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Business in racing: Casino raises NASCAR stakes at Kansas Speedway
By Erik Spanberg - Contributing Writer
Thursday, October 16, 2008
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson wins at Kansas Speedway last month.
Jerry Markland
Getty Images for NASCAR
Trading paint, say hello to ante up. Those maxims will soon race side by side at Kansas Speedway, where a $705 million casino is scheduled to open in three years next to the NASCAR track.
A state gambling board in Kansas recently approved the trackside casino proposal, setting the stage for a massive tourism push.
Yes, Toto, you’re still in Kansas, and that really is a bank of slot machines headed to the track.
Track owner International Speedway Corp. teamed with developer The Cordish Co. to make the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino reality in Kansas, adding a jolt of Vegas Oz to the Midwest.
Analysts of publicly held ISC like the idea. Tim Conder, who follows the company for Wachovia Capital Markets, praised the project for bringing another moneymaker to the table while keeping the primary focus on the company’s main racing business.
As for marrying a sports company with a casino, principals see no need for caution flags.
“We really didn’t see a down side,” says Jeff Boerger, Kansas Speedway president. “At the end of the day, when gaming legislation passed the state of Kansas, we decided as a company this is something that would be good for our shareholders. This is an added-value for our race fans.”
For years, NASCAR has staged races in Las Vegas, where betting on sports is legal, without incident and with consistently strong crowds. Some observers have long harrumphed at sports leagues’ hyper-sensitivity toward gambling even as odds and point spreads fill newspaper sports sections.
Though all of the major sports leagues still refuse to award a franchise to Las Vegas, the barriers between gambling and sports have ebbed in recent years. Las Vegas hosted the 2007 NBA All-Star game and a Connecticut casino owns a WNBA franchise.
NASCAR’s gambling rules for drivers and others in the sport are more lenient than those imposed by other major sports leagues. Other sports may be more leery of gambling because of past episodes, including baseball (the Black Sox, Pete Rose) and football (Paul Hornung, Alex Karras). Companies in the gambling and casino business have been allowed as sponsors in a range of sports, including NASCAR.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston says drivers are prohibited from betting on races they participate in, but he acknowledges the sport has a much closer relationship with various forms of gambling, from casinos to NASCAR-licensed lottery scratch cards.
"Other sports leagues have wrestled with this question," Poston says. "This
is an aspect where we're different."
Lesa France Kennedy serves as president of Kansas Speedway parent ISC and sits on NASCAR’s board of directors. Thus, the Kansas project represents one of major professional sports’ closest links with a casino.
To win the casino project, ISC placed a bet on the power of a second Sprint Cup date. It paid off handsomely, as the prospect of a second race helped propel a successful casino bid. Expect a second race at the track in time for the Hard Rock’s 2011 opening.
Speedway plans call for an infield road course and the likely addition of lights to make one or both of the races night-time events.
Boerger believes the 80,000-seat track has the right capacity. An outside consultant estimates that the casino will bring an additional 8 million people to the area each year, Boerger says. Those additional bodies offer tantalizing opportunities to sell NASCAR tickets.
How close will the casino and track be? Boerger says casino guests who hop in the pool on a race weekend will be able to glance down at Turn 2 and see stock cars whipping around the track. Now that’s close.
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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Comments
10 responses to "Business in racing: Casino raises NASCAR stakes at Kansas Speedway". Post a Comment.
Dave Buzalski said:
Oct 16, 2008 at 4:48 PMIs this what our 850B bailout money is being used for?? A Casino??
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» Confirm Abuse ReportTroy Downey said:
Oct 16, 2008 at 7:20 PMThere is a casino 5 minutes from the Kentucky Speedway. I guess that means we should get a cup race. All right!!
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» Confirm Abuse ReportKeith Johnson said:
Oct 16, 2008 at 7:33 PMNASCAR is money hungry and racing history means nothing to them. Whay does any track deserve another date just because a casino is being built. NASCAR is going down the drain. Thank god for sprint car racing.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportWerner Boehmert said:
Oct 16, 2008 at 8:03 PMit's no longer about racing...
Report as Abuseit's about entertainment...
who's in charge?...
Vince Machmon?...
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» Confirm Abuse ReportTom Jones said:
Oct 17, 2008 at 12:39 AMI guess the people who go to the races don't need anything else to keep them busy during the week they are at the tracks. I think this will be a great draw for the fans. They can plan on throwing away a little cash and watch a race. I think this will be great. Thay need a casino at each track. The tracks and sponsor's can sponsor the teams. This can be real good for everyone.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportJON LYSON said:
Oct 17, 2008 at 5:34 AMprobably not that many new patrons. the biggest one in new england, the foxwoods layed off 700 people last week because of downturn.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportDennis Hill said:
Oct 17, 2008 at 7:52 AMThere is so much stuff being built up around the Kansas Speedway that the traffic getting and out will be next to impossible, I dont see any problem with the second race but do we really need all this other stuff
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» Confirm Abuse ReportRyan C. said:
Oct 17, 2008 at 9:22 AMFor the first four posters first off Dave the casino is not publicly funded so get your story straight. Troy Maybe one of these days for Kentucky but I think Iowa should get a date before Kentucky does. Keith is just another Nascar basher. They are getting another date because it's a great track and sells out for every race. With the addition of a casino it puts Kansas not only a great place for race weekends but also a fun place when there is no racing going on. And Werner isn't racing a form of entertainment I know when I go to short tracks here in Oklahoma or go to the Cup races it is mainly for good entertainment!!!!!!
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» Confirm Abuse Reportkeith yocum said:
Oct 17, 2008 at 11:16 AMDover should now get 3 races because it has had a casino for over 10 years on the backstretch and sells 135,000 out of 147,000 seats and is a much better track than Kansas. Wow Kansas sells out 82,000 seats and has no waiting list. That is 38,000 below the 120,000 average sprint cup attendance figures that Na$car brags about with only selling 82,000 seats and the cost to build the place Kansas is lucky to have 1 race let alone 2.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportgwen thompson said:
Oct 17, 2008 at 11:53 AMHummm???
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