Hollypark Investors Frustrated : Horse racing: Optimistic financial forecast by track doesn’t forestall calls for a change in direction of management.

Hollywood Park’s investors were told Friday that a dividend, which hasn’t been paid for two years, is a possibility next year. Several shareholders responded by telling the board of directors that the track needs to change direction to become profitable again.

The annual shareholders’ meeting turned into a spirited two-hour session attended by about 200. Marje Everett, Hollywood Park’s board chairman, and Warren Williamson, chairman of the track’s realty investment trust, said that the sale of Los Alamitos, the reduction of the track’s debt and the future of off-track betting would result in a better financial picture for the company, which lost nearly $10 million in 1988.

“I think we’ve turned the corner,” Williamson said. “By next year, we should be looking at the possibility of restoring the dividend.”

Hollywood Park recently sold Los Alamitos, its sister track in Orange County, to a harness-racing group for $69.5 million. The money was used to reduce Hollywood Park’s debt, but the track still owes about $45 million, $29 million of it to a bank at an interest rate of 12 1/2%.

Williamson said that Hollywood Park hopes to commercially develop 50 to 70 acres of the 340 acres it owns in Inglewood.

“More and more, race tracks are seeking to do what Santa Anita did--using excess property for things other than racing,” Everett said.

In 1974, Santa Anita converted property next to the track into a shopping mall.

One Hollywood Park shareholder, Ted Goldberg, criticized the way the track has been managed.

“The shareholders have been misled and misinformed and the track has been mismanaged,” Goldberg said.

“The company lost $10 million, which to me isn’t very encouraging. We sank $100 million into Los Alamitos before it was sold. It’s like saying that Abraham Lincoln enjoyed the play before John Wilkes Booth got there.”

One shareholder said the track has become “Schlockywood Park” and another said that she had received three times what she expected in damages from a fall at the track because Hollywood Park was reluctant to settle the suit.

“The way I was treated by the track’s attorneys was typical,” she said. “This is an example of what goes on here.”

Still another shareholder, George Hardie, said that he is the manager of a poker club and also considers himself to be among Hollywood Park’s biggest bettors.

“This board doesn’t understand the philosophy of gambling,” Hardie said.

“The track ought to be sending limousines for bettors like me. I’ve heard the lottery used as an excuse for business being off at the track, but the lottery isn’t hurting the card business. Business is down at the track because they don’t schedule attractive betting programs. And the traffic at the end of a day is chaos, and the employees have an attitude that is complacent and cavalier.”

Tom Gamel, who was elected to the board Friday, was asked by a shareholder what changes he would like to see made. Gamel repeatedly has called for the ouster of Everett.

“I have been assured by Marvin Davis (another board member) that the harmonious approach is the best way to go,” Gamel said.

“It will be more conducive to progress. I’ve also been told that some of my thoughts about the company will be considered. I want to protect the significant stake I’ve got in the company, and to also protect the other shareholders.”

Gamel and Jeffrey Rhodes, who negotiated the sale of Los Alamitos for Hollywood Park, were also elected to the track’s realty board.