G'day Jamie,Originally Posted by Triple V
I woudn't be surprised if someone said to Len Smith back in the sixties " geez, you've got a lot of money tied up in land value here Len!"
Point being that the issue was resolved by that club in the time the members of that club chose! Does that sound unfair or unjust?? Not to me.
The Penrith club, being a successfull operation should be allowed to determine it's own passage, after all it has done an excellent job so far has it not? One day someone might read that the club has sold it's land for 400 billion dollars and that the money will be used to "save harness racing"..... sound familiar?
My personal opinion is let the club do as it's members wish, I don't believe that the direction of harness racing in NSW or anywhere else should come from one source alone, history has shown that the smaller the team of decision makers the greater the risk of failure. ( probably due to short sighted personal agendas)
And the bottom line is, why would you uproot, redesign and remodel an operation that is successful when there are others that are not?
So no Jamie, I don't think it's all about selling everyones farm because it recently worked for NSWHRC.
Cheers,
Dan
So a prosperous, well run, successful club (Penrith), is forced out of an area worth 20-22 million (which it owns). And is moved to another area, to be just a tennant to someone else. Where is the incentive for a club to run a profitable organisation? Without having intimate knowledge of NSWHR, am I near the mark? Is NSW a communist state now?
I think you'll find the Penrith site is actually owned by the Penrith Agricultural, Horticultural and Industrial Society anyway. They do do other things out there as well as harness racing and I believe harness "fans" are a minority on their board
Interesting. That's contrary to what I was told. Things that make you go Hmmmm.
Thanks Dot.
If we all think back to what attracted us to the sport of harness racing, we can all recount that one night a night of excitement the close proximity to the horses, seeing your equine idol for the first time, or the God like statue of a harness racing legend. Up the road in the car with Mum and your other siblings city or country.Lights in the distance like moths we circle. The crowd, bookmakers the smell of donuts and hotdogs. Race book in hand dollar each way on your favoured horse, the feeling of something forbidden. Horses parade bugle annouces their near arrival. Shiny muscular creatures sleek with sweat, drivers atop chariots, with silks glittering. The call of the race ectasy or sorrow a night of emotions. Blankets to keep us warm on the way home.http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=97216
It's hard for me to determine where the obligatory Bankstown Pigeon crap ends and the Club's official statement begins.
Fair dinkum. A brand new 1000m facility at Eastern Creek...or Bankstown???????????????
Has there ever been a bigger No Brainer? Absolutely un-%&$#ing-believable.
Kids in car, up the road with Grandma, Dads now gone, no longer a local track, journeyed to a waste land(redeveloped1400m good for the game), very few faces, no crowd (watch it all at home), totalisator window, where are the bookies(gave up on the red hots dont you know the games crooked), Shiny muscular creatures glistening with sweat dissected by galvanised safety wire (OHS you know). Sectional times, electronic board no one but a few to see this paradise of desolate corporate isolation.
Sterilising? Or progress? Hey, being a Victorian I'd be more concerned with your own backyard there Tangles. Where HRV was going to get the $ to plug the sizeable hole that no longer getting a divvy up from the Pokies cashflow is going to leave? Ouch. Now way you guys get a roof on the Melton Grandstand now.
Agree, all is not well in southland. The above could be equally true of a number of juristitions. We are not going to attract people to the sport we all fell in love with if we do not retain the essence of what made it great. Progress with thought.
Also VVV as I recall Penrith AH&IS did give thought to selling their site and relocating up castlereagh way, but as a showground only, not as a harness racing venue, think it was at about the same time as HRNSW ditched the continuity plan!
What made it great for me was seeing it up close and personal and from a very young age.
Today's kids peering through or just over the outside fence are tomorrow's participants, fans & punters. I don't think that we as an Industry currently do anywhere near enough to foster that demographic, nowhere near enough.
Agree with that VVV but how is that going to change when you just about need a passport to reach Sydneys principle track which is lets face is located well outside the metropolitan area and well outside the reach of most people thoughts when it comes to an entertainment venue
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