Car racing park at NJ Continental Arena site

[Roscoe]

Car racing park proposed for Continental Arena site

Tuesday, August 27, 2002


BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
Star-Ledger Staff

Donald Trump and the top developer of automobile racetracks want to build the country's biggest interactive racing park along with a proposed speedway at the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

Trump, who has been working with the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing to bring a major racing facility to the New York Metropolitan Area, said the interactive racing park would be NASCAR's version of Disneyland and could become one of the top destinations for fans of a sport that has exploded in popularity during the past decade.


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"There is great interest on behalf of NASCAR in the Continental Arena site," Trump said yesterday. "We're talking about something spectacular for the state of New Jersey and for racing fans."

Trump said he is working on the proposal with International Speedway Corp., NASCAR's development arm, and will submit it next month to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the state agency that operates the Meadowlands.

A top official in the McGreevey Administration confirmed that executives of ISC have held several meetings with members of the Governor's staff to discuss a plan for the 104-acre Continental Arena site.

George Zoffinger, chief executive of the Sports Authority, wants to tear down the debt-laden arena if the state can reach a deal with the sports company YankeeNets to build a $355 million arena in downtown Newark for the Nets and the Devils.

The Sports Authority has set a deadline of Sept. 17 for developers to submit their plans for redeveloping the land where the arena now stands.

Zoffinger said every proposal would have to meet McGreevey's demand that it be more than just another major regional shopping mall.

"The Governor wants the Meadowlands development to be something that can drive the economy of northern New Jersey," Zoffinger said. "He really believes the Meadowlands can be that kind of place."

For NASCAR, representing one of the country's fastest growing sports, the New York market represents the final frontier, an untapped region rich with potential corporate sponsors and racing fans. The France family, which controls NASCAR and ISC, has long dreamed of a speedway with a view of the Manhattan skyline.

Many speedways offer expensive driving schools, and ISC has smaller interactive centers at its tracks throughout the country, including Daytona USA, a 60,000-square-foot indoor facility where fans can take part in virtual reality racing games. Trump said those would pale in comparison to the Meadowlands site, where ISC might have the space to build a mini-track where fans could drive imitation stock cars.

The Sports Authority expects Trump to be one of a half-dozen developers, including Hartz Mountain Industries of Secaucus and the Mills Corp. of Arlington, Va., to submit a proposal next month. Details of the NASCAR plan are the first to emerge since the Sports Authority sent out its request for proposals on July 2.

Two years ago, ISC entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Sports Authority, giving it the right to develop plans to build an international speedway around the Meadowlands Racetrack. The speedway would bring more than 100,000 racing fans to northern New Jersey on two or three weekends each year.

Those plans have been put on hold because ISC and the state have been unable to agree on who would foot the bill for a project that would cost roughly $400 million.

The Meadowlands speedway would be a blow to NASCAR boosters in South Jersey who want to bring a major speedway to their region.

"There is a massive majority that wants this project in the Atlantic County area to help tourism in New Jersey," said Don Fauerbach, executive director of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors.

The Meadowlands plan also has received a mixed reception in southern Bergen County, where residents have visions of race-related traffic jams in an area already clogged with traffic.

"I'm not sure what the temperament is," said Len Kaiser, the mayor of North Arlington and a member of Zoffinger's advisory board on development at the sports complex. "But who wouldn't want to do this in a place as great as New Jersey, with the New York skyline at your back. It's a great opportunity for NASCAR."



Matthew Futterman can be reached at (973)392-1732 or mfutterman@starledger.com.