Losses at the NASCAR HOF declined 14% "over the past year but still totaled" more than $1M, according to financial reports cited by Erik Spanberg of the CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL. The $195M publicly funded HOF "finished with a deficit" of $1.4M in the FY that ended June 30, compared with $1.6M in '13. The HOF opened in May '10 and "has lost money from the start." Attendance "never reached the projections made before the stock-car racing museum opened and has failed several times since to reach revised targets." However, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority CEO Tom Murray and HOF Exec Dir Winston Kelley said that attendance "has stabilized." The CRVA said that between July '13-June '14, "a total of 169,724 people visited" the HOF. Those figures "are for paid admissions only." The previous year, 178,838 people visited, but the difference of 7,100 "is attributed to private events staged during the 2012 Democratic National Convention, which was included" in FY '13. Kelley "pointed to work with NASCAR, which has moved major events and press conferences to the hall of fame, as an important partnership that has been strengthened." Still, financial questions "remain unanswered, including the long-term relationship between the city, the visitors authority, NASCAR and chief lenders Bank of America and Wells Fargo." NASCAR "has deferred royalties owed by the hall until the museum becomes profitable" (
BIZJOURNALS.com, 11/5).
