For more than 30 years the New York Racing Association has searched in vain for a way to bring back large crowds to Belmont Park on a regular basis.
That solution arrives Nov. 20.
Once the puck is dropped Saturday night and the first period starts to tick away in the New York Islanders' first home game inside the UBS Arena at Belmont Park, the grounds of the famed 116-year-old racetrack will have a new identity and a litany of reasons why crowds in the neighborhood of 17,000 will become commonplace in the complex.
No longer will Beautiful Belmont Park be regarded only as one of Thoroughbred racing's most historic racetracks. On Saturday night, when the Islanders play the Calgary Flames, Belmont Park will officially begin its reign as a premier sports and entertainment facility, mixing about 75 days of racing, with 41 National Hockey League games with the potential for playoffs and a frequent mixture of concerts and shows.
Vitality? After decades of dwindling attendance purely for racing, it will now be overflowing on the Elmont, N.Y., campus.
"It's the dawn of a new era with the Islanders coming back home and horse racing being a part of Long Island since 1665," NYRA CEO and president Dave O'Rourke said. "We're excited about this. Think about what it will bring to Long Island. Long Island is horse racing and hockey, and putting the Islanders on the same campus as us opens up a bunch of opportunities to make Belmont Park more of a destination as a sporting venue. There are more options now. The Islanders are definitely going to bring activity here and eventually there will be a retail area and we're looking at redeveloping the track and that will open up more possibilities for synergy between everything."
It was first announced Dec. 20, 2017, that the Islanders, unhappy with their move from the aging Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to the new Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, would build a new home on property that was serving as a parking lot behind Belmont Park's grandstand.
Nearly four years later, all of the ensuing years of construction has led to the emergence of a ultra-modern, $1.1 billion arena that will seat between 17,000-18,500 fans for not just NHL games but a year-round slate of concerts and events that will include Genesis, Harry Styles, John Mayer, Journey, college basketball games, WWE and AEW professional wrestling, Disney On Ice, and Monster Jam in the coming months.
"The UBS Arena is probably going to be the premier concert venue in the area," O'Rourke said.
Of course, how all of this will benefit NYRA is the pertinent question for the racing industry, especially at a time when NYRA has established a thriving online and mobile wagering platform supported by extensive national television coverage. As O'Rourke sees it, having more people on the grounds gives NYRA the opportunity to entice a small army of newcomers to venture into the racetrack.
Given the inevitable traffic jams for evening events at the arena and NYRA offering afternoon racing and having a fully operational Long Island Railroad station by the summertime, NYRA plans to promote the idea of arriving at the complex early and enjoying a few races to pass the time on those days beginning five months from now in the spring when there is both racing and an arena event.
"We race during the day so what could be better than to come out early, hang out in our park, and watch a couple of races? The best way to acquire racing fans is to show them a race; have them watch a race," O'Rourke said. "This opens up a huge potential for causal sports fans or a concert-goer to come in early, hang out at Beautiful Belmont Park, and catch some races. From our experience that's how you build fans. We've learned that from Saratoga. To create a racing fan all you have to do is bring them to Saratoga and we want to create that feeling at Belmont Park as well."
Located in Nassau County, a short walk from the border with New York City, Belmont Park may reside in a densely populated location. Yet in an area with as many sports and entertainment options as the Big Apple, there is indeed a large segment of people whose next visit to Belmont Park for an event at UBS will be their first one.
"This will introduce a lot of people in the area to Belmont Park. You would be surprised by the number of people who live around here and have never been there," said trainer Dave Donk, a regular on the NYRA circuit for more 35 years. "It can only help us down the road. The new train station is a big deal, making access to Belmont easier for everyone. There's a lot of pro's to having the arena here."
Though racing and hockey will not share the complex until late April, O'Rourke and NYRA personnel have already been in contact with the Islanders and arena officials to create a framework for those days. So far, Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) Day is the only time when only racing can take place in the complex, but O'Rourke said that can be amended to add Breeders' Cup days should NYRA secure the event in the future.
