With former President Trump’s name equaling almost a damnation in New York, Bally’s is focusing its hopes to establish a casino in the Bronx following a promise to sever Trump’s name from a golf course there.
For years, all visitors and residents of the neighborhood who went across the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge were forced to cast their eyes on the surname of former President Donald Trump placed on paving stones at the entrance to the Bronx-based public golf course. However, Bally’s Corporation has promised to wipe out the former President’s name from the golf course as part of its efforts to get one of the three new casino licenses in New York.
Of course, there is a small catch. As revealed by two officials of the company who asked not to be named because that could hurt the ongoing negotiations with the company of the former President, Bally’s Corporation is set to sever Trump’s name from the aforementioned venue only in case it wins the right to establish a casino at the location of the Trump clubhouse.
One of the aforementioned officials, who preferred to remain anonymous, explained that the company has taken into account the fact that Mr. Trump is not exactly popular in his hometown, and any association of the company with him is likely to have a negative effect on an otherwise viable casino development application.
As revealed by Bally’s, the corporation reached a deal with the Trump Organization in December 2023, under which it would be able to take control of 17 acres of the 192-acre golf course. If it gets the nod and is given the necessary approval to establish a casino on the site in question, it will have to erase Trump’s name from the property in order to cut the association with the former US President.
New York Mayor Already Tried to Terminate Trump Organization’s Golf Course Lease Agreement
After the January 6th, 2022 attack on the Capitol, former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio made an effort to terminate the public golf course’s lease of the Trump Organization, arguing that the city had the right to do so due to the fact that the former President had been involved in criminal activity, and the golf course was situated on city land. City attorneys argued that the group did not meet its obligation to maintain a golf course of the highest quality.
That argument, however, did not hold up in court and the former President kept control of the golf course, with his name remaining on the site. Mr. Trump’s name has already been wiped off certain private properties across New York, including the Dominick, once known as the Trump SoHo Hotel.
Now, it seems that the association with the former President’s name is a matter of paramount priority when it comes to Bally’s Corporation’s effort for a casino license.
The company is part of a tough competition involving no less than 10 bidders for one of the three newly-available casino licenses in New York. Although the bidders’ projects vary in size in ambition, the companies are pushing to establish a presence in the city, which, in its turn is counting on fresh casino revenue to help bolster the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s finances and has still not recovered from the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
