Bathurst still in contention to house the region's multi-million dollar greyhound centre of excellence facility

GBOTA CEO Allan Hilzinger, who addressed Orange City Council on Tuesday night, said the body was also in talks with Bathurst Regional Council.

While Orange has put forward its abandoned Highland Paceway as a potential site, Bathurst Regional Council has put forward 11 proposals, and two to three have caught the eye of GBOTA for their potential.

Orange's Highland Paceway is already licensed for racing, but Mr Hilzinger said that was not the GBOTA's sole consideration and confirmed there were a number of sites in Bathurst the GBOTA had looked at which have the potential to house the new facility.

Asked if Bathurst was still in the race to house the facility, Mr Hilzinger said "100 per cent".

"When I addressed Orange Council, one of the things I said is I'm not here to convince anyone that we need to be in Orange. I'm here to show you the raw data, the figures and as an organisation we want to work with whoever wants to work with us.

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"We want to make the best possible decision for the Central West, for greyhound racing and, obviously, financially.

"It's not about we should go to Bathurst or should go to Orange. There are great positives for both regions.

"But why would we not want to have the best for our participants?"

He said the new facility would provide an enormous economic windfall for the region.

"A track that races once a week with a TAB meeting in a city is worth in excess of $20 million to that town annually," he said, adding that the GBOTA is now looking at what each council can do for them.

"I don't mean this in a bad way, but what can the council do for us?

"We are bringing $20 million into their economy annually plus construction between $10 and $15 million.

"You would hope that a council would have some kind of proposal or negotiation with us to say, hey, if you come to us we can gift you a track or work with you on a land purchase or whatever that happens to be.

"I'm just throwing these things out there, but we are hoping council would look at it and see the economic benefit."

Mr Hilzinger said GBOTA had already been in talks with Bathurst Regional Council and is about to go back to them again.

He said he addressed Orange City Council because of the situation at the last meeting of the council where the elected body turned down further information on a potential track at Orange and voted 7-3 to offer Bathurst a right of refusal following a push from councillor Tony Mileto.

"It [the address] was triggered with Orange because of the motion and we had to talk it through," he said.

Subsequently, on Tuesday night, Orange Council voted to actively work with the peak industry body to enable the construction of the facility in Orange.

Having spoken with Orange Council, Mr Hilzinger said he will now be going back to Bathurst Regional Council.

"And it will be the same scenario ... where is the better land and what can council do for us and that is not in a negative way.

"But at the end of the day, if one council offers a greater opportunity than the other, how do you say no to that? Especially when you look at funding.

"The key is we are open to both.

"We can absolutely and definitely say irrelevant of the fact we went to Orange last night [Tuesday night], we have not said we are not going to Bathurst and have not said we are not going to Orange.

"We want to play that game - I say play that game in the sense of not to try to manipulate, more to say where is our best option.

"We have put all the cards on the table. Now we want you guys to put your cards on the table, and we will make a decision and go there.

"And whichever area we are in will be phenomenal for your economy and put your town on the map."

Mr Hilzinger said the decision regarding the facility will be made in the next six to eight weeks.

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