Has anyone heard about the future of HITS Balmoral? I know some shows where cancelled this year and they are not doing the FEI classes.
Living less than 10 minutes away from the place - they are outrageously expensive in comparison to other venues, and poorly run to boot.
Not surprising this endeavour is not working out too well for them. You can spend a week at Lamplight for half the cost.
People don’t want to show there. Who wants to drive 3 hours to middle of nowhere Illinois and show at an expensive facility. People are tired of supporting over priced productions.
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I noted this when they first purchased the place.
There are no nice hotels within a short drive. No nice restaurants nearby. I guess Crete is pretty close, but there isn’t a whole lot to do there.
HITS has alienated all the local feed and supply places by basically telling them to stuff it.
The vendor area is a ghost town.
The place isn’t clean, the ground are so expansive they can’t keep up with the mowing etc etc.
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I agree with you. I am from the area too and could not figure out why they would have purchased the place. When I drive in to the facility, it drives me crazy that they cannot even clean up the entrance. The weeds are sky high. Terrible first impression! From reading about the other Hits venues, I gathered they are not the best when it comes cleanliness and upkeep.
They should have purchased the old Maywood Park racetrack instead. I believe both facilities were for sale around the same time. Maywood is a 20-30 minute drive from downtown Chicago, depending on traffic. Perhaps Balmoral was cheaper to purchase, but the Maywood location would have been much more convenient and appealing for exhibitors.
They purchased the place because it was darn cheap at $3M. (The owners declared bankruptcy after a court ruling that said racetracks had to pay restitution to casinos after a failed deal that involved disgraced Governor Blagojevich.) You don’t need luxury hotels to horse show, but you do have to drive 25 minutes to find something decent (i.e., basically in Indiana). (I had heard that some people who were planning on showing often were buying houses in the neighborhood for a song, but I don’t know if that was actually true.) How well the shows were run seems to have more to do with HITS stepping on toes and saying my-way-or-the-highway. (Pat Boyle of Showplace knows how to run a show.) We showed there the first year because, well, it was the shiny new thing and a couple of other clients were pushing it. They have put money into stabling, but the stalls were soooo far from the arenas (golf carts get pricy), there was zero shade for the horses or anyone, frankly. The footing was a disaster when they first opened. They have continued to upgrade, but it does not have the prestige of GLEF or Kentucky for the summer season.
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It was cheap at 3m, because to do anything with it it needed a 100% reno, or a bulldozer. They chose the reno route, and I think it’s biting them in the behind price-wise. They would have been better off just tearing everything down.
The hotel thing would be easy peasy to fix. Houses in IL are dirt cheap because you’re going to make up for it in taxes, rest assured (just look at Zillow, and set the IN/IL border right down the middle… probably 3-4x more houses for sale in IL, and that’s why).
Now they’re doing some car storage on the south (?) side of the facility, which looks ultra trashy. I’m over there a lot because one of my primo alfalfa dealers is right around the corner, and the local feed joint (Most Feeds) is up the road. The owners are not well liked in the area.
Wasn’t Pat Boyle brought in to help with the shows at Balmoral? Or am I thinking of a different person?
I tried to respond a few minutes ago, but the internet ate my response when I tried to edit it. Anyway, the Maywood racetrack went up for auction at the same time as Balmoral. Maywood is much closer to downtown Chicago (20-30 minute drive) and would therefore be more convenient and appealing to exhibitors. Does anyone know why they didn’t purchase that property instead? I just read that it remained unsold until earlier this year, when it was annexed by the village of Melrose Park.
The “bones” of Balmoral are just fine. It doesn’t/didn’t need to be bulldozed. However, it was built as a thoroughbred racetrack (later standardbred racing), not a hunter/jumper venue. The grandstand is actually in great shape, and because it was purchased out of bankruptcy all of the history is still there. That part is kind of nice. The barns right by the grandstand were used for FEI horses, and allowed the intense security that surrounds those big names to operate rather easily. Over time, the arenas have been re-thought and reconfigured. The distances can still be tremendous, though. (Just try to get a reluctant horse to come up the hill from the south barns without a buddy.) You do need a golf cart.
The storing cars has been there from the beginning–the parking lot was used to store Volkswagens from around the country that did not meet the emissions requirements (recall the VW scandal about 3 years ago). However, those cars never affected the parking situation for anyone. If the cars are still there it doesn’t affect the shows at all, and is probably an easy source of income for HITS. Nobody cares. The barns for the horses were sturdy and had total renovations…so nice to have an actual bathroom (four in each barn) instead of the ubiquitous port-a-potty. The first season the barns on the north side of the venue were rehabbed (total roofs, bathrooms, stalls), and they were working on the barns on the south side closer to the arenas.
