That essentially is new Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority head Tom Murray’s goal. As the UPoR reports:
Murray said his next goal is to improve attendance at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which lost $1.4 million in its first year. His goal is to have the racing museum break even financially or turn a profit, he said.
Murray said new lower ticket prices for local people have been successful, and that the hall may try to offer discounted tickets to convention attendees in the future. The CRVA has said it has struggled to convince convention attendees to visit the hall.
So essentially, if the NASCAR Hall of Fame breaks even, then Murray can say that all is well, everyone can conveniently stop thinking about much of a policy failure the facility is, and move on to business as usual. Like doing the next deal. I’m sure a lot of people Uptown would like that.
Except that the details of how the HOF might break even matter. The original idea was that the facility would draw a lot of people from out of town — that is to say, it would draw new (additional) tourism dollars to the city. That hasn’t really happened. So now Murray is left to cover the facility’s losses by trying to get a bigger share of the existing tourism pie and locals’ discretionary spending. To the degree he succeeds, it means attracting money that would otherwise be spent on other local entertainment options. To the degree he succeeds, it means other attractions and entertainment options might just fail. As in fail to meet their revenue targets and, maybe in some cases, fail entirely.
Bonus observation: So conventioneers aren’t excited about the NASCAR HOF? So presumably by extension, the HOF isn’t really helping to draw conventions either. That would be a problem, as we raised the hotel/motel tax to help pay for the racing museum, thus making the Charlotte less attractive for conventions.
