SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – San Diego is getting ready to start its engines with the NASCAR race coming to Naval Base Coronado this weekend.
“We're very excited to have NASCAR in San Diego, excited from the notoriety of, of NASCAR, the attention they're going to have on San Diego,” Chris Cate, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, said.
Cate’s the President & CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
He told ABC 10News the San Diego region could see a boost to its economy with the major racing event.
“We won't have the numbers, so everything's said and done. But we do have a great comparison when NASCAR was in Chicago. And you look at those numbers, they had over 130 million dollars in economic impact,” Cate said.
This is the first time the racing event has been held on an active military base.
Mark Neville, the CEO of Sports San Diego, which is a non-profit geared toward bringing major sporting events with tourism to San Diego, told ABC 10News in a statement that the weekend event is going to bring a big economic impact.
“NASCAR San Diego Weekend is going to deliver an extraordinary economic impact to our community, generating tens of thousands of hotel room nights and sending visitors pouring into our restaurants, shops, and attractions across San Diego,” said Mark Neville, CEO of Sports San Diego. “Three days of live national television broadcasts will beam San Diego’s sunshine and world-class venues into millions of homes across the country, providing destination marketing exposure that simply cannot be bought. Couple that with the immense earned media this event will generate, and NASCAR San Diego Weekend is an absolute grand slam for our community.”
Cate echoed a similar sentiment.
“I think what it shows also to promoters from other events as well is that San Diego can host these large international gathering events,” Cate said. “It's not just about NASCAR or golf or, or soccer. It could be everything under the sun. And so, we want to be known as a sports town because of that economic impact.”
There’s a belief that San Diego’s first NASCAR race won’t be its last.
“So whether it's the business community, whether it's just the natural landscape that we have in San Diego, I think all around, it's going to be a very successful weekend, and hopefully that sets the stage for even more events like this in the future,” Cate said.
