The following story, written by Michael
Staples, appears in this morning’s (March 20) edition of the Daily
Gleaner. It is in response to the story
I wrote about Brian Johnson of Kingswood and his vision of a new Fredericton
Exhibition Grounds and Raceway that appeared in the Daily Gleaner on March 15.
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The
executive director of the Fredericton Exhibition and the Capital Exhibit Centre
is taking exception to comments in a story on harness racing printed last week
in The Daily Gleaner.
Mike
Vokey said a reference in a story written by Brent Briggs, quoting Brian
Johnson, the general manager of Kingswood, is inaccurate.
In
the article, Johnson talked about his great-grandfather’s passion for harness
racing and his exposure to the racetrack in his younger years. Johnson said
he’s been thinking about the state of Fredericton Raceway and the exhibition
grounds over the past few years.
“On
my own, I hired a consultant that I deal with in Halifax to look at the
Fredericton Raceway and the exhibition grounds and model it after the new
Summerside Raceway,” Johnson said in the article. “I have had some discussions
with (FREX executive director) Mike Vokey and some of the board members on a
new vision for Fredericton Raceway.”
Vokey
said that’s not the case.
“We
were never consulted,” he said. “We may have spoken casually with some of the
members on the board, but the board has never been in consultation regarding
this project. Nobody has contacted us to ask about our needs. There’s no fact
to anything there.”
In
fact, Vokey said, it goes against everything the FREX is trying to do in fixing
up its own facility.
“We
have a major project underway now to change the coliseum into a multi-purpose
fieldhouse and we’re looking at increasing our users by 12,000 people in the
city who participate in organizations that would be able to use it under its
new structure,” Vokey said. “We’re moving ahead with reality and out comes this
fictional story, which is portrayed in The Gleaner as if it’s news story, and
there isn’t any merit to it.”
Such
information hinders efforts by the FREX to make something happen at the
location, he said.
Vokey
added harness racing is basically in the same situation. They were never
contacted, and their needs were never discussed.
Johnson
said it’s all a misunderstanding, conceding that Vokey was never part of the
planning.
“When
you read that, it kind of looks like he was part of the planning, but he
wasn’t,” Johnson said.
“That
plan was done a year before he ever came to Fredericton. I have been working on
it for a long time. I just showed it to him one day when he happened to be in
the office.”
The
same is true with regard to the horse racing association, Johnson said.
“The
raceway was never part of the planning; he was never part of the planning. It
was more of a story about my grandfather, what was going on with Kingswood and
my vision of what I think the raceway could become.”
Horse
Racing New Brunswick president Mitch Downey said the partnership his
association has with FREX works well.
“This
type of article made it sound like it’s been run through both organizations —
certainly the FREX,” Downey said. “It kind of undermines what we’re trying to
do … That,
I guess, is where our biggest concern was.”
Downey
said it’s in both the FREX’s and Horse Racing New Brunswick’s best interest
that they continue their partnership.
“I
am enthusiastic about someone who has that much interest in and obviously
passion and willingness to invest in a model that has our industry involved in
it,” Downey said.
“But
it would be nice to have certainly been consulted and have some even informal
discussions about it before it came out in print, so to speak.”
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Response to the original story has been
overwhelmingly positive and there have been over 3,000 visitors to the blog in
just a few days.
However, Mike Vokey of FREX and
Mitchell Downey of HRNB have taken exception to the story and have made it
clear that they have no interest in this concept at this time.
Downey also stated in an email that the
story could potentially undermine his current discussions with government
relating to its potential partnership with Woodstock First Nation.
That certainly was no one’s intention.
The FREX had announced a few weeks ago
that it was encouraging public consultation on its facilities and has scheduled
an informal town hall style meeting for tomorrow, Thursday, March 21. From that perspective,
the original story offers an exciting new dynamic to the conversation.
I do have to take exception to Downey’s
statement about not having been consulted about this proposal as I contacted
him at least two weeks prior to the story running.
I wanted to share information on this new
proposal with him as I thought it could strengthen his negotiations with
government with the potential of a private partner and for a new racetrack in
Fredericton with new facilities.
However, Downey was not interested in the
information as he was confident that his current negotiations would be
successful.
As it has been six months since the
Memorandum of Understanding with Woodstock First Nation was announced - with no
successful conclusion as of yet - let’s hope he is right.
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