A tourism official in Bristol, Tenn. (WJHL) has expressed her support for the State of Tennessee’s strategy of using substantial grants to incentivize large-scale events. She believes Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) and the upcoming Speedway Classic are prime candidates for such financial backing.

Brenda Whitson, Executive Director of the Johnson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, commented, “Using state funds to attract an event as significant as the MLB game, the first ever in Tennessee, is a wise investment.”

She noted, “This event will generate extremely positive publicity for our state, city, and region, and it will also lead to significant spending from visitors.”

Tennessee’s Department of Tourist Development has allocated over $4.8 million for the August 2 game between the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds at the speedway. This amount represents nearly 20% of the $25 million “Special Event Fund” established by the state legislature in 2022, according to the department’s document on the fund.

This funding highlights the anticipated impact of the event, projected to set a new attendance record for a Major League Baseball regular season game, within a 50-mile radius of BMS. The Fund’s allocation is based on a formula that prioritizes “projected direct visitor spend” as a core factor.

The state determines the grant amount by allowing 40% of the estimated state sales tax revenue from the event’s total expenditure. This can increase to 60% if the event location is deemed “underrepresented.”

Tennessee’s sales tax rate is 7%, so to qualify for $4,816,700 — even at the 60% maximum allowed — an event would need to generate more than $8,027,000 of sales tax, which in turn would require $114.7 million of direct visitor spending.

“The state is very serious when it comes to those funds,” Whitson said. “There is a process, the form where you’re showing what you’re going to generate and potential room nights, potential attendance from 50 miles away because that quantitates a visitor.”

“Then you’re also showing them what the potential return on investment is going to be.”

The policy shows applicants must use one of several approved economic impact models or a “mutually agreed upon documentation of event calculation estimation.” The policy’s overview also says it’s to help secure “events that promise measurable performance outcomes, including tangible economic impact to communities.”

Whitson said she believes a good number of the people who will be able to boast about attending a record-setting ballgame will do that boasting more than 50 miles from home. They’ll also likely drop plenty of cash while they’re here.

“All of our hotels are full, so that says a lot,” Whitson said.

Chris Moore, general manager at the Boones Creek Holiday Inn Express, said he expects most fans to spend a couple nights as they come in for the Saturday game.

“Just a handful (of rooms) left on Friday,” Moore said. “I definitely see those all filling up by the time Friday gets here and we are already completely sold out for Saturday night.”

Most of those rooms are bringing premium rates, Moore said — something that drives both state sales tax and local lodging taxes higher. Whitson’s organization is largely funded by lodging tax as it collects half the 5% total. If Johnson City’s 1,800 rooms were full both Friday and Saturday for an average of $300, that one weekend would bring $27,000 into the CVB’s coffers.

“It’s sheer dollars from that standpoint, from lodging tax,” Whitson said. “But it also is such great exposure for us, exposure that we could not buy with our budget, nor could this region buy. So the exposure from a public relations standpoint is huge.”

The Speedway Classic checks a lot of the policy’s boxes for qualifying events and the kinds of extras that raise them above the competition. They include “measurable and significant broadcast and/or international media attention” and aligning with targeted markets identified by the Department of Tourist Development.

Moore said the event is shaping up to have a similar impact to race weekends at BMS.

“It’s definitely been a great economic benefit to the hotel industry and really the entire Tri-Cities area,” he said.

While Speedway Motorsports, BMS’s parent company, might have chased this opportunity without the state help, Whitson said it’s possible that but for the grant, major league baseball wouldn’t be coming to Northeast Tennessee at all.

“I think that getting the state involved and the governor involved in this project made a huge difference with MLB to move this project to where it is today,” she said.

BMS will have to report back metrics within 180 days of the event, the policy states. Keeping the entire amount of the grant, though, appears as sure as superstar Reds catcher Johnny Bench throwing out lumbering Braves third baseman Bob Horner — as if Horner would try. Unless an event fails to transpire, “No claw back exists for this grant award.”

Moore will happily take any aid the state provides for these type of opportunities.

“We’ll take all the big events they want to throw at Bristol Motor Speedway,” Moore said. “We appreciate it.”

Whitson said regardless of one’s opinion on the use of incentives for tourism events, the program exists and seeing its benefits in Northeast Tennessee is a win for the region. It’s only the third such funded event, and the Speedway Classic amount is four times more than the 2024 Music City Grand Prix’s award, and more than nine times the amount just awarded for an International Bluegrass Music Association event set for September in Hamilton County.

“It’s very exciting that this region is getting the use of (tourism) dollars,” she said. “A lot of those dollars have been used in Middle Tennessee and other places around the state.”