Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is open to two more years of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race, but only after exploring the possibility of shifting the marquee event to a different date that does not pose the “challenges that July 4th weekend presents,” a top mayoral aide said Monday.
Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee acknowledged that there are “some real limitations on moving the date” based on NASCAR’s overall schedule and “some of the local events in Chicago in the same footprint” in and around Grant Park.
But now that the event’s three-year contract has expired, a search for alternative dates is the next step. NASCAR has 90 days to request a contract extension from the Chicago Park District.
“Certainly, there is interest in seeing if it can work on another date, just because of some of the challenges that the 4th of July weekend present,” Lee told the Sun-Times on Monday.
“It’s a holiday weekend. A lot of people want to be out enjoying some of the public space that NASCAR uses. There’s also just logistical concerns relative to our emergency management personnel, including law enforcement. That’s a weekend where we want to have a lot of people out, a lot of our officers out across the city. If there’s a large-scale event happening downtown, that’s going to put pressure on our resources and overtime costs.”
Moving the date would also make sense from a tourism standpoint, since Chicago is already one of the nation’s top destinations for July 4th weekend, Lee said.
“Tourist numbers have been growing over the last several months. We’re really excited about the direction we’re heading. I’m never going to say that we don’t need events to bring more energy and lure more people to the city. But obviously, there’s a good volume of folks who come in for 4th of July to enjoy the city. So, we do OK” without NASCAR, he said.
Julie Giese, president of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race, said conversations about shifting the race to another weekend have already begun, and NASCAR is “open to” continuing those negotiations talks.
“There’s a couple of factors at play working through the NASCAR schedule and how those shifts may impact the schedule. But more importantly, making sure that there’s a window that would work with the Grant Park schedule,” Giese said.
“We like the holiday. We’ve shown it can be successful. The mayor mentioned [Sunday] that there’s a large number of people coming into the city from a flight perspective traveling in. We’re open [to a change], but also open to staying on the same date as well if that is what works.”
Pressed on whether NASCAR wants to return to Chicago, Giese said, “We wouldn’t be having the conversations if we didn’t.”
Five alderpersons whose wards comprise the 2.2-mile NASCAR footprint are demanding a postrace meeting with Giese to discuss NASCAR’s future in Chicago.
Downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said their goal is to shrink the “footprint,” further reduce the setup and take-down time and explore alternative dates.
“July 4th weekend, there’s just too much else going on in the city. It’s such a tough weekend — even for people who would just prefer to come downtown and enjoy downtown. It hampers their ability to do that,” Hopkins said. “There’s alternative weekends. Not that many, I get it, with Suenos, Lollapalooza, Blues Fest. There aren’t a whole lot of available dates that it could possibly work. … But we need to at least consider it.”
Hopkins said he is going into the post-race negotiations “skeptical of our ability to solve the problems that cause most of the objections” from his constituents: traffic and “exclusionary use” of Grant Park for an extended time.
“I don’t know that they can shorten the setup and take-down time any more than they have, but that would be key in getting my support for them to continue — minimizing the impact and reducing the time downtown residents are denied access to their major park,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins also has a third priority: sweetening the deal for Chicago.
Johnson managed to secure an additional $2 million payment from NASCAR only because former Mayor Lori Lightfoot “got fleeced” by NASCAR, Hopkins said.
“They negotiated an extraordinarily weak deal for the city. And that has to change if we’re going to keep them. We need more revenue from this,” Hopkins said.
Giese said NASCAR has already reduced the setup and take-down time by 42% and will try to shrink it even more “if we have the ability to do that.”
What about sweetening the pot?
“Those are all conversations we need to continue to have with the city,” Geise said. “We’ve driven the economic [impact] to $230 million-plus — the television broadcast, the media value — in addition to the parks fee.”