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  #41  
Old 02-01-2010, 12:31 PM
freddymo freddymo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pointman
The Meadowlands was a big part of the reason that Roosevelt Raceway closed down and Yonkers nearly did. For once, Jersey can't try to steal money from New York at the Meadowlands because of their refusal to compete against Atlantic City. As Freddy rightly says, if the Meadowlands closes down both the Thoroughbred and Harness industry will disperse to surrounding states. Yonkers likely will be the big beneficiary and be restored back to the status it should be as the premiere Harness racing facility in the U.S. (though I wish they could install a mile track or at least a 5/8 track as it creates more interesting betting races than a 1/2 mile track) and regain some of the races that should be in New York anyway, such as the Messinger and the Cane Pace.

This is the unfortunate reality of the racing business, but some contraction of racing facilities is not necessarily bad for the sport. As for John Campbell, he's rode at Yonkers as well when the money is right and a few miles over the George Washington Bridge to Yonkers will not kill him. Hopefully Monmouth will survive as that is a truly nice facility. However, the reality is that unless these facilities can find a way to be profitable, their end is only a matter of time.
There end needs to come.. They developed a business on the premise that casino dollars would never be at risk and they would continue to flow like milk and honey.. Sorry

I live in the heart of standardbred country and grew up going to the track (freehold) everyday of my life.. Watched Skip by Night, Willow Wiper, fan Hanover, Genghis Khan, My Bill Forward and others in the same dam race. It was electric stuff that the sport failed to capitalize on. The NJSS program was a gold mine for horseman.. Now the gold is gone and things have to change..

Monmouth isnt going anywhere and if they shorten the meet and significantly invest the purses back into the track and horseman wil become an awesome meet that the shore looks forward to in a big way.. Monmouth has a lot going for it IF it plays its cards right.. Monmouth is a great alternative to Belmont and Saratoga any horseman would rather race in West Long Branch instead of Philly IF the purses are close..Which they could be if they race fewer dates
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  #42  
Old 02-01-2010, 12:39 PM
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richard burch richard burch is offline
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Originally Posted by Kasept
As New Jersey Tightens Its Belt, the Racing Industry Holds Its Breath
By BILL FINLEY
Published: January 30, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/sp....html?emc=eta1

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Meadowlands Racetrack has had some of the highest-quality harness racing in the country and dozens of the sport’s most important races. But in recent years, the track has become a money-losing drain on the state of New Jersey, which now threatens its survival.

John Campbell, the leading driver in career wins and earnings at Meadowlands, said that “anybody who takes this report lightly is sadly mistaken.” Campbell said, “The governor put the committee together for a reason, and if this is what they are recommending, this is a scary situation.”

Mike Gulotta, a harness horse breeder, was the only member of the 13-member committee with ties to the racing industry, which, some critics maintain, is why the final report held out so little promise for the industry.

“The report favored what has traditionally been the casino’s position, which is nothing for horse racing,” said Barbara DeMarco, a lobbyist who represents thoroughbred owners, trainers and breeders in the state.

“Everybody understands the situation and how serious it is,” said Bob Kulina, the general manager for thoroughbred racing at Monmouth and Meadowlands. “What we have to do now is come up with some sort of solution.”
This is unbelievable and embarrassing. The N.J. goverment has known about this problem for years and they have absolutely no creative thinking to come up with any long term solutions. One thing they certainly do have is no shortage of bad ideas. Nascar in the meadowlands would bring about as much interest as a brand new indoor ski ramp (xanadu) which now sits abondoned right next to the track. (idiots) More housing is out of the question because the schools in east rutherford are already packed. There are retail and commercial facilities available all over the area that can't be sold or rented because no one has any money!

don't these morons remember the failed Indy car racing through the meadowlands arena parking lot? What a great idea that was! i would rather watch turtle racing.

