As I was reading this, a friend of mine called. Due to a last-minute meeting cancellation, he had some extra time, so he went down to yesterday's hearing for a couple of hours. He said two things stuck out: the lack of knowledge about racing among the committee members, and the fact that none of the committee members or speakers seemed to display much awareness of the fact that gambling is what drives the sport. People don't go to the track to get high-quality coffee, or for a sale on jeans, do they?
Of course, we the horseplayers don't have a seat at the table where the decision will be made. And I don't see that ever happening. Organize horseplayers? The very nature of the game, where we're all playing against each other, seems antithetical to the process of any kind of political organizing. A wagering boycott until players get some say? Beyond unlikely. So the whole process will play out with no input from the people who make the game go, and the decision made by people ignorant of the issues. Great.
A couple of other random second-hand observations from the hearing:
My buddy missed Frankie's moving, wowing PowerPoint show, but he did say that several Saratoga area business people and politicians, including the mayor of Saratoga, spoke against Frankie's "vision" for Saratoga.
Surprisingly, to me at least, Stronach suggested having a separate franchise for the slots. I had thought that the reason he lusted after the franchise was due to his desire to get his hands on the revenue stream from the cash cows.
Speaking of which, what's to stop the state from deciding one day to change current wagering law and disconnect the tracks from the VLTs? Where does that leave the tracks then? They act like VLTs are the salvation, yet that magic carpet could conceivably be pulled out from under them at some point in the future.
Ugh. Not a lot to be optimistic about on the racing front these days.