Fuck all of you. Greedy fucking parasites.

http://www.globenewswire.com/news-relea ... perty.html


LOUISVILLE, Ky., Feb. 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Churchill Downs Incorporated (“CDI” or “Company”) (Nasdaq: CHDN) announced today that the Company has launched a process to sell the 326 acres in Arlington Heights, Illinois that are currently the home of Arlington International Racecourse (“Arlington”). CBRE will bring the redevelopment opportunity to market on behalf of CDI.

The Company is committed to running Arlington’s 2021 race dates from April 30 – September 25. The Company does not expect any sale of the Arlington site to close prior to the conclusion of Arlington’s 2021 race meet or that the conduct of the sale process will impact Arlington’s racing operations this year.

“Arlington’s ideal location in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, together with direct access to downtown Chicago via an on-site Metra rail station, presents a unique redevelopment opportunity. We expect to see robust interest in the site and look forward to working with potential buyers, in collaboration with the Village of Arlington Heights, to transition this storied location to its next phase,” said Bill Carstanjen, CEO of CDI. “In the meantime, we are very committed to pursuing the relocation of Arlington’s racing license to another community in the Chicagoland area or elsewhere in the state. We are exploring potential options with the State and other constituents and remain optimistic that we can find solutions that work for the State, local communities and the thousands of Illinoisans who make their living directly or indirectly from thoroughbred horse racing. We are committed to the Illinois thoroughbred racing industry and will consider all options in working toward opportunities for it to continue into the future.”

Cool, Arlington Heights needs more seven-story condos with hair salons and dentist's offices on the ground floor.

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Agreed.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

God damnit.

When I was in college I interned for a holding company that foolishly had me cold call Dick Duchossis trying to fund raise for a nonprofit they also ran. I knew who he was and called his executive secretary, but I'd never heard his name actually pronounced. I butchered his name so badly that she laughed and made a couple of pointed remarks. I got rattled, she hung up and fortunately my boss heard the full call and quickly pulled me off of the calls. I always wondered which goofy names were next.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Duchossois was the last thing standing in the way of the sale. Not that Carstanjan and the board didn't have the power, the stock, and the votes to do it without him, but there was a respect there that kept it from happening. I didn't think they would actually do it until he passed away, but he recently sold more of his stock and I've heard he is not doing well. He probably doesn't give a shit at this point.

Before he got so sick, he used to come through the Gold Room to say hello to his best on-track players. He's the sharpest dressing guy I've ever seen. He was one tough sonuvabitch when he was negotiating or running his businesses.

He was a very hands-on operator. When they were decorating the downstairs bar, Mr. D's, he insisted on selecting the paint. He chose a precise shade of white. The guy who was supervising the decorating got a cheaper white paint but the color was ever so slightly off. He thought no one would notice and he saved the company money. Mr. D came down to look at the finished product and he started going apeshit over the color and demanded that it be repainted they way he told them to do it in the first place.

But he always kept that grandfatherly demeanor for the public. At least most of the time. One day he was walking through the Gold Room asking us all how we were doing and one of my friends who likes to bet the multis at the "B" tracks asked Mr. D if he could get the live feed up for Fonner Park and Sun Ray. He looked at my friend incredulously and said, "You're actually betting that? Jesus Christ, I don't even know where those fuckin' places are."

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

And I pass a few when I walk the 0.9 mile from my home to the track. Spent MANY friday afternoons there over the years. Hopefully get the chance again this summer.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2 ... rse-racing



2021 reunion of the Arlington 10?

Legend has it JORR's horse is still running that last race...

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

In. I want one more good day at that place before the eventual improvement of the property by Pulte Homes.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I would definitely come down for something like this if I was available, just wonder what attendance will be limited too.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Done. Stimulus check is set aside.

Limited to 0 Wisconsinites.

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I'll be there. But in keeping with my previous relationship to this group, I'll be lurking from about 30 feet away.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

It says 25% indoor (as of now) capacity on the website. Does that number include all employees, jockeys. etc? Anybody have experience going last summer?

They didn't allow fans at all last season.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

So let me get this straight.

Is it for sure that whoever buys it won't keep it as a racetrack?

