Saratoga meet this year? Don't bet on it

[BlueStateSaint]

This would be catastrophic for my region.  I grew up in Saratoga Springs, and the place depends heavily on tourism.  It's been said that the best time to open a restaurant in Saratoga Springs is the middle of July, as the track people will help you hit the black rather quickly.

Saratoga meet this year? Don't bet on it

Horse breeders say NYRA needs cash or track could be dark this summer
  By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
First published in print: Saturday, March 13, 2010

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Saratoga Race Course may not open this summer for the first time since World War II if state leaders don't help the New York Racing Association find revenue soon, frustrated horse breeders say.

This summer's meet at the unofficial home of racing will not be run, they say, if NYRA doesn't quickly get some of the nearly $15 million owed to it from New York City Off-Track Betting, or find a new racino operator for Aqueduct Race Track, Barry Ostrager, a NYRA board member, said Friday. He spoke after New York City OTB threatened to shut down at the end of the month and a second company in two years chosen by state leaders to run the Aqueduct racino didn't work out.

That NYRA will run out of money before the summer without new revenue sources is "empirically verifiable," said Ostrager, who also represents more than 1,000 breeders in the state as president of New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., based in Saratoga Springs.

"This is a for-real financial crisis that could prevent racing from occurring in Saratoga this summer with what I consider to be apocalyptic consequences," Ostrager said.

If there were no meet at Saratoga Race Course this summer it would further deteriorate, if not dissolve, New York racing and cause the collapse of Saratoga's tourist economy, he said.

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Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=911230#ixzz0i5xUgjOX

Carl would probably have a take on this.  All I know is that NYCOTB has been pretty badly run.  NYRA isn't a whole lot better.  I've got friends in the industry--I'll have to ask them and post their thinking.

[The Village Idiot]

if state leaders don't help the New York Racing Association find revenue soon

Not one dime of tax dollars. Raise ticket prices or something, its not the job of everyone in the state or country to support a welfare race track.

[Carl]

It is a half hour away but have never been to a days event even though I have said I would.

I worked for the Saratogian newspaper back in 1985 and the only time of the year Saratoga is a bustling place is in August.
To lose the track season would be a huge blow for the area and I am curious as to what exactly is meant by the phrase "$15 million owed to it from New York City Off-Track Betting".
Is this money the state has collected in taxes and fees but is now refusing to pay to the provider of that revenue?

[BlueStateSaint]

It is a half hour away but have never been to a days event even though I have said I would.

I worked for the Saratogian newspaper back in 1985 and the only time of the year Saratoga is a bustling place is in August.
To lose the track season would be a huge blow for the area and I am curious as to what exactly is meant by the phrase "$15 million owed to it from New York City Off-Track Betting".
Is this money the state has collected in taxes and fees but is now refusing to pay to the provider of that revenue?

I think it's money that NYCOTB owes NYRA for being able to simulcast the NYRA races.  Since NYCOTB is in bankruptcy, it's kinda difficult to pay it back.  I heard that NYRA has only one track that makes money--and it's Saratoga, so they'd be total fools to cancel the Saratoga meet.

Then again, these are politicians we're referring to . . .