Re: acres for a strip?
The idea of building and operation a mid-size local track has long been a dream of mine.
For East Texas, our last local track, Hallsville Drag Strip, closed in 2005. Within two years of Hallsville closing the local hot rod, drag car scene began a downward spiral that continues to this day.
Our options now require driving 100 - 120 miles and getting home in the wee hours. While us hardcore old codgers continue to participate the locals who would drive 40 - 50 miles are out of the running [so to speak]
Yet, my dreams are generally much larger than my resources. Several times in the last few years crunching the numbers and being realistic about cost and needs shows that building a track, even a modest build, is expensive.
Having to service a large debt load would be a quick way to fail.
To my thinking, the ideal plan is money from an investor, city, county, or other entity that would be able to defer the return on investment for some years.
Once the track had time to build a racer base and begin special draw programs the investor could gradually recover his investment by profit taking.
In addition, I am full of ideas in ref to other uses of the property that would keep folks coming in to create continuing interest.
The basic requirements for success are low and deferred debt plus lots of work with promotions
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