Grand Prix Speedways to close

[Mark Hirt]

I understand Grand Prix Speedways (http://www.grandprixspeedways.com/) (St. Louis) will close it's doors on December 23.

[peterjank]

I remember someone saying that they overspent building their facility. It supposedly cost twice as much as CIR to launch.

[CIR-Reed]

http://www.grandprixspeedways.com/AboutUs/

If they really spent "nearly $15 million" on their facility that would indicate that they spent something more like 3 times what we did.

[Rick]

http://www.grandprixspeedways.com/AboutUs/

If they really spent "nearly $15 million" on their facility that would indicate that they spent something more like 3 times what we did.

That figure probably includes build out and the actual cost of the property and existing building.

[Hornswoggler]

oh darn, I was going to check this place out around new years... :(

[Mark Hirt]

Better hurry.... I now hear they made enough money in the last two weeks to stay open till December 27

Does that sound silly to anyone else but me?

[Hornswoggler]

with these karts being electric, how do they compare to CIR? Anybody driven there?

[peterjank]

Better hurry.... I now hear they made enough money in the last two weeks to stay open till December 27

Does that sound silly to anyone else but me?

Maybe its their first annual going out of business sale :)

[CIR-Reed]

They said they "will be open until someone takes the keys away."

So who knows when the day will actually come.

[Mark Hirt]

In today's St Louis Business Journal page 5 (http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2007/12/24/story3.html), the auction is going to be on Dec 28. The building has a minimum bid of $6,455,000 and the equipment is going to be sold to the highest bidder. In the article, it says they do enough business to cover day-to-day expenses, but if business slowed, they would be in the red. That sounds like the beginnings were there, but the overruns were too much.

[Rick]

So they own the building instead of leasing?

[CIR-Reed]

Yes, they owned their building. I am fairly sure a bank owns it now.