Robbins said it’s key to bring communities together around sporting events to make sure residents feel part of something. He said community outreach was key in planning the return of the popular race.
Arun Prabhakaran, president of Urban Affairs Coalition, is an enthusiastic ambassador for Alpha Prime Racing. He’s getting people in the Philadelphia region excited about the sport and Lavar Scott, a young Alpha Prime racer.
“You know, when you say NASCAR, people are like, ‘Huh?’” Prabhakaran said. “But what they don’t know is that NASCAR desperately wants Philadelphia as a market.”
He said that Scott has been racing since he was a little boy, and could inspire other kids in Philadelphia to embrace the sport, or the technology that fuels it.
As far as what else Philadelphia sports fans could see in the near future, a WNBA team is a high point of interest. The panelists had no suggestions on what the team might be named, but said they hoped that a WNBA team might pave the way for more women’s sports in the city.
“It would be nice to be five years from now, if not started, but at least on the road to adding professional women’s soccer and also professional women’s hockey to that mix,” Laws said.
There was also some support for more pickleball events, or even a professional team.
“I think the Philadelphia Pickles is it, right there,” said Stephen Vanyo, who works as a registered NFL agent.
Fans seem to have a healthy appetite for more sporting events, and panelists agreed that there are enough sponsorship dollars to go around to support a wide array of events.
“When we met with potential sponsors, it was our job to really just convey to them what our ultimate mission was, instill that emotion in them and get them to understand that, you know, it wasn’t just about the race,” Robbins said.
“It was about a city, about the people of this great city. And they got it.”