Posted: 28 Feb 2010 02:54 PM PST

Even as its highest profile client prepares to depart for swankier quarters in downtown Louisville, Freedom Hall won't be turning off the lights and padlocking the doors.

The main event space at the Kentucky Exposition Center has been hosting much more than the home games of the University of Louisville basketball teams since it opened in 1956 — and it will continue to do so after the $238 million arena being built at Second and Main streets opens in the fall.

Freedom Hall "will absolutely still be standing" 20 years from now, said Harold Workman, president of the Kentucky State Fair Board, which will manage both arenas.

The U of L men's team plays its last regular-season home game in Freedom Hall next Saturday, and the women played their last contest there yesterday.

Workman said that while the expo center will miss U of L basketball as a client, its departure "will open up a lot of good winter dates" for other events at Freedom Hall.

He said his staff already is negotiating with as many as three new conventions and five new trade shows between October 2010 and March 2011 — dates that would have been impossible when Freedom Hall was committed to 35 U of L games.

Workman said he also has been talking with athletics officials at the University of Kentucky, which plays at least one basketball home game a year at Freedom Hall, about playing more contests there. Coach John Calipari has said he would like to play at least three games in Louisville each year.

In 2009, Freedom Hall played host to events on 210 days — with more than one event on some days.

But Workman said the fair board estimates that Freedom Hall had been losing 10 to 15 touring concerts and other shows every year, because either U of L had a game, or the basketball schedules weren't set when a show producer with a specific date came looking.

Replacing revenue may take time

Despite the promise of new events, Workman said, "We can't replace 100 percent of the (U of L) dates right out of the gate," so there is expected to be an initial financial loss.

He estimates that U of L contributed nearly $1.7 million of the $11.7 million in revenue that Freedom Hall events generated for the fair board in 2009. It may take three years or more to replace that revenue, he said.

But Jim Host, chairman of the Louisville Arena Authority, which is building the downtown facility, noted that the authority has agreed to compensate the fair board every year for any amount less than the $11.7 million Freedom Hall produced in 2009.

In addition, the fair board signed a contract more than a year ago with AEG, an entertainment booking company, to book both Freedom Hall and the new arena, including a minimum of 10 events a year at Freedom Hall.

Dennis Petrulo, AEG's director of event bookings for the Louisville area, was reluctant to discuss prospective business for either venue, affirming only that AEG is contractually obligated "to keep Freedom Hall busy. I think we will be able to do that."

Host said some concert promoters will likely opt for Freedom Hall over the arena, because it will be cheaper to rent.

Freedom Hall seats about 16,000 for most events, and about 19,500 for U of L basketball. The new arena will seat about 18,000 for a concert and about 22,000 for basketball.

Although rental by many groups is negotiated, the typical cost to rent Freedom Hall for a one-time event is about $11,500. The rents for the arena haven't been set, but the cost for a one-time event probably will be around $35,000, Workman said.

A few events will use both Freedom Hall and the new arena, including the FFA when it returns to Louisville in 2013-15.

But some events, such as the Kentucky Derby Festival Basketball Classic, wrestling matches, the Harlem Globetrotters games and the circus, and even some conventions looking for a downtown site may consider a move to the new arena, according to fair board officials.

Large shows likely to stay

Workman said he doubted, however, if any trade shows, especially ones with hundreds of exhibitors, would leave the exposition center and its 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space.

John Davidson, vice president of Show Cars Inc., which produces the Carl Casper Custom & Louisville New Car Auto Show that has been held for three days every February at the exposition center for 47 straight years, said the new downtown arena isn't big enough for the show.

It requires 750,000 square feet of space and takes up virtually all of the center's space, including Freedom Hall, where the Low Rider Nationals are held.

"No matter where you sit in Freedom Hall, you have a good seat," Davidson said.

Another long-time Freedom Hall client is going to stick with the venue, too, despite some drawbacks.

The National Quartet Convention, a weeklong Southern gospel music event that requires a large amount of space and has been held annually at the exposition center in September since 1994, plans to continue there and to hold nightly concerts in Freedom Hall.

The convention recently decided against a bid from Indianapolis in part because many of the 40,000 annual visitors are senior citizens from the Southeast who didn't want to drive an additional 100 miles to the Hoosier capital, said Clarke Beasley, a convention spokesman.

Freedom Hall has shortcomings — including narrow seats, no space in the balcony for handrails and too many steps, Beasley said. But in the end, good points, such as Louisville's central location and the fairgrounds' ability to meet the space needs of a huge trade show, outweighed any inconveniences.

"Freedom Hall is an old building now, but all things considered, we felt the need to remain in Louisville" and in Freedom Hall, Beasley said.

Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at (502) 582-7089. Reporter Brett Dawson contributed to this story.

