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Non-Tech : Sungold Gaming International (SGGNF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Lawrence who wrote (2719)	10/4/1998 7:25:00 PM
From: AuldDruid	Respond to of 5164

John, I'm not a shareholder, but I live in Richmond, and I am personally familiar from the inside with the politics of not only Richmond, but surrounding cities. I and my friends enjoy attending at the track and contributing our donations at the parimutuel windows. Some of my friends are thoroughbred owners. I don't know a thing about Sungold except what I read in the local papers, and it is probably too speculative for a conservative soul like me at any time, but I can tell you this, There is a long tradition of horse racing in this area and many Richmondites regret the conversion of our old track site, Lansdowne Park, into a shopping center 20 years ago. There is a mood to build one amongst the residents, that the Council will have to listen to. The area chosen is perfect for it. As a neighbour of a huge new entertainment and sports complex, already built, that is the training facility for the Vancouver Grizzlies, and the Canucks there is a natural synergy (Council didn't want this project either, but the citizens insisted). The new $1/2billion dollar industrial park already approved and underway will generate 5000 permanent jobs, and residence towers for them within sight of the sports complex and track Richmond is the actual center for Chinese immigration into western Canada, not Vancouver as everyone thinks, and these new Canadians not only love to gamble, but they have the money to do it. Richmond City has recently "cleaned house" of the bureaucrats who tended to stand in the way of this sort of development over the past 20 years. Hastings Park is a nearly dead issue. People are rising up in protest against keeping it there, and those who want to do so will eventually wind up in a challenge of the Vancouver Charter, which forever separated public parks from other City lands so that no Council could ever casually decide to build apartments or race tracks on them. The 99 year lease of the Hastings park site(which was originally a naval gunnery range in the days of sailing vessels) to the City of Vancouver for use as a public agricultural exhibition area specifically stated that on expiration of the lease, it would devolve to the Board of Parks and Public Recreation. IMO, those folks would no more allow a continuation of Hastings Park Racetrack against public opinion, than they would pave it over as a parking lot. Richmond Downs is not the only other contender, but it is surely the most likely. Of course,the whole thing is political, so that's why you keep seeing the 'back and forth' delays. It's going to take a LOT of money to do it as well. I hope Sungold has the wherewithall, so I can enjoy the races at the new track soon! What it comes down to, is that if Sungold doesn't do Richmond Downs, someone else soon will. As a Richmond resident, I am confirming what Mr. Kim Hart had to say about this project. Murray