No driving in circles
The odds of a NASCAR track being built on the Kitsap Peninsula don't look very good. From yesterday's News-Tribune:
Personally, I'm not as opposed to public financing of things like stadiums and race tracks (NPI's position is that the public should get a lot out of a venue that is built with taxpayer dollars). Claims of economic benefit are almost always bogus and inflated; the truth is these things are symbols. I don't make it to Safeco more than once a year usually, but when I go, I always enjoy being there.
As for auto racing itself, I figure if people like attending then that's fine. I don't get it but then a lot of people never understood my fascination with hitting a little white ball towards a little hole in the ground. (Notice I didn't say the ball would actually ever go in the hole in the ground, that would imply skill.) At one point there had been talk of a NASCAR track in Oregon, but if government financing is the condition, then they probably aren't going to do well over there either.
Not a single state legislator from the Kitsap Peninsula supports proposals for using state dollars to help finance a NASCAR racetrack in their area.Leaving aside the culture war aspects of NASCAR, the days of sports franchises feasting on tax dollars is probably over for a long, long time in this state. If the Sonics can't get funding I don't see why NASCAR would.
“Given the pulse of the Legislature, it’s a dead duck,” predicted Rep. Bill Eickmeyer, a Democrat from Belfair.
Personally, I'm not as opposed to public financing of things like stadiums and race tracks (NPI's position is that the public should get a lot out of a venue that is built with taxpayer dollars). Claims of economic benefit are almost always bogus and inflated; the truth is these things are symbols. I don't make it to Safeco more than once a year usually, but when I go, I always enjoy being there.
As for auto racing itself, I figure if people like attending then that's fine. I don't get it but then a lot of people never understood my fascination with hitting a little white ball towards a little hole in the ground. (Notice I didn't say the ball would actually ever go in the hole in the ground, that would imply skill.) At one point there had been talk of a NASCAR track in Oregon, but if government financing is the condition, then they probably aren't going to do well over there either.
