What does the NASCAR Hall of Fame/Museum Mean for Charlotte

Ummmm, one other thing to do on the weekends, I would think !!!!!!!! Hey, Whitewater Rafting, Carowinds & NASCAR . . . . Wooooooooooooooooooooo, Welcome to Fun City baby !!!!!!!


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Fame or Shame?

What does the NASCAR Hall really mean to Charlotte?

BY TARA SERVATIUS

THE RACE FOR THE HALL: Atlanta and Charlotte were nose-to-nose right up to the finish lineIt was one thing for Charlotte to win the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It was another thing entirely for Charlotte to beat out Atlanta for it.

Charlotte has often been called "the next Atlanta," and civic types here measure the city's achievements against Atlanta's. They also eye Atlanta's mistakes as lessons to be avoided here. The two cities already compete for businesses and residents. But from a tourism and entertainment standpoint, Charlotte has long been considered to be far behind Atlanta. Could that be changing? Judging by press reports, losing the NASCAR hall to Atlanta's bratty little Southern sister rankled Atlanta officials.

Tourism experts such as Tom Sponseller, president of the SC Hospitality Association, say that in the tourism and convention industries, various cities are commonly understood to fall into different tiers, destination-wise. Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles are in the top tier because they have bigger facilities and bigger metropolitan areas, said Sponseller. Cities such as Atlanta and Dallas fall into the second tier and generally can't compete for the same conventions as top-tier cities can.

In the third tier, said Sponseller, are Charlotte and dozens of other cities across the country that are nice to visit but still struggle to distinguish themselves. Given that, beating out a second-tier city such as Atlanta for any kind of tourism-related venue, regardless of its economic impact or lack thereof, is a major coup, Sponseller and other tourism experts agreed.

But what exactly does this mean for Charlotte? Has Charlotte arrived to the point that it can now compete with Atlanta for most major tourism venues? Or was the NASCAR hall an isolated case in which Charlotte won over Atlanta -- a city that could have attracted far more tourists to the hall -- simply because 90 percent of NASCAR teams happen to call the Charlotte region home?

"I'd say both," said Larry DeGaris, director of the Center for Sports Sponsorship at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. "It may be an indication that Charlotte's arrived, although I don't want to say it has caught up to Atlanta as a tourist destination.

But it might be an indication that the pendulum is beginning to swing in Charlotte's direction."

Betsy Keck, the communications manager for the Cleveland Convention and Visitor's Bureau, wasn't sure if Charlotte's victory over Atlanta in the hall of fame race was a good measure to gage where Charlotte stands in comparison to Atlanta. What most people might think of as Charlotte's weaknesses could have been its strengths in this case.

"Atlanta has already sort of developed its brand and has so many things to do, not that Charlotte doesn't, but I think it helps that the NASCAR Hall of Fame is almost going to be the big fish in Charlotte as opposed to one of many fish," said Keck. "If (conventions) go to Atlanta, they are going to be paying $279 a night for a hotel room whereas if they come to Charlotte they might be paying $179 if not much less than that."

Patrick Rishe, a sports economist at Webster University in St. Louis who attended college in Charlotte, put it a little less delicately. A lot of people who are into NASCAR are more "rural than urban," Rishe said, and they would likely find Charlotte a less intimidating place to visit than a city like Atlanta.

Rishe described the hall as a "nice perk" for Charlotte that the city should be proud of. The NBA basketball team new arena, he said, will attract events and some synergy that weren't here before.

"I think you are moving in the right direction, but I think it is hard to expect things in Charlotte to ever be quite like an Atlanta," said Rishe. "The thing with Atlanta is that you have several parts of town where there really, truly is an entertainment district. Aside from downtown Charlotte, I don't really know where you go in Charlotte to get that. Are you going to go to South Park? It's nice but it is not going to attract the kind of volume of nightlife on a daily basis that Atlanta has with Buckhead, for instance, or with some of the areas of their downtown and their midtown."

The hall isn't the only thing Charlotte has landed recently. The city has been on a roll lately, having nabbed the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) basketball tournament away from Raleigh this year.

"What's the CIAA?" sports economist Rishe asked. "Refresh my memory."

While Charlotte may not have hit the big leagues yet, Sponseller said the momentum from winning venues such as the NASCAR hall helps attract meetings and conventions that bolster the tourism industry as a whole.

"When people plan meetings and conventions, they look at the destination's total package," said Sponseller. "What is there to do? Other things to do in the community weigh big because it helps increase spouse attendance. So something like the hall of fame, because NASCAR is so big, is big for Charlotte."

That's true, DeGaris agreed, to an extent. It all depends on whom you are talking to.

"Outside of NASCAR markets, in the northeast and in the west, I really don't think that the hall of fame adds much," said DeGaris. "In certain markets, there is still a bigotry against NASCAR. That's something that is not completely overcome, so if you are looking at attracting a really big national convention, I'm not sure that the hall of fame would be an asset. I don't see it as a huge landmark for the city. I think the NFL team really did that."

 

that it gives you more shit to update us on



BTW,how's the light rail coming along

 

Its coming along fine . . . . Thanks for asking !!!!!

 

Its coming along fine . . . . Thanks for asking !!!!!

 

alot of rednecks come one time to see the Dale shrine open...Walmart gets some boost in sales as well as Chi Chis and TK Tripps...15 years it's torn down and made into high rise condos