plus 4, Standing room only? Not these days - ESPN.com |
- Standing room only? Not these days - ESPN.com
- Tourism bright spot for Baker’s economy in 2009 - Baker City Herald
- Navistar Subsidiary Acquires EGR Valve Technology From Holley - New Statesman
- The electric car revolution will soon take to the streets - The Guardian
- Fr. Fred Frostbite Food Drive is under way - Traverse City Record-Eagle
Standing room only? Not these days - ESPN.com Posted: 22 Jan 2010 02:26 PM PST CONCORD, N.C. -- Size no longer matters. The days of "build it and they will buy tickets" are over. Tracks that host NASCAR events are shrinking. Daytona International Speedway is 12,000 seats smaller than it was a year ago for the Great American Race. Charlotte Motor Speedway is down about 25,000 seats over the past year. Texas Motor Speedway: down by 19,000 seats. Phoenix: 20,000. Michigan: 12,500. Richmond International Raceway: 12,000. Yes, the economy has played a major role. But you don't hear track promoters and presidents going all Wicked Witch of the West on us with screams of "I'm shrinking! I'm shrinking!" You also don't hear them blaming the contraction on sagging ticket sales and suggesting the sky is falling, to quote a phrase that Roush Fenway president Geoff Smith borrowed from Chicken Little during this week's preseason media tour. Most will tell you that NASCAR simply is going through what other sports already have. The average size of a Major League Baseball stadium is 41,915, down almost 10,000 from the average capacity of the former stadiums. NFL owners, Dallas' Jerry Jones aside, are building smaller stadiums. Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers admitted not long after he opened his 73,778-seat Bank of America Stadium in 1996 that he should have built it about 10,000 seats smaller. It's no different in the NBA. The relatively new arena in Charlotte, N.C., seats around 19,000, more than 5,000 fewer than the old coliseum. Heck, even the University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium has shrunk by 4,000 with renovations. "There was a period of time when you didn't build a Major League Baseball stadium unless they had 65,000 or 75,000 seats," Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said. "If you look today, it's about 45,000. It's reflecting the market place that is constantly changing." The market 20 years ago was booming for NASCAR. SMI chairman Bruton Smith couldn't add seats to CMS fast enough, expanding the facility to about 160,000 seats. He then built tracks at Texas and Las Vegas that exceeded 140,000. "I think we grew too fast," Earnhardt Ganassi minority owner Felix Sabates said. "Some of these racetracks with 140,000, that's crazy. We had no business increasing those seats. And Bruton probably started that with this track right here [in Charlotte]." He's right, but you can't blame Smith. The demand was there, so why not supply it? If he had his way, people would work harder and more expansion would take place. Sabates begs to differ. He doesn't even like the idea that Bristol Motor Speedway seats 160,000, even though it is one of the few tracks that sold out last season. "If I were Bruton, I would cut the top two rows off there," said Sabates, who also suggested that Indianapolis should be removed from the schedule even though it traditionally is one of the top two most-attended tracks. "If you can only get 100,000 people in there, it would be, 'Man, if my daddy dies I am going to inherit the ticket.' Now, who cares? You go down and buy a ticket. "Too many seats." The market shows that supply has surpassed demand. But that's not the only reason tracks are shrinking. Texas reduced its capacity to put in a gated RV parking lot that gave campers visual access to the track. CMS did the same thing when it eliminated 21,000 seats in Turns 1 and 2 to put in a luxury lot. Both facilities have actually added revenue by turning low-end seats that didn't sell well into a high-demand area. For CMS, it also was a situation in which something had to be done to upgrade the seats. That was also the thinking for current renovations that will eliminate 2,900 seats along the frontstretch to replace old, rusted 18-inch-wide cast-metal seats with 15,000 22-inch stadium seats with arm rests. CMS president Marcus Smith said two of the first e-mails he read after the October race at his track concerned replacing those seats with something more comfortable. You can't blame the fans. They spend hundreds of dollars on tickets. They might as well be comfortable or stay at home and watch in the recliner. "The reality is it's not about the sport being in trouble, it's about the economy," Smith said. "When you go to the grocery store today, you'll find fewer selections in the cereal aisle. It's economically driven. We are contracting what we are putting out for sale. "We can always put that back out there. Since this has come at a time when the overall economy has contracted, I don't think you can connect that dot to 'NASCAR is sinking' because they are selling fewer seats." Phoenix International Raceway president Bryan Sperber, the shrinkage of whose track's capacity was the