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Desperate for work, Miss. town awaits Toyota plant - KLFY.com

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 01:43 PM PST

By HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press Writer

BLUE SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) - Terry McShan isn't thinking about car sales analyses or excess capacity when he drives by the idle Toyota plant in northeast Mississippi. He's thinking about his little girl.

Like most Mississippians, the 46-year-old father of one grown daughter and a 4-year-old girl was thrilled when Toyota announced plans in 2007 to build a plant in Blue Springs, a one-store town in the north Mississippi hills. McShan soon enrolled in a junior college's automotive program in hopes of landing a job at the plant.

Those were better times, when the car market was strong, Mississippi officials gladly signed off on a $324 million incentive package and Toyota said it would be building cars in Blue Springs in 2010. Three years later, the economy has tanked, one of the most trusted brands in the business has recalled millionsof cars and McShan will graduate with no immediate prospects for a Toyota job in Mississippi.

Toyota says it's holding off production in Blue Springs, not because of the recall, but until the car market improves and the company sells off "excess capacity." It's anybody's guess when that'll be. Even when Toyota gives the green light, it could be 18 months to two years before the first car rolls off the assembly line.

"When I heard Toyota was coming, I thought, 'This is the (college) program that I need.' I've been here ever since, waiting for Toyota to open," McShan said recently while taking a break from classes at Itawamba Community College in Tupelo.

"I'm just trying to give my daughter the best education that I can," McShan said. "That job right there (at the Toyota plant) would help give her the best."

Toyota has been hounded lately by production problems on several models, including the Prius, the gas-electric hybrid that was to be built in Mississippi. Problems with gas pedals, floor mats and brakes on various models have led to the biggest worldwide recall in the company's history, lawsuits, apologies from Toyota officials and congressional hearings.

The recall, however, came well after the announcement that production at Blue Springs was being put on hold. Toyota officials insist the recalls won't have any effect on the Blue Springs plant.

"It's just a question of when the market will support the capacity that we will have at this plant," David Copenhaver, the Toyota vice president in charge of the Blue Springs facility, said recently.

"Everybody, I think, can easily understand what the market has been like the last year or so," Copenhaver said. "When you have a lot of excess capacity you have to use what you've got."

It would take a "fundamental shaking of confidence" in the Toyota brand for the recalls to further delay the opening of the Mississippi plant, said Haig Stoddard, auto analyst with the consulting firm IHS-Global Insight.

"As it stands right now I'm not sure what they are going to build there, if they'll go with the Prius or something else, but they're going to need that capacity in North America," Stoddard said. "I think that plant has a future, irrespective of what they build there."

Gov. Haley Barbour, a second-term Republican who helped lure the plant to Mississippi, said Toyota "made a common sense business decision that they need to wait for the automobile market to improve."

"While we wish they were open today, nobody can argue with that business decision," Barbour said in a telephone interview. "One thing about Toyota is they think long term, and we do, too."

Barbour said he doesn't believe the recall will hurt Toyota or the Mississippi plant long term, and he said Toyota will be an anchor of the economy in northeast Mississippi.

Barbour and members of the Mississippi Legislature expressed high hopes for Toyota in March 2007 when officials approved the issuance of $293.9 million in bonds for the automaker and another $30 million for Toyota suppliers.

Toyota has volunteered to start making interest payments in April on state loans since the company missed the mark in starting production and employing 2,000 people. The initial deal with the state didn't require the company to pay interest.

There's no specific trigger point in market conditions that will get things rolling again in Mississippi, Copenhaver said. The building is mostly completed, but Toyota still has to install hundreds of millions of dollars in manufacturing equipment and hire and train workers. That won't begin until the economy is better.

That's not to say the plant hasn't already pumped millions into the area.

Mike Gentry, who owns Gentry's Grocery&Grill in Blue Springs, a town of 144 people, said business boomed while hundreds of workers were building the plant, roads and rail lines. Gentry even bought a catering truck to take food to the site.

Gentry's brother and other area landowners cashed in by setting up places for out-of-town workers to live in trailers. Those trailer hook ups are mostly empty now, and it's easier to find a seat during lunch at Gentry's. Many customers at the small store, who sit at folding tables and wash down barbecue with sweet tea, wonder if the plant will ever open.

One of them is 76-year-old Lamar Pannell.

"I hope it opens. A lot of people around here could use the work. Mike (Gentry) says it's going to open, but I don't know."

Gentry responds, "I tell it this way, they've put a lot of money into it for it not to open."

Toyota says $300 million has been invested at the site, and the company has pledged $50 million to Mississippi schools for educational programs. About 70 people, including management, security and others, work at the plant now in "production preparation activities," Copenhaver said.

