Could New Mexico United anchor state fairgrounds upgrade? – Olivier Uyttebrouck, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico United has emerged as a prime candidate to become the "major anchor" at the state fairgrounds as officials finalize a master plan to redevelop the 236-acre tract in Northeast Albuquerque.
A Bernalillo County commissioner critical of the plan said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham plans to build a stadium at the fairgrounds as a permanent home for the popular Albuquerque soccer team and has raised $70 million to pay for the project.
Lujan Grisham quickly dismissed Commissioner Adriann Barboa’s allegation as “gossip and fear mongering” and responded that no decisions have been made about how to use the funding.
But at a public meeting Friday, officials with Stantec Consulting Services, the state's design contractor, recommended a sports stadium as the preferred option for spurring development in the southwest portion of the New Mexico State Fairgrounds.
The firm appears to have abandoned an earlier proposal to relocate the New Mexico State Fair in response to public opposition to moving the decades-old annual event.
“A sports stadium is the recommendation that we're including here for the reasons that it can be the quickest to stand up,” said Ben Lewinger, a representative of Stantec. “It punches above its weight class in terms of what it costs versus the GRT (gross receipts taxes) it can generate.”
Gross receipts taxes ultimately determine how much bonding capacity the state can use to fund other developments for the fairgrounds project, including housing and retail, he said.
Lewinger and others did not mention New Mexico United as a possible anchor tenant for the stadium on Friday but others were quick to fill in the blank.
Barboa posted a statement on her Facebook page Friday alleging that Lujan Grisham obtained $70 million in discretionary funding in February through the state’s $11.1 billion budget bill, House Bill 2.
The bill appropriates $100 million to the General Services Department for “state fair redevelopment,” including $30 million for housing as part of the fairgrounds project.
Barboa, a member of the State Fair District Board, contends the remaining $70 million is the governor’s discretionary funding that she plans to use for the soccer stadium. Barboa first raised the allegation at a news conference Wednesday.
Lujan Grisham responded quickly to Barboa’s allegation this week in a statement issued by her spokesman Michael Coleman.
“The governor is disappointed that Commissioner Barboa has resorted to attention-seeking gossip and fear mongering to pre-empt a public process that exists precisely to give every community member a voice in the Fairgrounds’ future,” Coleman said.
“Anyone who has been paying attention knows that some type of public events facility has been a part of this discussion for months,” Coleman said. “But no final decision about an arena or stadium, or the master plan itself, has been made.”
New Mexico United spokeswoman Bella Finley declined comment this week on plans to build a stadium for the team at the fairgrounds.
In a separate measure, lawmakers in February authorized the issuance of up to $92 million in bonds to revitalize the state fairgrounds in Albuquerque's International District. Lujan Grisham signed the bill into law on March 5.
The measure authorizes bonds backed from state gross receipt tax revenues and gaming tax revenues. The measure takes effect May 20.
Barboa said she opposes building the New Mexico United stadium at the fairgrounds because it doesn’t generate high-paying jobs.
“I know firsthand that stadiums do not bring opportunities to neighbors,” she said. “Fans simply want to get in and get out as fast as they can.”
New Mexico United would contribute an additional $40 million for a total project cost of $110 million, Barboa said. She contends that she learned of the plan from former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, who is spearheading the fairgrounds project for the Governor’s Office.
Chávez, who attended the public meeting Friday, said the $70 million funding isn't designated for any particular purpose.
“I think they’re definitely moving in the direction of some sort of stadium as one component,” Chávez said of Stantec and the Governor's Office. The master plan is nearing the end of a six-month process, he said.
“Now they’re starting to bring all the different ideas that have come together,” Chávez said. “This isn’t the first time you heard about stadiums. We’ll have the recommendations next week, and we'll see what they recommend.”
Stantec will not get involved in recommending what team should occupy the stadium, which will likely involve a variety of tenants and uses, Chávez said. But New Mexico United is a prime candidate in a state that lacks major league sports teams, he said.
Any plan to build a stadium for New Mexico United could conflict with the city of Albuquerque’s announced plan to build a soccer stadium at Balloon Fiesta Park.
