This is just my thoughts but as a person who has only been in the industry 5 minutes I have no emotional attachment to any track.

My track (Wangaratta) was closed a while ago now. Took me 5 mins to get there. I worked there as an all rounder. My closest track now is 1 hour 20 mins. Next closest is 2 1/2 hours away.

I tell you what happens when you close your closest race track.

The canteen lady will not be seen again and will lock herself in her house.

The teenagers who dare to dream and own that next superstar will either turn to drugs or try and commit suicide.

The pensioners who have a dog or two as a hobby will instead go to their local and play the pokies.

Many jobs will be lost and the powers to be will not give a shit. Majority of people who work at dog tracks work there because they love it.

Majority of trainers will just give up as the increased hours on the road will take their toll. $90 to fill your car up plus trial expenses adds up to a days wage.

Random trainers just walking into the office just for a chat are no longer.

Your local greyhound track, just isn't a dog track. It's so much more and unless it is taken away from you you have no idea the pain others go through.

I could go on and on.

Closing 3 tracks and having one isn't the solution.

Just my opinion.

and NSW is different, much further apart and more people involved

Poor/old under used infrastructure, the costs involved and lack of dogs/depth/ability will see us off

Very good points although it is only part of the picture.

Even so, Wang did not have a well designed turn - dogs tended to run off. That and other evidence suggests that Australian track design and construction is amateurish. Some work, most don't, but all are protected by the personalities at each club, sometimes with help from the state authority.

Wang's closure, for example, was a matter of finance and politics, not racing.

I say this to the people leading this industry in NSW the time for talk has now passed we need clear leadership and ACTION

I recall once that a skinflint club president made the manager cut out a small weekly ad in the local paper to save money. That pretty well illustrates how greyhound racing is run in this country. In part, it is a hangover from the days when so long as you ran the flag up the pole people would come to salute it.

I have visited Albury and Wang, and heard stories about Albury from a trainer who raced there decades ago, but I would not like to comment on the fine detail. My recollection is that Albury had a very unusual shape anyway. But it went broke.

In different eras I have complained strongly to authorities about the elimination of Singleton and (proposed) Nowra for one major reason in both cases - they had strategic geographical and demographic value as part of the state package. Singleton was blindsided by the politics of NCA/GBOTA/GRA but Nowra managed to get a reprieve and is ploughing on happily, with support from the local council.

However, in those cases and at Wang/Albury they could not justify more than one weekly meeting. My view is that no greyhound track can be sustained by one meeting and nothing else. As a minimum, either two meetings or one meeting plus some other commercial activity is mandatory to achieve a viable operation.

Some tracks meet that requirement, some don't. In the main, NSW does not but Victoria more often does - although the constant shifts of racing days must drive some people mad. Even so, Horsham will never get two dates because it is out in the boondocks (by Vic standards). But it (like Warrnambool) does get business from across the border(s) and it is the centre of a large region with no other competition.

Taking all that into consideration, plus population, Albury/Wang warrants support from the industry, probably far more than some clubs which are still running - Tab or non-Tab. Even then, is the local population supportive of greyhounds and greyhound racing? Obviously not as the Wang council demonstrated.

You have to work with the cards you have on this hand, not what you had last week.

Consequently, an additional club will never be added to the existing ranks, rather the reverse is more likely. Decisions on Albury or Wang are perhaps reversible in theory but not without strong public and council support. But how could they get Tab/SKY coverage?

Because you don't train greyhounds or probably breed or own anyway, there is no way you can appreciate the effect it has on a greyhound community when a track closes down

A greyhound track is not purely for punting on.

It is used by participants to educate greyhounds and to keep them fit

Closing a greyhound track in an area where there are a reasonable number of participants displaces those people from the general greyhound population and if the distances for them to travel to at least trial/educate their greyhounds is too great then those participants drop out

That is the greatest danger of closing tracks.

Whilst GRNSW may close tracks for racing in future and streamline the product for the partners by having more meetings at less tracks, I am hopeful, that they may support the tracks that are not used for racing and subsidise them as training and education centres for participants to use

I would be a good idea not to join the idiots who know what I think and feel. Presumptuous, mate.

That aside, I agree with your other points and would add some more. For example, the more communities involved in greyhound racing, the greater the appreciation of the animal and even what trainers do. Similarly, if they know more, they will look more generously at media publicity, they may become owners or they may have the occasional bet. They will often be in the local club and see what greyhound racing involves.

In practice, this is what justifies support of non-Tab clubs.

The other angle is that resources are limited and have to be spread wisely. For that we rely on skilled management. Or we should. The problem is that we dont have any and never will have so long as governments continue to appoint committees to run the industry.

And, as I have indicated elsewhere, some of the concepts being considered at Cessnock might well be worthwhile - but not as a TAB track. Doing that would immediately weaken other tracks in the region.