Going to the dogs: Lack of attendance has greyhound racing fight

REVERE, Mass. -- It used to be tough for Mike Vozzella to find a parking spot and a seat in the clubhouse at Wonderland Greyhound Park, his favorite afterwork hangout for the past three decades.

In the track's heyday, thousands flocked there every day to watch and wager on greyhound races. Today, Wonderland's 10,000-seat grandstand is closed. An hour before the first race one recent evening, only a few dozen regulars were in the clubhouse overlooking the dirt track.

Vozzella has had a front-row seat to the steep decline in business at Wonderland, where the total amount of money wagered has dropped from a peak of $195 million in 1990 to less than $10 million last year.

"It's the computer age," said Vozzella, who routinely bets up to $3,000 a day on dozens of simulcast races across the country. "They can bet on the computer. They can watch races on the computer. They don't have to go down to the track anymore."

While other forms of legalized gambling are enjoying a renaissance, the greyhound racing industry is fighting for survival.

Increased competition from casinos, lotteries and Internet betting has led to heavy losses at many of the nation's 46 greyhound tracks, and some smaller tracks are on the brink of closing.

"We're a resilient industry, but we're going through a rough time now," said Eric Wilson, president of the American Greyhound Track Operators Association. "We can only hope it doesn't get worse."

Two greyhound tracks -- in Plainfield, Conn., and Wood Village, Ore. -- have closed at least temporarily in the past year. Plainfield Greyhound Park has the misfortune to be a short drive from two casinos in southeastern Connecticut: Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

"That was more head-to-head competition than we could handle," said Plainfield executive vice president Karen Keelan, whose father opened the track in 1976.

Plainfield, which lost more than $1 million last year and $600,000 in the first quarter of 2005, plans to reopen as a domed auto racetrack. Live greyhound racing could return there on a limited basis in 2006.

"The days of just having live greyhound racing are outdated," Keelan said. "Like everything else, times change and people have to change with the times."

The arrival of simulcast wagering in the early 1990s was a boon for the racing industry, which also includes horse and harness race tracks. More recently, tracks in Iowa, West Virginia and Rhode Island have turned to slot machines to stay afloat.

Ten years ago, 1,000 slot machines were installed at Dubuque Greyhound Park in Iowa. Dubuque is required by law to continue holding live greyhound races, even though they cost the casino around $3.7 million annually, said general manager Bruce Wentworth.

Wentworth said closing the greyhound track "would be an easy decision to make" if the state allowed it. The sport, with its complexity and relatively slow pace, has failed to attract a new generation of fans, he added.

"It's a tough game to learn," he said. "The new generation (of gamblers) are more hedonistic. They're looking for instant gratification."

Slot machines aren't an option for Wonderland. Massachusetts lawmakers consistently have rejected plans to allow the state's four race tracks to install slot machines.

"With slot machines, things would definitely turn around," said Ronald Wohlen, Wonderland's assistant general manager. "We're shadows of our former selves, but you do what you have to do to stay alive."

Wonderland watched with envy more than a decade ago when slot machines were added to the Lincoln Park dog track in Rhode Island.

"It's all about slot machines. That's the evolution of the business," said Wonderland president and CEO Richard Dalton.

Irene Bright, who works at Wonderland's concession stand, said she was as "busy as a one-armed paper hanger" when she starting working at the track 18 years ago. On Tuesday, there were few customers to serve.

"I'm afraid it might" close, she said. "If we don't get the slots, we're in trouble."

Another hurdle for Wonderland and other tracks is the widespread perception that the sport is cruel to the dogs, a charge hotly contested by track owners and greyhound trainers.

State Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick, said concerns about animal cruelty fuel his support for a ban on greyhound racing. In 2003, Linsky joined a majority of his colleagues in voting against allowing slots at tracks.

"I don't want to do anything to keep greyhound racing alive," he said. "Greyhound racing in Massachusetts will eventually die of natural causes."

It hasn't been a good year for Wonderland, even by recent standards. The track suspended its live racing May 1 after a bacterial infection killed 18 of its roughly 1,000 dogs. The same illness has swept through greyhound tracks across the country, killing dogs in Colorado, Iowa and Rhode Island.

Live racing returned to Wonderland on June 17 after a six-week layoff. The track is scheduled to hold live races on 250 days this year, but Wohlen said he is eying a plan to scale back to 150 days.

Dalton said the track isn't in imminent danger of closing, however.

"The shareholders have decided to stick with it for some indefinite period of time," he added.

Wohlen, who was an accountant before taking a job at Wonderland because he loved greyhound racing, is nostalgic for the days when the stands were packed and many of the dogs that raced there had followings.

"Now they're just a number on the program," he said.