At a time when tickets are hard to move, Lowe’s Motor Speedway is tearing down a 9,000-seat grandstand between Turns 1 and 2 and replacing it with a luxury motorcoach camping area that will overlook the speedway.
Marcus Smith, the speedway’s president and general manager, said luxury camping is in high demand among both corporate clients and general fans.
“These areas have been very appealing,” Smith said. “What we’ve seen at our other tracks is that all of these spaces sell out and it’s something we should take to other properties.”
Speedway Motorsports Inc., LMS’s parent company, also offers trackside viewing spaces for motorcoaches at its tracks in Las Vegas and Atlanta.
A rendering shows the area between Turns 1 and 2
at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Annual passes
will sell for $17K to $22K.
The motorcoach spaces at LMS will range from 30 to 40 feet wide and 60 feet long. An annual pass will range from $17,000 to $22,000, while individual-event passes will go for $6,000 to $8,000.
Each of the 18 motorcoach spaces comes with 10 tickets, a 10-foot viewing area in front of the motorcoach space, live race feeds on closed-circuit TV, catering options, concierge services, and full water and sewer hookups.
“It’s about delivering a little something for everyone,” Smith said. “In today’s tough market, what we’re seeing is that people are still interested in buying if you can design and deliver what they want. We’ve seen that with the expansion of our high-end areas and Speedway Clubs.”
With the new motorcoach area comes more inventory for the LMS sales team. Modifications to the section between Turns 1 and 2 include first-of-its-kind backlit signage — most of the track’s events are at night — and the track intends to sell naming rights to the RV space as well.
Construction is expected to be completed in time for LMS’s May NASCAR events. The track began selling spaces last week, and two of them have been sold.
The grandstand seats that are coming down were among the least desirable and most difficult to sell, Smith said.