Hey Steve: Can you get somebody from NJSEA on your show and find out what the hell they are truly thinking?
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  #43  
Old 02-01-2010, 12:43 PM
freddymo freddymo is offline
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They have no money Richard and the casinos are dying with the economy and the competition.. Municipalities are faced with declining tax income and the prop tax in the state is unreal. The money tree is dead.. You want them to raise taxes to save a race track and a couple of thousand jobs that will most certainly relocate..
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  #44  
Old 02-01-2010, 02:32 PM
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richard burch richard burch is offline
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Originally Posted by freddymo
They have no money Richard and the casinos are dying with the economy and the competition.. Municipalities are faced with declining tax income and the prop tax in the state is unreal. The money tree is dead.. You want them to raise taxes to save a race track and a couple of thousand jobs that will most certainly relocate..

i cant disagree with anything you said.

but that does not excuse the n.j. leadership from not coming up with a plan years ago. i'm very pissed off.
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  #45  
Old 02-01-2010, 02:43 PM
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MaTH716 MaTH716 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richard burch
i cant disagree with anything you said.

but that does not excuse the n.j. leadership from not coming up with a plan years ago. i'm very pissed off.
The plan was that the casinos would keep infusing the system with money so that the tracks wouldn't get slots. Now that the casinos are getting their teeth kicked in by the combination of the economy and slots virtually popping up every else, they just don't have the cash to put into the pot. Like Freddy said, the money tree has died.
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  #46  
Old 02-01-2010, 11:11 PM
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Cannon Shell Cannon Shell is offline
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2007 - spend $40 million on capital projects at racetracks despite them not really making much money on them.

2010 - close them up because they may lose $13 million (much of that in interest on capital spending)

And people wonder why some of us arent real big fans of govt run business?
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  #47  
Old 02-01-2010, 11:12 PM
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Cannon Shell Cannon Shell is offline
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Originally Posted by sammy
All of this might not matter for much longer because it's worse than I thought. I just watched CNN and Blitzer and Gergen looked scared. They said the U.S.could possibly declare bankruptcy because of the projected deficits.....and China is going to take over the world.

They were serious. i see much worse times ahead.
Stop watching CNN.
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  #48  
Old 02-02-2010, 12:09 AM
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philcski philcski is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sammy
All of this might not matter for much longer because it's worse than I thought. I just watched CNN and Blitzer and Gergen looked scared. They said the U.S.could possibly declare bankruptcy because of the projected deficits.....and China is going to take over the world.

They were serious. i see much worse times ahead.
Oh puhleeze...
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  #49  
Old 02-14-2010, 12:38 AM
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richard burch richard burch is offline
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Default Latest N.J. news

NJ racing hoping for a Plan B
The sky is falling on New Jersey racing.

That's not Chicken Little's view. It's mine and that of others in racing who have read the draft suggestions of a report being submitted to new Gov. Chris Christie.

The 20-page draft precedes a final version to be submitted to the governor, and its recommendations include the possible closing of the Meadowlands, the nation's top harness track and home of the Hambletonian, harness racing's Kentucky Derby.

The draft contains some provocative ideas to fulfill the committee's mission, which is "to harness, distill and focus upon a series of key issues that must be thoroughly examined and integrated into a master plan for the 'Global Good' of New Jersey." The opening paragraph says, "This plan will provide an outline of a roadmap."

The road could lead to disaster for racing.

The potential impact goes far beyond the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which is treated harshly by the state-appointed committee, headed by the former chairman of the Authority, Jon Hanson. It affects the lives and welfare of 12,000 people employed in the horse industry in New Jersey. The report acknowledges those numbers and avowedly is concerned with "the addition of gaming at New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware racetracks [that] drove New Jersey's on-track live racing from profitable to unprofitable in the past five years."

But there is one huge omission. There is not one word in the thousands in the report suggesting the Meadowlands, Monmouth Park, or Freehold Raceway be allowed to meet that slots competition with racinos of their own.

This is curious, since the report's executive summary says the commission's goal is "to encourage consideration of all the options to make horse racing self-sustaining," but omits the one most likely to do so.

Perhaps, considering the composition of the committee, it is not so curious.

