Everyone involved in harness racing is waiting with baited breath for Jeff Gural's conversation regarding the possible takeover of the Meadowlands. Will he announce a deal has been done, negotiations are continuing, or a deal is unattainable, meaning we will be seeing the last two days of harness racing until August?
From my perspective, the news will trend positive, but not as good as we would like. I have no insight to what is going to be said, but if I had to guess, it would be negotiations are on-going. Why would I say this? First of all if something has been determined one way or the other, you can be certain something would have leaked out by now. When it comes to political deals, leaks are all but certain. If it was a negative report, do you think Mr. Gural or anyone else would go on the air during the pre-race show to say efforts to lease have failed when a simple press release would suffice?
My guess is Mr. Gural will be indicating negotiations are continuing and he is hopeful that an agreement will be reached by the deadline on April 1 leaving everyone on pins and needles for another week. Whether a deal will be reached remains to be seen. At this point it is not just getting the agreement of the NJSEA and Governor, but obtaining the $60 million in financing which is still needed.
Of course, this is all conjecture. We will hear for sure on the Meadowlands pre-race show starting at 6:30pm this evening. You will be able to see this interview on RTN, Meadowlandsracetrack.com and for NJAW customers, on their simulcast feed.
1 comment:
I don't think the "deadline" date is of much importance at this point. It is important is that a lease deal gets signed and is amenable to a long term presence of live horse racing at The Meadowlands.
The funding for the new grandstand can still be worked out in the coming months with a new era of optimism within the standardbred industry.
Keep your fingers crossed.
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