CDI is not going to allow another operator to have a casino license down the street from Rivers. The only hope for any future as a racetrack is if political pressure is brought to bear. That's a possibility, although I'd say it's remote. Pritzker does sound legitimately pissed though. The State bent over backward to pass a bill that CDI had begged for, the horsemen were on board, the religious objectors were shoved to the side. And now CDI says, "No thanks". That isn't sitting well with some people.

There are a lot of ways to attempt to force CDI to keep racing at Arlington. One would be to threaten to give Stephens a license for a huge casino in Rosemont if they don't keep Arlington open. Not sure if Pritzker and his racing and gaming boards have the stomach for that kind of hardball though. Obviously, CDI has a lot of clout.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

This story that the Bears are going to buy it and build a stadium there is pretty ridiculous...but you never know.

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That's been a rumor around the track for at least several years.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

Ok. Gotcha.

It doesn't seem likely though reading the details.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

The McCaskey's don't have the money. Yeah. The franchise is worth 4 billion. But they don't have 4 billion.

Plus I heard on the radio today that the Bears have 10 more years with their lease at Soldier Field. I suppose they could get out of it.

This might sound stupid, but couldn't the Bears buy Arlington (I'm sure they could afford that, just not building a stadium), have somebody run it as a track, build up more money in 10 years and then build their stadium?

Let me know if that's a stupid idea for the McCaskey's.

CDI is not going to sell to anyone who would even think about running a racetrack there. Any contract on the property will undoubtedly include a paragraph that explicitly states that the property is not to be used for gambling.

Let me amend that. I'm sure CDI would sell to a racetrack operator who would agree not to offer casino games or a sports book. But there isn't any racetrack operator who would buy under those terms.

As far as the Bears are concerned, anyone with a stadium of that size has the opportunity/right to pursue a sportsbook license. Eventually, the whole game is going to be having people sitting at a football game making in-game wagers on their phones from their seats.

For CDI it's all about the bottom line. Nothing else. If the politicians make it so it makes economic sense for them to keep running the racetrack, that's what they'll do. They could do that. But it's an utter longshot. CDI has a lot of clout. I'm not sure why. Well, I guess I am. Like most things it's probably about the cash. But this is an out-of-state corporation. Why should anyone representing the State of Illinois side with an out-of-state corporation over a bunch of people who live in Illinois? Where is the benefit for the citizens of Illinois in allowing CDI to have its way, run casinos and sportsbooks all over and get rid of a racetrack that is the basis for thousands of jobs?

I went to the Racing Board meeting last year after CDI had declined the casino license at Arlington. CDI was represented by an Ivy League attorney. Every other lawyer in the room was a political hack. The only guys on the Racing Board who were even slightly willing to hold CDI's feet to the fire were Tom McCauley and Greg Sronce. These are all political appointees. Most of them don't have the slightest understanding of the racing/gambling industry. McCauley, who has since resigned, is a notable exception. A guy I grew up with, Bobby Muriel, was on the Board for awhile. Smart guy, but he has no idea about the subject matter. He's since moved on to some other board that the governor can use to reward his political backers. There was a guy on the Board named Marcus Davis from Oak Park. I have no idea who he is or what his credentials are. At this meeting which was obviously about the fate of Arlington Park and with the future of Illinois racing hanging in the balance, this guy actually asked Tony Petrillo if Arlington was considering hosting another Breeders' Cup.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

I will preface my comments with a note that all the political back room dealing is not within my knowledge base.

As a long time loyal reader of Arlington’s hometown newspaper and an unfortunate patron of Horse Racing Commentator Barry Rozner, I have followed the happenings of Arlington Park and horse racing for nearly four decades. It has been widely reported on in the DH. And while I am not the horse racing expert of some around here, I have gone to Arlington dozens of times and the OTB facility on site as my dad and his friends are degenerates there. I find Arlington to be best in class.

But in all my years of reading about it, the Racing Board or whatever they call it has made it tough for track operators with the way they hand out racing dates. It is also my understanding that Illinois racing and its weak purses have caused better quality trainers to take their business to other states. As with much in Illinois, things have declined over the years in our horse racing industry. You see that first hand on most race days with small fields and low quality horses. Not many people at the track betting either.

