Strong Push To Save Fort Erie

It has been reported that officials with the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium are in discussion with "about" three potential investors that are considering operating the thoroughbred track if racing is ultimately to continue at the Ontario border oval.

An article by niagarafallsreview.ca has also explained that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. has informed FELRC that the track will being getting a revenue stream from the OLG up until March 31, 2013, even though the track is set to be closed in the new year.

The report has cited FELRC CEO Jim Thibert as saying that his organization, which operates the track, will be trying to get as much support as it can from the Ontario Government-appointed horse-racing transitional panel to make the Fort Erie Race Track part of the equation for the future of the Ontario horse-racing industry.

In regard to a potential purchaser for the Fort Erie Race Track, Thibert said, “We’ve got about three opportunities (come) forward in the last few months, but it’s a question of coming to a reasonable price. Selling the track is not a requirement to race, it would just help because it shows the potential for new investment."

He also went on to explain that “What the panel is trying to do is create an industry, there really has been no industry, there’s 17 tracks and five different organizations and everybody is independent and yet we are talking about the need to support an industry that sustains 60,000 people.”

(With files from niagarafallsreview.ca)

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