"We're not going to lose a beat," John Saboor, executive director of the Central Florida Sports Commission, said Friday afternoon as it looked increasingly likely the Florida Legislature wouldn't deliver the $30 million locals were seeking for the project.

The focus now will shift to private sources of money, said Saboor, noting that supporters had alternatives in mind all along in case state funding fell through. Asked if plans might include loans to be repaid from hall of fame operations and future grants, Saboor said, "all of the above."

State funding was considered essential in a feasibility study funded by Daytona Beach officials. Now that the money isn't coming through, it's deemed less essential.

"I am still of the belief that this project can be financed and is extremely viable," Saboor said.

The economic study will be even more valuable now in approaching private money sources, Saboor said. The analysis predicted the hall of fame would be capable of paying off an estimated $70 million construction tab and operating costs with income from ticket sales, merchandise and food and beverage sales.

But one local economist was skeptical that supporters would be able to find enough upfront money to build a hall of fame without state help.

"I can't see money here that would do it in the size or amount they need," said Mark Soskin, a University of Central Florida economist based in Daytona Beach. "It's either state aid or they won't get it, unless NASCAR wants it here."

Locals believe they lost their bid for state funding when theirs was linked with similar requests to subsidize new facilities for the Orlando Magic and Florida Marlins -- a connection Soskin said "poisoned the well" for the NASCAR bid.

Of the three, only the hall of fame offered a plan to repay the state money -- through sales of a NASCAR-themed specialty license plate -- but the distinction failed to garner enough legislative support, even though Soskin believed the state would benefit from sales taxes generated by the hall of fame.

"The other sports funding has no economic basis at all," he said.

George Mirabal, president of The Chamber, Daytona Beach-Halifax Area, said he's confident the local hall of fame effort will get private financing. There are no plans to ask for city, county or federal public money.

"I don't see finances as a problem," Mirabal said. "Our concern is competition."

NASCAR invited proposals for the hall of fame by a May 31 deadline from Daytona Beach; Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Kansas City, Kan.; Richmond, Va.; and the state of Michigan.

"We believe we're in the hunt," Mirabal said. "We feel the proposal we have going to NASCAR is going to be the best one they're going to get. The other places are bigger. We're gonna show as good as anybody."

john.bozzo@news-jrnl.com