NASCAR hall's 1st week drew 10,000

The NASCAR Hall of Fame drew 4,500 people for its grand opening May 11 and then roughly 5,500 people over the next five days, according to the hall.

The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, which helps manage the city of Charlotte-owned hall, didn't make public any attendance projections for the $200 million racing shrine's first week.

"We entertained around 10,000 people," said spokesperson Kimberly Meesters. "School is in session, and there is no race in town. We are satisfied with that."

If the hall's early attendance is indicative of the rest of the year, it would fall short of projected attendance for 2010. The CRVA and the hall projected roughly 800,000 visitors in the hall's first year, and 400,000 annually after that.

But Meesters said the hall has expected "peaks and valleys."

"We expect to see that," Meesters said, adding that "800,000 is all long-term planning. We're very comfortable with where we were in the first week."

The hall's opening coincided with the opening of the National Rifle Association's annual convention, which was one of the biggest conventions in the city's history. The NRA convention, which was adjacent to the NASCAR hall at the Charlotte Convention Center, ran from Friday to Sunday and brought an estimated 70,000 people uptown.

Next week, the hall enters one of its most important stretches on the calendar.

The NASCAR All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway is Saturday, and the first induction ceremony is Sunday. The Coca-Cola 600, also at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, will be May 30.

The two races - as well as the induction ceremony - will probably draw tens of thousands of racing fans to the Queen City, and the hall expects big crowds.

The hall has some $75 tickets for sale for the Sunday induction ceremony, held inside the hall's ballroom. Fans who buy a regular admission ticket to the hall on Sunday can get a spot on the "red carpet" to watch the inductees enter the hall.

Tim Newman, chief executive officer of the CRVA, issued a statement Tuesday saying he was pleased with the attendance.

"The opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Tuesday of last week, by design, was before the larger race weeks begin and before school is out for the summer," Newman said. "With any new venue as large as the hall and especially with the expectation of what was perhaps to be the largest convention ever in town, we were careful not to overestimate our capacities. We entertained 10,000 guests in the first week and received overwhelmingly positive reviews."

The Hall of Fame was built primarily through a 2 percent increase in the hotel/motel occupancy tax.

The city also took out loans from Bank of America and Wells Fargo worth roughly $46 million to help pay for the hall's construction. Of that debt, $26.5 million is to be paid off from the sale of corporate sponsorships for the hall as well as the sale of personalized bricks to be placed on a plaza outside the main entrance.

The hall and the CRVA have so far struggled to sell the sponsorships, and have so far lined up $4 million in commitments from nine sponsors.

The hall and the CRVA have said that the recession has made it difficult to sell sponsorships, and that additional companies will want to partner with the hall now that it's open.