According to a report, Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium CEO Jim Thibert has neither confirmed nor denied that his group has made an offer of roughly $5-million to purchase one third of the property that the Fort Erie Race Track sits on.
An article on forterietimes.ca has quoted Thibert as saying, "I can confirm there is an offer made by the FELRC to Nordic (Nordic Gaming, which owns the land) to purchase a portion of the track.”
In regard to the $5-million figure, Thibert was quoted as saying, "I can't confirm that, but I also won't deny it."
Thibert did state that the offer is conditional on what the Province of Ontario decides in its highly anticipated plan for the future, which is due to be announced this month.
The report states that talks with members of Ontario’s horse-racing industry transitional panel are ongoing and that he hopes a three-year ‘evergreen plan’ can be put in place at the start of the 2014 season.
In explaining what an evergreen-style plan is, Thibert was quoted as saying, “In essence, if the government wanted to cancel racing within a five-year period, they would have to tell us on opening day of Year 2.”
(With files from forterietimes.ca)