Bristol Herald Courier from Bristol, Tennessee • 71

SECTION Bristol I Herald Courier Bristol Virginia Tennessean rf 1 1 fit 1 s' lv t7 a a ii 2001 SUNDAY EBRUARY 25 1996 ilHHH Herald CourierMike Jackson The Paramount Center for the Arts restored to its original splendor plays host to a variety of events throughout the year BIR riding with NASCAR exlposion LORI WORLEY Bristol Herald Courier Over the past 10 years no professional sport has experienced as tremendous a growth rate with the fans as Winston Cup racing or proof all you have to do is look at the sold out grandstands at the race tracks around the circuit And Bristol International Raceway is perhaps one of the best examples of how quickly racing has zoomed to the front of the pack with fans Not much over a decade ago BIR billed as the fastest half mile track was as it is now a very popular track on the circuit Many of its seats were filled for the two Winston Cup events held yearly but back then those seats numbered somewhere around only 29000 These days BIR which was sold by longtime owner Larry Car rier in January to racing mogul Bruton Smith is still packing them in just at a much higher rate When the Winston Cup tour makes its first stop of 1996 at BIR on March 31 the track will be sold out once again and that means some 81000 fans will be squeezed into the half mile seat ing Smith now says that he can see building even more seats ultimately increasing the capacity to 120000 in the coming years He feels popularity and growth will demand it trying to maximize as much as possible the tremendous growth that NASCAR is said Smith think got a good 10 years left of straight vertical growth similar to the situation in the 50s or the Major League Baseball in the 20s when Babe Ruth was As NASCAR has grown so has the television interest in broadcasting events races in fact are rated among the highest of any Winston Cup races particularly the August night event That was one reason Smith was so interested in adding BIR to his stable of tracks which also include Charlotte Atlanta and Texas Motor Speedways He also owns half of North Wilkes boro and part of Rockingham is a great TV said Humpy Wheeler president of Speedway Sports and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway because of what is happening in television that made it attractive Ratings (for NASCAR racing) have been steadily escalating for the past four or five years but this past year they made a tremendous jump the first time seeing big TV money in racing a tremendous boon for the sport What going to see with TV by say 97 or 98 is a doubling in revenue Television is going to become much more important to a longevity than it has been in the past and where one of the real strengths of Bristol lies always received excellent ratings on There are plenty of folks in the area who hope the ratings are enough to help convince Smith not to do anything rash 'with BIR When he purchased the track there were many who felt he was doing so in order to better his chances of getting a Winston Cup date for his Texas Motor Speedway which is still under construc tion There has been much concern that Smith would move the spring race from Bristol to Texas He however staunchly denies that there is any desire on his part to do that not said anything that would lead anyone to believe we would move race dates from Smith said particular speedway is I think extremely important to NASCAR and Win ston Cup rather special different an absolute There are currently only four tracks on the circuit that are under a mile BIR Richmond Martinsville and North Wilkes boro North future however with Winston Cup rac ing appears cloudy at best since Smith purchased half of it this past January While there has been some speculation that NASCAR which is trying to expand into different areas of the country is moving away from the shorter tracks Smith says he see the sport leaving them behind' will always be a need for tracks this he said realizes this and all the major sponsors realize this It would be a shame to forego something that we all have come to Please see BIR Page 8G BSgwMBHHB EBgiMBRLSsgfei 1 K'S' PhotoMke Pieny Jr Not much over a decade ago Bristol International Raceway billed as the fastest half mile track was as it is now a very popular track on the circuit These days BIR which was sold by longtime owner Larry Carrier in January to racing mogul Bruton Smith is still packing them in just at a much higher rate Mountain Empire rich in sports for players and fans By ROBERT ANDERSON Bristol Herald Courier ost communities in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Ten nessee are at least a five hour drive from Rich mond and Nashville but sports fans in the area need to waste money on gasoline There is plenty of sports capital in the Mountain Empire to make it one of the richest areas in the South In a 25 mile radius encompassing Bristol Kingsport and Johnson City there is a long list of big time sports for spectators and also a growing number of organized events for local partici pants on the annual agenda? The region stages