I attended Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's State of the State speech last week. It was probably the 9th or 10th State of the State address I attended in my life, and this one was certainly the most captivating. The Governor had my attention for his entire speech - partially because he has an excellent conversational speaking style and he simply makes sense when he talks, and partially because much of what he had to say affected me either personally or professionally.
From a personal perspective, my ears opened wide when The Governor proposed building what would be the nation's largest convention center at the Aqueduct Racetrack site. I wondered for a minute if this meant that there would be a racetrack AND a convention center, or would the racetrack simply go bye-bye and in its place would be a gigantic building. Knowing the Governor is apparently not a fan of racing and considering the tremendous size of the building he proposed, along with the likely parking and other ancillary needs, it didn't take me long to conclude that "The Big A" likely has its days as a thoroughbred track numbered.
I see both sides of the coin here; Aqueduct is a large site within a mile of JFK airport and less than 10 miles from Manhattan, and the largest city in the country needs a convention center bigger and better than the relatively small and dated Javits Center. The jobs and spinoff economic development benefits of a convention center make a compelling argument for converting the underused facility. Governor Cuomo is not only über-competent, but he's starting to show some great vision and is thinking big. I like that, I like that a lot.
Photo courtesy of Timesunion.com
On the other side of the coin, and perhaps from a selfish standpoint, I can't help but be disappointed that just when NYRA and thoroughbred racing in New York State, and perhaps even the rest of the country, appear to be on a positive trajectory caused largely by the new and so far wildly successful Casino at Aqueduct, that whole uplifting ride may perhaps be derailed. Not only will Aqueduct no longer be a thoroughbred track (I assume, anyway), but the funding source, Genting's VLT gaming, that finally put NYRA in a position to make New York Racing a leader again, may be disappearing as well. That funding could disappear whether or not New York changes its Constitution to allow full casino gaming, as the Governor has proposed.
But so far no one in the press, at least from what I have seen, is commenting or asking the key questions about just what does this mean to thoroughbred racing in New York State, and what does this mean to Saratoga Race Course? NYRA's President and CEO Charles Hayward is so far punting on the issue by tersely responding "We have no comment until we see the proposal". The best commentary I have seen so far has been from Nick Kling of the Saratogian's sister publication Troy Record, but while he seems to flag some key questions, I still haven't seen a discussion initiated that centers around "What happens to Aqueduct racing, what does that mean to Saratoga, and what happens to VLT money that presently is going to NYRA?"
Here's my guess as to what the future holds for Aqueduct: The Queens racetrack as we know it is done, at least after a few years of planning, legislating, and building, but NYRA will get oodles of money which will allow them to build a winterized track at Belmont. Beyond that, I have to believe that NYRA, which will then have only two tracks with which to fill an entire year, will expand the Saratoga meet yet again. Two extreme possibilities even include a separate spring Saratoga meet and perhaps a NYRA involvement/partnership at some level with Finger Lakes Race Track. I'm admittedly just guessing on those two points, but I'll stick by my general points that NYRA racing as we know it will change significantly, and part of that change will involve some level of an expansion of Saratoga racing. Those logical implications are huge, but again I haven't heard much from the Capital Region or Horse Racing press on this. God I miss the I-Saratoga blog.
So let's hope the deeper discussion will soon commence - namely what does the Governor's proposal mean for NYRA, and what does it mean for Saratoga? Inquiring minds want to know - because many of those minds have their livelihoods depending on those answers. Stay tuned.
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