[NQR] - San José Mayor Confirms Champ Car Plans

Great. If I could, I would call from here. Bit too expensive, though.

 

Wow, all of the uproar over this race is incredibly misguided! I have a million comments to make...

Some of you sound like the NIMBY's in Carson who were against the Home Depot Center. Cars crashing into buildings and people? Now that I think about it, I remember some Carsonites fearing Eurpoean hooliganism invading their streets.

Like NYR Metros, I am a fan of Champ Car. The state of Grand Prix open-wheel racing in this country is poor, but I am willing to bet that this race will be a success.

Why?

1. Urban street races are extremely popular throughout the world. In Champ Car Long Beach, Cleveland, the "new" Denver race, Toronto, and Surfers Paradise in Australia are all successes. Vancouver has been a huge success for years and the only reason that race is ending is due to Olympic construction that affects the race track. Houston is trying to regain their race, which also ended due to construction. A new race in Edmonton has generated a large amount of buzz in that city.

World wide, have you ever heard of the Monaco Grand Prix, Formula One's greatest race?

2. One of Champ Car's owners is Kevin Kalkhoven. He has serious ties in the Silicon Valley and the high tech world is very interested in this race. Kalkhoven was also tied into the recent private sector space race which resulted in the flight of Space Ship One.

The Canary Fund promoters and Kalkhoven have big plans for working with Silicon Valley companies.

3. Bob Singleton has been brought in to run the race. He has had great success in Canada in running races sponsored by the beer company Molson. The races run in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver regularly drew 150,000 people for a three day weekend and 75,000 on race day.

While I don't think the race will be an enormous success right away, I do expect the race to grow over time. And as for those who say that Champ Car is a "third-rate" racing circut think about a sport that is even LESS popular than auto racing - bike racing. San Francisco's race drew near half a million this year.

 

The investment for this race could be as "high" as $800 thousand but will more likely be less.

The race costs far less to put on than building an SSS. Personaly, I would give my right arm to see both happen.

Please don't get upset with this deal just because you may not be auto racing fans. We, as Quakes fans, are asking far more financially from this city than the Champ Car series. (Not only that, part of the money for the race is being used for street improvements that benefit all citizens. A stadium only benefits the team's owners and its fans.) This is a good investment for the city.

If you have never been to a street race, I would encourage you to go to the race on Friday for first day qualifying. Most likely, you will be able to get in free with a coupon from the Merc. There will be an auto show, driver autographs, cars, good food, and scantily clad Tecate girls, (if scantily clad women interest you). I'm hoping that the Grand Prix will also be able to incorporate a concert like in Long Beach. I got to see the Goo Goo Dolls for free a couple of years ago. (Yeah, I like the Goo Goo Dolls and I don't care what you think!)

 

I'm still not done!

Maybe I have a slighlty different perspective on this because I've done a lot of study into public financing and I plan to get a Public Administration degree.

With limited funds, a municipality has to carefully weigh every spending decision they make.

Investing in Champ Car, with the terms set as they currently are, is a realatively modest investment. The race has the potential to create positive business relationships for area firms, bring in tons of visitor dollars, and the potential of a 150,000 three day attendance. (That's why the Merc has supported the creation of the race.) If you doubt the economic impact of a race, view pictures of a pre-race waterfront Long Beach filled with porn theatres and hookers. The race was a shot in the arm for the city.

A SSS will cost millions of dollars with most of the benefit going to whoever owns the Earthquakes. There will be the possibility for a couple of concerts but you can only expect about twenty soccer games a year. Financially, the investment potential for the community is limited. (Other than the Giants, who benefits from SBC Park?) YES, I AM IN FAVOR OF A SSS. I just wouldn't want to get ripped off if I'm a politician who knows that I'm throwing millions towards a team that struggles at the gate. How do I explain that to my soccer hating constituents who do not plan on ever attending a game?

Now, if I had to choose between a baseball stadium and a soccer stadium, as a person in trust with the public money, I'd go with the baseball stadium everytime. It costs more, but there would be eighty games a year as compared to nearly twenty soccer games. Far more people would attend games at a baseball stadium as opposed to a soccer stadium. Plus, a majority of my citizens are baseball fans as compared to a "minor" sport like soccer. There is just more bang for the buck with a new A's stadium.

Before I get banned from these boards forever, I would be more angry with the money thrown at the California Theater than a Champ Car race. The Redevelopment Agency spent hundreds of millions to renovate a space that benefits so few people. Honestly, how many people go to the opera? Far fewer than the amount of people that went to a Quakes game this year.

 

OK, so I've been reading the various pro-Champ Car race comments here and you've convinced me. (See, I'm an adult! I can change my mind!) I can see how this would work out well for San Jose. You're right that it is vastly cheaper than a new stadium and will likely interest and benefit more people.

I'm just hoping that this doesn't preclude the City trying to keep the Quakes!

And SBC Park is a huge benefit to SF, at least to hear SF tell it. It has helped to revitalize the area where they built it. It brings people into the city to spend money. It generates revenue for the city. It even provides some jobs. There's no reason that an SSS couldn't do the same for San Jose. On a smaller scale mind you, but still there would be benefits for the whole city.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

Quoting yourself to keep a meaningless thread alive is a pretty good indication that the thread is dead and nobody really cares.

 

Then the Earthquakes can pay for it, just like the Giants paid for Pac Bell Park.

 

Just had to comment on this gem.

I don't know where I read this, but I read somewhere that one coast to coast passenger air flight burns more gasoline than the entire Indycar season. You want conservation, shut down Mineta airport for a day.

 

Sounds like a trick question. IndyCars burn alcohol, not gasoline. But then airliners burn jet fuel, so you could get technical and say neither burns any "gasoline", but the jet fuel is at least petroleum-based where the alcohol isn't.

 

The "gem" you refer to is a very old post of mine. I've long since been enlightened on the fuel issue. However, if you read it carefully, you'll see that my point didn't have so much to do with the oil consumption of race cars themselves, but more to do with auto racing as a "glorification" of the automobile. If you're a racing fan or you're enamored with high performance vehicles for any reason, chances are you won't be buying a 4-cylinder fuel-efficient vehicle or a hybrid. But in retrospect I think my point reached too far. I'm just going to say that auto racing is not my favorite sport and leave it at that.

 

I guess, but it's still a reach anyway.

There's a lot more people who don't care about auto racing who hate hybrid cars anyway. It's not like the demographic of people buying gas-guzzling cars is all NASCAR fans.

 

Then maybe it's Formula One which runs on petrol. The expressed point of the quote was that auto racing is very, very, very low on the list of worst abusers of the oil supply.

 

Pretty poor track, Metros. The longest straight is 3 blocks long. How long is that..maybe 350 m? No room for the cars to stretch their legs, and no fast corners either.