Drag strip could pump $10 million into local economy

BY MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star
Thursday, Jan 25, 2007 - 12:29:17 am CST

Imagine if Lincoln hosted two extra Nebraska football games every year.

That's the kind of economic impact a University of Nebraska-Lincoln study
says a proposed drag racing facility could have on Lincoln and Lancaster
County.

The study, by UNL's Bureau of Business Research, showed a drag racing center
like the one proposed north of Lincoln could bring nearly $10 million a year
in additional local spending and create 200 jobs paying a total of $3.5
million a year.

The study also said $6 million of that spending would benefit the state as a
whole, as would 120 of the jobs paying $2.1 million.

And those are conservative estimates, said Eric Thompson, the bureau's
director.

Using more liberal figures, the study concluded the local economic impact
could be as high as $23.2 million a year, with higher figures for employment
and earnings as well.

"We tried to be very careful and conservative with our estimate," he said.

Even using the conservative estimate, Thompson said, a track would have a
"big impact."

"Even as careful as we were, $10 million is a big impact year after year,"
he said.

The study estimated a track like the one motorsports entrepreneur Greg
Sanford is proposing would have 60 race dates a year with mostly local
events drawing 1,000 people per day and a couple of larger events drawing
8,000 people apiece.

Sanford said his proposed initial racing calendar would have 70-80 dates,
and he said most other tracks used as comparisons draw more spectators than
what was used in the study.

But he said he was OK with conservative estimates.

" I want to always underpromise and overgive," Sanford said.

Sanford, who commissioned the UNL study, has proposed building a
quarter-mile drag strip with initial seating for at least 5,000 people on
160 acres along U.S. 77 between Branched Oak and Davey Roads.

In application materials, he estimated attracting 500 to 1,750 participants
and spectators for local events and from about 3,500 to more than 20,000 for
regional and national events.

The proposal is on hold while a task force convened by the Lancaster County
Board looks at the pros and cons of putting a motorsports facility in the
county.

The group is expected to issue a report to the County Board by March 1.

Karen Kurbis, a member of the motorsports task force and an opponent of the
proposed location, said she didn't think the study was "being that
conservative."

Kurbis, who said she was speaking in her capacity as a concerned neighbor
and property owner and not as a task force member, said the numbers in the
report looked more like what might be generated five years down the road,
not right away.

"You don't start off playing Nebraska football on day one," she said. "You
build up to it."

Jeff Maul, executive director of the Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau
and another member of the task force, said he hadn't seen the report and
wouldn't feel comfortable commenting on it.

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