“Today’s announcement of a memorandum of understanding to explore a stadium and an entertainment district on the site of the Hastings Racecourse is an underhanded betrayal of British Columbia’s horse racing community by this NDP government.”

VICTORIA, BC: “Today the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC announced a memorandum of understanding to explore the construction of a new stadium and entertainment district on the site of the Hastings Park Racecourse. This follows an announcement from the NDP government that they are cutting off funding to Hastings Park.

We love the Vancouver Whitecaps and are so proud of what they accomplished in Miami. We wish them huge success as they continue to represent our province with pride and excellence, but the NDP’s decision to pull the rug out from under the horse racing industry at the same time is deeply disappointing.

This is an underhanded move by the NDP and a betrayal of thousands of people who have built the horse racing industry here in British Columbia. Even if the City and the Whitecaps come to some sort of agreement, it will be years before they break ground on a stadium. Why not give the horse racing industry another season or two, at the very least, at Hastings Park?

The NDP is spending hundreds of millions of dollars making BC Place ready for a few games of World Cup Soccer, but they can’t make a deal to make BC Place good enough for the Whitecaps. Are they really going to build another stadium in Vancouver? This makes no sense at all.”

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Media Contact:
Francesca Guetchev, Communications Officer
Francesca.Guetchev@leg.bc.ca