Should Penn National Buy Arlington Racetrack? MY COLUMN

Carl2/24/2021 5:55 PM

I'm not an expert on large scale real estate investments for gaming operators but I'm going to try my best here. I'm also one of the few Barstool Chicago guys that possess neither an ownership stake in a horse or a baseline desire to some day get one. So coming into this blog I admit that I may be out of my element but what else is fucking new. As far as I'm concerned there's premium property hitting the market and I'd be remiss if Barstool Chicago didn't at least throw its hat in the ring for a play on the race track.

Personally - I know that Arlington is an awesome time. Beautiful fucking grandstand and clean bathrooms and those vodka lemonades that go down by the half dozen. Even better, you can bring your cooler with JP Graziano subs and backup Ice Mountain vodkas. There's the perfect balance of sun and shade along with all the room to spread the legs between races. Mix in a decent chicken tenders basket and industry-leading central air-conditioning, and you've got yourself a nice little Saturday to rip it up.

After the infrastructure, let's talk location. Perfect mix of close enough to the city but absolutely so far away that you don't have to deal with any of the bullshit. You can day trip out to Arlington in the morning, get loaded, Uber back and have a night out downtown. There's a train stop on the property and reasonably priced parking and even valet for the rich & fancy. Honestly if there's a 6 Flags Great America for reasonably degenerate adults, it's Arlington.

Now here's where I get sloppy - I don't know the first thing about gaming operator strategy. Everything I've heard just sounds like the guys who own Rivers don't want to grow Arlington because it would compromise Rivers. Or something like that? Arlington was supposed to put in slots and grow revenues away from horse racing. But doing that would take away from Rivers so they just said fuck it? Is anyone even listening to me? I guess my point is that Rivers owns Arlington and they don't think it's worth operating any more.

Wait what's that sound? A door opening?

An opportunity to spend tens of millions on an already struggling property?

A place to drink and watch the ponies in a skybox with the boys?

Stop me if this sounds like a decent opportunity to take on a capital-intensive project encumbered in red tape that nobody in their right mind would green light. Sure feels that way.

I'm not an expert on large scale real estate investments for gaming operators but I'm going to try my best - Me, 410 words ago

That's important to remember. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm not licensed to give investment advice, or whatever. I could could easily be talking out of my ass right now while Big Cat simultaneously wines and dines the sellers. Who knows.

For now just know that it's another blow to the regular guy that just wants to escape from life. Arlington was a place you could feel like a million bucks, and now the guys with the millions of bucks are taking it away because they suck.