Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"Football at Charlotte Motor Speedway"

Posted by nascarman on September 15, 2016

Viewed 2539 times Tweet The very first Battle at Bristol was held this past weekend, becoming the highest attended college football game in history. This has been a long time coming for Bristol and Bruton Smith. In January 2004, he proposed his own national championship game, offering $20 million to the top two universities in the country to play at Bristol. The next year, he made his first offer of $20 million to Tennessee and Virginia Tech to play at the track. Finally, last weekend after a VERY LONG time in planning, the game was played. Bruton Smith has always been attracted to football, and for brief period in the mid-1980s, it seemed professional football would be played at Charlotte Motor Speedway.







By the mid-1980s, there were two successful football sanctioning bodies: the always popular NFL, and the upstart USFL. Charlotte businessman, George Shinn wanted to get into the action. By 1984, Shinn organized Charlotte Professional Football Club Inc. to attract football to the city. Headway was made starting on February 2, 1985. In a day marred by rain, the USFL held an exhibition game at Charlotte's Memorial Stadium. The New Jersey Generals (owned by Donald Trump) beat the Memphis Showboats 16-3 in front of 12,000 fans. A second game later that month between the Tampa Bay Bandits (owned by Burt Reynolds) and Baltimore Stars further convinced the football world that Charlotte could be a good football town. The USFL was the future, if Charlotte could earn a franchise, it would likely be that.



In mid-March of '85, Bruton Smith announced that Charlotte Motor Speedway was joining the hunt for a team. Plans were revealed to construct a football field/stadium in the infield grass on Charlotte's frontstretch. Memorial Stadium in Charlotte could hold 25,000 people, Bruton's stadium would hold 76,000.







"This is just an extension of our original design in 1960 when we built the speedway," Smith said. "At the time, we placed a six acre grass area between the speedway's main straightaway and pit road for eventual use as a football field." There would be temporary stands at both endzones and grandstand seating behind pitroad that could be lowered on hydraulic lifts for races.



Bruton had wanted to buy the New Orleans Saints earlier but failed to make a deal. Smith aimed to get an NFL team where Shinn was willing to land a USFL team. The two businessmen were unrelated in their quest although Shinn was willing to play at the stadium if it was built and Shinn got a team. The cost to build this stadium was around $12 million because they were just making adjustments to the speedway. The cost of the project, Bruton felt, should be paid for by the city of Charlotte.



"There's no question it'll be done if we see our officials say 'Let's be aggressive, let's be optimistic, let's give Charlotte a first class professional football team and first class stadium.'" Bruton figured that private businessmen weren't going to invest their money in football, the city should help pay because of the economic impact to the area. Smith estimated a football team would add $150 million annually to local economy. If Charlotte would invest, his plan was perfect because it was the cheapest construction cost.



However, the mayor of Charlotte, Harvey Gantt insisted any football team should be paid for by "private entrepreneurs." The city wasn't willing to help with costs. All optimism ended within the year. Charlotte wasn't going to help Bruton and the USFL collapsed after the 1985 season. The Charlotte Motor Speedway football plans quickly ended.



In 1987, George Shinn got an NBA franchise for Charlotte and the Charlotte Hornets were born. In 1989, plans came back to get an NFL franchise for the city. Shinn was again looking for a franchise but was going up against Jerry Richardson to get the city's team. Bruton again unveiled a plan to build a new stadium across the street from the speedway. A 75,000 seat stadium would cost around $100 million to build.







"No one area has as much to offer professional football," Smith said. "And we are prepared to build a stadium and work with the group who gets the team." Jerry Richardson wasn't interested in Smith's plan and would build a stadium in uptown Charlotte. In October 1993, Richardson was awarded an NFL franchise and the Carolina Panthers were born.



Bruton Smith's football fascination has a long history and finally something really came of it. Whenever there is talk of a franchise being sold, Bruton's name comes up (there were also rumors Brian France wanted to buy the Rams). He still says if Richardson wanted to sell the Panthers, he would buy them. Racing and football may be an odd combination, but there might be a bright future ahead, ahead of a complicated past.



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