Football vs. Racing

[IdaBet.com]

Now that the football playoff season is upon us, I would like to know how many players cut back on their racing action in lieu of football? I've always found racetracks can actually compete with football with the right presentation and increase business.

Unfortunately, these days, not only do many tracks just throw in the towel on Sundays, more and more tracks simply don't race on Sundays to have larger handles via simulcasting during the week. Sundays allow younger fans to discover racing, but we are shutting them out. What are your opinions?

[kid sapphire]

I will bite..Can you be so kind as to post all your web information so we can go to your site with a credit card and purchase your selections. I have heard you service is amazing I ant wait to crush the books..

[PaceAdvantage]

I will bite..Can you be so kind as to post all your web information so we can go to your site with a credit card and purchase your selections. I have heard you service is amazing I ant wait to crush the books..What the heck are you talking about?

[chickenhead]

I agree -- there are only 2 days to the weekend, only two days most working people have off. Figure 90% of the addressable market is looking for something to do Sat and Sun, it seems like its worth trying to draw both days.

mini-rant
Of course its not a problem unique to racing, I've seen restaurants closed Sundays. Bizarre. Of course I also don't understand why the DMV and other public facing gov't agencies aren't open weekends. Saturday and Sunday are when people aren't working. If you want walk-in customers, its a good time to be open. :)
/mini-rant

[Robert Goren]

From Sept through the super bowl football is king. The rest of the time weekends are up for grabs.
The tracks abandoning Sunday (PID is abandoning Saturday as well) are racinos. They could careless about horse racing. It only gets in the way of their casino operation. I expect that in the next several years we will see other racinos follow PID lead and go to weekday racing only. It is an unintended consequence of allowing race tracks to have have slots.

[JohnGalt1]

I live in Minnesota.

We have the Vikings.

I didn't cut back.

[Rise Over Run]

The tracks abandoning Sunday (PID is abandoning Saturday as well) are racinos. They could careless about horse racing. It only gets in the way of their casino operation. I expect that in the next several years we will see other racinos follow PID lead and go to weekday racing only. It is an unintended consequence of allowing race tracks to have have slots.

This is not entirely true as Laurel (non-slots track) gave up on Sunday racing in the fall a long time ago.

[PhantomOnTour]

I tone it down after Br Cup and that just happens to be perfect timing for the meat of the NFL schedule and playoffs. The Derby trail is beginning to heat up around Super Bowl time so I get back into racing after that.
I rarely bet in Dec and Jan

[jerry-g]

I just wear my Notre Dame hat to the superstore and I can tell by the number of people that stop me and tell me they like my hat....if the team is doing any good or not.

[pandy]

I often make comparisons in my columns, NFL vs RACING, in terms of business acumen. NFL = excellence in managing and marketing a major sport. RACING = not.

[cj's dad]

ON Thanksgiving day at Laurel Park, the persons controlling the TV's were told TO NOT turn on any of the football games. Laurel races were on every other TV. At least this was the policy at the clubhouse bar. I went over to the grandstand bar and no games were on also.

[toussaud]

It depends on where you are din the country.

I could care less about the NFL, this is actually my fav wagering time of the year on weekend. But in the fall I am all about some college football. Then again we don't have an NFL team here.

I think tracks need to do a better job getting in tune with the people who are waggering their track. For instance, I would make sure the races today were over a good 2 hours before teh play off game tonight.

[Robert Fischer]

Racing needs to work it's way up before taking on football.


RACING vs. PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

[thespaah]

The NFL is KING....
BTW, looking at TV ratings for NASCAR after Labor Day, those rating take a significant dice for events that are up against NFL games.
Hence the reason why some NASCAR events have switched to Saturday.
It is not just horse racing that takes it in the chops from the NFL.

[IdaBet.com]

Amazing story...I grew up at Laurel. I can remember back in the late 70's, only one TV was dedicated on football on Saturdays (pre-Sunday racing) especially in December when the Redskins played a number of Saturday game...and it was at the far end where no one was.

When I went to work for Delaware Park, the same thing held true...the g.m. refused to allow games on more than one TV and that was black and white. Eventually, he relented and we were the first track in the country to show every game, every Sunday in a dedicated room (limited by the NFL).

Instead of dropping 30% on Sundays, our business soared by over 30%...that's a 60% turnaround. I made sure we had promotions connecting racing and football. I had Mike Golic (of Mike & Mike on ESPN) has a celebrity host while he was still playing...I had Ron Jaworski running a football throwing contest on the turf course...you had to pick winners of games AND of the track to be eligible for prizes. Yet, these days, many tracks can't figure out how to do something so simple.

Back to Laurel...I can't understand why they close the week between Christmas and New Year's. It was always the biggest week of the fall season as so many federal employees (a huge part of their crowd) use their built up leave time to take off the entire week. Very bizarre to me to this day.

[Valuist]

I think many players cut back on football, not racing, at this time of year. THere's only a few games, unlike the full menu that we have for 17 weeks.