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Post by parkerj on Jun 2, 2012 16:54:25 GMT -6
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Post by The Green Gull on Jun 2, 2012 21:41:22 GMT -6
None of NASCAR’s affiliated racing series including the Sprint Cup Series, the Nationwide Series, and the Camping World Truck Series races at the Milwaukee Mile anymore. NASCAR dropped it from its Nationwide and Truck Series schedules at the end of the 2009 season and has not been back. The IndyCar Series is the only major racing series that still races at the Milwaukee Mile. Does it make economic sense that the Milwaukee Mile is used for one weekend a year for a major racing event, the Indy Car Series’ Milwaukee Indy Fest? How sustainable and viable can it be for a race track to be used for one major race a year? And not to mention that the attendance for the Indy Car Series race at the Milwaukee Mile last year was only 15,000 people. The Milwaukee Mile at the time had a capacity of 40,000 people. www.autoweek.com/article/20110619/IRL/110619836
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Post by PantherU on Jun 2, 2012 22:04:26 GMT -6
The Andretti's are the eighth promoter since 2000. We'll see how attendance is in two weeks. I come from a car family, I've lived my entire life in West Allis and I have seen races at the Mile many times. Indycar is such an afterthought in Milwaukee, it's sad. No hometown heroes like Matt Kenseth or Paul Menard drops the draw for fans. NASCAR is so much more prominent that people see the Indycar as "second class." This is especially true of the actual second-class NASCAR events in the Busch (now Nationwide) and Truck series races that couldn't draw enough to continue. In my mind, there are two things that save the Milwaukee Mile as a race track: One, they need to get a weekly series going of sportsman or late model cars, anything that can draw in race fans on a weekly basis on Saturday nights. I used to be in the pits at Hales Corners Speedway every Saturday night, and that place was packed every time. A weekly series at the Mile from April through September would bring in the kind of support to make the Mile a big deal. You know that a "Mile Series" would have a big spread in every Sunday Journal-Sentinel by Dave Kallman, which would bring in the local television crews, which would increase publicity and marketing for the Mile, and you'd be talking about real money coming back into the fold. Two, they need Winston Cup or whatever it is now. Some people have said "you can't do Cup at the Mile," but they're full of it. Yeah there's no banks, but if the Nationwide series can run there, the Sprint Cup can run there. The Sprint Cup's cars are slightly bigger, heavier, and more powerful, but the Car of Tomorrow that they use part time isn't as fast as Nationwide, so it shouldn't be an issue if they use the CoT. Get the Sprint Cup and you get a sold out track. But that's all that can happen. Otherwise, I don't see the Mile surviving. Creating some fake "IndyFest" isn't going to do it. Obviously if there's one thing Milwaukee needed, it was another festival.
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Post by PantherU on Jun 2, 2012 22:32:35 GMT -6
BTW - the City of West Allis has gotten a hold of this thread and the Development Department is likely going to integrate these ideas into the possible plans for the space.
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Post by The Green Gull on Jun 4, 2012 21:39:44 GMT -6
Here's an updates version of the proposed soccer and football specific stadium at the Wisconsin State Fair Park:
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Post by PantherU on Jun 5, 2012 11:00:18 GMT -6
That really is an enormous space.
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Post by gman2 on Jun 5, 2012 11:33:52 GMT -6
That really is an enormous space. An enormous waste of space. Makes one understand why the City of West Allis wants development there instead of empty grass and concrete.
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Post by gotskillz on Jun 5, 2012 21:11:19 GMT -6
That really is an enormous space. An enormous waste of space. Makes one understand why the City of West Allis wants development there instead of empty grass and concrete. I have a lot more that I could write on this topic but I'm not interested in starting a battle. To me this thread is an exercise is starting a conversation and a forward thinking approach for uwm athletics; that is not a bad thing. I don't know where this will go but before you start planning to buy season tickets I will warn you of this. The city of West Allis and John Stibal can put together all of the fancy drawings they want. The reality is development costs money and the city of West Allis only has a track record of getting senior housing built. There is some business mixed in but not much market rate properties because the only development in West Allis is coming with tax credits for senior housing. For a very developed area there is still plenty of parcels of land available in West Allis but no demand for the type of project uwm fans/the city of West Allis want. My guess is the Milwaukee Mile will be in business as a race track for a long time to come.
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Post by kingsteve on Jun 6, 2012 7:34:22 GMT -6
I have lived in West Allis almost 30 years.....actually there is a hotel and waterpark apparently going in on the site of the old Mykonos restaurant across from State Fair....got to say that there is 1% chance and that is optimistic that WA would use this land for something like a UWM football stadium/soccer complex/athletic village etc....if the track does evolve into something else it is going to be mixed use or daily occupancy...no way they are going to replace one white elephant with another that sits there unused most of the time and only serves a small part of the populace...sorry.
