for the first time in three years.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cBuilding a facility like this means we\u2019re likely going to attract the next generation of horse-goers and the horsey-scene,\u201d Tomecki said.<\/p>\n
Robert headed to Elmont, Long Island, from the city on the Long Island Rail Road and shuttle bus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe entrances are much further away. You can\u2019t get to the front door as you used to. You have to walk a distance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Thanks to a $455 million state loan, there\u2019s a brand new, largely glass-enclosed grandstand, seating, restaurants and backyard paddock area.<\/p>\n
Although the deal included the shuttering of the century-old Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, the New York Racing Association put in $100 million for four new tracks.<\/p>\n
Fans say they miss parts of the old track.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll together different, it\u2019s not the same. They elevated the track so you\u2019re not as close down to where the horses are,\u201d Robert said.<\/p>\n
Seating has been cut by almost one-third: down from 27,000 seats to 10,000 seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t love it. As a common fan who likes to sit in those seats, I think we\u2019re catering a little bit to the richer in the box seats,\u201d said Alex, whose company helped work on the building.<\/p>\n
Hochul cheered the opening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the new Belmont Park, New York enters into a league of its own,\u201d Hochul said in remarks before the ribbon-cutting Friday morning.<\/p>\n
She also went to the Buffalo Bills\u2019 home-opener Thursday night. The new stadium is also brand new, thanks to a nearly billion dollar taxpayer funded deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve already paid back of this $455 million loan, $50 million,\u201d Hochul said later in an interview with NY1.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this will be a net win for New York taxpayers. But the $300 million economic impact, plus the jobs that are being created right here on Long Island, it\u2019s extraordinary,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Hochul\u2019s Republican opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, was conspicuously absent from his home turf, instead stumping in Rochester.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t do this five years [ago] with an election in Bruce Blakeman\u2019s backyard in mind. I assure you that,\u201d she told NY1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t do any state dollars unless I know there\u2019s going to be a return on our investment,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Racing will continue throughout the winter, and renovations are projected for completion by next spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Horse racing fans returned to Belmont Park for the first time in three years Friday, following a nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109,25,8889,9,24,11,10,49,51,50,12,87,27,200],"class_list":["post-350678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bernadette-hogan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}