Organisers of Racing at Warsaw go bankrupt
The crisis at Warsaw-Služewiec racecourse, the headquarters of Polish racing, has reached a head. According to an article on April 22nd in Žycie Warszawy newspaper, the property of the previous organizers of racing at Warsaw (STWK) is to be auctioned off on April 27th, because the company has gone bankrupt. The land on which the racecourse is built belongs to the state, so that it cannot by law be sold to the Polish Jockey Club. Only STWK’s property is to be auctioned off, i.e., the starting boxes, the video studio equipment, and the decorations (original canvases from the first half of the 20th century) and the VIP areas in the grandstand. This should bring in about 800 thousand zloty, but the debts run in to the millions... For example, there is the prize money still owing to the owners of successful horses from the second half of the 2003 season. The article blames above all the state officials in the ministry responsible for overseeing horse racing in Poland for this grim situation.
The situation is even worse as regards the future of racing at Warsaw racecourse, which, with its extensive stables complex and training tracks, covers an area of 138 hectares. According to reports from Warsaw, noone is interested in organizing racing on rented land, since it is a loss maker in the absence of the necessary investment. Noone will want to invest as a tenant, and the law will not allow a sale (however, a change in the law will probably in due course be the only sensible solution)... Quite recently, the most likely new organiser appeared to be the betting company Totalisator Sportowy (TS), but this company is now having serious second thoughts, being aware of the great risk of losing millions. In addition, Polish racing has been suffering from a drop in betting turnover, and gone are the days of ten years ago, when the company could easily more than cover its costs, and the Nagroda Wielka Warszawska, held in the autumn, was the richest race in Central Europe... The betting market and the gambling industry now offer an endless range of other attractions.
Quo vadis, Služewiec? Who can tell what will become of one of the most beautiful racecourses in Europe...
(from Czech language Paddock Revue website)