Back to basics for Churchill

[Rapid Grey]

Well now that the Derby is over it's back to the same old same old for Churchill. Tried calling their simlucast department earlier to ask a question about the set-up for their simulcasting area. Waited for 15 minutes just to get to a live body, waited another 10 minutes once she transferred me. Nobody in their simulcasting office picked up and my call was disconnected.

I for one am not effected by the economy as a player.
I know that drugs in the game are an issue but that doesn't keep me away either.
Gambling scandals and past-posting I've grown to expect.
I can even live with the occassional short field or two, but when I call your place of business, wait 25 minutes to speak to someone, and get disconnected prior to even asking my question I think I get the point.

[CincyHorseplayer]

I hear ya.Real contempt for the player in Kentucky.After 5 years of watching races and betting from the bird's-eye view of the 4th floor at Turfway,they kick me off the floor every time,even when I offer them $20 a pop.They want to herd you in with the drunks and where the track view is less visible.I finally stopped going there and betting their races.

I might only bet about $2000.00-5000.00 a meet but I bet it takes more than one of those $1 beer drinkers to equal me dollar for dollar over the course of a meet!!;)

[rastajenk]

What's a simulcast department, and what is a set up for the simulcasting area?

[riskman]

Well now that the Derby is over it's back to the same old same old for Churchill. Tried calling their simlucast department earlier to ask a question about the set-up for their simulcasting area. Waited for 15 minutes just to get to a live body, waited another 10 minutes once she transferred me. Nobody in their simulcasting office picked up and my call was disconnected.

I for one am not effected by the economy as a player.
I know that drugs in the game are an issue but that doesn't keep me away either.
Gambling scandals and past-posting I've grown to expect.
I can even live with the occassional short field or two, but when I call your place of business, wait 25 minutes to speak to someone, and get disconnected prior to even asking my question I think I get the point.


You should have told them you were from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. That's what I do at the NY tracks. Call, announce Mr. so and so from NYRA is on the line.....figure out the rest :)

[JustRalph]

you should have just posted your question here............you would have received better answers

post away..........

[riskman]

you should have just posted your question here............you would have received better answers

post away..........

I guess any answer is better than none,

[Rapid Grey]

What's a simulcast department, and what is a set up for the simulcasting area?

Churchill actually has a rather nice area for simulcasting, they just manage it poorly. Large room basically in the center of their main facility. Nine jumbo projection TVs to cover most major tracks and smaller monitors circling those. Kind of like a Vegas sportsbook. For the Derby though they took out all of the seating (about 500 individual workstations, some with BetPro machines) and put in a roped off area with wooden tables and chairs to squeeze a few more dollars out of their Derby crowd, think they sold tables for four at $1600 apiece which included seating, buffet, booze and the fixins'.

I have no problem with them wanting to maximize their biggest cash cow (Derby) but once it is over they really could not care less about the balance of their race meet, and their everyday customer. Dragging their feet to cater to their regular crowd, a necessary evil they would just as soon not have to put up with.

[Rapid Grey]

you should have just posted your question here............you would have received better answers

post away..........

My question was to be when will the regular simulcasting area be back up to speed, including how many BetPro (self service TV/wagering monitors) would be available in their individual stations. A simple question that an "agent" finally attempted to answer for me.

For the live meet, and more so the Derby, Churchill removes the BetPro's from their simulcasting area and moves them outside into their clubhouse box seat area, as well as move many to upper floor dining areas where people who either do not know how to use them, or have no desire to learn, can catch up on their favorite soap operas or check to see how the market is doing. Meanwhile many of their everyday players, like me, are regulated to betting with a surly union teller who could give a rat's a$$ wether they get your ticket right or not. That or try and find a regular self serve machine that isn't jammed or doesn't have a line of people waiting to get a bet down.

For whatever reason, during their live meet, Churchill just decides to leave these high dollar pieces of technology in areas that they get little or no use despite repeated efforts by myself and other regulars looking for answers why they do so. Efforts done in vain wthout so much as a return e-mail or response to phone messages left.

Customer service is a notion lost on Churchill, sans the Derby week, but not on the casino boat 20 minutes down the road from them....and they wonder where the handle went.

