We had a similar scenario at Merrittville circa 10-12 years ago where Pete Bicknell and Randy Williamson stepped up to buy the track knowing that closure would adversely affect their chassis and parts business at BRP. In a similar vein, anyone think perhaps a certain chassis manufacturer near Rochester could do something similar to maintain their customer base?
As we've all witnessed, over the years, the rise and fall of local race tracks. And as race fans, as well as New York Lottery players, many of us probably have considered purchasing Spencer's, or Shangra-La, or even Lancaster, as all of their fate's have been in question, over the years. This is assuming that we won a very large jackpot, such as the $1,600,000,000 (is that enough zeros?) that was recently the winning jackpot.
I fantasized about it a couple of times, over the years, HOWEVER, my rational side kicked in, and here's what I concluded....buying the track is the easy part. After that, you have to run it. In order to do that, you'd need A) 4-5 HONEST people to run the ticket booths; B) a track announcer; C) a scorer, maybe 2; D) a handicapper; E) A race director; F) 2-3 tech inspectors; G) 4-5 people for a track crew; H) 2-3 tow trucks, and crews; I) a flagger; J) 12-14 people to run concessions; K) an electrician; L) some sort of security crew; and probably another 6-8 people I haven't thought of, M) an owner and/or promoter, to generate publicity, as well as oversee all of the previous mentions.
If Pete and Randy took on all of this added responsibility, in an effort to sustain their primary business, I applaud them.