result of replacing temporary bleacher seats with high-end RV spots, agreed. "We think guests are going to appreciate the extra room," he said. "We've always felt the customer is important, but it's become more important in today's economic climate." Ticket sales to the backstretch at Daytona slumped to the point that track officials didn't sell them for the July race. So they eliminated 12,000 seats in an attempt to make that a more attractive purchase, adding a party deck, a kids' play area with amusement rides, and many other features. They're calling it the "Superstretch." "It's no secret that due to the challenges in the economy, attendance has softened throughout the sporting industry," DIS president Robin Braig said. "We believe the sport remains healthy, but we are at a point in time where we must take a broad look at our events and facilities and see if there is some right-sizing required a move already seen across all major sports in the country. "This project will allow us to better align our capacity with demand in the market and adds a level of scarcity to the sport's biggest, most prestigious event." This makes it sound as if the spin doctors are at work, and to a degree, they are. But it is sound business strategy. Stanford University took it to an extreme in 2006 when it reduced its football stadium from 85,000 to 50,000 to create more demand for tickets. That is what track promoters are hoping to create by cutting seats. Gossage reminded us that despite cuts at TMS, his track still puts 1.2 million fans in seats yearly for 12 events, compared to around 730,000 for eight Dallas Cowboys home games. "Everybody wants to compare, it's easy enough to compare," he said. "We still do better in tickets to our eight biggest events compared to their eight biggest. "When you sell 170,000 tickets [for a race], it's still 100,000 more than the Super Bowl. The sky is a long, long, long ways from falling. I'm not even looking at the sky." He's not looking at size anymore, either. David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
Tourism bright spot for Baker’s economy in 2009 - Baker City Herald Posted: 22 Jan 2010 04:14 PM PST Chamber of Commerce director says some businesses reported banner sales despite the national recession The recession of 2009 turned out to be a Chicken Little story of sorts in Baker County, with strong tourism sales making up for declines in other sectors of the economy, according to the Baker County Chamber of Commerce. Chamber Director Debi Bainter said many businesses experienced a slow start in 2009, but ended up beating their 2008 sales figures. "June through August were strong tourism months with high visitor numbers at the Chamber of Commerce and up at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center," Bainter said. Gift shops at both the Interpretive Center and the Chamber of Commerce had banner sales months through September, and business didn't slow until snow began to fall and visitor numbers dropped, Bainter said. "I have heard from more than one business that (2009) was their best year yet," Bainter said. "Baker County's (non-seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate has not risen above 10 percent during this recession, proving our mix of retail and manufacturing businesses are appropriate," Bainter said. Cultural Heritage tourismCultural heritage tourism, which accounts for 78 percent of all leisure travel in the United States, is a big draw in Baker County. The county lures visitors interested in the county's historical ties to the Oregon Trail, and the cattle-ranching and gold-mining industries, Bainter said. According to a study conducted by the Mandala Research for the U.S. Cultural and Heritage Tourism Marketing Council and U.S. Department of Commerce, 118.3 million adults participate in heritage travel each year, spending an average of $994 per trip, for a total annual contribution of $194 billion to the U.S. economy. In Baker County, Bainter said heritage tourism is complemented by recreational tourism, which provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to start new businesses ranging from Prospectors Frontier Inn Bed and Breakfast on Court Avenue a half block off Main Street, to the Earth and Vine art gallery, restaurant and wine shop, located in the historic Pythian Castle building one block off Main Street at the corner of First and Washington. "I am also aware of a retiree that will be starting a tour operator business in Baker County," Bainter said, adding that the operator plans to lead tours to Hells Canyon and guide hikes and supply transportation services. "With Oregonians sticking closer to home for their vacations these days we stand to benefit when they are exploring their home state," Bainter said. Heritage and cultural travelers reported traveling more than five times a year, with about half of those trips 500 miles or more over a weekend or longer, and about a third of their travels being day trips of 100 to 300 miles, according to Mandala Research. Nearly two-thirds of Baker County workers are employed in the retail sector, and any gains in tourism will benefit their bottom lines, Bainter said.
