This Ends in Antioch wrote:
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
pittmike wrote:
Jorr pisses on grave?
I don't really have a beef with Mr. D. He always treated me well on a personal level.
He kind of led Arlington to failure, no?
No. Arlington didn't really fail. Mr. D. was old and not in the best of health. His son who was the most interested in the business, Bruce, predeceased him. The other kids weren't passionate about racing/the racetrack. So he sold his shares to CDI. The first sale was a swap wherein he received CDI shares and at one point he was the biggest CDI shareholder. Eventually he began selling his stock back to CDI.
The track was his baby. I don't think they were ever going to destroy it while he was still alive. We were joking at the OTB today after we heard about his death that the truck with the wrecking ball was rolling down Northwest Highway.
Anyway, what caused Arlington to close was the avarice of CDI or their pursuit of shareholder value, however you want to view it.
But the real culprit is the State of Illinois. They had the power to keep Arlington open and they allowed CDI to shut it down. It never would have come to this had they passed the gambling bill that Quinn vetoed. And the State created the situation where CDI was allowed to buy the majority of Rivers where they don't have to share profits with horsemen. So why would they open a less profitable casino eight miles away to compete with themselves?
Further, if there ever is a Chicago casino, Neil Bluhm will be the guy running the show. Any other "bids" or considerations are just smoke and mirrors. It's s done deal for Bluhm. The only problem is that the people running Chicago are so fucking stupid they think that they can just demand extra vig in order to glom money they need to run the city. Bluhm is smart enough to know that isn't viable.
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