Arlington’s racing license in jeopardy
Wednesday, Sep 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
State regulators suggested Tuesday they might refuse to allow horse racing next year at Arlington International Racecourse if the track’s corporate owner doesn’t reconsider a decision to pass on adding a casino. […]
Board member Thomas McCauley peppered Arlington Park President Tony Petrillo with questions he said he could not answer about the decision-making of Churchill Downs executives in Louisville, Kentucky. Racetracks have been lobbying for casino licenses for years, McCauley said, and now that they have access to them, Arlington is balking.
“I don’t get it. This wasn’t a big surprise when this gaming act passed. It was a cause for a celebration,” McCauley told Petrillo. Other track owners and regulators “were all thrilled with what we anticipated what was going to happen … up to now, where’s the flagship in all of this. I want to know what’s an acceptable financial return.”
Petrillo noted that Arlington had voiced opposition to the gambling expansion law as legislators wrote it in the spring. The track preferred that legalizing sports betting be kept separate from an expansion of casino licenses.
Arlington was the number one proponent of slots at tracks for decades. And then its parent company bought Rivers Casino just down the road.
* Sun-Times…
[Racing Board member Thomas McCauley] suggested Churchill is trying to gain leverage over Springfield lawmakers in negotiations for more a more favorable tax structure during the fall veto session — and that the company is seeking to protect their other major Illinois gambling operation: Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, the highest-grossing casino in Illinois. […]
But the board opted to delay their vote on the licenses and dates for one week, instead passing a resolution to give Churchill time “to duly discern whether to maintain its current position going forward” and “reject the very activity it has pleaded for for so many years” — and to decide if it “really wants to signal to the world at once and for all it’s only a gaming software company, and no longer a horse racing enterprise,” McCauley said. […]
Churchill has said it will apply for a sports betting license — which Petrillo said will allow Arlington “to be sustainable for more years to come” — while otherwise exploring “longer-term alternatives.” They’ve refused to commit to live horse racing beyond 2021 and suggested they could move their racing license, a threat flatly rejected by Racing Board commissioners.
“I’ve never read a more preposterous statement in my life,” McCauley said. “Does Churchill think that it owns this license? Because if they do, I’d encourage you to call them up and let them know that the state of Illinois owns that license, and we as the agents of the state of Illinois have the authority and responsibility to grant a privilege to those who earn it.”
* Blood Horse…
McCauley said the one-week window gives CDI an opportunity to show “whether it really wants to signal to the world, once and for all, that it’s only a gaming and software company and no longer a horse racing enterprise, whether it wants to jeopardize its racing license and all the revenue which the privilege associated with that license will generate. That will be up to Churchill …
“However, if there is no modification of the Churchill-Arlington position on gaming during the adjournment period, it may be that there will be no organization license for Arlington and, hence, no racing. That will cause disruption. But it’s the protection of Rivers and the bottom line that will have caused that disruption,” McCauley added.
- Occam - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 10:20 am:
I believe the Rivers Casino license is up for renewal in August of 2020.
Just sayin.
- SSL - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 10:22 am:
So Churchill Downs was supposed to wait forever? They changed their strategy when Illinois couldn’t get its act together for years. Now the racing board is angry. Get over it. Churchill clearly decided to let Arlington go the way of the dodo. They had a hard time fielding a field of six horses per race.
Redevelop the land and move on.
- Chicagonk - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 10:23 am:
Good to see someone on the board rightly upset with the arrogance of Churchill Downs.
- Donnie Elgin - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 10:35 am:
As a lover of betting the ponies I’m pleased with the Racing Board’s response. Arlington Park is truly a gem, one of the finest most beautiful tracks in the world. What a shame it would be to raze it for condos. If they offered slots/table games/sport wagering and horse racing they would have unrivaled offerings in amazing surroundings.
- Say What? - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 10:45 am:
So Arlington/their representatives are in the corridors of the Capitol for literally years loudly proclaiming the lack of gaming with put them out of business.
They get what they have been clamoring for and because of other Churchill Downs gaming interests they threaten to close Arlington??
Bluff called . . . .good for the Racing Board. Hand in the cookie jar hypocrisy is never a good look Arlington Park.
- NotRich - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 10:54 am:
In 7-10 years that location will be busy on fall Sunday’s .. hosting the Chicago Bears in a domed stadium,,,
- Roman - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 11:03 am:
If the Racing Board really wants to mess with Arlington, they could award their coveted summer racing dates to Hawthorne.
- Annonin' - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 11:05 am:
This getting fun. Sadly it could mean deadlock on some of the gaming expansion approved in May. Meanwhile join us in a verse of “Movin’ to Rosemont” a charming ballad that recounts the last IL tried to expand (we believe it has about 10 years of verses) How fitting The Don’s son joins the GA for the action.
- benniefly2 - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 11:18 am:
“In 7-10 years that location will be busy on fall Sunday’s .. hosting the Chicago Bears in a domed stadium”
Arlington eights is a nice enough place and all, but I don’t believe that they have $1.5 Billion to build the Bears a new stadium, and lord knows the McCaskey’s aren’t going to pay for one themselves.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 11:20 am:
===they could award their coveted summer racing dates to Hawthorne===
That was mentioned during the hearing…
===Hawthorne Race Course did not apply for its normal early-year dates, arguing it would not be practical to run Thoroughbreds at the west-suburban Chicago track during all-out construction of its casino—a $250 million project expected to last from January through late summer.