NASCAR Winston Cup I automobile racing IHRA drag racing professional tennis world class track and field and road racing minor league baseball professional boxing state am ateur golf championships a national AAU boys basketball tournament and one of the premier boys high school basketball tournaments In 1995 the region pulled off a major coup when it was announced that Bris tol will be one of the stops for the Tour DuPont cycling event Automobile racing fans have become familiar with Abingdon as the home of the Morgan McClure race head quarters Driver Sterling Marlin won his second straight Daytona 500 and finished third in the season long Win ston Cup points race for Morgan McClure which is building an ex pansive new shop in Washington Coun ty Those are just the most prominent headliners in the Mountain Empire The region also features Division I ath letics at East Tennessee State and NAIA Division II and NCAA Division III sports at a number of small col leges The list of opportunities for high school athletes is growing particularly for girls who have gained newfound status in sports such as softball vol leyball and soccer The amount of participatory sports on the community level in the Moun tain Empire is becoming almost too much for calendars to handle Highly organized and widespread associations give youth and adults the opportunity to compete in sports such as tennis golf bowling road racing swimming softball fishing wrestling gymnastics shooting weightlifting body building cycling and even miniature golf How much is out there? Here are the results of our door to door canvass: AUTOMOBILE RACING National attention is focused on Bristol International Raceway each spring and summer for the running of two Winston Cup 500 lap events and two Grand National races all televised tn ESPN The track held seven events last year including ARCA Daytona Dash and the new Super Track series Crowds in excess of Please see SPORTS Page 3G A Paramount i i premiere i stage By JOE TENNIS Bristol Hc rald Courier always been a steady marquee for State premiere stage Paramount Theater stood vacant just like the nearby Cameo or the historic Lin coln Theatre in Marion more than a decade during the and It took a big pitch fund raising effort to finance its recent refur bishing with donations and grants to a tune of more than $2 million And then some und raisers are still held to keen this stage alive to keep the lights shining on the premier center stage of Bristol people of the region (should not) take it for is the word from the Paramount Center for the current director Harry Scanlan always need their patronage and their or $210000 Paramount Theater joined a list of 13 others built at about the same time by the Paramount Publix Corp formed with the merger of several movie companies including Para mount Lasky and amous Players Once the building construction was completed Paramount Publix brought in its own in terior designer to decorate with the combi nation of and Italian Renais sance The eb 20 1931 edition of the Bristol News Bulletin told this story during open ing 1 400 Persons May Be Seated Theatre De signed Especially or Sound Pictures Spectacular Decorating eatures Mark Interior of Building Equipment Most Modern of the irst seven theatres in the United States to be designed especially for sound repro duction will be opened here this evening at 8 4 is the Paramount a member of the nation wide Paramount Publix group and is of so distinc tive a design that all visitors who have made preliminary inspections have pronounced it one of the most beautiful theatres in existence" A gala ceremony that riday night in eluded a performance of Star Span gled on organ and the world pre miere of the romantic comedy movie Pays to starring Carole Lom bard Actor Buddy Rogers welcomed was on hand too and introduced Paramount Co movie stars to patrons i Paramount Theater on State Street was the place to be just as it has gradually become again over the past several months Aside from screening the latest in mov ies the theater showcased the Big Band sounds of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey i Charlie Spivak Harry James and Grand Ole Opry stars Tex Ritter Ken Maynard Gabby Hayes Johnny Mack Brown Ernest Tubb and Cowboy Copas during the and 4 To attract patrons during the Depres sion years the theater sponsored and nights where patrons woj prize money or dishes toward a complete set Sunday features were not added until the 1950s i About the same time the theater under went a renovation The theater was de signed to seat 1300 though the Bristol News Bulletin reported 1400 During the 1950s remodeling about 100 seats were lost in bringing the screen forward to ac comodate for Cinemascope and stereo sound Also the orchestra pit was re moved and the theater organ dismantled with the pipes going to an amusement 4 park in Alabama and the keyboard to King College When the last movie was shown in 1979 the theater then sat basically empty for the next 12 years Economic pressures forced the closing or almost a year after' Rease see PARAMOUNT Page 9G' Vt A.