The NASCAR Hall of Fame had its budget cut by nearly $4.8 million on Wednesday as the board that oversees its performance opted to base its budget on a worst-case scenario of 250,000 visitors from July 2010 to June 2011.
In the last month, executives from the Hall had presented budgets to the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority proposing cuts of $4 million based on 350,000 visitors to the one adopted, which includes $4,784,041 in cuts based on attendance of 250,000. For the first five months of the July-June fiscal year, the Hall of Fame has had 119,576 attendees and is running a deficit of $509,703, $342,871 from royalties due to NASCAR that NASCAR agreed to defer until the Hall turns a profit.
For the full year, the new budget projects a deficit of $1,288,383, which will be covered by the reserves of the CRVA, the city board that operates the Hall with a license from NASCAR. Originally, the Hall was projected to make $792,839 — making the new bottom line more than $2 million less than the original budget.
