Gone to the Dogs Phoenix Greyhound Park is being demolished. BY BENJAMIN LEATHERMAN T he Valley has lost any number of major landmarks over the past few years. Iconic struc- tures like downtown Phoe- nix’s Hotel St. James, sprawling retail complexes like Metrocen- ter and Paradise Valley Mall, and famed Tempe restaurant Monti’s La Casa Vieja have all been shut down or torn down be- fore fading into local lore. You can add Phoenix Greyhound Park to the list, as the historic dog track located at Washington and 38th streets is currently in the process of being demolished. For the past couple of weeks, workers from Gilbert-based Breinholt Contracting Company have been tearing down the enormous grandstand on the 60-acre property, which has been owned by the city of Phoenix’s Aviation Department since 2007. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is located immediately north of the park. It’s a mercy killing in a sense, as the grandstand and dog track has been vacant and blighted since the park closed in 2009 after 45 years in business. And it shows every sign of abandonment: Weeds and broken concrete were everywhere (even before demolition crews began their work), and the towering building’s paint job was long since faded. Meanwhile, the parking lot has been anything but vacant, as it hosts the thriving Phoenix Park ‘n Swap, a popular flea market that’s operated every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for decades. The decrepit state of Phoenix Greyhound Park before crews began tearing down the place is a far cry from its glory days of the 1950s through the 1970s. Debuting in 1954, it was what author and journalist Jon Talton described as a “neon-lit palace where middle-class couples and compulsive gamblers mixed with the city’s elite.” Its grandstand was a stylish and gleaming glass, steel and concrete edifice with enormous panoramic windows looking out onto the oval track where speedy greyhounds chased after a mechan- ical rabbit. Out on Washington Street, the park’s now-iconic (and long-demolished) green neon sign beckoned gamblers. Horse and dog racing was a huge draw in that era, as it was the few options for gambling in the Valley. As many as five tracks operated in Arizona at one time, including Turf Paradise in north Phoenix. “Betting was legal,” Talton wrote in a Benjamin Leatherman The current state of the Phoenix Greyhound Park’s grandstand, which is being demolished. 2016 retrospective on Phoenix Greyhound Park. “And a pre-video-device audience thrilled to dogs racing chasing a mechan- ical ‘lure’ around the track. The park promised glamor, excitement, and was highly advertised.” According to the Arizona Republic, Phoenix Greyhound Park would see more than 4,000 people turn out and bet upward of $200,000 during a single night in the early 1970s. Like numerous other dog and horse tracks, Phoenix Greyhound Park also had alleged ties with organized crime during its lifespan and reportedly was tied to the 1976 murder of renowned Arizona Republic journalist Don Bolles. Talton’s retrospective delves into the murky links between dog and horse racing in Arizona, the Mafia, and the now-defunct Buffalo, New York-based sports conglom- erate Emprise, which had a stake in Phoenix Greyhound Park and was being investigated by Bolles at the time of his death. “Emprise was found to be associated with organized crime figures and convicted in Los Angeles of racketeering in 1972. … In Phoenix, Emprise had >> p 24 22 MARCH 3RD– MARCH 9TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