The city is actively defending a lawsuit filed by three neighborhood associations that oppose the project. That lawsuit is pending at the New Mexico Court of Appeals.
Mayor Tim Keller appeared to steer clear of the issue this week.
“I’ve been clear since I ran for the State Senate 17 years ago that I love the State Fair, and the Fair should stay,” Keller said. “Beyond that, we will support plans that can boost the grounds and benefit the community.”
New Mexico United has sought a permanent stadium since 2020 to replace its current home at Isotopes Park, home of Albuquerque’s Triple-A baseball team. An earlier proposal for a new stadium at a Downtown location using bond funding was defeated by voters in 2021.
Albuquerque's Balloon Fiesta Park was selected in 2023 as the location for a privately financed stadium on land leased from the city.
Three neighborhood associations near Balloon Fiesta Park filed suit in state district court after the Albuquerque City Council voted 8-1 to deny their appeal in August 2024.
Second Judicial District Judge Erin O’Connell ruled in July that opponents of the Balloon Fiesta Park location failed to demonstrate that they were denied due process.
Plaintiffs appealed the district court ruling on Aug. 19. The state Court of Appeals this week assigned a three-judge panel to hear the case.
Stantec in December unveiled three preliminary designs for the fairgrounds, all of which include a hotel and event venue, parks, retail space and mixed-income housing. One of the designs proposed relocating the fair.
The state-owned tract has hosted the annual State Fair since 1938, but the state and its consultants say that the area is underutilized and its infrastructure is crumbling.
New Mexico seeks halt to illegal greyhound betting – Nakayla Mclelland, Albuquerque Journal
The New Mexico Gaming Control Board earlier this month sent a cease and desist letter to a North Dakota-based company to request it stop offering greyhound racing bets to New Mexico residents.
Lien Games Racing is a wagering company that allows people from across the country to place bets on races. The company allowed New Mexico residents to bet on greyhound races even though wagering on greyhound races has been illegal in the state since 2022, according to gaming officials.
According to the North Dakota Racing Commission licensee list, the company operates through at least six betting platforms. Lien Games Racing did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but state officials said it would stop accepting bets from New Mexicans.
The letter, issued March 4, states the gaming board was made aware of wagers Lien Games Racing was offering and told the company the bets do not abide by state laws.
NMGCB threatened to take legal action and said it would attempt to prevent the company from obtaining a gaming license in the state if the company didn’t stop taking New Mexicans’ bets on greyhound races.
“Wagers on dog races and online gaming are not permitted in New Mexico,” the letter states. “Because the type of wagering offered by Lien Games Racing, LLC is not permitted in New Mexico, you are hereby ordered to immediately cease and desist making such activity available in New Mexico.”
Michelle Pato, senior staff council at NMGCB, said Lien Games Racing responded to the letter and said the company would comply and discontinue offering greyhound racing bets in New Mexico.
“We are really pleased with the result,” Pato said. “We’re glad we were able to make this happen.”
In 2025, nonprofit organization GREY2K USA became suspicious of the company and had volunteers set up accounts to document illegal gambling. One of those accounts attempted to bet from New Mexico on a greyhound race in Australia and emailed Lien Games Racing to ask if it would accept the wager.
“Hi — we do accept wagering on both horses and greyhounds from the state of New Mexico,” the company wrote in an email.
Shortly after, GREY2K USA took those emails, along with other documents, to the NMGCB.
“They have essentially ignored state laws in states like New Mexico, where greyhound betting is not legal,” said Carey Theil, executive director of GREY2K USA, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit dedicated to passing strong greyhound protection laws and ending the racing of the dogs.
“For this company to just ignore New Mexico laws and offer this kind of disreputable gambling is really shocking,” he said.
Greyhound racing is “cruel and inhumane” and many of the dogs get injured on the racetrack or are forced to consume drugs to help with performance, Thiel said. He said he applauded NMGCB for stepping up and protecting consumers from illegal gambling.
Pato said the agency needed to investigate and verify that Lien Games Racing accepted illegal bets, given that some gambling websites allow people to access the site but not bet on certain types of races if they are illegal in their state.
“This one you could, and that's what prompted us to send the letter, because we found that it was being made available to individuals and entities within the state of New Mexico,” she said.
