Del Mar's Fall Racing Opens Friday, and Four Days Later the Fair Board Hears About Building on Its Parking Lots

"We don't have the money. It's exciting to have somebody who does." Del Mar Fairgrounds CEO Becky Bartling said this at the October meeting of the 22nd District Agricultural Association board, as the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. She was explaining why the fairgrounds has talked about developing the land around the track for two decades and built almost none of it. "We went through the master plan process in the 2000s for several years," she told the board. "The challenge was we didn't have money, so nothing got done."

November shows the fairgrounds working the way it always has. Racing runs 13 days, parking costs $15 a car, a shuttle runs from Solana Beach, and in December a holiday festival sets up in a parking lot. On Tuesday, Nov. 10, the board that owns all of that could start deciding whether a privately funded developer should study the 324-acre property for a year-round stadium district. The proposal would build that district on parts of the fairgrounds now used for surface parking.

Thirteen Race Days, Mostly on Weekends

The Bing Crosby Season opens Friday, Nov. 6, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 29. This is its 13th year. The meet started in 2014 and is named for the man who helped open the seaside track in 1937. Racing runs Friday through Sunday, plus Thanksgiving Day, and first post is usually 12:30 p.m. On a regular race day the gates open at 11 a.m.

The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's season announcement lists 15 stakes races worth $2.1 million in total, and nine of them run on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. Two Grade I turf races close the meet: the $300,000 Hollywood Derby on Saturday, Nov. 28, and the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes on Sunday, Nov. 29.

Each weekend has its own event:

The Thanksgiving card ends early so families can get home for dinner. The 8 a.m. Fun Run lets kids run the one-mile oval, and the money raised goes to the Helen Woodward Animal Center. Registration opens at 7 a.m.

What a Weekend at the Track Costs

The basic prices are modest. Fall admission is $8. Grandstand and box seats cost $9 to $16. Children 17 and under get in free, with some restrictions. General parking costs $15 a vehicle and valet costs $30. A five-pass parking book is $29, so if you plan to drive in on several weekends it costs less than two single visits. You pay as you drive in, and you can't leave and come back on the same pass.

Free & Fun Sundays has a catch. The track runs it on Nov. 8, 15, 22 and 29. Free admission, a free program and a free seat go only to Diamond Club members. Membership is free, but you sign up through the Del Mar mobile app. The terms work like this:

• Your Diamond Club card has to be scanned at a designated admission gate.
• Members get 25% off 20-ounce Michelob ULTRA drafts, Brandt Beef hot dogs and sodas, and they show the card at the concession stand.
• Each member gets one admission per race day.
• Discounts aren't added automatically and can't be applied after the fact.

The Sunday offer doesn't include free parking, so a free Sunday for a driver still costs $15.

The Shuttle From Solana Beach

Most of the meet's traffic plan depends on the Solana Beach station. Amtrak and Coaster trains stop there, and the track runs free race-day shuttles to and from the gates. Shuttles run continuously from the time the gates open and meet arriving trains. On the way back they leave 15 minutes after each race and 30 minutes after the last one. On Thanksgiving they start at 10 a.m. If you live close enough to ride, the fairgrounds has bike racks at the O'Brien Gate and the Arena Gate and asks riders to bring a lock.

So a crowd on race day comes in through surface lots and a shuttle from a station a town away. The proposal going to the board on Nov. 10 would change both.

What the Wave's Owners Are Asking For on Nov. 10

On Oct. 13, Wave controlling owner Lauren Leichtman and her son, Zachary Leichtman-Levine, presented a concept called Del Mar Dreams to the 22nd DAA board, which runs the state-owned fairgrounds. Their partner is Beverly Hills-based Eighty Eight Place Acquisitions. Their pitch was for a home stadium where the Wave controls its own calendar. At Snapdragon Stadium the team is fourth in line for dates.

