Boxing and MMA Possible at Meadowlands and Tioga Downs: Jeffrey Gural Casino Factor

Boxing and MMA Possible at Meadowlands and Tioga Downs: Jeffrey Gural Casino Factor

By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent

Secaucus, NJ (September 13, 2015)– New York State has three approved casino projects moving forward: in Sullivan County, in the Town of Thompson; in the Finger Lakes, in the town of Tyre; and in the Albany suburb of Schenectady. Project number four is still a work in progress, more complicated, but in the end live boxing and Mixed Martial Arts figure in the picture at Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey, and Tioga Downs Racino in Western New York.

This is because the lone bidder and driving force behind the potential fourth casino project in New York State is more complicated. Enter one Jeffrey Gural, owner of the Tioga Down Racino and harness racing track in Nichols, New York, West of Binghamton, near the Pennsylvania border in the more obscure Southwestern portion of New York State. Gural has upped the stakes of his 195 million dollar Tioga Downs casino project with New York State gambling officials, from an initial commitment of 50 million of his own cash to a higher stake of 82 million dollars. The Las Vegas style casino Gural intends to build is far from ordinary. This is because Gural’s Tioga Downs Racino is a level II casino work in progress, a sister project with a spectacular link to a far deeper plan of casino action. Gural’s initial reject in New York had to do with the amount of debt he proposed to assume. Gural is now proposing to use his own hard green cash to gain casino approval.

Gural is best known as the chairman of Newmark Grubb Knight and Frank, a commercial real estate firm.  Gural is also in partnership with Hard Rock International for a proposed casino in New Jersey at the Meadowlands. The New Jersey Legislature in session during 2015-2016 must pass a constitutional amendment, and then voters will have to approve a referendum in New Jersey, for the Meadowlands Hotel and Casino project to take off. In terms of land available, Meadowlands is a known worldwide sports location. Put the two sites together, and Gural becomes a powerful force, and a potential sponsor of major sporting events. Here’s why.

New York State and Governor Andrew Cuomo erred in not allowing the Genting group to have a year round level III casino in Queens, New York (where it now operates a machines only level II casino) and also not allowing the Genting group to develop a year round hotel, racetrack, and convention center on the Aqueduct Raceway site near JFK Airport, the perfect location. Hotels with convention facilities in the New York City objected. The Javits Center in Manhattan is of limited space, and better convention facilities are needed New York City. Aqueduct Raceway is currently on its last legs, even with the level II casino.

This critical mistake will allow the Jeffrey Gural and Hard Rock International partnership to take advantage and build whatever facilities it wants to if it can get their casino projects pushed through in New Jersey and New York.  Meadowlands will also steal the majority of gambling money the Genting group is now making in New York City at Resorts Casino Aqueduct, because if the Meadowlands casino project is developed into one of the best facilities in the world for all television sports, gambling, and convention facilities, eventually all other casinos in the Northeastern United States will be unable to compete.

The Gaming Facility Location Board of New York State will make a decision on the second version of the Tioga Downs Casino proposal by the end of this year. If Jeffrey Gural gains approval, The Meadowlands project approval is sure to follow. If not, as Gural has no other competing bidders, Gural will keep upping the financial stakes in New York State till he wins. Gural’s direction and vision is absolutely brilliant, in that the locations he is pursuing for casino gambling are ideal when combined. This is because there is no way to out promote The Meadowlands for virtually anything and everything versus any other locations which can be showcased. Tioga Downs is just a back door casino project which will lead Gural in through the front door of the New Jersey Legislature and mega success.