When you see the front page of today's Daytona paper, you might think you're reading about construction of a municipal football stadium... what with the tax breaks proposed for Daytona Speedway making their way through the Florida legislature.

Then again, you realize that taxpayers for years have also paid the building cost of these other sports stadiums for their wealthy team owners.

Just this past year in my Charlotte home town, the city voted to "give" Carolina Panthers owner, Jerry Richardson $86 Million for immediate upgrades to his privately owned Bank of America football stadium in Charlotte. With the $86 Million in hand, Mr. Richardson made a gift of $50 Million to defer construction costs of the new football stadium at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte campus. The name of that college stadium was immediately changed to Jerry Richardson Stadium. It should have been named Charlotte Taxpayer Stadium.

I don't begrudge racetrack owners one iota for trying to get a piece of the taxpayer pie that for years was reserved for the wealthy owners of ball sports. We used to publicize auto racing as the only sport where the fan literally paid for the seat in which he sat. That is now changing to some degree around the country.

Legislature 2014

Speedway tax relief racing through Legislature

--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM

I agree. Stick & ball sports have been getting these tax breaks for their stadiums, so NASCAR tracks should also get them. Indianapolis just cut a deal for the Speedway. BUT, I don't think that we should be giving them to anyone. No doubt there's an expiration date on these discounts and the stadium/track owner will tell you that they'll pay full price after that. But they won't. They'll have their representative write up new legislation to extend the deal or they'll pull a "Bruton" and threaten to take their business to another city/state. Tf "less government" meant cutting out these types of deals, I'd be all for it.Improvements to your house would make the neighborhood more attractive, which would inspire others to catch up. Wholesale improvement of the neighborhood encourages more people to want to live there. Higher demand raises real estate prices and that means higher taxes for the city. So Charlotte should pay your landscaping bill and waive your taxes for five years if you get the house painted.Charlotte paid for a large chunk NASCAR's Hall Of Fame and continues to suffer for it. When governments have too much riding on a specific business they tend to overlook any wrongdoing that may be occurring by the prinipals that run the business.

i.e. Charlotte's bankers

--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"