Times of San Diego laid out the concept in three phases:

1. Phase 1, targeted for 2031: a stadium with 12,000 to 16,000 seats, a multi-level garage with about 1,300 spaces, and a tram connecting the site to a planned rail platform.
2. Phase 2, through 2033: about 350,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
3. Phase 3, by 2034: a 300-room hotel and a 125,000-square-foot convention center that would replace aging exhibit halls.

The stadium would sit on the southeast side of the property near the track's first turn, according to the Union-Tribune. The retail would be modeled after The Grove in Los Angeles. The plan also includes about 15 acres of public space, plazas and trails. The developers would finance it privately on parts of the fairgrounds now used for surface parking, and the state would keep the land under a ground lease. They say racing and the San Diego County Fair would keep running during construction.

The parking lots are the important part. Today the fairgrounds fills them for a few weeks of racing, the fair and the holidays. Under the concept, the same land would hold a garage, a tram and buildings that open every day of the year.

Nov. 10 itself would decide much less than that. The owners want a two-year exclusive negotiating agreement so they can study whether the site works. The board took no action on Oct. 13. An exclusive agreement would allow detailed planning, but it would not approve construction. The developers would pay for the first site studies, and the fairgrounds district would keep the results even if the project never goes ahead. That arrangement is what Bartling was describing in October. The 22nd DAA board meeting is set for 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 10.

In a statement, the club said it remains "proud to call Snapdragon Stadium home" and called the Del Mar concept "an early exploration of what's possible."

The Questions Already on the Record

Some questions came from the board itself. Board member Kathlyn Mead asked whether the district had looked for competing development proposals, and board member Frederick Schenk said he wanted to hear from other potential developers.

The city responded within two days. The Coast News reported that Mayor Tracy Martinez and Deputy Mayor John Spelich emailed residents on Oct. 15. They warned that the proposal would "have disastrous impacts on the environment, the lagoon, and on Del Mar and neighboring cities." They wrote that the new buildings would sit on the south side of the property, "adjacent to the ecologically sensitive San Dieguito Lagoon," and added, "We must get a seat at the table regarding the future of the Fairgrounds."

Other reactions focused on getting people in and out. In the Union-Tribune's Econometer panel, UCSD economist Caroline Freund called the idea "a nonstarter" and cited the lack of transit and the area's ecological sensitivity. Jamie Moraga named traffic and parking as major concerns for Del Mar streets and the I-5 corridor. The developers' presentation includes commitments to protect the lagoon, manage event traffic and keep parking out of residential neighborhoods. Environmental and traffic studies would still have to test those measures.

The fall meet answers the transit question today with a shuttle from Solana Beach, and only on race days. The concept would replace that with a tram and a planned rail platform. A two-year study is where those claims would get checked.

December Runs on the Same Lots

The holidays will run the usual way. Coastal Christmas is back at 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd. on Dec. 11 to 13, Dec. 17 to 23 and Dec. 26, from 4 to 9 p.m. It sets up in the Paddock, Plaza de Mexico and the West Parking Lot. The light trail opens around dusk, about 5:30 p.m. General admission covers the festival, the light trail, Santa photos and live entertainment. Skating, Frosty's Fun Zone, food and drinks cost extra. Tickets are sold through the event's site.

The village has its own holiday event the weekend before. Winter Taste & Sip runs Sunday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 4 p.m. downtown, with food and drink stops, live music and family activities. North Pole by the Sea runs from 1 to 5 p.m. that day, and the holiday tree lighting starts at 5 p.m. at the Jim Watkins Amphitheater at L'Auberge Del Mar.

The fairgrounds will be busy all of November and part of December with racing, Coastal Christmas and their crowds. The Nov. 10 meeting is the first step toward deciding whether those lots stay seasonal.

If you're curious how fairgrounds decisions like this one could shape Del Mar's next decade, or you just want to talk through what's changing near your street, Conchita Lopez is happy to have that conversation in English or Spanish, with no pressure. Let's Connect.