Ruffin buys Woodlands

[dad2paisley]

Wichita Greyhound Park operator, billionaire Phil Ruffin, has purchased the Woodlands racetracks in Kansas City, Ks., from Howard Grace for an undisclosed amount.

“It was a lot,” Ruffin told the media.

Ruffin’s hope is that a bill will pass the Kansas legislature that will “allow them to get slots and run thoroughbreds,”—hopefully in the next session.

Ruffin, who has never dreamt small, also hopes to re-open WGP in Wichita and Camptown Greyhound Park in Frontenac, north of Pittsburg.

“We’re working on some legislation now,” he told the press. “If we could tie all three tracks in, put them all to bed, we could employ roughly 2,000 people. Two thousand people. It’s a jobs bill.”

Some hurdles remain.

Camptown never re-opened with slots, he said, because the tax rate is 60 percent—“too high.”

In addition, to get WGP re-opened, he’d have to pave the way to get another vote of the people in the Wichita area. A slots vote there failed barely in 2007. Ruffin, along with many others, feel it failed because it was tied to the casino vote.

“I think this time we could do better,” he says.

“We’re here for a lot of years,” he’s quote as saying. “If they (Kansas lawmakers) don’t pass it this year, you know, we’ll try again next year like we always have. We’re persistent.”

Ruffin’s empire includes ownership of the Treasure Island casino and hotel in Las Vegas.

ngagreyhounds.com/issue/may-june-2015/article/ruffin-buys-woodlands

[greydaddy]

Awesome news.

[fastdog]

While on the surface this sounds good, there is much to consider.
We have heard this talk from Ruffin before. We are not holding our breath any longer in Kansas.
Ruffin has wanted to buy the Woodlands for some time now.
Because of it's location, being within earshot of some of the biggest and best development in the Kansas City area, he now owns prime real-estate. It is of no concern to him if the tracks reopen or not.
However, he is now sitting on 3 pieces of property in the state that are producing zero revenue and costing him tax dollars.
He will not wait too much longer to move on this one way or the other.
On the plus side, Wyandotte County voted in the slots many years ago. The last hurdle for Ruffin is to get the legislature to lower the state take to 22% which matches the casinos. While a reasonable person would agree that is fair and equitable, heavy lobbying takes place from the casinos to prevent the tracks from being added competition. This January will be no different.
One of the lesser known facts about the Woodlands is that prior proposals that have been considered and lobbied for revolves around the horse track. The latest proposal from last year was to open the horse track with slots. There was no plans to open the dog track. While this is good news for our brothers and sisters in the horse industry, it does not sit well with the greyhound gang.
For many years the horse track lost money while the dog track made money in spite of not having slots. The horse track was seasonal and the dog track was year round.
But for those of us that have been waiting all these years, we can't be too picky. The goal is to get legislative agreement to lower the state portion to 22%. Once that happens getting one track up and running should be enough that in time the rest will be able to follow suit.
The Woodlands is in rough shape. The Kansas weather takes a tremendous toll on facilities that are unoccupied on an extended basis. However with enough money and determination, it can be brought back to life bigger and better than it was.
We should know more by April or May.

[dad2paisley]

Thanks for the update FD.

[fastdog]

Well, As I predicted, the bill in the legislature never made it to the legislative floor.
I am not surprised.
As in Ruffins quote's in the previous posting, he's persistent and will continue. He is continuing his efforts to gain approval for the reopening of the Woodlands and has had some success. But no matter what, it will not reopen until the tax rate is changed.
As more details about this emerges the latest reason for not bring the bill to the floor is the threats by the casino people to sue the state for breech of contract regarding the tracks and their pursuit of renegotiating the state tax. Whether in fact this is true or not has yet to be determined since none of us has access to those contracts.
This argument will continue.
On a brighter note, in November, all 165 seats in the House and Senate are up for reelection. We have before us a golden opportunity to oust some of our dead wood and those who have over the years been a block to our efforts. If you think Washington D.C. is the only group of people who can't get anything done your wrong. Kansas couldn't even get a balanced budget passed in the time allowed. They are hung up on school funding and the courts have given them until the end of June to fix their mess. They are a most dysfunctional group. Because of their inability to get anything done there is a better than 50 / 50 chance most of the incumbents will not be reelected. As with D.C. we are plagued by politicians that serve their own special interest and not the people of Kansas. Time for them to go.
I'll share more as news develops but it may be towards the end of summer before we get a better picture of what will happen.

[dad2paisley]

I hope they get voted out and new folks that will do something get elected.