Kelly Revisited

[SoCalMan2]

miff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Agree with much of what Crist says but NYRA needs
> to get real. The self praise reaped upon itself by
> NYRA CEO Chris Kay during the \"average\"
> statistical SPA meet is transparent and insulting
> to the the many who support NY racing at the
> windows.An all out NYRA shill-fest from CEO Kay to
> the talking heads on the TV feed...NYRA racing is
> wonderful.Many of us who wager $millions do not
> agree!
>
> It seems that NYRA\'s primary mission is to get the
> financials in order so that Cuomo/Skorton/Megna et
> al can execute their plan to jettion NY racing.
>
>
> DRF
>
> Steven Crist:State making NYRA a tough sell
>
> People who work at the New York Racing Association
> understandably bristle when anyone says that the
> annual Saratoga meeting is essentially a foolproof
> operation that runs itself. When I worked there
> more than 15 years ago, I bristled, too, arguing
> how hard the employees worked and how much time
> and effort it took to put on the show.
>  
> The truth is that both of these arguments are
> correct. Everyone at the NYRA does work hard
> during Saratoga, but it's still pretty hard to
> mess things up. Yes, there's too much racing and
> particularly too much bad racing, and a host of
> small annoyances that customers must navigate, but
> the numbers year in and year out suggest that the
> whole proposition works pretty well regardless of
> who is running the place. Over the last three
> years, Saratoga has posted essentially the same
> business numbers under three entirely different
> management scenarios – under an entrenched and
> experienced management team in 2011, under a
> leaderless and shorthanded crew in 2012, and under
> a whole new board and chief executive for this
> year's 40 days of sport.
>  
> The 2013 Saratoga meeting will be best remembered
> for two things:  extremely good racing in its
> biggest events, as is often the case, and almost
> freakishly good weather, which is rarely the case.
> Just as the weather finally returned to its usual
> poor form on closing weekend, however, the meet
> also ended on some unsettling notes – not on the
> racetrack, where stellar performances by rising
> stars in the juvenile ranks concluded the meet on
> a hopeful note, but in the boardroom, where the
> murky intentions of New York state, which took
> over the NYRA a year ago, became a bit clearer in
> an Aug. 28 board meeting.
>  
> Most of that meeting was devoted to an excessive
> video tribute to the meeting and replays of the
> many ceremonies and photo-ops staged by new
> management, but things suddenly shifted gears
> toward the end. The state's representatives laid
> out a specific goal of making NYRA profitable
> without the Aqueduct racino revenues that have
> buoyed the game for the last two years, a prelude
> to a reprivatization plan that is supposed to be
> formulated by 2015.
>  
> Reprivatization is either the light at tunnel's
> end, or an oncoming train, depending on what you
> think it means. The best-case scenario is one in
> which the state realizes it has a good thing going
> and that the best plan ahead is to keep NYRA a
> non-profit operation, putting any profits back
> into the game, preserving a cherished cultural
> institution, and continuing to support hundreds of
> thousands of jobs in direct and related
> industries. The worst involves the delusional
> notion of some politicians that the enterprise can
> be repackaged and transformed into something that
> can be sold to private operators.
>  
> It seems to me that we already wasted more than a
> decade on the latter notion, when the state did
> everything it could to discredit NYRA and put the
> franchise out to bid. For those who have already
> forgotten, here's what happened: Nobody was
> interested in bidding unless they could operate
> casinos at the tracks and keep most of the
> profits. Those bidders professed some phony
> affection for the game that most people saw
> through from the start, and when it became obvious
> that there was no profitable racing enterprise to
> be sold, every interested bidder dropped out
> except one – the NYRA, which actually wanted to
> continue putting on the best racing and use casino
> profits only to improve the sport and the
> facilities.
>  
> Nothing has changed to make some sort of "sale" of
> New York racing any more viable in 2015 than it
> was in 2005 or 1995. The land and the possibility
> of doing something different with it are always
> going to be more valuable than anything the racing
> can generate. Any plan to sell New York racing is
> merely a long-term plan to replace it with
> something else.
>  
> Even if it were an attractive business
> proposition, which it never will be, you would be
> buying a phantom – something that can be
> transformed overnight by legislators from
> marginally profitable to virtually worthless.
> State government has repeatedly proven that even
> written contracts guaranteeing racing days or
> casino revenues can and will be changed at the
> whim of any incoming administration.
>  
> Still, here we go again. NYRA's primary mission
> apparently is going to be cutting costs, despite
> finally having the revenue to make critically
> needed improvements, so that the state can claim
> it has worked its political magic and created
> something of value to sell. It feels like the
> beginning of a long and doomed charade.


Why is Crist afraid to spotlight the blatant re-trade the state reps are trying to do?  He hints at it, but does not cast the spotlight on it.  Also, where is Drape?  The guy cannot move fast enough to heap scorn on the NYRA for its alleged wrongdoing, but vanishes when it is the innocent victim.

What business ON EARTH would surrender an enormous share of its revenues in exchange for nothing?  As I understand it, the NYRA is currently entitled to revenue from the slots --  earning that entitlement by (agreeing to allow) (not challenging) the embedding of the slot business within it. Now, the NYRA just wants to give up the revenue that it is dearly entitled to?  Isn\'t that pretty close to insanity?

What if whatever state government body that owns state parks just decided to start auctioning off parks for private development? Jones Beach is now being taken away from the people and being sold off to the rich?  The outcry would be deafening. The state body with jurisdiction over Jones Beach State Park owes its fealty to the people of New York who enjoy that park.  That body, whatever it is, would and should vehemently fight any attempt by the state to take Jones Beach away from the people and sell to the rich.  And, if board members of that body tried to do the opposite, they would be sued into oblivion.

This is basically what the NYRA is doing -- they have board members recommending hari-kari.  If it were the Jones Beach situation, how fast would board members making these suggestions be sued?  Two seconds?  The only difference here is that it is a different group of people who enjoy the beach versus the group that enjoys horseracing.  One group is politically acceptable and the other is despised.

If my analysis wrong, what am I missing/getting wrong?  Realize I am preaching to the choir here, but in any other field of human endeavor, the outcry would be immediate and defeaning.