Other international companies have expressed interest in opening plants in Mississippi since Toyota announced it would, said Randy Kelley, director of Three Rivers Planning and Development District, the fiscal and administrative agency for the PUL alliance, a joint venture of three counties around Blue Springs that worked to bring the plant here.

Kelley wouldn't name those companies, citing a need for secrecy in economic development projects. In any case, new jobs are sorely needed in Mississippi, where the statewide unemployment rate has topped 10 percent, above the national average of 9.7 percent.

At Itawamba Community College, many students are pondering their next move.

Barry Emison, a tool and dye technology teacher at ICC, said "about 100 percent" hoped to get a job at Toyota or one of the suppliers that plan to set up shop in Mississippi.

"Yeah, there's disappointment, but (the students) all are still looking forward to that day Toyota does come," Emison said. "We still believe they're gonna be here (and) they're going to be a driving force in the local economy."

Toyota thinks so, too.

"We're still here," Copenhaver said.

So is McShan, who says he'll do whatever it takes to provide for his little girl while waiting and hoping for a job at Toyota.

"I drive by (the plant) all the time," he said. "It gives me a glimpse of hope."

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Radical Racer - MSN Money

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 10:58 AM PST

Click to enlarge picture

DeltaWing IndyCar Concept

Once upon a time, the Indianapolis 500 was the most popular race in the United States. By extension, IndyCar racing was America's most popular form of motorsport. That's not the case anymore. In the mid-1990s, while NASCAR was growing in popularity, open-wheel racing self-destructed by splitting up into the CART and the Indy Racing League (IRL) series. Open-wheel racing has since regrouped under the IRL banner, but the series could still use a boost.

In an effort to give it just that, the IRL challenged developers to come up with an all-new chassis design for the 2012 model year. The IRL gave some parameters involving safety and performance, but it also wanted to lower costs for team owners and employ smaller engines with better fuel economy to be more environmentally friendly.

See more pictures of the DeltaWing concept

Four companies responded to the challenge. Here at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show, DeltaWing LLC of Indianapolis unveiled its DeltaWing Indy Concept, a radical race car that combines elements of dragster and previous IndyCar designs with the look of a superhero-style crime cruiser. "We started with a clean-sheet approach for what our vision could be, for not only the next-generation IndyCar but what was the next-generation business model that really propels open-wheel into the future," Bill Lafontaine, DeltaWing's chief marketing officer, says of the new IRL prototype.

The DeltaWing Concept's stunning design lacks a front spoiler and replaces the rear spoiler with an airplane-type tail fin. The front track (the distance between the front wheels) is only 24 inches, while the rear track is stretched to 70 inches. All four wheels are skinnier than the current model's, and the fronts are far thinner. The design puts 72.5 percent of the weight on the rear wheels, which the company says makes for excellent rear traction coming out of corners for the specially developed Firestone Firehawk tires.

Designed for optimal aerodynamic efficiency, the DeltaWing Concept has a slippery 0.24 coefficient of drag. According to Lafontaine, the design would create much less disruptive air flowing over cars behind, allowing for more exciting passes.

DeltaWing also developed the car to meet the IRL's "green" requirements. To be built from carbon fiber, the car would weigh only 1,000 pounds with the driver, about half as much as the current cars. It would also use a smaller engine to achieve the same performance, likely a turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine, instead of the current 650-horsepower 3.5-liter V8. The company says the DeltaWing would get better than double the fuel mileage of the current cars. "As the whole automotive industry looks at efficiencies and green, motorsports needs to move in that direction," Lafontaine says.

Performance would not be affected. The company claims a top speed of 230-235 mph with the 2.0-liter engine. The chassis is designed to accept an engine from any manufacturer, though the prototype, due by August, will use an engine from AER Manufacturing.

Cost to racing teams is another important factor. Lafontaine says the DeltaWing would cost about $600,000, which is about half of the cost of the current cars. Making racing more affordable could lead to more teams getting involved, which would only enhance the competition.

In addition to DeltaWing, Dallara Automobili (maker of the current IndyCar chassis), Swift Engineering and Lola are submitting chassis proposals. Dallara and Swift have already shown renderings, but the DeltaWing is the first full-size mockup. Should the DeltaWing be picked, those companies and others could be tabbed to build the cars, because DeltaWing LLC sees itself as a technology developer, not a constructor.

The IRL plans to choose its next chassis sometime this summer. No matter what chassis is chosen, IRL racing should be greener, cheaper for race teams and more exciting for fans. That sounds just like the formula the IRL needs.

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Indoctrinating the Veterans of a Virtual War - Kotaku.com

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 10:58 AM PST

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In the past year, 70,000 men and women enlisted in the U.S. Army. Sixty-seven times that amount - 4.7 million - played Modern Warfare 2 on a console or PC, released one day before Veteran's Day. In the latest edition of Foreign Policy, P.W. Singer ...