New Mexico isn’t the only state attempting to rein in illegal betting from out-of-state companies. In 2025, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office issued a similar cease and desist letter, requesting that Lien Games Racing halt its facilitation of unlicensed greyhound betting.
Numerous other states have banned greyhound racing or have begun to phase out the races. By 2029, greyhound gambling will only be legal in 14 states.
Other countries across the world, such as New Zealand and Scotland, are in the process of outlawing it as well.
Kit Carson Electric Co-op puts AI, drone tech to use to mitigate wildfire danger ahead of dicey spring season – John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
Kit Carson Electric Cooperative is turning to cutting-edge technologies to better assess and respond to wildfire as New Mexico heads into another bone-dry spring season, where experts are forecasting a heightened risk for catastrophic conflagrations.
The cooperative is one of three utilities participating in a pilot program for AI-based wildfire software created by Firescape, an Albuquerque company that two former Sandia National Labs scientists founded with the goal to use machine learning to map wildfire risk across vast landscapes.
“We’re using machine learning techniques to create a model that can go from a single point of data to a wall-to-wall map for a whole area,” said Holly Eagleston, Firescape’s co-founder and CEO.
To create the maps, Eagleston said the company is harvesting data from satellites and weather stations to assess key factors like wind speed and relative humidity. The company then provides those models to public utilities, which can then pinpoint priority locations for long-term fire mitigation projects, like tree trimming and microgrids that can be powered off for portions of service areas impacted by extreme weather events.
“It's updated every hour, so it's basically minimizing the impact to communities around outages because of this mitigation, but also balancing safety with reliability,” Eagleston said. “So they're doing it when they need to, because fire danger conditions are bad, but it's also very granular and surgical.”
She said the company has applied for a state grant to extend Firescape’s current six-month contract with Kit Carson Electric for three years.
Kit Carson serves three counties: Rio Arriba, Colfax and Taos. The area is home to two of the state’s highest-risk firesheds, or zones most prone to severe wildfire, according to the 2022 Community Wildfire Protection Plan: Taos Canyon and Taos Ski Valley.
Luis Reyes, co-op CEO, says the utility partners with Carson National Forest to update a “three-tier” ratings system to determine priority areas for tree trimming projects, including Taos Canyon, Tres Ritos, Twining Road in Taos Ski Valley and Upper Red River.
“Those are the areas that we deem are the most at risk because they're dry and have a lot of diseased trees,” Reyes said. “We're going to refocus on those.”
Alongside Firescape’s machine-learning tools, Reyes said the co-op has also contracted with drone company Voltair to conduct aerial inspections of its service area to identify dead, diseased and downed trees that can cause natural wildfires to mushroom into catastrophic ones.
Kit Carson is also advancing several community microgrid projects this year to introduce smaller-scale power systems to high-risk areas, such as those that pose risks to power lines in the case of high-wind events that could topple poles and spark wildfires.
“Microgrids are really a public safety tool,” Reyes said, adding that these localized systems come equipped with battery stations to maintain power to residents with the need to power life-sustaining devices, such as oxygen or dialysis machines.
The utility’s green hydrogen clean energy project, set for siting in Questa, Taos and Picuris Pueblo, can be thought of as “big microgrids,” Reyes explained.
New Mexico helped Kit Carson reestablish its financial footing for the initiative this year after the U.S. Department of Energy canceled roughly $15.4 million in funding for the project under the Trump administration in 2025.
In light of record-low snowpack this winter, the National Interagency Fire Center is projecting elevated wildfire risk as New Mexico heads into spring next week; the National Weather Service is forecasting red flag warnings into Sunday, with winds that could gust as high as 40 mph.
Kit Carson issued its own warning Friday afternoon in light of the weekend weather forecast, warning of “increasing wildfire risk across northern New Mexico this weekend.”
In an era of dry, warm weather patterns and ongoing drought, he said new technologies can’t be ignored in the much larger effort to mitigate the risk of catastrophic fire.
“I think now with technology and with drones, we now can identify more accurately where we think there may be problems, to address them,” he said. “And overall, wildfire will be our number-one priority for the rest of the year.”