Horse racing shut down permanently at Hastings Park

[officedweller]

Horse racing shut down permanently at Hastings Park in Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/hors...-hastings-park

[jollyburger]

Last week

Hastings Park to Lose Slots Revenue Starting Jan. 31

"I am writing to advise that government has completed its review of the horse racing industry in B.C. ("the review"). While the review identified some economic, social, and other benefits flowing from live horse racing in B.C., it also revealed significant concerns with its financial sustainability and ongoing viability despite revitalization efforts," the letter started. "Horse Racing BC's April 2025 Industry Plan presented a possible path forward for horse racing in B.C., but not without significant additional government funding over the next three years. In the government's current fiscal situation, we are unable to support this additional funding request.

"We also reviewed the practice of providing the horse racing industry with a share of net slot machine revenue from Hastings Casino and Elements Casino Surrey. Given the significant financial sustainability concerns revealed by this review, we have made the very difficult decision to stop providing net slot machine revenue to the industry as of January 31, 2026."

"This decision has been made after careful analysis of the current economic impact and long-term projections for the industry, which have shown that even with significant and ongoing government investment from casino-generated revenue, the industry is not sustainable because of a range of factors, primarily declining revenues and public participation and attendance at horse racing events," her letter stated.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-rac...tarting-jan-31

[kikin]

Sad to see, that has been a part of the city for a century probably.

[Glow Fun City]

Originally Posted by kikin

Sad to see, that has been a part of the city for a century probably.

133 years! Longer than almost everything in this city

[jollyburger]

Did horse racing ever become popular with the HK immigrant population? It stills seems to be popular over there?

[SeymourDrake]

That means X amount of acres from the track and stables will be available.

New Hotel & Casino?

[Migrant_Coconut]

Maybe some housing... and the PNE and Playland likely want in on the action too.

[jollyburger]

Seems very unlikely even with this council that they could try to stick any housing in Hastings Park. I mean sticking housing/hotels on the parking lots facing East Hastings is probably more viable than any in the park.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Seems very unlikely even with this council that they could try to stick any housing in Hastings Park. I mean sticking housing/hotels on the parking lots facing East Hastings is probably more viable than any in the park.

Sounds like there will be some sort of development there, besides the soccer stadium.

A proposed memorandum of understanding will be presented to Vancouver council as early as next week that would allow the Whitecaps to bring aboard other partners for additional developments on the site, sources said.

https://theprovince.com/sports/socce...s-stadium-next

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by logan5

Sounds like there will be some sort of development there, besides the soccer stadium.


https://theprovince.com/sports/socce...s-stadium-next

Gerber mentioned building residential somehow with BC Place. And that the MOU made no sense to anyone.

“We’re not asking for gifts. We’re asking for the right to earn it. We want to earn it by maximizing the value in BC Place, and we want to earn it by having the opportunity, potentially, to develop a project that will be one of the great showcases for public-private partnership with sports and entertainment and real estate, meaning residential,” he said.

“If we could achieve that, the Whitecaps will become embedded in the community way beyond what it is that they do on the field each weekend.”

A potential stadium at PNE is currently being explored, Garber said, noting that he visited the site a few months ago and that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) is currently being discussed.

The team has “been talking and going back and forth on MOUs on the PNE site. The MOU they’re looking at now is not an MOU that would make sense for anybody,” he said, though “there’s an opportunity.”

For now, sticking with BC Place, which is owned and operated by provincial Crown corporation BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo), would require a new “revenue dynamic,” said Garber.

In a statement, PavCo said the stadium “remains committed” to supporting the club’s growth and success.

https://www.biv.com/news/real-estate...-boss-11463132

[logan5]

Welp, the City has to give the Whitecaps something. A stadium will cost around 400 million, with probly no tax money, so a residential real estate development with the stadium is a must. Some residential towers at the corner of McGill and Renfrew would work. There's a parking lot, and an industrial building, so not taking actual park space, but I would go further than that.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by logan5

Welp, the City has to give the Whitecaps something. A stadium will cost around 400 million, with probly no tax money, so a residential real estate development with the stadium is a must. Some residential towers at the corner of McGill and Renfrew would work. There's a parking lot, and an industrial building, so not taking actual park space, but I would go further than that.

Just raise property taxes and give them money.

[kikin]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Did horse racing ever become popular with the HK immigrant population? It stills seems to be popular over there?

they simulcast the races from Hong Kong sometimes which drew a late night crowd a while back, but I think online betting now takes the lion's share of foreign betting, I'm not sure if the local Asian community ever got into the local product all that much, I think the biggest days here are things like the Deighton Cup that brings the younger well off crowd out in big numbers.

[kikin]

anyone else think this looks a little shady how fast things happened in the background with the city and government, a lot of jobs just disappeared overnight and Sim looked pretty smiley in the live conference broadcast today

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by kikin

anyone else think this looks a little shady how fast things happened in the background with the city and government, a lot of jobs just disappeared overnight and Sim looked pretty smiley in the live conference broadcast today

It's not his fault no one cares about horse racing.

[kikin]

they are still killing a lot of jobs and economic activity around the industry, in a time when we need jobs desperately, a new stadium is just moving things from the current location downtown and other than construction won't create any new economic activity rather just simply moving it

[madog222]

Originally Posted by kikin

they are still killing a lot of jobs and economic activity around the industry, in a time when we need jobs desperately, a new stadium is just moving things from the current location downtown and other than construction won't create any new economic activity rather just simply moving it

The jobs were “killed” by the lack of demand for those jobs. We live in a free market democracy, the racecourse isn’t a make work project.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by madog222

The jobs were “killed” by the lack of demand for those jobs. We live in a free market democracy, the racecourse isn’t a make work project.

And if you want a make work project you have to have enough of a political pull to make it a pet issue of some MLA/MP etc.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by madog222

The jobs were “killed” by the lack of demand for those jobs. We live in a free market democracy, the racecourse isn’t a make work project.

It died because the Province took away their casino revenue.

[Migrant_Coconut]

TBF most of the city's other pro sports aren't dependent on just $8-10 million to stay in the black.