In New Jersey, Stephen Edelson noted the state's Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, which controls Monmouth Park, owes $30M to a company it "hired to manage operations at the landmark Oceanport thoroughbred racetrack." The debt to the management firm Darby Development is "growing by leaps" -- up by $5M in '15 and another $5M in '16. Still, Darby Development Chair & CEO Dennis Drazin said that the company is in "no hurry to collect the debt." Horsemen's Association board member Robert Matthies said that the recent introduction of sports betting at Monmouth Park has the "potential to bring a financial rebound" (ASBURY PARK PRESS, 8/13).
TIME TO RECONSIDER: In Seattle, Geoff Baker noted a former longtime member of the stadium authority that oversees Safeco Field said that a new 25-year lease extension for the Mariners is "too favorable to the team and should be sent back and renegotiated." In a letter to the King County Council, former Superior Court judge Terrence Carroll, a member of the Public Facilities District from '97-'14, wrote that any subsidies for the Mariners "should require a more thorough vetting of their private books." The Mariners have said that they "won’t renew the lease agreement" unless King County provides the PFD about $180M in "public lodging tax money to cover capital projects" at the ballpark. That money was "agreed to in lease negotiations but must be ratified" in a November vote (SEATTLE TIMES, 8/13).
