Memphis Motorsports Park to shut down; 2010 race dates moved
By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Friday, October 30, 2009
Memphis Motorsports Park will cease to host NASCAR Nationwide and Truck races.
John Sommers II
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Memphis Motorsports Park, which has played host to races in what is now the Nationwide Series the last 11 years and to Truck series races the last 12 years, is shutting down, parent company Dover Motorsports announced today.
Too many years of losses since purchasing Memphis Motorsports Park in 1998 resulted in its closing, Dover Motorsports President and CEO Denis McGlynn said today.
The track will be shut down after an American Speed Association event next week. NASCAR has agreed to move the previously scheduled 2010 races to other Dover properties – a second Nationwide event to Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis and a second Truck event at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway.
“We basically had the opinion that this market would ultimately grow for us when we acquired it back in 1998 and we put a lot of money into it and we underwrote losses for quite a few years in anticipation of some forward progress,” McGlynn said in a phone interview Friday.
“But with this economy doing what it’s doing, we’re obviously going backward here and our ability to continue to underwrite the losses from Dover just got diminished because of all that’s going on in the economy. Unfortunately, we had to ultimately come to this conclusion that we had to stop the bleeding down here in Memphis.”
McGlynn wouldn’t say exactly how much will be saved by closing the facility, which employed about 20 people, and he hopes the decision boosts the tracks getting additional races. The Nashville race will be April 2 as part of a Truck-Nationwide doubleheader weekend prior to Easter Sunday. It replaces the June 26 race scheduled for Memphis. Gateway already had a Truck-Nationwide doubleheader scheduled in July and the second Nationwide race will be Oct. 23, the original date for Memphis.
“Those are bigger markets, bigger facilities and maybe even more viable markets from a NASCAR standpoint,” McGlynn said. “I love the people in Memphis, I love the town, I love the food. I’m just not sure it was the best choice in retrospect for what we were trying to do. So we’re going to try to bolster our schedules at the other two venues and move on.”
Dover Motorsports had planned to sell the .75-mile Memphis track for $10 million to Gulf Coast Entertainment, but the deal announced in January fell through when GCE couldn’t secure financing for its project, which includes a motorsports facility in Alabama. GCE had still hoped to buy the track once it acquired the financing, and the plan was for Dover Motorsports to manage the operations.
Memphis Motorsports Park has approximately 20,000 permanent seats. McGlynn said the bleachers will remain at the track in case it does get sold soon.
“The Gulf Coast group would still do this deal today if they could get funding,” McGlynn said. “Originally, we were going to close in the early spring and they needed an extension so we gave them an extension until the end of June and they needed another extension.
“We got to the end of September and realized that with the economy being the way it is, the longer they push this, they were going to struggle for quite a while to get their funding and meanwhile we couldn’t wait any longer. We gave them nine months to do what they asked us to do and it just didn’t work out”
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15 responses to "Memphis Motorsports Park to shut down; 2010 race dates moved ". Post a Comment.
tinynascarfan said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 12:26 PMI hate it for race fans, we have lost another short track! Hint to anyone wanting to build a racetrack, dont build a 4 lane wide 3/4 mile track, build a short track drivers hate! If a driver hates it, fans will love it! Memphis, sorry to see you go, at least sorry for the fans who went, but the track was terrible for racing!
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» Confirm Abuse Reportramblinman2006 said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 2:49 PMRamblinman says: They might has well have built the track in Africa it would have been the same results.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportRobbygordonfan1 said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 5:25 PMIt's sad to see it go... Is there anyway to move the track to Fontana?
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» Confirm Abuse Reportkeith308 said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 5:41 PMFontana is the worst track on the circuit.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportrobrc1 said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 6:42 PMmake it a richmond type track i really hate to see any short track go. i guess the economy is bad for our sport to ,they could always make a bristo out of it with the high banks and im sure the fans will come and support your facility thanks
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» Confirm Abuse Reportleftturn said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 6:57 PMDover Motorsports appears to be in a bit of turmoil with the shareholders and management. Apparently the SEC is involved. An article here in Scene on OCT. 9 had some of the details along with an attempt by Bruton Smith to purchase the operation 2 years ago.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportJGRFan4Life said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 6:59 PMAnother short track gone. When will someone (besides us fans) realize that short tracks are clearly better.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportantifan said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 7:09 PMIf this track is so great why didn’t the local fans support it enough so it made money?
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» Confirm Abuse ReportWerner said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 7:37 PMbigger markets don't attract more fans...CA shows us that....then again we the fans are to blame, cause we just don't support the sport anymore...
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» Confirm Abuse Reportdeyanak said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 8:58 PMmaybe a group of fans could be together and talk with Obama for some stimulus money, doesnt appear anything he has done has worked so I guess thats really not so good an idea
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» Confirm Abuse ReportWerner said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 10:03 PMDEYANAK...NASCAR has gotten stim money...they let them qrite off more losses and improvements...must be why they let MA fail...
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» Confirm Abuse Reportbloodbornedrummer said:
Oct 30, 2009 at 10:57 PMI have been a season ticket holder MMP for 4 years. My opinion is that the tickets got more expensive and the experience got worse. I am going to miss going to Memphis. MMP offered great racing,buy the fan experience just got increasingly worse over the years. When they started the turn one club and did away with the mmp club, was the begining of the end! The vendors area has got smaller and smaller. MMP couldve saved the track had they listened to us fans. NASCAR and track owners listen to the fans!!!! We know what we want a lot more than you do!! Give us value!!! Make your money in volume not by trying to over charge a few. Make fan pakages more inclusive, affordable hospitality etc....
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» Confirm Abuse ReportSTP43FAN said:
Oct 31, 2009 at 12:33 PMIt's never good when any track closes, but don't shed tears that a short track got axed. This sport is about superspeedways and TinyNascarFan is wrong - build a superspeedway.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportWerner said:
Oct 31, 2009 at 4:18 PMcouldn't they give Rockingham a race?
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» Confirm Abuse ReportBILLFAN50 said:
Oct 31, 2009 at 6:39 PMRockingham would be a good pick... I would like to see them bring back the Nationwide and Modifieds (twin 200s) too Martinsville...
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