Well, it looks like it's a done deal now. Oh, and Mr. McCracken, speaking of laps(e), thanks for your remembrance, but I'm saving the celebrating for the silver in May.

While I agree with your point Annoying, BMS does not have enough parking to hold 150,000 people. Have you been to a race?

Maybe it's the fact that Meadowview charges an outrageous fee (upward of $20,000 supposedly) to use the facility and has no parking whatsoever, whereas Bristol (the city or the speedway) charges nothing to host the event. And you can park 150,000 people at the speedway. If Kingsport officials wants the event back maybe they should learn basic math. At least Food City woke up and smelled the bottom line.

My apologies to Susan and Jane for not giving them proper credit for the "Laps with Nascar" idea. You can keep all of my royalities from the event but I would like to be the voice-over for the commercial!/// And,on a personal note,Happy 30th Anniversary last month Susan.

I come to Kingsport quite often and leave many of my hard earned dollars there, but not for swimming. As an outsider, it is my opinion that renovating the current pool or building a new one in the near vicinity would be doing what is best for the citizens. To me, the aqua center is not for residents; it's for visitors. That may work in areas such as Gatlinburg, but not Kingsport. For outsiders, Kingsport has and always will be the place to go to shop. Also, I will NEVER call it the Kingsport Town Center. It is and always will be Fort Henry Mall!!!

The fact is, renovation of the Legion Pool would be the most cost effective way to provide what a city pool is and should be about that is built by citizens tax dollars. Would not be as grandiose as those who want and wish but want to avoid the facts of long term cost. Reasonable and logical always take a back seat when others money is being used to fund things.

Greg Lumb, when a mayor and city government leaders feel their role is to "not play second fiddle" or outdo its neighboring communities, build an aquatics center to spark economic growth etc., major economic long term problems are in store. Their role is to provide infrastructure needs and services so the community can thrive and grow through invenstment by the private sector.
An aquatics center built by the tax payer dollars should be about servicing as many local citizens as possible in the most cost effective manner to all.
Building upscale hotels, golf courses and aquatics centers should not be their role.
Nothing personal against any of the city leaders, however what I continuously observe that many of their roles has become to be the cities entrepreneur with the tax dollars.
(I see a strong similiarity in what is taking place with our federal government now.)
History has shown repeatedly and unfortunately that government taking this role creates long term definate failure.

I am glad that this isn't going to be in Kingsport anymore. I get tired of all of the traffic this creates when I am on my home from work. Bristol is a good place for Family Race Night.

Just can't wait until the new Aqua Center is done at the Meadow View Prison Complex.

Oh, I can see it now…(announcer)..Come join the best and the fastest and help celebrate the Spring race at BMS in Kingsport by attending the annual "Laps With Nascar" swimming event at MeadowView's new "Waterin' Hole" swim center! Wear your rubber duckie life vest with your favorite driver's number! Relax with your NASCAR beach towel on the new environmentally friendly Mead/Weyerhaeuser/Domtar wood chip family beach. And remember to bring your boogie boards made from the office/building for lease signs found all over Kingsport to the wave pool as Darrell Waltrip hollers "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity"! Don't forget, that's Thursday night in Kingsport! See you at the Waterin'Hole!

man that is the truth. i pulled his name in a pool on a august race a few years back and just groaned. sure enough he was done about 50 laps in. it's like he forgets the shape of the course doesn't change.

If you had a driver swim, Kyle Petty would go three laps and then suddenly do the breaststroke straight into the side of the pool.

Jane,
I like it -- doing laps with the NASCAR folks.

Oh Greg Lumb, thank you for your excellent comments. "Ideas and money are what drives business." That is, unless they are bad ideas and dollars that are poorly spent. The Meadowview Pool is emblematic of both. If the area needs a spark to take off, as you say, why hasn't Meadowview, the Hunter Wright Stadium, the new Kingsport Town Fort Henry Center Mall, or the new Target shopping center brought about the growth we have needed? Those were all supposed to cause economic growth yet, strangely, we are still playing second fiddle to Johnson City. How many times are we going to keep wasting money on new flints, to keep the metaphor going, looking for that one spark? It might be time to search for a whole new method of building a fire.

Guess this is proactive to the loss of Exit 7 vacancies.

Not a Nascar fan, but it never made much since to me that this event was in Kingsport. Something makes me think if there was such an event for the Atlanta races or Daytona that they'd hold them in say, Atlanta and Daytona, not Marietta and St. Pete.

It never made sense for the event to be in Kingsport.

Maybe Phillips could hold a Bristol Motor Speedway night swim? Or a Fan swim? Driver swim? A free-for-anybody-other-than-Kingsport-residents swim? No?

He's bringing Kingsport to the next level, DOWN.

I really can't believe the negative comments I'm reading here. While Dennis Phillips isn't perfect I can't fault his aggressive approach to bringing Kingsport to the next level. If it hasn't been noticed, until the last few years, Kingsport has been playing second fiddle to our neighbors. The aquatic center is going to further spur economic growth in an area that just needs a spark to take off and this will do it.

As far as Race Night goes, I hace felt for many years it needed to be held on Broad Street. I have seen weather studies which show while more likely than August, historically the event would have rarely gotten rained out. Ideas and money are what drives business, and is what will get the event back in our city.

Don't worry guys; Valerie Joh and her cronies will surely find a way to make up for that money that will be lost!!

So does this mean the 60% of outside revenue from the MeadowView tax is in jeopardy?

Yeah, it is kinda stupid to have "Race Night" in the same city or location as the race. Did you really say that? It is actually stupid to have it anywhere other than Bristol. It is not the Kingsport Motor Speedway.

I don't understand why they moved it to Bristol Raceway -- it's hard to get in and out there. If we pay to go over there to a race and watch the drivers, why can't they give up a night to come to Kingsport to see the fans? They're making more money than the mass majority of us.

Have no fear, the new swimming pool will have the town swimming in money.

That is hilarious Eddie Taylor! I was thinking the same thing.

Don't give up Mr Phillips. Maybe Knoxville will give up the one they had.
When it went from a Fan Event to a money HOG event.Down Hill It Went.

This event has most certainly went downhill the past few years. It went from being an event to meet some pretty decent names in Nascar, to a marketing-fest throwing trinkets at the fans who attended. Dennis Phillips points his finger at the drivers of course. Eddie, you are on target.

I quit going because there has not been any big name drivers there. My last visit was when Steve Park was still with DEI a few weeks before his BGN bad wreck at Darlington.

Where is Gordon, Earnhardt, Stewart, Johnson? Where is the guys that bring in the people?

Hey Kingsport, don't worry. That new Aqua Center at MeadowView will make everything ok. Now, close your eyes and go back to sleep.