Great Canadian Gaming Corp. (GCG) executives are using a new strategy during the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) to reinvigorate business at Hastings Park.
This will be the first year in decades that the racecourse is outside the fenced-off PNE grounds. The horse-racing operation has also cancelled Saturday and Sunday racing to avoid competing with the Vancouver fair. It will instead hold racing on two Monday afternoons, when the fair, which otherwise runs August 16 through September 1, is closed. Friday night racing will also be introduced.
“We feel the best opportunity is to try to race on off periods for the PNE,” said Chuck Keeling, GCG's vice-president of stakeholder relations and responsible gaming.
Attendance at B.C.'s biggest summer fair last year dipped to 712,049 guests. That's 6.8% less than the year before and the lowest attendance in more than a decade. Still, Keeling believes that many horse-racing fans had second thoughts about attending the races during the fair because they didn't want to compete with fairgoers for parking.
“The PNE has also had some challenges with parking, so if we are not in operation, they can use our infield for parking,” he said.
Keeling believes that after many years of steep declines, horse-racing revenue at GCG's four racetracks is starting to stabilize. Racetrack revenue during the first half of 2010 was $12.5 million. That fell 21.6% to $9.8 million in 2011's first half, 17.3% to $8.1 million in 2012's first half and 12.3% to $7.1 million in 2013's first half.
Those revenue plunges abruptly ended in the first half of 2014, when revenue rose 1% to $7.2 million. Uncertainty surrounds Hastings Park because its lease expires in November and the City of Vancouver has hinted that a condition of renewal could be a requirement to spend millions of dollars to build a parkade and to renovate backstretch buidings.
“That will all be part of the negotiations,” Keeling said. “We're motivated to continue racing there, and our belief is that the city is a motivated party on the other side of the table.”
With just 55 racing days this year compared with 68 in 2014, Hasting Park is unlikely to match last year's revenue. The good news, Keeling said, is that industry stakeholders such as breeders, horse owners and track operators have agreed to continue harness racing at Fraser Downs for the next five years and at Hastings Park until at least the end of 2016 – contingent on GCG renewing its lease with the city.