In the four years Bainter has been at the Chamber, membership has grown from 345 to 430, and this year the board of directors initiated an incentive plan designed to capture more of the estimated 1,200 area businesses. Businesses in Baker City joining the Chamber in 2009 included Wheatland Insurance Center, The Flower Box, Great Northern Energy Systems, Prospectors Frontier Inn Bed and Breakfast, Five Star Towing, BC Auto Salvage, J&M Properties, Baker City Motel and RV Park, Cutters Edge, The Elkhorn Classic Stage Race, Quail Ridge Gold Course, Maurices, Pythian Castle Gallery, Earth & Vine, Country Insurance agent Cindy Endicott, The Entrepreneurs Source and Beaver State Computers. Others in Baker City include All Pro Rentals, Mark & Son Refrigeration and Heating, Sagebrush Studio Design, Clark and Company Home, DeJaVu Collectables, Dream Scroller woodworks, The Rusty Nail grandfather clocks, Culley's Catering, Black Lyon Publishing, Pioneer Media, Sha-Schevelle, The Quilt Maker, Always Welcome Inn, Elkhorn Adult Foster Home and Oregon Awards and Engraving, and Eastern Oregon Celtic Society. Sumpter businesses joining the Chamber in 2009 included Sumpter Breakfast Club, Rita Bach room rentals, High Mountain Towing, and Scoop and Steamer Restaurant and Log Cabin Rentals. Marty Lien's Vacation Rental in Haines, Parker Cabin in North Powder, Pine Eagle Clinic in Halfway, as well as Union Pacific Corp. out of Portland, Pioneer Media, Aspen Digital, and Carly Carlson Photography also joined the Chamber in 2009.
Some of the new businesses that opened in 2009 include Cody's General Store; The Treasure Box; Baker City Muffler; Sycamore Tree Flower Shop; Sage Place Barber; Prospector's Inn Bed and Breakfast; E.O.R. Welding and Fabricating; Elkhorn Adult Foster Home; Electrolysis by Robin Harrington; Sha-Schevelle salon and women's shop; Hollis-Shade Associates property management; Wilson Dental Arts; and Shifty Skateboards and Tattoos.
More businesses opened in Baker City than closed, but the recession was cited as a contributing factor for those that did close in 2009, including Barb and Betty's Hallmark Store; The Fillin' Station Restaurant; the Paul Crites Gallery and a few others. Boots Leonard, who managed the Paul Crites Gallery, opened her own Western gallery and store at the location, but she closed before the year was out and moved her business to Pendleton. She said she was offered a great location next to the Rainbow Cafe and across Main Street from Hamley's Western store and restaurant.
