2.13.23 - Bally’s Casino Proposal May Hinge on Removal of One Word: Trump
' For years, anyone going across the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in New York has had to cast their eyes on former President Donald J. Trump’s surname, emblazoned in paving stones at the entrance to the public golf course he controls in the Bronx.
For most New Yorkers, it is a peculiar, particular affront — made worse by the high greens fees charged at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point: $195 during the weekends, out of reach for many residents in one of the country’s poorest counties.
But in the heated bid for one of three new casino licenses in New York, Bally’s Corporation is promising to strip the former president’s name from the golf course.
The excising of the Trump name comes with a catch: Bally’s will only do so if it wins the right to build a casino where the Trump clubhouse now stands, according to two Bally’s officials, speaking anonymously so as not to damage ongoing negotiations with the former president’s company.
One of those officials said that the company recognizes that Mr. Trump is not particularly well-liked in his hometown, and any company’s association with his name is likely to kill an otherwise viable casino bid.
Bally’s said it reached a deal with the Trump Organization in December that enables it to take control of 17 acres of the 192-acre golf course, should it so desire. And if it exercises the option, it will be entitled to erase Trump’s name from the property, according to the officials.
A spokesman for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, former Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to terminate the Trump Organization’s lease for the public golf course, arguing that the city had the right to do so because the former president had engaged in criminal activity, and the golf course was on city land. City lawyers argued that the group did not fulfill its contractual obligation to maintain “a first class tournament quality daily fee golf course.”
That argument did not hold up in court. The former president retained control of the course, and his name remained. Mr. Trump’s name has already been removed from some private properties in New York, including the Trump SoHo Hotel, now the Dominick.
Now, that name — and New York City’s desire to get rid of it — is central to the Bally’s pitch for a casino license.
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