VIENNA Officials to visit speedway in Kansas City

The trip will cost about $2,500 and leave from Cleveland.
VIENNA -- Commissioners from Trumbull and Mahoning counties are planning a field trip to Kansas City to learn how a major motor sports speedway works.
The trip is intended to give local officials perspective on the $300 million indoor racetrack developer Bob Brant has proposed for property near the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
Local officials signed up for the one-day junket are Commissioners Joseph J. Angelo Jr., Michael O'Brien and James Tsagaris of Trumbull County and Ed Reese of Mahoning County; Tom Nolan, airport director; Reid Dulberger, chairman of the Western Reserve Port Authority board, which runs the airport; and Stephen Szanto, a consultant with Public Financial Management in Cleveland and author of a $60,000 study on the raceway proposal.
"We will meet with local officials who have the experience of building and operating a speedway," Nolan said.
The cost
Construction of the 2-year-old Kansas Speedway, in Kansas City, Kan., cost about $224 million, with $50 million from the state and local government, said Jeff Boerger, the speedway president.
The 11/2 -mile outdoor track is owned by International Speedway Corp., a publicly traded company that operates racetracks around the country.
Its second season, just completed, included three NASCAR races, and events in the ARCA and IRC racing leagues, he said.
A study found that the track pumps $150 million into the local economy annually, Boerger said.
The trip to Kansas City, scheduled for Oct. 21, will cost the port authority about $2,500, Nolan said.
They will fly out of Cleveland.