The Chamber sold nearly $6,000 in Baker Bucks in the month leading up to the 2009 Christmas and New Year's holidays. Bainter said the Chamber's board of directors wants to keep the momentum of the Baker Bucks program going throughout 2010 as an economic stimulus that "gives all of Baker County a reason to be optimistic" because it keeps local dollars circulating locally. Other Chamber goals for 2010 include partnering with other nonprofit groups in Eastern Oregon to offer an affordable health coverage option (a shared cost of less than $75 per month to the employer and employee) for small businesses that otherwise could not offer a program to their employees. Bainter said she's also planning to convert the Chamber's billing system to the Weblink connect software to take advantage of its better data-tracking capabilities for future budget planning at the Chamber and for members. In addition, the Chamber is planning to update the visitor Kiosk posters outside the Chamber Office and Visitors Information Center to complement the community walk that was installed by the Ford Leadership cohorts a year ago.
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Navistar Subsidiary Acquires EGR Valve Technology From Holley - New Statesman Posted: 22 Jan 2010 03:14 AM PST The advanced valve technology enables increased EGR system air flow, which helps reduce engine combustion temperatures. Low combustion temperatures are one of the keys to Navistar's Advanced MaxxForce EGR system for meeting EPA 2010 clean-air standards, without burdening commercial truck operators with liquid urea based selective catalytic reduction (SCR) after-treatment. Eric Tech, president of Navistar Engine Group, said: "This aligns with our business strategy of controlling our destiny by gaining control of critical component technologies which drive differentiation in today's modern diesel engines." Houman Kashanipour, president of Pure Power Technologies, said: "This component allows precise and efficient air management in MaxxForce engines. As a result, Navistar customers benefit with high performance, high efficiency and low diesel emissions." Pure Power Technologies integrates R&D, engineering and manufacturing capabilities to produce diesel power systems and advanced emissions control systems. Navistar Engine Group designs, engineers and manufactures a full line of MaxxForce diesel engines for International brand commercial trucks, IC brand school and transit buses and Workhorse brand custom RV chassis. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
The electric car revolution will soon take to the streets - The Guardian Posted: 22 Jan 2010 03:49 AM PST Media gather around the new Tesla Model S all-electric sedan car, at the car's unveiling in Hawthorne, California on 26 March 2009. Musk said the state-of-the-art, five-seat sedan will be the world's first mass-produced, highway-capable electric car. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images Electric cars are a green movement that is finally moving. Shunted to the side as the public indulged its love affair with gas-guzzling SUVs and four-wheel-drive trucks, history has finally caught up with the plug-in vehicle. The North American International Auto Show in Detroit is the domestic auto industry's biggest annual showcase, and the new models have traditionally been brought out in a son et lumière of dancing girls, deafening music, and dry ice smoke. The few green cars that made it this far were usually for display only — very few actually made it to showrooms. But not this year. It's become a race to market for green cars, and soon you'll be able to buy many of the electric vehicles that were on display last week in Detroit. The auto show featured one hybrid and battery electric car introduction after another. Although the only truly road-worthy, plug-in electric vehicle you can buy today is the $109,000 Tesla Roadster, by the end of 2010 it will be joined by such contenders as the Nissan Leaf, Coda sedan, and the Think City. Indeed, the entire auto industry — from giants such as Ford, GM, and Renault-Nissan to startups such as Fisker Automotive — has joined the movement to build and market affordable electric vehicles. There's a reason the automakers in Detroit are finally plugging in as something more than a greenwashing exercise. Spurring them forward is a historic confluence of events. Chief among them are Obama administration green initiatives, including Department of Energy (DOE) loans and grants, as well as economic stimulus funds that provide $30 billion for green energy programs, tax credits for companies that invest in advanced batteries, and $2.4 billion in strategic grants to speed the adoption of new batteries. (Much of that money is going to Michigan, which despite record unemployment is emerging as something of a green jobs center.) Other factors behind the push to manufacture electric vehicles are a federal mandate to improve fuel efficiency