Races pour millions into Topeka economy
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By JEAN ORTIZ / Lincoln Journal Star
TOPEKA, Kan. — Rodger Doherty doesn’t have trouble shrugging off the surge of traffic and visitors passing through his end of town.
He lives within a mile of the drag strip, road course and dirt track known as Heartland Park Topeka —a magnet for top-fuel dragsters, pro-stock motorcycles and the thousands of fans who follow them every year.
“It’s good for the economy,” he said.
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- Heartland Park Topeka was built for about $22 million in the late 1980s, including $7.5 million in general obligation bonds approved by voters.
- A massive renovation in recent years put more than $22 million into the project, yielding nine new buildings, refinished raceways and other improvements.
- The renovation project was funded with about $16 million in bonds, including about $10 million in bonds designated for projects that boost the economy.
- The complex employs 20 people full time and more than 100 seasonal workers.
- A Topeka economist in 2004 estimated the development and related industries could create nearly $37 million annually in additional spending in Shawnee County, not counting the impacts of a major national event the park has since lured. By 2008, the economic impact is predicted to spur $100 million annually in additional spending.
- Motor sports entrepreneur Greg Sandford has proposed a quarter-mile drag strip that could cost $5 million. A UNL economist conservatively estimated such a project could draw nearly $10 million annually in local spending.
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Local economists measure the track’s annual economic impact in the tens of millions of dollars — the type of revenue supporters of a Lincoln-area track are betting on.
But the payoff in Topeka hasn’t come without investment.
It was 1979 when city officials began tossing around the idea of building a racing center, former Mayor Butch Felker told the Topeka Capital-Journal, recalling the beginnings of what was to be the city’s “field of dreams.”
A long-term contract set up the scenario. The city owns the complex. A private operator manages it.
The $22 million project was built in the late 1980s on city land. Of those costs, $7.5 million came from bonds narrowly approved by voters.
The complex came perilously close to failing and likely wouldn’t have survived on private enterprise alone, said Neil Dobler, the city’s former public works director.
Raymond Irwin stepped into the picture in 2002. Irwin, who’d long run a road course in northern Illinois, came to Topeka at the request of the president of the Sports Car Club of America — a national group that moved to Topeka that year.
It wasn’t the best of scenarios to step into, Irwin recalled. The complex owed more than $1 million to everyone from contractors to hardware stores. Creditors were looking to foreclose. And the complex was in disrepair.
Irwin got to work by April 2003 and, by the following summer, took his big picture plans to local leaders. With a chance to bid on the SCCA Runoffs — the Super Bowl of amateur road racing — Irwin decided renovations were in order.
Local and state leaders responded, together offering $16 million, including about $10 million from STAR bonds. STAR bonds, or sales tax and revenue bonds, are available for projects that will help the economy. The debt is paid down by the sales taxes generated from the projects they fund.
Altogether, the two-phase construction project would invest slightly more into the complex than the $22 million it initially cost to build.
Nine new buildings emerged, scattered across the 770-acre campus, including areas for maintenance, race control and security. The project also left room for repairs to the raceways, landscaping and parking areas.
Irwin, meanwhile, is tight-lipped about the park’s revenue or his investments over the years. It doesn’t matter, he says.
“If I told you everything in the whole world I had was tied up in this place, and if it went down and didn’t make it, I’d lose everything I had, would that be enough?” he said, reminiscing on a response he once used in a radio interview.
In 2004, the Topeka-based Washburn University School of Business released an economic impact study commissioned by Heartland Park Topeka and the Sports Car Club of America.
The study looked at the impact of the complex and SCCA operations and motor sports visitors who visit hotels, restaurants and other local business, estimating nearly $37 million was coming into Shawnee County.
The SCCA Runoffs could add another $11 million, the study predicted. That event did come in 2006 and will stay at least through next year.
By 2008, assuming an increase in event days, the complex could spur a total of $100 million in additional spending.
The complex hosted about 83 event days when the study was done. Today, that’s about tripled, Irwin said.
Besides money, the complex has brought jobs to the community. Today, about 20 people are employed full-time at the complex, with an additional 100 seasonal workers, Irwin said.
Supporters of a proposed drag strip in Lancaster County also have touted the potential of money and jobs.
Motor sports entrepreneur Greg Sanford has proposed a quarter-mile drag strip near U.S. 77 between Branched Oak and Davey roads north of Lincoln.
UNL’s Bureau of Business Research released a study in January on the potential economic impact of a drag strip project like Sanford’s.
Based on a 60-event day calendar and using conservative estimates, a drag strip could bring in nearly $10 million annually in additional local spending and create 200 local jobs at the track and in related industries, according to the survey Sanford commissioned.
Sanford expects the center, which would include stands for spectators and other accommodations, could cost about $5 million. He plans to fully fund the project, but his proposal has met resistance among some in the community and has yet to be scheduled for the County Board’s consideration.
Though the economic impact has expanded steadily, not all the expectations set out during the birth of Heartland Park Topeka have been met, said Marsha Sheahan, vice president of public relations for the Topeka Chamber of Commerce.
Officials had hoped early on to see more of a surge in new business in the automotive and related industries, or perhaps convince some racing teams to move. That really didn’t happen, she said, although the Sports Car Club of America did move from Denver in 2002.
The ups and downs of management before Irwin’s time has to do with some of that, she said.
It appears things are on the way up now, she said. Certainly there have been new restaurants and hotels. Among them: a 63-room Super 8 that will celebrate its two-year anniversary this month. It keeps busy in part to business travelers and vacationers coming through the south end of town, said co-owner Kurt Young.
The property recently welcomed a Subway and is making room for a steakhouse, he said.
But Young, who moonlights as a Shawnee County Commissioner, has a good idea of the value of his other customers — the ones who come seeking a seat in the grandstands or behind the wheel inside Heartland Park.
“None of this would be happening if it weren’t for the race track,” he said.
Reach Jean Ortiz at 473-7107 or jortiz@journalstar.com.
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