He added that post times are unlikely to change on racing/arena days and the plan is to conclude racing by 6 p.m. to prevent a backlog of patrons entering and leaving the parking lots.
"Those logistics are worked out on paper but we have to live through it and then we can make adjustments, if needed," O'Rourke said.
O'Rourke expressed confidence in working out any troublesome details with the Islanders and arena management based on the cooperation he's experienced over the course of the last four years.
"So far the relationship with the Islanders has been great. They built the arena and we really didn't miss any racing and the fact they could do that so seamlessly is impressive. I think they've learned a lot about racing, judging by the way they geared the construction around training and everything else. The partnership is off to a great start," O'Rourke said.
There were initial concerns that the construction of the arena would impact training or create a distraction for horses in the paddock and force a cancellation of numerous racing days, but that never materialized.
"We had some disruptions but not an unreasonable amount," said Joe Appelbaum, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. "The first concern was the noise, the dust, the impact on training, but knock on wood it hasn't been too terrible."
Donk said the construction of the arena went "as well as anyone could hope for.
"Everything has gone well and that starts with the work of Glen Kozak (NYRA's senior vice president of operations and capital projects) and NYRA," Donk said. "I think once they start having events it will be OK for the horses though the barns closest to it may be impacted."
"I think it's sad the number of trees we lost," he said. "We had a nationally recognized arboretum and it's kind of disappointing that in this day and age the arena developers could not figure out a way to save more trees."
Appelbaum said a few trees were removed recently to prepare for NYRA's construction of an infield tunnel but added that he has been assured by NYRA that they will be replaced once the project is completed.
As much as the arena opened Nov. 19 with a charity concert, work on the campus is far from finished. A tiered parking garage in the south parking lot will be the next addition, followed by full LIRR service in the summer (only eastbound service is available now) and a retail area in the south lot after that.
Against that backdrop, the final piece of the puzzle will take place once NYRA begins its long-awaited renovation of the racetrack. Though final plans have yet to be announced, that redevelopment figures to include a smaller grandstand that will be modernized so that it can host racing on a year-round basis. There could be a smaller racing oval, and a winter track is another possible addition, and the infield area is likely to include parking and a park area for patrons to replace the backyard space chewed up by the arena.
"The arena is good for the surrounding community and it opens up a ton of possibilities as we embark on our development of our parcel there," O'Rourke said. "When you think about the redevelopment, remember it's Belmont Park and let me emphasis the park part. With a smaller building we'll have more green space. The backyard will be extremely welcoming and as we look at development of our spaces we'll create them in conjunction with the arena so people can show up early, hang out, maybe get a drink, watch a few races, and then go to their concert.
"We're working on an infield tunnel and want to get more parking out there that will help alleviate the demand on our parking lot and the training track parking lot," he added.
In time, as NYRA renovates the racing facility, it will also undertake more marketing promotions with the Islanders and the arena to enhance the crossover of the fan bases.
"We'll do some cross-marketing, but we haven't done anything yet," O'Rourke said. "They'll come to fruition once we've settled on what the new Belmont Park will look like, but for now a lot of what we will do will revolve around the backyard."
Appelbaum said he welcomes a focus on turning the long-discussed modernization of Belmont Park into reality.
"Hopefully now this leads to everyone involved getting serious about developing our own property. Now that the construction of the arena is out of the way, we can take more of a center stage with renovating our facility," the horsemen's leader said. "I don't see there being much crossover or spillover for racing from this. The biggest benefit for racing will be professionalizing the complex in general. Now we have room to upgrade our facility and having a functional train stop on the site, not just a spur, will be extremely important."
As much as bulldozers and cranes may not say goodbye to the complex for another few years, there's no denying that Saturday night has the potential to ignite the kind of partnerships, excitement, and activity that Belmont Park has sought for decades.
"This will all work out. While the Islanders are in their prime season, we'll be at Aqueduct Racetrack and even if we start running all year at Belmont, the winter is kind of our lower season and crowd expectations will be lower," O'Rourke said. "Above all, it's going to give us an infusion of activity, which in our business is only a good thing."
