Does this mean bye bye to the all weathers?

[curious]

Shane Jones to repurpose Provincial Growth Fund

Shane Jones’s Provincial Development Unit is looking at how it can repurpose the $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund to help those worst hit by the economic impacts of Covid-19, and those most essential to rebuilding the economy. “We need to be throwing everything we have at our disposal at keeping Kiwi businesses going, workers in jobs and regional economies afloat and viable. If Provincial Growth Fund money is not going out the door through conventional projects then it needs to be repurposed for other initiatives,” regional economic development minister Jones said.

Ministers will receive advice about which projects can be prioritised, which will include nationally delivered programmes and investments that support short-term employment. Other applications and projects that have already received funds may be “deferred or terminated”.

The PGF will also be delivering some of the key projects within the $100m worker redeployment package announced on March 20, which has already helped redeploy 300 forestry workers on the East Coast.

[Hesi]

Absolutely

Money going to build all weather tracks so the well to do can race their horses in Aus.

In addition when the Government have to bail out the TAB/NZRB, to save them, anymore money spent on frivolities like an all weather track at, of all places Cambridge, will be totally out of the question.

If they want to build one, to feather their own nests, then with all the money in breeding and racing in the Waikato, I'm sure they can find 12 mil to build their own, and lease it to other users outside the area.

[Maximus]

4 minutes ago, Hesi said:

Absolutely

Money going to build all weather tracks so the well to do can race their horses in Aus.

In addition when the Government have to bail out the TAB/NZRB, to save them, anymore money spent on frivolities like an all weather track at, of all places Cambridge, will be totally out of the question.

If they want to build one, to feather their own nests, then with all the money in breeding and racing in the Waikato, I'm sure they can find 12 mil to build their own, and lease it to other users outside the area.

Disagree. There's a stronger case now than before to revitalise the industry from the ground up.

[Hesi]

The industry in the Waikato including the breeding one and the industry elsewhere bear no resemblance

[Midnight Caller]

This is a double edged sword situation! I'm leaning towards  Maxi's way of thinking,but not solely for an all weather track and not specifically in Cambridge. But a complete racing complex containing everything so that if a situation ever arises in the industry it can sustain itself and dear I say it corner the market! Build and they will come!

[Hesi]

That is a completely different scenario, which I would agree with, should have had the foresight and determination to do it years ago, but we have hardly seen entrepreneurial initiative at the region's biggest club Te Rapa

[Maximus]

43 minutes ago, Hesi said:

That is a completely different scenario, which I would agree with, should have had the foresight and determination to do it years ago, but we have hardly seen entrepreneurial initiative at the region's biggest club Te Rapa

mebbe Te Rapa can go like Avondale and be 'repurposed' (eg cashed up for the betterment of the industry). It's a pig of a track, poorly managed and maintained, and the land would be very valuable for housing. If the Waikato has an all-weather surface at Cambridge, with 'satellite' tracks such as Rotorua, Matamata and Tauranga, why do we need Te Rapa?

Edited April 7, 2020 by Maximus

[Hesi]

That is the 2026 Greenfields project talked about in the Messara report and the NZTR site venue plan.  80-90 million is the cost.

Sell off Waipa, Cambridge and Te Rapa and build somewhere else

[barryb]

45 minutes ago, Maximus said:

mebbe Te Rapa can go like Avondale and be 'repurposed' (eg cashed up for the betterment of the industry). It's a pig of a track, poorly managed and maintained, and the land would be very valuable for housing. If the Waikato has an all-weather surface at Cambridge, with 'satellite' tracks such as Rotorua, Matamata and Tauranga, why do we need Te Rapa?

Bit sensationalist.

Te Rapa had a poor f up that used the wrong sand grade which has caused problems, prior to that it provided the best all season surface in NZ.

Turf specialists have been working on a solution which will improve things, if they re locate racing to Cambridge it reinforces what is so wrong with NZ Racing. Besides it’s not going to happen, NZ racing is on its knees, owners when racing returns will be gone in droves, trainers will have massive unpaid bills & will fold themselves like large numbers in society.

The govt won’t bail out racing when large sections of the community will be experiencing the same, racing buggered it’s own situation and now is sink or swim on its own. If it fails then so be it, clearly then it wasn’t viable anyway and failed to capture enough interest from the NZ public.

[Freda]

12 hours ago, Maximus said:

Disagree. There's a stronger case now than before to revitalise the industry from the ground up.

Waikato generally and Cambridge particularly isn't representative of ' the ground '.

An allweather using industry and taxpayer funding for a training facility made little sense before and none now