Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 14, 1994 TAG: 9410140106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sykes lives in Fairwood Homes, a Portsmouth neighborhood that largely would have been razed if the commission had selected the southeastern Virginia city as the track site.
``It's just a relief that I don't have to worry about getting up and moving,'' said Sykes, who has lived in Fairwood Homes for two years with her three children. ``It would have caused me to have to go through a lot of changes.''
Still, she said, she feels bad for her city because it needs the economic boost that a track is expected to provide.
The winner, New Kent County, will get a $40 million, 6,000-seat facility to be called Colonial Downs. It is planned for opening in January 1996.
But it'll never show a profit, said Matthew Russo, a Portsmouth pawn shop owner who stood to benefit if the commission had picked the location near his business.
Despite his personal interest, Russo didn't want the track in Portsmouth. He likes riverboat gambling, instead.
``It would have been too much of an investment,'' he said of the track. ``It wouldn't make money. I think the first track in Virginia is going broke, wherever it is.''
The New Kent license was awarded to Arnold Stansley, president of Raceway Park in Toledo, Ohio, and a partner in Trinity Meadows in Fort Worth, Texas.
In Prince William, the loss of the race track compounded the recent cancellation of the proposed Disney America theme park.
``It's going to be one more blow to the economic development of Prince William County,'' Haymarket Mayor John Kapp said.
Keywords:
HORSE RACING
by CNB