The short-term future of Race City Motor-sport Park is looking bright but long term is a different story.
The facility’s owner Art MacKenzie told Metro the latest lease extension could just be delaying the inevitable.
“At some point for motorsport to continue to exist in Calgary long term, there has to be the political will to decide that motorsports are valuable economically and socially to the city,” MacKenzie said.
Council passed a motion this week instructing staff to negotiate a lease with Race City to 2015 and not beyond.
MacKenzie said nothing is finalized but he’s happy the track will stay alive for at least another five years.
“If we aren’t here past 2015 then basically the sport in Calgary is pretty much dead unless some other site is found,” he said.
He added that finding a new site, which would likely have to be outside city limits is a possibility but not something he will be thinking about right now.
“There are lots of places around where you can physically build one but getting all the … approvals in place becomes a much more time consuming process,” he said.
“Maybe what has to happen is that the different activities have to get split up and some of them may exist and some may not.”
MacKenzie said a new track would cost at least $20 million.
