For those who are following the current saga at the Meadowlands, I give you a blog entry by The Record's John Brennan who has been following this saga from day one of the Hanson Commission's formation. He too feels the Meadowlands deal is tied to Monmouth's like it or not, but he brings up another interesting point. If Bailey walks away from the deal, watch the thoroughbred tracks deny the Meadowlands and hence, Freehold, Favorites and NJAW thoroughbred signals as NJ law requires a thoroughbred signal to be offered to all or none in the state. Obviously, this has the potential to hurt the viability of the Meadowlands as an on-going concern.
Obviously, there will be some negotiations and while Bailey is supposed to be 'friends' with Gural, don't be surprised if the Gural-led consortium is going to be forced to open their pockets to mollify Bailey.
Instead, what should happen is Christie should tell Bailey, if he backs out of this deal, his opposition to slots at the Meadowlands disappears, leaving only one person, State Senator Sweeney, from keeping Meadowlands slot legislation from hitting the Senate floor thus protecting Atlantic City interests, including Resorts, which is partially owned by Bailey. As we learned from the replacement of former Senate President Codey, coups do happen. A few back-office concessions to Democratic legislators and there could always be another coup in the State Senate. After all, this is New Jersey Politics.
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