I was a bit surprised to read this news on several news outlets reporting that Beirut Hippodrome is facing financial difficulties and is in danger of closing down due to lack of funding by the municipality of Beirut.
According to the report, the mayor of Beirut Bilal Hamad is reluctant to invest additional money in the racecourse because betting that is prohibited in Islam takes place there, which sounds quite absurd to me. Regardless if a religion prohibits a certain practice or not, if it is legal by the law then no one should be allowed to keep people from practicing it, otherwise it’s definitely a case of abuse of power.
Better yet, Hamad said he will authorize additional funds to Beirut Hippodrome only if it was turned into what he calls “Beirut Central Park” consisting of a golf course and a riding school. So he basically wants to shut down the racecourse and turn it into a second park just like Horsh Beirut where no one is allowed most time of the week.
If things continued to go downhill for the Hippodrome, then it won’t be weird to read about some development company taking over it someday and starting some mega structure there, just like the resort that was planned in Ramlet El Bayda a couple of years ago.
At a time when we still can’t figure a permanent solution for our garbage, I know this is isn’t a priority but governmental institutions should really consider maintaining places like Beirut Hippodrome before they deteriorate further. I recently came across the below photo of the Sports City Stadium on Facebook and it looked absolutely awful, notice the missing seats in the stands area. We deserve a bit better than that for our tax money!
