| Martinsville Speedway sold for $192 million
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Virginia Business
July
2004
International Speedway Corp. of Daytona
Beach, Fla., recently paid $192 million to buy the Martinsville
Speedway from track president Clay Campbell, whose family
held joint ownership of the half-mile stock-car speedway.
With the purchase, ISC now owns or operates 12 tracks,
including Daytona International Speedway in Florida,
Talladega Superspeed-way in Alabama and Richmond International
Raceway in Virginia, which recently hosted the Chevy
American Revolution 400 Cup race.
Martinsville Speedway will host the
Subway 500 on Oct. 24. In 2005, the track is the scheduled
site of Nextel Cup races on April 10 and Oct. 23. Both
the old and new owners say Martinsville won’t
lose the Nextel Cup dates, which are major revenue generators
for both the track and the Martinsville area. “Rest
assured, there are no plans to move dates,” Campbell
says. “We wouldn’t have considered selling
to anyone who would strip us of our dates.” Campbell,
who retains the title of president and inked what he
called a “long-term employment contract”
with ISC, says selling the track was a necessary course
of action to bring the track to the “next level.”
ISC recently sold North Carolina Speedway
for $100 million to Speedway Motorsports Inc., which
then moved the track’s remaining Nextel Cup date
to Texas Motor Speedway. ISC then used the proceeds
from the sale to bolster the Martinsville offer, adding
$91.6 million in cash to its original offer of slightly
more than $100 million.
The Martinsville track also announced
a $3 million capital improvement project planned for
2004, including the installation of SAFER soft walls
and the re-pouring of concrete in the turns, an issue
that came up when potholes developed during a race in
April. Kennedy says the improvements were on schedule,
as are plans to move the railroad tracks that run along
the track’s backstretch to accommodate additional
seating. The speedway has a capacity of about 63,000.
Long-term plans call for adding as many as 30,000 seats.
Return to Virginia Business - July 2004
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