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April 11, 2006 |
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NASCAR HALL OF FAME By Rick Jackson What really happened in the victorious effort to bring the NASCAR Hall of Fame to the Queen City? This past Tuesday, Charlotte Rotary was treated to an exclusive opportunity to get an answer to that question from five of the key players who championed the bid. Mayor Pat McCrory, Tim Newman, Mac McCarley, Bob Morgan and Ron Kimble delivered colorful insight about the factors that contributed to the successful bid. Always eloquent and delightful, the panel was hosted by fellow Charlotte Rotarian Cecily Durrett who offered the first question to Tim Newman. Asked about how the core group was organized, Tim explained that it had resulted from a previous need to address the potential loss of the Nextel All-Star race (at that time the Winston) nearly three years ago. Many of the same members had participated in that effort and it was a natural to call on them for the Hall of Fame bid. Pat McCrory compared the effort to the successful recruitment of Johnson and Wales University, especially as it regarded the size of the committee. Each featured six to ten core members who tackled the project by identifying some key elements including identifying the customer, a resulting key strategy, identifying the competition and recruiting financial support. For this project, Rick Hendrick was named Honorary Chairperson, weekend NASCAR announcer Winston Kelly was recruited for his keen insight, Mac McCarley and Ron Kimble were called upon to negotiate and collectively, Charlotte area hospitality industry leaders were consulted to construct a workable tax plan. Also, in a selfless display of civic commitment, fierce competitors Bank of America and Wachovia agreed to collaborate on a $102 million dollar financial plan to support the bid. Asked how the group managed to forge ahead through all of the media speculation Mac McCarley responded with an enthusiastic, "We ignored them!" Mac was proud and even somewhat surprised that the group had managed to keep a secret that big - that long. When asked "how long?" - Pat chimed-in with a "no comment." Clearly, the group had some sense of the final decision long before the public was informed. Ron Kimble revealed that the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority and the hospitality industry leadership had been organized to help prepare the bid and had been right on the money with their assumptions and support. The bid landed a 32 year commitment to house the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte. Asked about who he believed to be the strongest competitors in the final days of the bid, Ron named Kansas City and Atlanta as, "the bids that scared them the most." Pat laughed about the irony of having run into the competition while visiting Daytona to make their presentation to the NASCAR folks. In an awkward moment, the Charlotte team bumped into the Atlanta delegation just as they were leaving. Bob Morgan explained that each of the regional area Chambers of Commerce (Charlotte, Gastonia, Lake Norman and many others) helped to lobby in Raleigh for the necessary government support for the project. During Q&A, Mayor McCrory answered a question about concerns that the group conducted the bid without including the public and claimed that "95% of the information regarding the bid had been immediately revealed" and that only the financial pro forma, for obvious reasons, had been held in confidence. Since winning the bid, Mac added that over 16,000 pages - all inclusive - had been released to the Charlotte Observer and anyone else who wanted the same information was welcome to it. Tim revealed that the land had already been acquired, the structure was being financed by the developer and the only public money needed was about $4 million for parking. In addition to the Hall of Fame, the building will also house NASCAR administration. Finally, Pat revealed their vision for "NASCAR Valley," a tourism concept that includes vacation trips from NASCAR fans that could include everything from a simple trip the Hall of Fame to more extensive visits to the many extraordinary race-team facilities in the area and of course, Lowe's Motor Speedway. Those vacation trips will generate hundreds of millions of dollars for hotels, restaurants and retailers in the Charlotte region. With that, the group received a standing ovation from an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. The reaction from our group seemed to punctuate the theme of their winning bid, "Racing was built here, racing belongs here!" And so it does. Congratulations to the team and to the home of the NASCAR Hall of Fame - Charlotte, North Carolina. Head Table: Herb Harriss, Cecily Durrett, Ron Kimble, Mac McCarley, Tim Newman; Visitors & Guests: Invocation: Ken Samuelson, Visitors: Don Carmichael
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Revised: January 24, 2008.