"That would be the main generater of income that can be put back into upgrading the facility there right now."
In presenting a strategic plan at the AGM, HB Racing CEO Jason Fleming said last month the organisation would become a lean, mean machine if it didn't relocate.
"We have to take ownership of our own destiny and we need to make these changes regardless of where the club is situated," Fleming said in the face of a $285,514 deficit.
For Campbell there's no guarantee Hawke's Bay Racing and the Hawke's Bay A and P Society will necessarily find common ground to discuss things amicably, let alone share the showgrounds.
"It would probably require a lot less to bring it right up to a state-of-the-art level as opposed to starting from scratch."
Knocking down the old structure at the showgrounds, Campbell says, to build new infrastructure in itself is counterproductive.
Besides, he feels the showground's facilities will not necessarily be tailored with thoroughbred racing in mind or racegoers' needs.
"To me there's too many minuses to make it a viable proposition."
Campbell is mindful things have got to change for a brighter future but feels the existing racecourse in Hastings has a superb race surface and it can be raced on most of the year.
"It's just a shame to lose such a great racecourse if it was relocated. I'm not talking here about the infrastructure but the actual racing surface."
The training facilities are adequate, too. Campbell, who attends most premier club rugby games at the adjacent Elwood Rd showgrounds, attests to "fabulous draining" there.
"But that's such a small part of the proposed race course," he says, stressing trainers will feel the pinch and "might drop off" in the process.
"I wouldn't go to another location but for someone younger it'll obviously be a different ball game."
Relocation may also push the rent up for trainers to help recoup costs.
"By the time they get it done you won't know how much it'll be because you're talking years here."
The Wall Rd stables cost trainers "a reasonable" $20 a week. Campbell rents eight of them.
He suspects the contemporary training facilities will undergo changes, rendering the concept of yards redundant.
"For the boys up north with big facilities - Matamata and Cambridge - the days of yards have well and truly gone," he says, adding the high number of horses and compact acreage have made it difficult.
"You've got a box and an outside walker area for exercising them with swimming pools and whatever but you don't have all that here.
"So effectively they are training from the box."
Building a compact complex, he accepts, can lead to a better race-day TV atmosphere as opposed to empty Hylton Smith Members' Stand and the adjacent Lowry Public Stand in front of the Birdcage that are fast becoming "white elephants".
"I suppose on the bigger days most of the people are outside in the marquees anyway so you don't require the stands of years gone by."
While some parts of the existing infrastructure may be at risk during earthquakes, Campbell says, with modern technology there's a possibility of reinforcing them in the projected 10 to 12 years.