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Post by illwauk on Jun 6, 2012 10:18:57 GMT -6
The Andretti's are the eighth promoter since 2000. We'll see how attendance is in two weeks. I come from a car family, I've lived my entire life in West Allis and I have seen races at the Mile many times. Indycar is such an afterthought in Milwaukee, it's sad. No hometown heroes like Matt Kenseth or Paul Menard drops the draw for fans. NASCAR is so much more prominent that people see the Indycar as "second class." This is especially true of the actual second-class NASCAR events in the Busch (now Nationwide) and Truck series races that couldn't draw enough to continue. I'm not the biggest race fan, but both my dad and grandpa were open-wheel drivers and it really irritates me to know people who call themselves race fans see Indy as second-rate compared to a bunch of moonshiners who can't control their vehicles. In my mind, there are two things that save the Milwaukee Mile as a race track: One, they need to get a weekly series going of sportsman or late model cars, anything that can draw in race fans on a weekly basis on Saturday nights. I used to be in the pits at Hales Corners Speedway every Saturday night, and that place was packed every time. A weekly series at the Mile from April through September would bring in the kind of support to make the Mile a big deal. You know that a "Mile Series" would have a big spread in every Sunday Journal-Sentinel by Dave Kallman, which would bring in the local television crews, which would increase publicity and marketing for the Mile, and you'd be talking about real money coming back into the fold. I think the problem with this is that there's already a sh*t ton of sportsman and late model series' in Wisconsin, and most race fans are rural dwellers who tend to avoid Milwaukee as if it were the eighth gate to hell. Sure, the Mile is technically in West Allis, but to them, all of Milwaukee County may as well be North Ave between 7th & 35th at 2AM. Two, they need Winston Cup or whatever it is now. Some people have said "you can't do Cup at the Mile," but they're full of it. Yeah there's no banks, but if the Nationwide series can run there, the Sprint Cup can run there. The Sprint Cup's cars are slightly bigger, heavier, and more powerful, but the Car of Tomorrow that they use part time isn't as fast as Nationwide, so it shouldn't be an issue if they use the CoT. Get the Sprint Cup and you get a sold out track. I agree that if they can run a Busch/Nationwide race at the mile, they could run a Cup race there, but doing so would be the equivalent of having an NBA franchise play at the Cell in 2012. No way is NASCAR going to add another race to the Sprint Cup at a track with a capacity below 100,000, let alone one that has less than half of that. Even now, the smallest NASCAR track has a capacity of 65,000 which is about 20,000 more than what the Mile has right now. In short, bringing the Mile up to NASCAR standards would likely cost just as much as building a brand new track from scratch and West Allis is surrounded by dense urban dwellings, not acres of farmland like it was in 1903. It would make far more sense to build such a track around the Waupun/Fond Du Lac area (roughly in the center of Wisconsin's largest metro areas) than it would to upgrade the Mile. All things considered, it would make more sense to launch a "Bring Back The Dairy Bowl" campaign. Even without UWM football, it could still be used for concerts, soccer (WIAA, MLS or NASL), WIAA football (probably one of the biggest selling points), area high school football and would still preserve much of the sporting heritage of the site.
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Post by PantherU on Jun 6, 2012 13:13:19 GMT -6
Yeah, Steve I think Illwauk hit the nail on the head with his last part.
The "White elephant" that's unused right now is unused because it's not available for pretty much anything else. This football stadium would have a ton of uses, as Illwauk explained.
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Post by kingsteve on Jun 6, 2012 13:32:35 GMT -6
Jimmy and Iwauk,
I am "kind" of with you guys but this would be an uphill selling job I think...would be great but key would be convincing that there would be enough events....there are so many concert venues now around here especially in summer...wonder really how often high school football, UWM and soccer of various types would really occur especially in winter and how many days of the year this would be in use and how much revenue vs other things..sure beats what is there now I must say . Steve
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Post by PantherU on Jun 6, 2012 13:37:56 GMT -6
You also have to look at those drawings again and realize that a football stadium is a very small part of the land. There's still a ton of space available for all the "daily use" facilities you're talking about.
At the 25-30,000 size, there are no venues in Wisconsin. The closest place is Toyota Park in southwest Chicago.
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Post by gman2 on Jun 6, 2012 14:07:31 GMT -6
We already have a first class racing facility in Wisconsin that has a pretty significant schedule. www.roadamerica.com/The Mile isn't needed.
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Post by PantherU on Jun 6, 2012 16:26:39 GMT -6
We already have a first class racing facility in Wisconsin that has a pretty significant schedule. www.roadamerica.com/The Mile isn't needed. Boom
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