The future of the Birmingham Race Course could take many paths, but regardless, its new owners have big plans for the former horse and dog track.

Owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Atmore-based Wind Creek announced last November it had purchased the track and its holdings from its longtime owners, the McGregor family, with the sale expected to be finalized early this year.

The deal also involved acquiring 50 acres around the track complex.

Wind Creek said in a release at the time of the sale that it plans to transform the Race Course “into a premier entertainment destination in the Southeast and will continue to offer parimutuel and historical horse racing games currently in operation.”

But what will that look like? According to Arthur Mothershed, Poarch Creek Tribal Council member and executive vice president of business, there’s plenty to work with that’s already on site.

“As it sits today, there is opportunity there,” he said. “That market has always been important to us. The level of investment would depend on what we’re allowed to do.”

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians are descendants of a segment of the original Creek Nation, which at one time covered nearly all of Alabama, as well as Georgia. They have lived together for nearly 200 years in and around their reservation in Poarch in southwestern Alabama.

The tribe maintains a portfolio of several companies that do business with the federal government in technology, aviation, and other interests. In all, the tribe employs more than 7,400 people in the state through its companies, and 21,000 nationally.

Among the tribe’s business interests is the OWA Parks & Resort in Foley and Wind Creek Casino in Atmore, as well as their operations in Wetumpka and Montgomery. But their enterprises extend well beyond Alabama, with locations elsewhere in the United States and the Caribbean.

Mothershed said no new legislation would be needed for the Poarch Creeks to continue operations at the Race Course; just a license transfer.

But the property itself will probably need updates at the least. Opened in 1987 as the Birmingham Turf Club, the $85 million facility was originally built to host thoroughbred racing. In the 1990s, it became a dog track after its acquisition by Milton McGregor. Horse racing ended in 1995, while dog racing stopped in 2020. The facility now offers simulcast races, parimutuel and historical horse racing games.

The building itself, though, has spaces no longer in use and needs updating, Mothershed said. If legislators keep existing laws in place, he said he could still envision a resort similar to what Wind Creek has in Atmore and Wetumpka.

He used the example of what the tribe had back in the early 2000s in Atmore – a cinderblock building just off Interstate 65 that offered bingo and dining.

“I’ll compare what’s there now to us then,” he said. “If you walked into our facility then, you’d have seen these older games that really didn’t play that well. There’s a gap there. We see the technology advancing. So I do believe eventually, the offering could be there without making any legislative changes. You see what we’ve built here (in Atmore) on the backs of those machines.”

The Poarch Creek Indians opened the $245 million Wind Creek complex at Atmore in January 2010. In addition to electronic bingo, it features a 236-room upscale hotel, restaurants, an amphitheater, cooking studio, spa facilities, a food court, multi-screen movie theater, bowling alley and meeting areas.

Three years later, the tribe opened the $246 million Wind Creek Wetumpka, with a 20-story hotel tower with 285 rooms and a 90,000-square-foot gaming floor.

In 2015 the tribe completed a $65 million upgrade to its casino in Montgomery, adding a five-story hotel and restaurants.

Stephanie Bryan, tribal chair and CEO, said PCI is “willing to invest in a very high-scale resort with a lot of amenities” in Birmingham.

“And I think that will grow, not just for us, but for surrounding communities,” Bryan said.

Mothershed agreed.

“It’s not often you have people chomping at the bit to spend money, but with the right piece of legislation, we would spend a lot of money,” he said.

Of course, the former owners of the Race Course said, upon the sale last year, that “legislative hurdles… presented challenges” to attempts to realize the course’s potential.

“The people of Birmingham desire the same types of entertainment offered at other facilities in and around Alabama,” Lewis Benefield, president of the Birmingham Racecourse and VictoryLand said. “Unfortunately, differing state laws and enforcement actions regarding gaming have limited our ability to compete effectively.”

A year ago, the Alabama Legislature considered bills that would have allowed as many as 10 casinos, sports betting, and a statewide gambling regulatory commission. Revenues from the casinos and sports betting would have gone to the state’s General Fund, with the Legislature passing bills annually to appropriate the money. The bill was eventually scaled back, removing casino gambling.

Bryan said the Poarch Creek leadership has been working for almost 20 years on legislation with state lawmakers. She thinks the tribe has shown it can maintain a large-scale, sustainable operation with tight regulation and regular auditing.

“I certainly hope we are at the table to help figure out legislation and how we can generate the most revenue for the state and be their partner,” she said.

While the tribe pays no income tax on its revenue, it does pay other levies, such as on payroll, and contributes about $400 million in taxes at the state and local levels.

“We’ve contributed billions to the state,” Bryan said.