Now you add in the fact that horse racing used to be the only game in town. But then came the lottery. Then river boats. Slots in bars. Then pervasive sports book gambling. Horse racing has fallen out of favor for many, and it never nurtured a new generation of fans. Unlike many including Rozner, I do not think slots are the answer. The track either stands on its own or it does not. It is silly to have this hypothetical subsidy from slot revenues to boost purses. Now maybe that drives traffic to the races, and there is some benefit to having folks winning at slots taking their money to the windows.

But you have this large track of land being underutilized in the middle of a popular Northwest suburb, and a political landscape that has let much of Illinois fall by the wayside. Then you have a publicly traded company with a responsibility to its shareholders to maximize the value of its assets. So while I am as sad as anyone for what has become of horse racing and what will become of Arlington, this one goes into the bucket of progress.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

There's a few things wrong with what you say above, Dennis. First, the Racing Board has been controlled by different factions at different times. For example, it was Billy Johnston's board for awhile and Sportsman's Park had the clout. More recently Duchossois swung his big Dick around and manipulated the Board.

Arlington, especially after the rebuild, has been considered the "crown jewel" of Illinois racing and the Board has always bent over backward to defer to them in the awarding of dates.

There are a lot of factors at play here in the simulcasting era and with the way the law is written. I'm not going to get deep into it because I don't think many people here are too interested, but the designation as "host track" for simulcasting purposes is important.

In Florida when the dates hearings became too contentious, their racing board threw up their hands and said, "Fuck it. You guys all race whenever you want." After that Gulfstream became King Kong and Hialeah became a "B" track and ultimately disappeared. They may run a week of fake racing now in order to keep their casino license. I'm not sure.

The thing I think you're missing is that this is a highly regulated industry rife with crony capitalism. There's nothing the slightest bit "free market" about it. And the fact that casino licenses and sportsbooks exist in the specific manner they do, is due to casino operators using racetracks as a Trojan horse in order to obtain licenses and bolster their bottom line and satisfy those shareholders you hold sacrosanct.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

I do not hold shareholders as sacrosanct. But I know how CEO’s and CFO’s think since I have been insuring them for 22 years and talk with them daily.

If you are CDI’s CFO, you look at the specific return on Arlington against its fair market value. Even if it makes say $20M per year, that return is measured against the value of Arlington and the opportunity cost. I believe Arlington is reported to be worth like $350M or something. So in my example, it would only be returning about 5% annually. A CFO will see if they can cut costs or boost revenues, invest to improve returns and the general future prospects of the asset. Most of these companies will target a 12-15% ROE on such assets.

And it sucks for customers. But the CFO is hired by the board to earn an adequate return on capital. If you invested in a Blackrock fund that was returning 5% while Vanguard’s was returning 10%, I bet you would trade one for the other. That is the job of the money manager. The people running CDi have the same responsibility to their owners.

It sucks for us. But that is the reality of our society.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Denis, stop trying to ruin everything with facts and other information.

I don't need a lesson in Business 101. I understand that CDI will do whatever it takes to make more money. That's exactly what they're trying to do. And I won't even discuss the questionable ethics.

But your contention that the racetrack should be allowed to stand on its own or die in the "free market" is misplaced. There is no free market here. The only reason that CDI is operating a casino and sportsbook is because they used a racetrack to get their foot in the door politically as the legislation was being crafted.

How about this? Maybe the State of Illinois should tell CDI, "Look, we get that Arlington Park is a loser for you. You have to do what you have to do. But we're going to pass a new law removing all the licensing requirements. It will be a true free market. If ElDorado wants to come in here and partner with Brad Stephens on a 5000 position casino at River Road and Devon we aren't going to stop it."

Then they can make the call whether the spirit of the law was designed to keep Arlington Park in business.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

Here's one more thing that the average guy doesn't think about when it comes to gaming, though I'm sure it's discussed in the board rooms of companies like CDI and ElDorado.

There are a lot of expenses involved in running a racetrack. The pie is sliced up a lot of different ways. If you're a gambler rather than a fan of racing, it's tough to justify playing into a 22% blended rake vs. the much lower vig on sports bets.

But what would happen if the casinos had to share their rake with the guys playing the game the way they have to do in horse racing? Don't think for one minute the NFL and MLB aren't thinking about that. And we'll see if they have more clout than CDI and Penn National.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don