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No NASCAR Speedway on Staten Island

Staten Island?s residents opposed the plans to build a NASCAR speedway on their island complained that Staten Island?s roads were already too congested. A Florida company canalled its plans to build a 82,000-seat NASCAR speedway on the island, after two years of planning. The three-quarter-mile track was planned to be built on an abandoned oil tank farm near the Goethals Bridge. Wes Harris, a company spokesman, said that the board of directors of the International Speedway Corporation decided to cancel the plans, Thursday, due to resident`s opposition. He said: ?The reality of it is the board came to the conclusion that the politics was going to be such that we could not be successful,?

In May 2004, the NASCAR affiliate based in Daytona Beach, Fla., announced plans to transform 450 acres of unused industrial land on the northwest tip of Staten Island into the New York base for one of the country?s most popular sports. Facing trouble with traffic that the speedway would no doubt create, they had devised a plan to create a complex network of ferries, charter buses and park-and-ride lots that would have allowed fans to reach the site without causing any extra traffic.

The plans would have also $350 million worth in construction wages during the two years it would have taken to build the track and said the track would have contributed $200 million to the local economy every year. This includes ticket sales, food and beverage sales and hotel bookings. They hired Guy V. Molinari, a former borough president, as a lobbyist, in order to further the plans but to no avail. The speedway will not be arriving at Staten Island.