Word: glens
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This October, for the first time in twenty autumns, a hamlet in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York will be without of Formula One auto race. Watkins Glen, population 3000, has hosted the United States Grand Prix every year since 1961, but this summer the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Corporation could not come up with the prize money demanded by the International Federation of Auto Sport (known by the French acronym of FICA). "In 1970 the Formula One purse was $244,000. Last year we put up one million; this year they wanted 1.2 million," says Malcolm Currie...
According to the New York State Department of Tourism, the 18 to 20 racing weekends a year at the circuit just southwest of Watkins Glen are responsible for 23 million dollars of revenue annually. "Just how much of that comes in from the Grand Prix is impossible to say," Currie says, although he says it is by far the most lucrative event...
Despite the estimated 250,000 people that annually attend racing events at the circuit, the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Corporation has traditionally been plagued by financial trouble. In 1971, the corporation was forced to finance a renovation of the facility by selling the track to the Schuyler County Industrial Development Agency. The Agency then issued bonds and leased the track back to the corporation, which continued in the capacity of operator...
This August, faced with the potential loss of the Formula One race and already in debt to FICA for a substantial portion of the prize money from the 1980 race, the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Corporation field for bankruptcy. Obviously any chance the Corporation had of raising 1.2 million dollars to finance this year's race disappeared at that point, and FICA officially removed the event from the 1981 schedule...
...Franzese is the owner of the largest hotel in the Watkins Glen area, the Glen Motor Inn. He is also the Chairman of the Industrial Development Agency, which technically still owns the circuit and hopes to regain control...