A cautionary tale lies just 36 miles down the freeway from downtown Baltimore’s proposed Indy Car race along city streets. After fronting the $5.1 million to build a racetrack in the parking lot of RFK 
Baltimore Racing Development would reimburse Baltimore up to $500,000 for the city’s expenses in holding the proposed race on its streets, says COO Jay Davidson.Stadium, the Cadillac Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., came in 2002 — and never returned.
But race promoters, including the ones trying to bring an Indy Car race to Baltimore in 2011, say Washington was an unusual case and most cities that host races on their streets have limited financial exposure today.
In Washington, setting up the American Le Mans Series race ran nearly $2 million over budget and the event drew complaints from the neighborhoods surrounding the track. Although the race promoter was to pay back half the city’s costs over 10 years, the political controversy made it a one-and-done event.
“It ended up costing a fair amount of money and the return was not what we hoped it would be,” said William Hall, an attorney who was a D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission board member at the time. That, “combined with the noise issue” not being resolved with nearby residents, quashed the event, he said.
But RFK’s track was essentially built from scratch and that drove up the cost. That would not be the case in Baltimore, according to the city Department of Transportation.
Cities can lose during race cars’ fast visits
August 31, 2009 6:02 PM
