Any time 417 acres go under development the surrounding neighborhoods and community experience a mix of excitement and apprehension. That's a fair explanation for reactions to the $250 million Formula 1 race track going in on the SH-130 corridor with a scheduled completion date in 2012. This is a case, however, where the long-range benefits far outweigh the short-range logistics.

The Texas Comptroller's Office estimates that the track will have an annual economic impact of $300 million. Let's put that in local context. That's more money than a season of UT home games and South by Southwest generate together. It's the equivalent of Austin hosting the Super Bowl for ten years running. Is the projection realistic? Similar tracks in Malaysia and Bahrain generated $221 million to $394 million in 2008 alone.

Projected attendance at the F1 racing events is between 90,000 and 200,000. Most experts say, reasonably, that the first year will be the lightest, with numbers growing as local familiarity with the sport grows. Internationally, Formula 1 racing is huge, with each event drawing a viewing audience of 600 million. Last year 153 million people watched the Super Bowl, which is considered the largest televised competition in America.

Typically track installations of this magnitude become hubs for larger area growth including condos, private homes, amusement facilities, and entertainment venues. Where there is money, there is growth. Where there is growth, there is a larger tax base. Where there is a larger tax base, there are better schools. Run the equation out as far as you like. The levels continue to grow and to improve. In the construction phase of the F1 track alone, developers are projecting the creation of 3,000 jobs and an injection of $100 million into the Austin economy.

The greatest short-term logistical concern involves traffic patterns around the facility. Critics say that the existing roads are insufficient to handle the traffic they carry today, much less a crowd of 200,000 with a time frame of 3 hours to get to and exit a sporting event. (That's a time projection based on traffic around the Texas Motor Speedway north of the DFW Metroplex.) Full Throttle Productions has hired two transportation consultants to develop traffic plans. It's also important, however, to also flip the consideration. On the days when those new roads are not being used by the track, they are being used by area residents for improved movement in their community.

Over the next 18 months the region around the track will experience growth and change. New job opportunities will open up. The potential for ancillary real estate investment will explode. People will relocate. Some will leave the area, others will come in. Philosophically, the only constant is change. Economically, as Austin and Texas continue to grow and to move out of a recession we weathered much more successfully than most of the rest of the nation, the Formula 1 track is a benefit and an asset whose full effect on the community and the region can't even begin to be estimated.


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