Hotels aren’t really easy peasy. Other than the seasonal activity at Balmoral, the only big thing in Crete is the long-lamented CSX Intermodal terminal, which area residents were against. I don’t know if they actually began any construction on that. Some south suburbs are in terrible shape economically. The median household income in Ford Heights (about 10 miles north…one of the closest suburbs to Balmoral) is about $17,500. No major hotel company has a need to build anything near Balmoral. Staying in Indiana was really the only option, although some stayed at a Holiday Inn in Matteson. Any hotel options are basically 25 minutes away.
Maywood Park really wasn’t an option for a Hunter/Jumper venue. It was hemmed in by its urban neighborhood. There was no turnout. Simply a standardbred racetrack, grandstand, barns, and a lot of concrete. Apparently trotters didn’t need turnout. Balmoral has plenty of space; it’s in the middle of nowhere.
Pat Boyle/Showplace Productions does run the shows. HITS was not easy to work with initially. There have been some adjustments along the way in terms of prize money. HITS sent you a check for prize money so many weeks later that you forgot what it was for and promptly misplaced it. Showplace took prize money off your bill at the end of the show. That’s what they do at Balmoral now.
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Testing
Actually the buildings at Balmoral were in really good condition. HITS did a lot of renovations on the horse barns right away. The main barn closest to the grandstand has been used very effectively for the security required for FEI horses.
The cars parked in the south parking area don’t interfere at all with the horses or showing. They were there before Balmoral was sold…recall all of the Volkswagens that did not meet emissions in the big scandal three years ago. They may not all be VWs now, but nobody cares about them and they probably generate some easy income for HITS.
The hotel situation isn’t an easy fix. The south suburbs near Balmoral are not doing very well economically at all. (Example: Ford Heights has a median family income of $17k.) There is nothing in the area that would entice a hotel chain to build for a seasonal venue like Balmoral. Hotels are about 25 minutes away.
Maywood would not have been a good venue at all. It was hemmed in in a more urban area. No room for turnout. Just a racetrack, grandstand, barns and lots of concrete.
Pat Boyle/Showplace Productions runs the shows. There were a lot of bumps in the beginning. An example was with prize money…HITS would send you a check weeks/months later. Showplace would apply the prize winnings to your bill. They started following the showplace policy in the second year.
Like I said, I live right there. If the buildings were in good condition, they wouldn’t be gutting them with temp supports up to prevent them from falling while they do. The main barn by the grandstand is a different story - those were always big money horses even when it was still a racetrack.
The cars look trashy, income or not.
It turned into another “pay to play” location immediately. Like I said, I could spend a week at Lamplight for less than half the cost.
The barns did need a lot of work, but the larger buildings were well built and endured any neglect rather well. I don’t know that HITS gets income from the stored cars, but a few acres of a dealer storage area certainly is quieter than a CSX intermodal terminal. And pay to play…well, that is the A circuit, isn’t it? So nice that Lamplight is an option for you! The NIHJA circuit is very reasonably priced.
Bottom line the incentives aren’t there for riders to show. Sky high prices, they did up the prize money but also upped the entry/nom fee (Wash), zero vendors (Barely even a food vendor anymore), constant waiting at the ring, very low entries(Hunter classes don’t fill, Jumpers typically between 4-10 entries in a class) and hotel situation isn’t good.
They need to give free stalls to entrants or something along those lines to get people in because the way its going I don’t see it being around.
They sure put a lot of money into the place to walk away from it.
Sure but purchase price and renos are “Sunk Costs”. They are loosing money on paying for upkeep/maintainence, staff, judges, etc. My understanding is the only reason they are breaking even is the Volkswagens they store on the property as a additional income source. There is a Podcast somewhere out there where Tom talks about how he lost his butt on the FEI classes in Chicago.
#WeLoveLedges
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I would like the Balmoral shows to succeed. I think they moved too fast in the beginning to get the show opened. They should have kept it on a smaller scale to get a feel of the place and then expand with more rings in the future. They built the hunter rings so far from the main hunter ring. They are so inconvenient for everyone to get to. They brought the secondary hunter ring closer to the main hunter ring this year.
I agree they need to offer free stalls or do something else for an incentive to come.
