BROCKTON — For more than a century, the Brockton Fairgrounds drew crowds from across New England to this former shoe-making capital to revel in thoroughbred racing, demolition derbies, and an annual carnival that lit up the night sky.
But as Brockton hit hard times, so, too, did its annual fair, until eventually the pandemic shut it down for good.
After several failed attempts at a revival, the family who has controlled the fairgrounds since the 1950s, the Carneys, put the 66 acres up for sale. They didn’t have to look far to find a buyer: In July, Mayor Robert Sullivan signed a tentative agreement for the city to acquire the parcels via a “friendly taking” of eminent domain for $55 million.
The deal, which still needs City Council approval, has touched off a controversy in the cash-strapped city of 105,000. Skeptics question why Brockton would take on debt — equivalent to 11 percent of its annual budget — while facing school budget shortfalls, crumbling roads, and a downtown gripped by homelessness and vacancies.
At a recent NAACP forum, several candidates for City Hall called it an example of irresponsible spending and a backroom deal that smacks of a favor to the powerful Carney family.
“You first need to save what you got before you try to buy something else,” Cynthia McCall-Hodges, a restaurant owner running for City Council, said to applause.
“We’re trying to put our money in the pockets of people who are rich already,” said John Williams, a youth mentor who unsuccessfully ran for mayor.
And another council candidate, who supports the purchase, said the city should first get at least three appraisals to determine the property’s true market value. Brockton provided the Globe just one of the two appraisals it commissioned, which valued the fairgrounds at $49.8 million.
City officials deny any improprieties in the deal, and say it offers a rare opportunity to control the future of a central parcel of land.
Ideas have ranged from the ordinary — a park, outdoor mall, senior housing — to the type of draw that echoes the old fairgrounds — a biodome or an “international village” to capitalize on Brockton’s rich diversity.
“The city is definitely going to look different in three years’ time,” Sullivan said, citing new restaurants and apartments and the recently announced independent league baseball team at Campanelli Stadium, across the street from the fairgrounds.
Whatever the city decides, the offer came at a critical time for the Carney family’s 95-year-old patriarch, George Carney Jr., as his company — Massasoit Greyhound Association — was shoring up its bid for a license to operate a sports betting parlor at another of his properties long past its glory days, the Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Track, the Globe has found.
Once a prominent fixture on the state’s gambling scene, Carney, who was born in Brockton, has been on a losing streak since Massachusetts voters banned wagering on live dog races in 2008. The state’s Gaming Commission has since rejected Carney’s bids for a slots parlor at the dog track and a casino resort at the fairgrounds, despite local support.
Carney and his late brother started running the fairgrounds and dog track in the 1950s and ‘60s, and went on to build an empire that included a trucking company, office buildings, and undeveloped land.
For decades, the Raynham dog track was the big money-maker — reportedly taking in a record $240 million in bets in 1989. But profits dwindled as dog races fell out of favor and casinos and other forms of gambling brought more competition.
Gamblers can still come to the clubhouse six days a week to bet on televised horse races. But beyond the sweeping windows is an overgrown dog track, a busted scoreboard, and 18-wheelers, back-hoes, and recycling bins from the trucking and rubbish companies that operate on the 182-acre site.
In August, after a state ban on wagers on simulcast dog races went into effect, Raynham took less than $1 million in bets, according to the Gaming Commission.
The Legislature left the family some hope, however. A provision in last year’s deal to legalize sports gambling allowed betting parlors that lost simulcast dog racing to receive licenses for brick-and-mortar sports betting operations, provided the commission found them suitable.
Massasoit broke ground on a lavish, 58,900-square-foot sports betting lounge and event space before even submitting its application. George Carney’s son, Chris Carney, 55, boasted to a reporter that it would “rival Vegas.”
The Carneys put the fairgrounds — their last major holding in Brockton — up for sale to help finance the project, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.
Link Logistics, which specializes in “last mile” supply chain real estate, made an offer last year “in excess of $100 million,” contingent upon the city rezoning the land to allow for an industrial park, according to a city appraisal obtained by the Globe.
But Brockton officials were cool to the plan. City Councilor at Large Winthrop Farwell Jr. said he told Chris Carney he couldn’t approve such an operation and asked if the family would consider selling to the city instead.
The mayor subsequently signed a memorandum of understanding — it was undated, but officials said it was done in July — for the city to take over the land, contingent upon completing all legal requirements, which include an appraisal and approval by nine of 11 city councilors.
Sullivan and Farwell told the Globe they were unaware of any connection between the Carneys putting the fairgrounds on the market and their ambitions for a sportsbook in Raynham.
The city provided the Globe only one of two appraisals it commissioned. That appraisal, dated July 31, valued the fairgrounds at $49.8 million.
Jamal Brathwaite, a former compliance auditor running for City Council, believes Brockton should acquire the fairgrounds but said the city should have done three appraisals.
“In absence of seeing two more appraisals, it’s hard to say [$49.8 million] is an accurate fair market price,” Brathwaite said.
Brathwaite added that he’s concerned that the memorandum is undated and may have been signed before the appraisal, which could indicate the appraisal was influenced by the agreed-upon price versus the other way around.
Councilor Jeffrey Thompson said the city should leave the sale to the private market.
“With no experience in this field, in this economic landscape of high interest rates, high inflation, shaky real estate market, especially the commercial real estate market — should we engage in this endeavor?” Thompson said. “It’s too risky and I just don’t think I can support it.”
As the debate continued in Brockton on whether to finalize the deal, the Gaming Commission was grilling the Carneys and Massasoit over the company’s financial suitability and Chris Carney’s ties to the the firm, after numerous environmental issues with his waste management companies came to light. Amid the scrutiny, Caesars Sportsbook backed out of its agreement to operate the proposed sportsbook in Raynham.
Commissioners discussed the fairgrounds deal during their August public meetings, but almost entirely during closed sessions.
To address the commissioners’ concerns, George Carney extricated his son from Massasoit. But the commission ultimately decided to table Massasoit’s application, since the company no longer had an operating partner — throwing the future of its luxurious new Raynham facility into jeopardy.
Following that devastating blow, Brockton officials abruptly postponed debate over whether the fairgrounds deal should be finalized, after a $14.4 million deficit was discovered in last fiscal year’s school budget.
A public meeting to discuss the fairgrounds, proposed for Sept. 21, was never scheduled. Farwell Jr. announced that he doesn’t support moving forward until the school budget fiasco is resolved.
As for the Carneys, Farwell Jr. said he hopes they’ll wait it out.
“I genuinely think they want to see the city consummate a purchase so that we can determine our own destiny,” he said.
Memorandum of understanding
Appraisal: Brockton Fair Grounds
Sarah Ryley can be reached at sarah.ryley@globe.com. Follow her @MissRyley.