The 14-person gaming, sports and entertainment transition team, composed of 13 men and one woman, includes the senior vice president and general counsel of Borgata Casino & Spa, the CEO of Trump Entertainment, the president of Excalibur Amusements, and a vice president of Harrah's Entertainment.

Not one racing executive is on the panel, and only one representative of horse racing is: Mike Gulotta, a former Wall Streeter who operates a state-of-the-art harness horse breeding farm in the state. Not a single official representing Thoroughbred racing or harness racing management is included.

The report includes this: "We encourage consideration of all the options to make horse racing self-sustaining." It says its goal is to continue to have live racing, but it also says "discontinuing racing at the Meadowlands and restructuring the industry in NJ" is one option.

Another option, the report says, is "a feasibility study for the commercial development of the Meadowlands, including examining other potential uses such as NASCAR."

If the committee pursues that feasibility study, I suggest it begin in Chicago, where auto racing was introduced, at huge cost, as the salvation of Sportsman's Park. Both auto racing and Sportsman's Park itself are gone, the bold experiment a disaster.

Gullota, the committee's lone racing man, has filed a dissenting report to the committee relating to the operations of the Meadowlands and the committee's omission, and presumably rejection, of diversified gaming there.

He said he believes New Jersey would lose what is widely considered the premier Standardbred racetrack in the world, an asset that should be leveraged and not wasted. He said those assets include the possibility of new revenues ranging from $250 million a year to $1 billion with the addition of a racino that could be sold or leased to a private sector operator. Such a move also would generate another major source of revenue to address the state's looming budget deficit.

Gullota also said he thinks a Meadowlands racino could help restart the huge multi-billion dollar Xanadu entertainment and shopping project, now completely stalled.

He said he believes the transition team that drafted the report represents an aggressive head start to address serious issues facing New Jersey, and he said the report "should be the catalyst for continued dialogue and discussion of rather complex issues."

The report understandably frightens those in racing in New Jersey. It could, with broader views and more specific suggestions, prove a useful approach to the many problems of racing and Atlantic City, if the adversarial relationship between the two can be resolved.

As for Gov. Christie, it is hard to believe that a successful lawyer and former U.S. federal attorney will not see the huge downside to the end of an industry that contributes as much as horse racing and its related activities do to the green areas and overall economy of the state he runs.

Stan Bergstein's Daily Racing Form columns
With permission of Daily Racing Form,



Big M Expansion Left Off Report

It has been reported that New Jersey governor Chris Christie's transition team was starting to grow fond of the idea of a casino resort at the Meadowlands Racetrack, but all mention of the idea was excluded from the final recommendation.

According to the Asbury Park Press, Atlantic City executives are fighting horse racing officials' attempts to bring a 'gaming mall' to the Meadowlands.

The article states that the gaming mall idea was 'embraced in a report dated January 4, but deleted from the final January 5 report.' Among other individuals, the committee is made up of a Harrah's vice president, a Borgata senior vice president and the chief executive officer of Trump Entertainment.

The Asbury Park Press report states that the apparent change in stance from January 4 to 5 incited panel member Mike Gulotta, a standardbred horse breeder, to submit a minority report. His report protested the issue of omission of the possibility of introduction of video lottery terminals at the Meadowlands Racetrack.

The article cites the deleted recommendation as saying: 'Utilizing existing investment and existing infrastructure at the Meadowlands . . . move forward with the planning and implementation of a world-class, full-service casino resort at the Meadowlands Sports Complex as a way to recapture New Jersey's gaming market share, tax revenues and as a huge job creation mechanism. In addition, certain revenues will be directed to help support purses and NJ (sic) breeding funds.'

(With files from Asbury Park Press)
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  #50  
Old 02-14-2010, 08:51 AM
freddymo freddymo is offline
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Racino is a great idea for the Big M. Wall Stadium on rt 34 could use one as well and Why should Freehold be keep in the dark. The Newark Bears could use a few machines to but only in season.
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