[fmolf]

My question was to be when will the regular simulcasting area be back up to speed, including how many BetPro (self service TV/wagering monitors) would be available in their individual stations. A simple question that an "agent" finally attempted to answer for me.

For the live meet, and more so the Derby, Churchill removes the BetPro's from their simulcasting area and moves them outside into their clubhouse box seat area, as well as move many to upper floor dining areas where people who either do not know how to use them, or have no desire to learn, can catch up on their favorite soap operas or check to see how the market is doing. Meanwhile many of their everyday players, like me, are regulated to betting with a surly union teller who could give a rat's a$$ wether they get your ticket right or not. That or try and find a regular self serve machine that isn't jammed or doesn't have a line of people waiting to get a bet down.

For whatever reason, during their live meet, Churchill just decides to leave these high dollar pieces of technology in areas that they get little or no use despite repeated efforts by myself and other regulars looking for answers why they do so. Efforts done in vain wthout so much as a return e-mail or response to phone messages left.

Customer service is a notion lost on Churchill, sans the Derby week, but not on the casino boat 20 minutes down the road from them....and they wonder where the handle went.nyra is the same way...i used to think that the old school track execs were so used to having a monopoly on the gambling dollars in this country that they believed they did not need to cater to their customers!.. track management has not learned anything and the casinos are kicking their ass... until the tracks can give back something to their customers and make a day at the races fun and make us feel like they care about us ...some of us will continue to leave the game!

[Dave Schwartz]

Many years ago there was a nationally syndicated column in the newspapers called Action Line. People with legitimate beefs against a company would contact them and they would act as an intermediary.

Note to HANA: Perhaps you could start an Action-Line of sorts for horse players.

Imagine that someone consistently following up on such problems would develop a "who-to-contact" list and be able to get some action. HANA could then report back the action taken.


Just an idea.

Regards,
Dave Schwartz

[FenceBored]

My question was to be when will the regular simulcasting area be back up to speed, including how many BetPro (self service TV/wagering monitors) would be available in their individual stations. A simple question that an "agent" finally attempted to answer for me.

For the live meet, and more so the Derby, Churchill removes the BetPro's from their simulcasting area and moves them outside into their clubhouse box seat area, as well as move many to upper floor dining areas where people who either do not know how to use them, or have no desire to learn, can catch up on their favorite soap operas or check to see how the market is doing. Meanwhile many of their everyday players, like me, are regulated to betting with a surly union teller who could give a rat's a$$ wether they get your ticket right or not. That or try and find a regular self serve machine that isn't jammed or doesn't have a line of people waiting to get a bet down.

For whatever reason, during their live meet, Churchill just decides to leave these high dollar pieces of technology in areas that they get little or no use despite repeated efforts by myself and other regulars looking for answers why they do so. Efforts done in vain wthout so much as a return e-mail or response to phone messages left.



There's no excuse for not giving you an answer, but I might be able to help answer your question about why they do it.

The short answer is that someone is paying to have them in those areas, used or unused.

Right after the clubhouse renovation I was talking someone who has a clubhouse box. I seem to remember him saying that CD offered boxholders use of a BetPro in their box for a fee (roughly $900-$100 a year). Which, depending on the number of live dates, works out to be about $13-$15 a race day (spring and fall). This guy didn't think it was worth it, but clearly some people do. I also remember him saying CD had bought a certain number of them specifically for use in the boxes, with the idea that they could be used in the simulcasting area when there was no live racing. If I'm right, they seem to be using them the way they intended to use them from the start.

[fmhealth]

Funny how different folks encounter different responses from the same organization. I called the CFO early March leaving him a message that I thought that CHDN should look at TUP as a possible takeover candidate. Two days later, while I'm betting the DD at TUP this fellow returns my call. He was really under the weather with a bad flu but felt obligated to call from home & discuss this potential acquisition.

This is not the first time that a member of senior management of CHDN has quickly responded. What I found that possibly motivates this type of rapid-reply is that I always preface my vm message with the fact that I'm a shareholder. I find that this strategy works effectively with many publicly traded companies.