Cuomo: Opening Saratoga Will Likely Have to Be Statewide Decision, Coordinated With Northeast Region

[Wandering Eyes]

Asked in his daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday about the potential opening of Saratoga Race Course this summer, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that he thinks a decision will likely have to be made on a statewide, if not region-wide level. He added that his concern is if Saratoga is opened alone without coordination with other counties and states, it could see even more demand than usual, leading to density issues. He didn’t address and wasn’t asked about the possibility of Saratoga conducting racing without spectators.

“You can’t open an attraction that could bring people from across the state to that attraction and overwhelm a region,” Cuomo said, tying in the Syracuse state fair as another example. “We have time [to make a decision], but today, I don’t think you can open those unless we do it statewide, because there is such a pent-up demand to get out of the house and do something, you open Saratoga racetrack, I guarantee you’ll have the highest attendance in the history of the Saratoga racetrack.”

In addition to its visitors from downstate, Saratoga regularly attracts patrons from the rest of the tri-state area and New England, which led Cuomo to suggest the decision for reopening the track could be made in conjunction with other states as well.

“You will have people from the entire northeast region driving to the Saratoga racetrack just because they want to get out of the house,” he said. “You could say, ‘Well that’s great for the Saratoga racetrack,’ but density is not our friend, right? How do you do six feet apart at the racetrack or the state fair when you have double the attendance you’ve ever had and people are all crammed in there? So I think it would have to be a statewide opening, coordinated with Connecticut and [New] Jersey, otherwise you will have a much, much more dense situation if you wind up being the only attraction ‘in town’ and ‘town’ is the tri-state region.”

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