Bass Pro Shops anchors the development across from the speedway.daytona international speedway
This year’s Daytona 500 was the most important yet for the new One Daytona development across the street from the track.
International Speedway Corp. started building the 300,000-square-foot retail, dining and entertainment district in 2016, and while a few elements of the $107 million development, such as the 67,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops, opened in early 2017, One Daytona was much closer to completion this year. The project followed the completion of ISC’s $400 million renovation of Daytona International Speedway.
New tenants at One Daytona this year included P.F. Chang’s, Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, It’Sugar, Ben & Jerry’s, Built Custom Burgers, Guitar Center, MidiCi: The Neapolitan Pizza Co., GameTime, and a 105-room Fairfield Inn & Suites By Marriott.
Other parts of the development still under construction include the 145-room Marriott Autograph Collection hotel branded as The Daytona, a 276-unit luxury apartment complex, and the Volusia Point retail property adjacent to One Daytona that ISC bought, is refurbishing and rebranding to “the Shoppes at One Daytona.”
Jeff Boerger, vice president of corporate development for ISC, said the retail portion of One Daytona is about 90 percent complete. “The response was very positive — not only from our race fans but the industry at whole,” he said.
ISC said it’s expecting the first phase of One Daytona and the Shoppes to deliver an annual EBITDA lift of $10 million.
Daytona’s “injector” branded entrance partners and a few other official partners of Daytona, including Fifth Third Bank and ISM Connect, have a presence at One Daytona, whether by signage or integration of its products.
MIXED RESULTS: The track announced a sellout for its 101,000 grandstand seats for the race — the third straight year since finishing the Daytona Rising renovation of the speedway. There was a buzz on race day, with celebrities including actress Charlize Theron, retired pro athletes Peyton Manning, Chipper Jones and Darrell Green, and the band Rascal Flatts, on site.
The crush of people on race day led to bottlenecked wireless service, with complaints coming from some brand execs who said their registration systems on the midway had connectivity issues. The track declined to comment about the connectivity issues.
A thrilling race that featured several multicar wrecks and passes for the lead wasn’t enough to draw in more viewers. Ratings and viewership fell about 20 percent from 2017. The race earned a 5.3 rating and 9.3 million viewers on Fox, matching a record low for NASCAR’s signature event. Still, the Daytona 500 was the top non-Olympic event of the weekend, beating out the NBA All-Star Game, which earned a 4.3 rating and 7.7 million viewers.
GORDON’S NEXT MOVE: While it was only the first race of the 2018 season, some insiders are already pointing to the future of Fox Sports’ NASCAR booth. Jeff Gordon stepped into the booth in 2016 after retiring, but has been taking on an increasing role as co-owner of Hendrick Motorsports (see SportsBusiness Journal: Oct. 23-29 issue).
Gordon’s deal with Fox expires after 2018, and Gordon said in October that he was not sure what the future held beyond then. However, sources close to HMS continue to say Gordon could end up leaving Fox after this season. Additionally, sources said changes for the rest of Fox’s booth could play out as well. Announcer Mike Joy and analysts Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds have been with Fox since the network started covering NASCAR in 2001.
SUNOCO MAKES MOVE: Sunoco is taking part of its sports marketing in house, as the company deals with several executive departures and the sale of its convenience stores to 7-Eleven. Selling the stores diminished Sunoco’s need for business-to-consumer marketing, leading Sunoco to drop its experiential agency, MKTG, a move confirmed by agency executives. Sunoco is the official fuel of NASCAR, IndyCar and the NHRA.
WALLACE’S BIG DAY: On the grid before the Daytona 500, Chris Davis, NASCAR vice president and chief security officer, stood with former NFL punter and current Minnesota Vikings radio analyst Greg Coleman, who became the first black punter in league history in 1977.
Davis and Coleman were standing next to Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 43 Chevrolet that was about to be driven by Darrell Wallace Jr. Wallace, who became the highest-finishing African-American in Daytona 500 history later that afternoon by finishing second, met Coleman briefly in the moments before the race. RPM majority owner Andrew Murstein also put Wallace on the phone with Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, who serves on the board of directors of Murstein’s company, Medallion Financial Corp.
Said Coleman after the race: “It was a huge weekend for me with celebrating Black History Month, coming off the Super Bowl … it was just such a cool weekend to understand the significance of the weekend, what’s on his shoulders, to meet his mom and sister and get a chance to chat with them — it sort of brought back memories of my own journey.”
