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Woodlands racetrack set to close

Written by Chronicle Staff Report

Wednesday, 23 July 2008

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The company that operates the Woodlands announced Tuesday that it will close the dog and horse track next month, after it failed to reach a deal with the Kansas Lottery for slot machines.

In a news release, Kansas Racing, which operates the Woodlands, said the track would shut down Aug. 24. "The pari-mutuel industry has faced declining revenues for years and the Woodlands has been no exception, operating at a financial lost for quite some time. Kansas Racing LLC. is still hopeful that it will reopen with new gaming revenue at some point in the future," the company's president, Howard T. Grace, said in a news release.

The track had been negotiating for 800 slot machines, but Kansas Lottery Executive Director Ed Van Petten said Woodlands officials told him they didn't see a way to make a deal work under current state law.

The statute gives 40 percent of revenues from slots to the state; 25 percent to the track; and 20 percent to local governments and various funds to help horses, dogs, smaller tracks and problem gamblers. The other 15 percent is negotiable.

Van Petten said the state was willing to give the Woodlands the other 15 percent, but the track still didn't think it would make enough money to cover its operating costs and make a reasonable profit.

"I know it hasn't been a profitable venture for quite awhile and if electronic gaming isn't going to work, I guess one of their options is to pull the plug," Van Petten said.

Some of the 254 employees at Woodlands trickled out of the building one-by-one Tuesday carrying a letter from Grace about their termination.

"They've been losing money for years," said Ron Medley, who has worked at the Woodlands since 1989. "The revenue that they think they can generate from the slots just isn't good enough."

A sign near the entrance of Woodlands still reads "Casino coming soon."

The Woodlands was the only racetrack still in the running for slot machines under an expanded gambling law enacted in Kansas last year.

"I kept hearing things around, because the slot machines wasn't in, that we were going to get shut down because of that," said Javon Williams, an employee. "It's kind of unexpected though."

Sedgwick County voters last year rejected slots at the Wichita Greyhound Park, which subsequently closed, and Camptown Greyhound Park in Frontenec broke off negotiations with the Lottery earlier this year. That track has been closed since November 2000.

The Woodlands, owned by Grace Cos. of St. Joseph, Mo., and operated by Kansas Racing, opened in 1989 with revenues peaking in 1990 at $197 million. But the track has struggled since Missouri's riverboat casinos opened in 1994, with wagers dropping each year.