Environmentalists challenged the decision to create two artificial lakes for the rowing and canoe and kayak competitions, a grandstand and other buildings in the area of the coastal wetlands.
Soon after, a main building, grandstands, and club house were built for the track.
Fairgrounds officials said the site's share of the money — estimated at about $500,000 per year — would help shore up the faded grandstand and adjacent buildings that were built in the 1950s and 1960s.
All that remains of the former layout is the grandstand and the administration building, and even they look different.
The stand-out feature is the wing that connects the main grandstand with the pit building over the track.
Club historian Neil Harvey, said the match programme showed how much the new ground had cost - £2,769 - which included purchase costs, building a grandstand and preparing the pitch.
I never went as far as building Lego grandstands for my Test Match games, but they provided hours of childhood fun.
The buildings will grandstand for your attention, beckoning you to their shore, until they grow bigger and bigger and you draw nearer and nearer and suddenly there you are, standing at their feet, windblown and a bit giddy.
At the turn of the century, one William H. Clark bought the site and spent a fortune laying out a course, and building, a fine grandstand and clubhouse.
That could probably be done by eliminating only three of the existing barns (alas, one of those three is where my horses currently live) and building a small grandstand.
