NEWS
Senate unveils New York plan
Posted: Thursday, February 07, 2008 10:04 AM
NEW YORK RACING ASSOCIATION
by Paul Post
The state Senate has unveiled the framework for a Thoroughbred racing franchise agreement that could receive House and gubernatorial approval by the end of the week.
Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno (R-Brunswick) released the plan Wednesday in response to New York Racing Association’s threat of a February 14 shutdown without an agreement.
NYRA met with horsemen and employees on Wednesday to discuss a possible shutdown, saying that layoffs would occur without a contract resolution.
“Last December NYRA was threatening to close down racing in New York,” Bruno said. “That didn’t happen in December and it isn’t going to happen now.”
The tentative agreement would see NYRA get a 25-year franchise with mandatory four-year reviews to guarantee accountability. Failure to meet certain benchmarks could result in a franchise revocation.
The current board of 28 trustees would reconstitute into a 21-member board with 11 NYRA appointees, three gubernatorial appointees, two appointees each from the Senate president and House speaker, and three at-large appointees representing breeders, horsemen, and labor groups. The governor would have to approve the at-large appointees.
NYRA Chairman C. Steven Duncker would continue with a new four-year term, but be limited to two additional four-year terms. The anticipated franchise agreement is unlikely to address expanded gaming, off-track betting, or the commercial development of the racetracks.
Jennifer Givner, a spokeswoman for Governor Eliot Spitzer, would only say that negotiations are ongoing. Spitzer and NYRA reached a memorandum of understanding in September, but negotiations with Bruno and the Senate stalled from there.
NYRA has been operating with a temporary agreement that expires February 13. It said that it is running out of cash and cannot continue with temporary extenders.
“We continue to remain in bankruptcy despite approval of the Creditors’ Committee of our plan of reorganization, because without a new franchise agreement NYRA cannot fund the plan,” President Charles Hayward says in a letter to employees. “All indications point to the fact that we will be shutting down.”
More than 500 people could be facing layoffs, with hundreds more reduced to four-day work weeks and 20% pay cuts. The circuit’s 1,500 horsemen and the horses in their care could have to vacate Aqueduct in the event of a long-term stoppage of operations.
“We do not know if this closure and cessation of racing will be short lived or long term, but we have no recourse but to advise each of you that training at and Aqueduct will cease at the end of training on February 20,” NYRA says in a letter to horsemen. “Training operations and stabling may be extended if a collective decision is reached by horsemen to fund the direct costs of track maintenance and backstretch operations costs for as long as the closure continues.
“In the event such an arrangement is not forthcoming we will close down backstretch operations and vacate the barns as noted.”
NYRA’s threat is generating controversy of its own. Some say that a shutdown is not necessary and that NYRA is using such tactics to pressure Bruno into an agreement. Others however, support NYRA’s stance.
“The reason I took everything out of there was the uncertainty of everything that was going on up there this winter,” Racing Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said. “If we shut down everybody loses. I think that’s maybe what needs to be done to make [politicians] really take a good look at it, the kind of revenue that’s going to be lost.”
“NYRA is doing what it has to do to get the deal done,” trainer Gary Contessa said while still respecting Bruno’s resoluteness. “Senator Bruno has never let the horsemen in this state down, ever. If Senator Bruno thinks we’re going to keep racing, that’s good enough for me.”
Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