to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, concerns about global warming and peak oil, and sheer technological progress building better batteries. Even without federal largesse, some companies are moving aggressively into the electric vehicle market. A prime example: Coda Automotive, a southern California start-up, has raised an impressive $74 million in three rounds of private funding. CEO and President Kevin Czinger is a former Goldman Sachs executive, as is co-chairman Steven Heller. Among the company's investors are Henry M. Paulson, who was Goldman Sachs' chairman and Treasury Secretary under the second President Bush. Clearly, these former investment bankers see electric cars as a good bet. A key factor in making today's electric vehicles possible is the rapid development of the energy-dense lithium-ion battery. William Clay Ford Jr., the executive chairman of the company that bears his name, told me in Detroit, "Five years ago, battery development had hit a wall, and we were pushing hydrogen hard. But now so much money and brainpower has been thrown at electrification that we're starting to see significant improvements in batteries in a way we hadn't anticipated. Now we have the confidence that the customer can have a good experience with batteries." Drawing a huge crowd, Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk showed off his company's 1,000th electric Roadster at the auto show. "For a little company, it's a huge milestone," he told me. "A year ago, we had built only 150 cars. We had two stores then, and now it's a dozen." For a major automaker, 1,000 cars would not be much to show for a year, but electric vehicles are still in their infancy. And since the electric car's first swan song in the 1920s — when the widespread availability of petroleum ushered in the era of the gasoline-powered car — very few start-up companies have reached the milestone of making green vehicles, especially battery-powered ones. Here's a look at some of the prime contenders bringing battery cars and plug-in hybrids to market: * Renault-Nissan Alliance. This is the one automaker with a truly global plug-in strategy and the means to carry it out. Under the Nissan banner, the company will deploy the Leaf battery sedan, with 100-mile, all-electric range. Nissan isn't just dumping its sleek entry into the market — it's also building a home charger with new partner AeroVironment and partnering with local, state and federal governments — both in the U.S. and abroad — on public charging stations. In partnership with Better Place, the company will deploy a second Renault electric vehicle as part of its plan to wire up Israel with charging stations for electric cars. Renault-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn predicts that electric vehicles could constitute 10 percent of world car sales by 2020. * Ford Motor Company. Ford's green strategy includes a plug-in version of the new Focus for 2011 and a "next-generation" hybrid — based on its global compact-car platform, or C-platform — in 2012. The company announced in Detroit that it would invest $450 million in Michigan as part of its electrification strategy. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm told me at the auto show that until recently the state "wasn't sure it had a viable auto industry." Today, she said, the state is enjoying $1 billion in new auto-related investment, much of it jump-started by a combination of federal funding and state tax credits. * General Motors. GM's big news is the Chevrolet Volt, which has definitely helped the company's image. The Volt, which uses a small gas engine to generate electricity for its electric motor, is a lot of fun to drive if the version I drove recently in Michigan is any indication. Until now, GM has stumbled in its hybrid strategy, and it really needs this car — which will go on sale at the end of the year for a hefty $40,000 — to be a hit. But success may be more a matter of perception than actual sales. "In terms of numbers, the Volt will be pretty small for the first couple of years," says product chief Bob Lutz. A Cadillac version of the Volt is also a possibility. * Tesla Motors. This California start-up launched at the top of the market with its $109,000 Roadster, which combines sexy looks with supercar performance (zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds). The company is on something of a roll, having sold 10 percent of itself to Daimler for $50 million, and landed $465 million in DOE funding for its forthcoming Model S sedan — a Maserati-like, more practical version of the Roadster. Tesla's Musk says that the company's strategy has always been to use its sale of performance cars to finance its third vehicle, a mass-market electric vehicle. The company is currently looking at California locations for a Model S factory. * Fisker Automotive. Perhaps Tesla's closest competitor when it comes to glamour electric vehicles, Fisker – whose CEO is Danish-born automotive designer Henrik Fisker — is preparing