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Posted Apr 21, 2008, 2:02 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2006
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Expansion plans would double size of Birmingham's Barber Motorsports Park
Good news for a part of town already bustling with activity...
Quote:
Sunday, April 20, 2008
STAN DIEL
News staff writer
George Barber, the dairy and real estate millionaire who built the Barber Motorsports Park with $70 million of his own money, is planning to nearly double the size of his world-renowned motorcycle museum and add a motocross track.
Ground likely will be broken next year on an expansion that would add at least 100,000 square feet to the museum and enable the display of hundreds more motorcycles. The existing 140,000-square-foot museum allows for the display of less than half of Barber's 1,200-bike collection, widely regarded as the world's best.
Ground for the motocross track already has been roped off in a clearing overlooking the existing paved course, and officials are beginning to study other dirt bike tracks in what Barber said is a plan to one-up the competition. Work on the track for motocross could begin later this year.
"I want it to be the world's best," Barber said last week. "It can't be anything less."
Also under consideration, but far less certain, is a proposal to add more than a mile to the length of the existing track's straightaway. Such a lengthening would create more opportunity for passing during races and would allow the track to double as a runway, officials said.
Long-term plans include a hotel and the development of a sprawling office park for engineering, racing and auto-related businesses.
Most details of the museum expansion have not been determined. But Barber said a new building likely will be built across the track from the existing one, with the two connected by an 85-foot-wide, enclosed walkway big enough to include displays and offer views of races below. The new building also will include hospitality suites, meeting rooms and banquet facilities.
Tourist magnet:
The race course and museum, in its sixth year of operation, has been a tourism magnet for the metropolitan area. A study by the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitor's Bureau estimated its economic impact at $372 million since its opening. During that time, it was responsible for more than a quarter of a million nights of hotel room rentals, the study found.
Barber and Don Erwin, vice president for corporate development at the Barber Cos., said the complex stands out among tourist destinations in Birmingham because it attracts a higher percentage of people from out of the metro area, and even out of the country.
Some events attract almost exclusively out-of-state visitors. Jeff Purner, manager of the Porsche Sport Driving School, said the program draws 1,500 to 2,000 customers a year, 95 percent of whom come from out of state. Recent students have included the actor Keanu Reeves and a man from Dubai.
A two-day class costs $3,000, not including hotel accommodations, and the well-heeled visitors routinely spend money in Birmingham's better restaurants and shops.
"They do drop some coin," Purner said.
Barber, showing a visitor around the track and museum last week, paused at the museum's guest book, which had recently been signed by visitors from locales as exotic as South Africa, the Czech Republic and Florence, Ala.
Bigger events:
In addition to the museum expansion and dirt bike track, plans for bigger events on the paved track likely will significantly boost attendance in the next few years, Barber said. Track managers are working on deals that will bring top-tier motorcycle and open-wheel auto races.
Gene Hallman, president and CEO of sports marketing firm the Bruno Event Team, said negotiations are under way to get an Indy Racing League race. That event likely would result in the biggest crowd on record at the track, he said.
The race course and museum have stellar reputations internationally, but remain more of a mystery closer to home. Google "Barber Motorsports" and you'll find dozens of articles in Canadian, British and European newspapers and magazines, but relatively few from the national press in the United States.
Hallman attributed that to Americans' love of oval racing, a product of growing up on NASCAR.
"We do need to grow the awareness of the facility here," he said.
If the visitors in the museum on Thursday were any indication of progress, it's mission accomplished.
Alex Guzzardo, a motorcycle racing fan from Baton Rouge, came a day early for this weekend's race so he could visit the museum for the first time.
"I'm amazed," he said, mouth agape in wonder. "We'll come back and spend our money again."
E-mail: sdiel@bhamnews.com On the Net
www.barbermotorsports.com
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I'm looking forward to seeing ground broken. 
Is Saks headquarters still in Birmingham ?
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