Pimlico Thoughts

[jnunan4759]

I was thinking about Baltimore saying how they need the Preakness. Looking at it, sure they do. Just some thoughts.

Pimlico runs 28 days now and is owned and run by a private company. They pay Real Estate taxes all year and all people who work there pay city wage taxes. I'm sure all food and beverage, as in most cities in the NE, have city excise taxes. The Preakness brings in close to 200,000 people when you consider everybody. They all get hotels, eat and often party. Taxes and economy.

Huge boom. They probably provide some police for the Preakness, but I'm sure the get paid. I'm sure they get charged for the water and sewer they use. Also think of the merchants who supply the event. The food, the drinks, the gas to cook with. The napkins ? How many napkins ? Got to be 2 million.

So lets keep the Preakness in Baltimore, in an old place that you own.

The football team moved out and in order to get a new one the city paid $200 million to build a new stadium. To keep the Orioles from leaving they build Camden Yards for $100 million years ago.

The Preakness alone draws about 40% of the fans the Ravens draw in a season. Many Ravens fans commute and the Preakness draws from out of town, using hotels, flights, rental cars, restaurants. Plus tourism (aquarium, Inner Harbor).

For the rest of the meet, I'm sure Baltimore whacks horsemen with a city tax on purses also (at least 4% added to federal and state). They all do it with athletes.

I see the history, but not economics. This is going to be an interesting issue.

Just my thoughts on an issue that is more complex than people think.