[pointman]

Yes, but it is my understanding that NY State still owns the land after the State takeover a few years back. If NYRA got title to the land back, that is something that I am not aware of.

Cuomo has not made a secret of the possibility to close Aqueduct and use the land for State purposes such as a convention center. The latest talk that I have seen is possibly putting a new arena at Belmont to move the Islanders as they are clearly not staying in Brooklyn and don't seem to want to move back to the Coliseum now that they redeveloped it with less seats.

Maybe I am misguided, but it seems to me that Cuomo's plan for quite some time is to close Aqueduct which could not be done until Belmont is revamped.

If this is just a move to improve the racing and field size for NY Winter racing I highly applaud it. But I don't trust Cuomo and his long term intentions for NY Racing which I don't think he cares a wit about.