Land at Wichita Greyhound Park to be auctioned off

Sedgwick County commissioners who want to auction off the site of the Wichita Greyhound Park won by a nose Wednesday.

The track once employed more than 250 people, but has been shut down since 2007, when voters rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed slot machine gambling at the facility.

Commissioners who supported selling the property – David Unruh, Michael O’Donnell and David Dennis – said they think it would be better to get what they can now.

Unruh said that would be more prudent “than rolling the dice thinking that you might get gambling” at the site sometime in the future.

“We have things we can do with that funding,” said Dennis, citing firefighting equipment as a pressing need.

Gambling magnate Phil Ruffin, who owns the buildings on the property, has tried to buy the land in recent months, said Commissioner Richard Ranzau.

He said Ruffin offered $1.2 million and the county nearly sold him the property for about $1.3 million, but balked after deciding it would look bad to sell the property to a billionaire without competitive bidding.

The property has been appraised for more than $2 million.

Ranzau said so much had happened behind the scenes that he wasn’t comfortable supporting a sale and doesn’t know why it’s coming up now.

Ruffin pays the county about $87,000 a year in rent for the land under an agreement that runs through 2039.

Ranzau and Commissioner Jim Howell contended that selling the property would ultimately be a bad deal for the county if Ruffin can get the Legislature to authorize a revote on slots at the track.

Ruffin has tried to get that for a decade, so far unsuccessfully.

But if he does succeed at some point, the county would be giving away many millions of dollars in gambling income by selling the land, Howell said.

As long as the property is county owned, it remains unincorporated and the county government would glean a 2 percent share of gambling revenues, which would be tens of millions of dollars, Howell said.

If the land is sold to a private buyer, Park City could annex it and gain half of the 2 percent share.

Dennis said he doesn’t think it’s worthwhile to argue over the split of gambling revenue.

“Right now it’s zero percent and it’s going to stay zero percent unless the state changes the rules,” he said.

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Land at Wichita Greyhound Park to be auctioned off."