions, producing NASCAR radio and TV shows, and providing life and health insurance to crewmen.

It is a huge part of the local economy.

Be skeptical all you want. But it doesn't change how big the sport is here.