to debut a high-performance plug-in hybrid (zero to 60 in 5.8 seconds, with 67 mpg fuel efficiency) known as the Karma at the end of the year. Al Gore is on the waiting list. Fisker also has a lower-cost car in the wings, called Project Nina. Fisker won $528 million from the DOE to build the Nina in a former GM factory in Delaware. * Coda Automotive. This start-up will deliver, in late 2010, a small battery-powered sedan with batteries from its own joint venture in China. The car is based on the Saibao, a Chinese car, but Coda has put a host of western companies to work honing an electric drivetrain for it. "A large part of our mission is to accelerate adoption of all-electric vehicles," Coda CEO Kevin Czinger told me. "We have put together a core group of auto and battery engineers, and are leveraging specialty automotive firms that we think can get us to the right price point." Coda will launch with an Internet marketing strategy in California only, but it will have the capacity to produce 20,000 cars a year. * Think Global. Think is a survivor, with perhaps the longest and most colorful history among green automakers. It is a Norwegian company that attracted Ford Motor Company investment in the late 1990s with its plastic-bodied City commuter car. Ford sold the company in 2003 and it went through bankruptcy proceedings in late 2008. It has since emerged under the partial ownership of U.S. battery company Ener1, which snagged $118 million in DOE funding to expand its battery production in Indiana. Think electric vehicles will also be built there starting in 2011, in hard-hit Elkhart — once proudly known as the "RV Capital of the World" — and now suffering the effects of the recession. The two-seat Think City (with approximately 100-mile range on lithium-ion batteries) will sell for less than $20,000 in the U.S., but that price does not include the leased battery pack and includes the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles. The list of players in the electric vehicle race goes on. Toyota is building plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles, and showed off a small cousin of the Prius in Detroit. Chrysler has an ambitious electric vehicle rollout that's been stalled by the company's bankruptcy and merger with Fiat. Honda continues to deploy clever hybrid cars, including the upcoming two-seat CR-Z it showed in Detroit. BMW has electrified the Mini for a test program, and has similar intentions for the Concept ActiveE, a plug-in version of the Series 1 BMW coupe. And Audi has shown sudden interest in this segment, debuting the second of its electric e-tron vehicles. By this time next year, electric cars will no longer be just on auto show stands, but will have arrived in showrooms at last. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
Fr. Fred Frostbite Food Drive is under way - Traverse City Record-Eagle Posted: 20 Jan 2010 04:56 AM PST TRAVERSE CITY -- -- Father Fred Foundation volunteers hope community members will open their cupboards, their wallets and their hearts to assist those in need. The 16th annual Father Fred Frostbite Food Drive is under way and will accept donations through Sunday. "Families are hungry and struggling to get through difficult times," said Martie Manty, Father Fred's executive director. "We find the experience of making a gift to the drive brings a warm feeling to everyone involved. Feed the body, fuel the soul is a great way to look at it." Volunteers, stationed at the Garfield Plaza in front of Agave Mexican Grill and Fox Grand Traverse on U.S. 31 North, are ready to accept donations of food and cash from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekends. Kalkaska area residents may drop donations at the Forest Area Credit Union, 782 South Cedar St. Proceeds from this location will benefit Kalkaska Area Interfaith Resources. "If your busy schedule won't allow a trip to your grocer, we urge you to consider a cash donation. Because we buy food in large lots, we are able to stretch your dollar by 30 percent or more if we are bulk-purchasing," Manty said. Since opening in 1989, The Father Fred Foundation, a nondenominational charity that provides food, clothing, household goods and financial assistance to Grand Traverse area residents in crisis, has rapidly grown to become the largest food pantry in northern Michigan. Food drives like the Frostbite feed more than 3,000 families and support 5,000 children each year. "Pantries in northern Michigan have seen big increase in demand this year. The Father Fred pantry, for example, experienced a 40 percent increase in families seeking help," said David Abeel, director of development. For those who wish to contribute from their home or office, go to www.fatherfred.org. Sponsors include Meijer, WTCM, WCCW, WJZQ, TC RV, Twin Bay Docks and Products, Bill Marsh Auto Group, Kendall Electric and Tri-Gas. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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