Fair Board to Pursue Bond Sales Plan

Fair board directors voted Tuesday to seek a method of selling as much as $90 million in revenue bonds to rebuild the Del Mar Race Track grandstand and to make other improvements to the state-owned fairgrounds.

Tuesday’s unanimous vote requested the state Race Track Leasing Commission to approve funding for the entire fairgrounds improvement plan at one time. The commission gives about $2 million a year to the fair board for improvement projects.

Directors also approved participation with other fair officials in a meeting with state officials Aug. 26 to explore creation of a joint-powers agency.

Under the financing plan, which is still in the early stages, the Del Mar fair board would join one or more state bodies to create a joint-powers agency that would have the authority to issue revenue bonds. In Del Mar’s case, that would mean revenue from the state-owned Del Mar Race Track would be used to repay the bonds.

Director Jan Anton, who headed the ad hoc committee that recommended the financing proposal to the fair board, said a 20,000-seat grandstand would yield sufficient revenue to repay the bonds. The grandstand now seats about 9,500 and has been called structurally unsafe by state inspectors.

Fair directors also approved the ad hoc committee’s recommendation to hire a financial consultant experienced in race track operations to study the Del Mar track’s revenue and to confirm that the bond proposal is feasible.

Anton also received unanimous support from the board for proposals to expand events at the fairgrounds for the period between the end of the racing season in mid-September and the start of the Del Mar Fair in June, and for a statement that the board “does not want a Disneyland or a Sea World” at the fairgrounds and should stay with the fair and thoroughbred racing as the major events there.

Fair directors have discussed revamping or rebuilding the aging grandstand in the past, but they have been unable to take action because the Race Track Leasing Commission, composed of fair board directors, state officials and racing representatives, holds the purse strings. If the commission approves the board’s recommendation to fund all the improvements at one time, the financial constraints would be removed.

The commission will meet Aug. 23 at the Del Mar fairgrounds and is expected to discuss the fair board’s proposals and renovation of the grandstand.