COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A bill that could allow Darlington Raceway to watch out for both its fans’ bottoms and the track’s bottom line is heading to the South Carolina Senate.
That chamber’s Finance Committee passed a proposal that would allow the track to keep its 5 percent tax on tickets even if the speedway’s capacity falls below 60,000 people — in the event bigger seats are one day needed to accommodate ever heftier fans.
Darlington Raceway currently seats up to 62,000 people. But track president Chris Browning says the speedway is considering widening its 18-inch wide seats, meaning capacity could drop.
The bill seeks to delete a reference to a specific fan-seating total under a plan that would let Darlington keep the tax proceeds for hosting at least one NASCAR series event annually.
