Toronto Woodbine Racetrack Ancillary Facilities Building | 14.5m | 2s | Woodbine Ent | DIALOG

Ontario Place would be a tough fit for a large gambling/entertainment complex. It was built as a place for everyone, especially families. Since no one under 19 can enter a casino, it would make Ontario Place less family friendly. They would also probably want a high degree of motor vehicle access, which could mean large parking garages and ramps by the water's edge (neither of which are desirable), as well as more traffic on Lake Shore.
 
I was in Houston recently and visited a pretty cool golfing facility called TopGolf topgolf.com
Spoke to a couple people while there and they mentioned that they're opening a Toronto location "near the Airport"... wondering if this location might be the spot?
 
junctionist said:
Ontario Place would be a tough fit for a large gambling/entertainment complex. It was built as a place for everyone, especially families. Since no one under 19 can enter a casino, it would make Ontario Place less family friendly. They would also probably want a high degree of motor vehicle access, which could mean large parking garages and ramps by the water's edge (neither of which are desirable), as well as more traffic on Lake Shore.
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Ontario Place has been closed for a while, and we still have no real idea of what the revitalized plans are going to be like (outside of some preliminary "visions"). I would not be surprised if the Ontario Liberals announce this as a second site as it's a potentially more lucrative location (Woodbine is close to the airport, though, but far from other tourist areas).

Of course, it has to get through city council, which approved a casino specifically for Woodbine- and had already turned one down for the CNE before.
 
Perhaps the article is being a bit liberal by suggesting it's within city limits? Didn't Ajax approve a casino? Maybe this is the 2nd location?
 
Those who talked about Ontario Place on this forum, had short memories: forgetting about the plans for Ontario Place, the city's decision to expand gambling at Woodbine and the city's decision not to have a casino downtown. Of course, facts never stop many from spreading and starting rumours.
 
From the article:

There are currently six casino operators in the running for the casino bid after MGM and The Sands withdrew from the process earlier. The six being considered are Caesars Entertainment, Great Canadian Gaming, Mohegan Sun, Fallsview, Penn National and Genting.
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Interesting- I was wrong about MGM and The Sands.

On the second site:
The New York Post article mentions that at least 2 development sites in the city are under consideration, but after speaking to individuals well connected to the situation I was told that this isn't exactly true. Woodbine would be one of the venues and the other would be a smaller resort casino in Durham Region, a suburb just east of Toronto.
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alklay said:
Those who talked about Ontario Place on this forum, had short memories: forgetting about the plans for Ontario Place, the city's decision to expand gambling at Woodbine and the city's decision not to have a casino downtown. Of course, facts never stop many from spreading and starting rumours.
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It's not about starting rumours, it's about Ontario Place being owned by the Ontario government which can do what they want without much public feedback

After 3 years of sitting there idle with no plans at all,
....who is to say that they don't have an eye on a mixed use casino complex?...i doubt they have to ask Toronto if it's OK
 
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The Ontario government is not impervious to the public will as expressed by Toronto Council, and Council said yes to Woodbine, and no to anywhere else in town. They're likely not looking for extra controversies these days, so having Council on board at Woodbine means full steam ahead up there. It will be interesting to see what comes from the bid process currently underway — will it look anything like what Cordish was proposing for the site? How much of the site will be taken up by it? Will we hear of an extension to the Finch West LRT in conjunction with the built? Etc.

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Woodbine Master Plan Unveiled
"The vision for the plan is for Woodbine to continue to be the ultimate destination for horse racing and gaming, while integrating new expanded entertainment and cultural offerings, food and dining, hotel, shopping, office space, post-secondary education, recreation, health, wellness, and urban residential living.
The ‘city within a city’ concept is strategically designed to unlock the value of the undeveloped land, generating long-term revenues that will sustainably support WEG’s horse racing operations, and thousands of farming jobs in rural communities across Ontario.

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/4-25-17/woodbine-master-plan-unveiled.html

WoodbineSquare(Large).jpg
 
biospherian said:
Woodbine Master Plan Unveiled
"The vision for the plan is for Woodbine to continue to be the ultimate destination for horse racing and gaming, while integrating new expanded entertainment and cultural offerings, food and dining, hotel, shopping, office space, post-secondary education, recreation, health, wellness, and urban residential living.
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Woodbine School of Markov Chain Analysis? On a more serious note, it would be interesting to see how this master plan differed from the original Woodbine Live proposal.

AoD
 
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