Upon hearing the news Friday
that Dover Motorsports was closing Memphis Motorsports Park, Kevin Kane
wasted no time picking up the phone.
The president of the Memphis
Convention and Visitors Bureau began making calls to anyone he thought
might be interested in purchasing the Mid-South race track.
Dover Motorsports, which
bought the track in 1998, closed MMP on Friday, citing a down economy
that has led to decreased attendance for more than a year. Earlier this
year, it appeared that MMP was going to be sold to Gulf Coast
Entertainment for $10 million as part of of $560 million project that
included a speedway in Mobile, Ala.
But after being given two
extensions, that deal fell through, leading to Friday's bad news. Gone
with MMP are more than 250 events, including its three biggest races --
the Kroger On Track for the Cure 250 Nationwide Series race, the NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series 200 and the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series.
''I would like to see the
facility purchased and the infrastructure remain intact, if at all
possible, even with no races,'' Kane said. ''The short-term likelihood
of getting sanctioned races on a calendar regardless of who is operating
it are slim to none for a while.
"I think the reality of
this is we're going to be without those forms of racing here for at
least some given amount of time."
Dover Motorsports
president and CEO Denis McGlynn said it was a difficult decision to
close the Millington track. But with the economy hurting most racing
events outside of the Sprint Cup series, it made business sense to close
MMP. NASCAR has agreed to move the 2010 Nationwide Series race to
Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis and the Truck race to the
Nashville Superspeedway. Both tracks are owned by Dover Motorsports.
In the meantime, McGlynn
said, he's willing to listen to any suitors for MMP.
"We're going to sit tight
for a few weeks and see who rings the phone, or what they have to say,"
McGlynn said. "There may be some people interested in buying it. We will
try to put it up for sale and we'll entertain offers. If none of those
are acceptable, we'll probably get a Realtor to intercede and see what
we could do."
McGlynn didn't say what
his asking price would be, but Kane figures it will be much less than
the $10 million sought from Gulf Coast Entertainment now that the races
are no longer included in the deal.
"That's a big blow to
whoever would want to purchase it," Kane said. "That's why my concern
is, God forbid, somebody purchases it and builds warehouses. I would
hate to see that infrastructure of the facility lost. We'll see what
happens.
"I've already spoken to
some people in the community and we're going to be in close contact with
the officials at Dover. I'm going to see what we can do."
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