Impact on Mansfield From Planridge Racecourse Expansion Likely to be Small

After meeting with representatives from Plainridge Racecourse of Plainville, Town Manager William Ross told the Mansfield Board of Selectmen Wednesday night that he does not expect the racecourse’s planned expansion into slot machines to have a major impact on Mansfield.

Unlike the previously proposed casino resort in Foxborough, Plainridge is competing for the lone slots license in the state that would limit the racecourse to slot machines and electronic games only. There would not be any table games if Plainridge were to win the license. It is expected there will be 1,250 slot machines if the racetrack were to get the slot license.

Mansfield is unlikely to see a major increase in traffic with 90-95% of vehicles expected to come from Route 495 with maybe a small amount coming from Route 95.  Daily traffic to the racecourse is projected to be 6,534 trips a day. The projection is lower than the number of daily trips made to the Plainville Target and Lowes.

Ross also said he would like to see Mansfield attempt to obtain mitigation money due to the boarder the town shares with Plainville but the small size of the boarder shared by the two towns makes the chance of a large sum of mitigation funds unlikely. The impact of the addition likely to have a larger effect on Wrentham and North Attleboro which share boarders with Plainville near the racecourse on Route 1.

While Plainride Racecourse is already preparing for an expansion into slot machines, the process is still far from over. The racing venue must go through an extensive background investigation by the state, submit a detailed operation plan, and Plainville residents must vote on a host agreement. Finally, the State Gaming Commission must award Plainridge the actual license for slot machines.

At the earliest, Plainridge is hoping to have slots by Spring 2014.

To see the proposal given to town officials, click here.