Full Speed Ahead: Phoenix Raceway to Set a New Pace for Fans and Nonprofits
By Mike Saucier
A sparkling new venue is rising in Avondale at Phoenix Raceway — more popularly known as Phoenix International Raceway, or PIR for short. For racing’s loyal Valley fans, it means bigger and better seats, more access to drivers, sweeter suites and new dining, bar and concession spaces.
But the impact of Phoenix Raceway reimagining goes far beyond the traditional fan base. Nonprofits and community organizations will have a new go-to for events beyond golf tournaments and other traditional, tried-and-true ways to raise money for causes close to the heart.
Stage a 5K on the racetrack? Host a reception followed by a pace-car ride around a 1.5-mile oval?
It can happen.
As Bryan Sperber, president of Phoenix Raceway said, “You can’t do that just anywhere.”
The $178 million project (with no taxpayer funds) — officially “Phoenix Raceway Project Powered By DC Solar” — is scheduled to be finished in November 2018. As a result of the project, Sperber said Phoenix Raceway is positioned to have a much bigger impact on the nonprofit community in the Valley than ever before. He and his team are already meeting with nonprofits and community groups about future events at the new facilities.
“We could not have had that conversation for the last 53 or so years because we just didn’t have the proper facilities,” Sperber said. “Now, we’re going to be able to partner with them to raise money. It’s just the tip of the iceberg, now that we have the facility.”
He added, “I think one of the ways you break through the clutter is you have a unique setting and something that your patrons or potential patrons don’t get to do every day.”
With a slate of brand new venues where it can play host to a gamut of events, including a club six stories above the racetrack with a panoramic view of the track and of Estrella Mountains (and downtown Phoenix), Phoenix Raceway is poised to become a major event destination.
“It’s really a breathtaking location,” Sperber said. “Where else are you going to go to a cocktail party or auction or any kind of fundraiser that’s going to have something like this? There’s only one place in the world and that’s our facility. We’re already in deep discussions with a number of 501c3s about ways they can take advantage of it – it’s pretty exciting.”
To make this happen, Phoenix Raceway will be transformed into a full entertainment venue.
“We’re going to have assets that are now part of the project that really unlock the facility to be able to do a lot of various kinds of events,” he said. “That presents opportunities. We’ve had discussions with all sorts of potential partners on the event side of things. A lot of charitable organizations are looking for venues to raise money or to raise awareness. Now we can be part of that conversation. We really could not have been part of it all these years — we just didn’t have the right venues and the right facility. That all changes in November of 2018.”
Sperber, a Florida State University graduate who hails from, of all places, the racing mecca of Daytona Beach, Fla., has received his share of accolades since his arrival in the Valley in 2002, from being named “Advocate of the Year” by the Arizona Tourism Alliance for his work in driving visitors to the state to being named to Phoenix Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list of top executives in 2006.
With a new venue being constructed, Sperber and his team recognized an opportunity to change the way Phoenix Raceway plays a role in the community. Sperber, who has a track record of activity in the philanthropic arena, from sitting on boards to creating and supporting fundraising events, said he wanted to hit the “pause button” and determine how they can engage the community “in a more robust way and like we’ve never done before.”
He asked his senior team members how they felt about creating an even greater impact on the community by having them serve on nonprofit boards.
The idea, Sperber said, was not a hard sell for his team at the Raceway, which has supported dozens of charities in the Valley over the years via Phoenix Raceway Charities. “Everybody was really excited about doing it,” he said. “So I think we’ve got five or six of my senior people now on a variety of different boards and a lot of it is tailored to their personal tastes, where they have a passion.”
Members of his team have since become embedded in organizations across the Valley, from the Boy Scouts to the Grand Canyon Association to Playworks, a nonprofit that seeks to transform children’s social and emotional health via the power of play, which is hosting a fundraiser at the track called Run the Raceway.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better scenario where the timing is right, the project’s gaining attention and now, because of our senior staff being so much more engaged in the community, events to host at the Raceway become more possible,” he said.
Phoenix Raceway, the venue with a grandstand capacity of about 45,000, hosts two NASCAR weekends and one IndyCar Series race weekend annually, one of just 13 facilities on the NASCAR schedule to host more than one race weekend per year. It has been a part of the motorsports scene since 1964 with the biggest names in all of racing gracing its track, from Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Davey Allison.
The new venue will boast a tunnel that connects the midway to the infield, an upgraded club, 32 renovated and 19 new suites, new escalators and elevators, new souvenir areas, a new infield Fanzone, new guest services and ticketing building and technology updates throughout that include free Wi-Fi and flat-screen TVs. Every part of the current venue will be touched, except the track.
Sperber, who grew up in the south and spent significant time as an adult in New York at Watkins Glen International race track where he served as president, did not have a full appreciation of how motor racing is embraced in the Valley when he arrived on the scene in 2002. He was impressed by the diversity of the fans and the enthusiasm for the sport.
“When I first got out here I thought, ‘Wow this is an incredible motorsports market and it probably doesn’t get the attention nationally it deserves for being a mecca for motor racing,’” he said.
Since coming to the Valley, Sperber has seen racing undergo some key changes.
“Our sport in general has been on an incredible trajectory,” he said. “I remember the days when there was a lot of elements of our sport today that were really thought of as just beyond our grasp. Like gee we would never light Daytona Speedway. Well, it happened. It would never be on Fox and NBC for the two halves of the season. Well, that’s happened. Our stars of our sport becoming crossover, like Jeff Gordon hosting Saturday Night Live for example and appearing in movies and television shows. So I’ve seen all that happen up to the point now where we’re investing hundreds of millions of dollars into modernizing these motorsports venues. It’s been a fun ride to see all of that take place over the last 15 years or so.”
Part of that fun ride is the pure fun and entertainment value of the sport. Sperber said racing, like its roundball-focused counterparts, is driven by personality.
“When I run into folks who grew up watching ‘traditional sports,’ this is what I always say: ‘Every traditional sport at its core is really stupid,’” he said. “Basketball – it’s ten guys fighting over a rubber ball trying to put it in a hoop. If I explained it to you that way and asked you to buy a ticket you’d say, ‘I’m not going to pay to watch that.’ Or 22 big guys fighting over a leather ball, trying to move it in 10-yard increments. Ridiculous.”
Sperber went on: “But what draws you to sports is the rivalries, the passion, and the excitement around sports. It’s incredible theater and it builds tremendous loyalty. The rivalries extend beyond the playing field into the fan base. NASCAR is no different and so it is not as much about cars going around the racetrack and the technology side of it, which is clearly there, but by and large the lion’s share of interest in our sport really revolves around the personalities. It’s the human competition. Can this guy drive this car better than the other guy? Can his pit crew, can his team, prepare a racecar better and beat the other guy? And that’s what it’s all about.”
