Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Events and Attractions

Baltimore Signs Downforce Racing To Five-Year Deal To Manage The Grand Prix

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and her administration have “struck a five-year deal with a new team to manage the Baltimore Grand Prix race, including new safeguards designed to insulate the city from losses,” according to a front-page piece by Scharper & Broadwater of the Baltimore SUN. Officials unveiled a contract today with Downforce Racing, a company headed by Indianapolis-based contractor Dale Dillon and two former Constellation Energy Group Inc. execs -- Felix Dawson and Daniel Reck. Dillon has "built tracks for IndyCar races in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Toronto.” The contract stipulates that “a portion of the proceeds from each ticket sold will be placed in a ‘lock box’ escrow account" controlled by a trustee chosen by the city -- ensuring that the racing group, "unlike its predecessor, would pay city admission and amusement taxes and service fees.” Under the contract, the city “also would retain the right to inspect Downforce Racing's financial records at any time.” At the same time, the city “isn't imposing some of the same fees that the previous organizer, Baltimore Racing Development, blamed in part for its financial woes.” The city is “demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars less from Downforce Racing than it did from Baltimore Racing Development, which failed to pay $1.5 million in city taxes and fees.” Dillon said that he “was confident that his experience working on other races would prevent the group from having the same problems” as BRD. The group expressed “confidence that the race would be profitable, but would not say whether they expected to turn a profit in the first year.” The contract “does not require Downforce Racing to pay back the debts Baltimore Racing Development owes to the Maryland Stadium Authority” (Baltimore SUN, 2/15).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2012/02/15/Events-and-Attractions/BMore-GP.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2012/02/15/Events-and-Attractions/BMore-GP.aspx

CLOSE