Budget Cut For NASCAR Hall of Fame
18,585 was the official number of people who attended the Hall of Fame in November, better only than September’s 16,445. A cut in the hall’s budget by nearly a third was approved by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. This was prompted due to low attendance. Effective immediately, the CRVA Board of Directors passed a $4.7 million cut.
Since the city of Charlotte-owned hall opened in May, that was the second-smallest monthly crowd, but the hall’s new austerity measures appear to be in place. Compared with $703,351 in expenses for the month, the hall had $602,550 in revenue. The hall had been spending between $800,000 and $850,000 in expenses in the previous months. $509,703 is the hall’s loss for the first five months of fiscal year. By this point, the hall had budgeted a $1.1 million surplus.
The hall is holding a free open house week this week, in an effort to generate excitement. visitors can see the hall for free, from 4 to 6 p.m., through Friday. All the exhibits can be seen for free, although electronic exhibits require a paid ticket. With more than 4,000 visitors in the first two days of the open house, Hall spokesperson Kimberly Meesters said the response has been “fantastic”.
In a revised budget, for the fiscal year, which ends in June, the hall is now projecting a loss of $1.29 million. City officials have said no general fund tax dollars will be used for the hall and the loss will be covered by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority’s $3.4 million reserve fund.
Proposing cuts of $4 million based on 350,000 visitors to the one adopted, executives from the Hall had presented budgets to the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority in the last month, which includes $4,784,041 in cuts based on attendance of 250,000. The Hall of Fame has had 119,576 attendees for the first five months of the July-June fiscal year and it is running a deficit of $509,703, $342,871 from royalties due to NASCAR that had agreed to defer until the Hall turns a profit.
The Hall was originally projected to make $792,839, thereby making the new bottom line more than $2 million less than the original budget.
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