However, McCauley, in an unrelated exchange early in the IRB meeting, asked Hawthorne President Tim Carey, “Thoroughbreds could race? It could be worked out?” Carey replied, “Yes. It could be.”
Once the threat to Arlington’s midsummer dates was on the table, Carey said, “We will do whatever is best for Illinois racing.”===
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/235874/illinois-racing-board-threatens-to-shut-down-arlington
- Louis G Atsaves - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 11:20 am:
Yup. The State of Illinois owns the racing license. The State determines the racing dates for each track still in business. The State collects revenues from those races from those tracks. The State can give those dates to anyone else or even deny Arlington a future racing license. The problem I see with that logic is “anyone else” really doesn’t exist anymore. Who would be capable of taking all those dates now that we are down to three (going on two) tracks?
And while all those questions are being asked, the parent corporation which owns Arlington Park is pushing for a casino in Waukegan which it will also own a portion of. The public hearing in Waukegan will be held . . . today.
- anon - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 11:22 am:
Could someone with knowledge of this explain how the Board can legally deny a license for reasons unrelated to the operation of the license itself? The law doesn’t require horse tracks to expand gambling to retain the license.
- Bourbon Street - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 12:33 pm:
Perhaps I’m missing something here, but why is the IRB surprised that a corporation is looking out for its best interests? Add to that the facts that (1) Arlington begged for a casino license for years, only to be constantly turned down by the GA and (2) the legal landscape changed dramatically when the Supreme Court allowed sports betting. No one is on the same playing field anymore and the IRB should tone down its rhetoric and start negotiating rather than threatening a business that continued on despite the fact that interest in horse racing declined throughout the years.
Also, I understand that CD doesn’t own the racing license and therefore cannot threaten to move it, but the real issue is whether CD is threatening to move the racetrack out of state if it doesn’t get what it wants. It seems to me that CD is only threatening to move somewhere else within Illinois as CD cannot possibly believe that an Illinois racing license is good outside of Illinois. Instead of complaining about CD’s arrogance, the IRB should explain what’s so preposterous about the track being moved to another location.
- anon - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 1:07 pm:
Very good read on this topic:
https://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/view-from-the-eighth-pole-the-sting-left-on-illinois-racing-by-churchill-downs-inc/
- qualified someone nobody sent - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 1:32 pm:
OK, as a racing fan and a follower of Politics, I have two comments. When Neil Bluhm decides to sell a majority of the largest grossing casino in Illinois when casino revenues are down across the State due to the emergence of video gambling and finds a willing purchaser in a DECLINING market. Purchaser is a PUBLIC company who has transformed itself from a Race track owning entity into a National GAMING Corporation (CDI) why is anyone surprised that after waiting for a decade to finally get past the State Govt. dysfunctional approach to gaming this Corp. doesn’t want to compete against itself? Didn’t The Gov. and legislators know CDI had acquired, and was acquiring large pieces of this casino? The recapture legislation KILLED horse racings product.
- Say What? - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 1:50 pm:
The horse racing product has been on the decline since the 1940’s. The notion that recent action by the ILGA caused its’ demise is laughable.
- qualified someone nobody sent - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 1:57 pm:
Real Estate is the key here. A Metra station is adjacent to AP track property. Mixed use (Res/Com) development is going to happen on these parcels eventually and in an up RE market why wouldn’t CDI being trying to sell some or all of the parking lots now? Sports betting is up and running in Indiana already. CDI could prop up racing by using revenues from that but why would they if other gaming venues aren’t required to do so by State law? Veto session changes are coming for Chicago’s casino and another look at the entire range of gaming laws need to be done. Cohesion of legislation to maximize revenues FOR ALL parties involved whether private or public.
- DuPage Moderate - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 3:14 pm:
Par for the course for Arlington. There isn’t a more out-of-touch and less creative group than the group running Arlington Racetrack. They, and they alone, have killed horse racing at Arlington.
- jrojas - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 3:21 pm:
Writing was on the wall when CHDN bought the Rivers stake. Sadly the dysfunction of the horsemen over many years is what keeps killing them. Horse Racing was doomed when they failed to get slots in the original legislation in the early 90’s. I have no idea why the horsemen wouldn’t want it moved. That way they could build a new track and have a casino, the way it is the horsemen will get nothing, they can’t make CHDN put a casino there.
- jimk849 - Wednesday, Sep 18, 19 @ 3:41 pm:
Is Arlington-CDI guaranteed a sports betting license if they decide they don’t want a casino license? They are separate licenses no?
- Norb McAndrew - Thursday, Sep 19, 19 @ 4:26 pm:
===they could award their coveted summer racing dates to Hawthorne===
Lost in this conversation are the people who put on the show.
Arlington closing would throw a wrench in the entire industry. Right now the harness horsemen and tbred horsemen split the casino proceeds from Hawthorn 50/50. Then the each get their own dedicated track (standardbred to be built in South Suburbs.) Awarding Arlington dates to Hawthorn would deprive the Standardbred people of a lot of money that would get pumped into breeding farms etc.
Everyone always jumps to “the tracks” when racing is brought up but they are just the venue. It’s working people who put on the show and get screwed in the end.
Also, Arlington can continue to collect the destructive and much maligned “recapture” fees if they don’t put in the casino, another blow to horsemen.