Daytona Beach, FL – Daytona International Speedway’s desire to get $90 million in sales tax rebates for the just-completed Daytona Rising project gets the green light from a state agency.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity approved the application DIS sent in to get the rebates under the Florida Sports Development Program earlier this week.
If the application is approved by Florida Legislature before its current session ends in March, DIS would receive that rebate in the form of $3 million payments every year for 30 years.
A written statement released by DIS noted that Speedway officials were pleased to have FDEO’s blessing but also questioned why some things were apparently omitted by FDEO when analyzing the application.
“We believe that we are the strongest applicant for [FSDP] with a significant long-term return on investment for the state of Florida,” the statement noted. “We are unsure why FDEO did not consider all of the data specified in the statute, particularly the significant economic impact that [the] Speedway’s many out-of-state visitors have on Florida’s economy.”
Speedway officials say the economic impact of tourists coming to its events is what makes its $400 million renovation stand out from the other big stadium renovation project applications approved by FDEO for FSDP funds. Those are Sun Life Stadium in Miami and EverBank Field in Jacksonville.
“Over the last 3 years, there have been 2,027,000 attendees to signature events – of which more than 65% were from out of state – and 1,586,000 attendees to non-signature events, of which more than 35% were from out of state,” the statement read. “Out-of-state attendees of the Speedway spend an average of $280.83 daily on lodging, meals, transportation, entertainment and shopping. And more than 60% of the out-of-state attendees to the Daytona 500 stay 5 nights or more.”
All that adds up to over $530 million spent by tourists in the state and that number is expected to grow now that Daytona Rising is finished, according to the DIS statement.
A similar effort in Tallahassee last year ended in failure over concerns that the money being requested was essentially a form of corporate welfare.
Copyright 2016 Southern Stone Communications.