Saratoga attendance so far.....
 

Opening day/weekend we all read about the robust crowds as many were anxious to get back to the track. How is Saratoga maintaining the crowds with employment being down 20-25% ? This is a major accomplishment if the attendance has remained brisk. There is no official attendance listed online that I could find. I do have friends who own business in and around town that are down about 20% compared to 2019. They still are happy to get back to close to normal but say it won’t fully feel the same until next year. Kudos to Toga for keeping up with the track crowds !

https://www.saratogian.com/2021/08/1...halfway-there/

Here's a halfway point recap but no attendance figures.

I'll be there today, so I'll have a better idea.

Pat Mckenna, nyra communications twitter post the #.

Record handles , near record crowds.

20 to 38k people daily. 6 million on track handle Whitney day. The higher margin handle- no sharing.

i gotta go someday

Amazing !!! The track has 20% less employees then 2019
! Awesome job by everyone ! I hope those that stay on until Labor Day all get some sort of bonus.

Today seemed like a normal Thursday in August at the SPA. There were some long lines for the paramutual clerks. It looked like the people were younger than usual with more neophyte bettors, or else they would have used the self-serve machines that were mostly available. I was in the grandstand section today.

Speaking of which, they added 15 lounge boxes to "the Stretch" - the far end of the grandstand. I hadn't realized there was such a thing as "the Stretch" but apparently this area has been there for three years. Has anybody ever sat there?

I brought my vaccination ID but it looks like I won"t have to use it anywhere. Restaurants and supermarkets, etc., have signs urging masks for the unvaccinated but using the honors method.

I sat there 2018. I also watched a race from there last week.

2018.. 🐝 problem made it suck. Now they've continued to build it out. It's SVIP. SOMEWHAT VIP.

It's a separated from the grandstand by turnstile. Comes with private area, restaurants, tellers , machines. Basically it's a clubhouse feel, with shorter lines, better seats, tv' etc.


What's new and interesting is tailgating. I posted these in my pic thread but didn't expound.


Here you actually drive into the backside at the nelson street entrance, and park your vehicle in these spots.

If I was driving, this is a whole new Saratoga experience. Done right, this tailgating can be epic.

It’s the same unless you actually bet at a live window. Then on busy days the lines are long. If you have your phone it’s all the same. The crowds have been big . Today the Friday crowd was large considering it’s not Whitney or Travers weekend . Opening day was nuts, people were out there the night before waiting to stake out a spot. That place is horse racing’s Field Of Dreams……. Open the gates and they will come.

Cool. Never noticed these. I'll check it out. I guess there's no betting machines around?

I believe there are . Haven’t done it yet but I’m pretty sure there’s machines out there.

I didn't see any, and can't recall seeing any outhouses either. My pictures are 7:30 am, I just walking by. I didn't do full investigation 😆

You can see they're bare bones , picnic table & umbrella. I think they were looking for social distance ticket option and slapped this together.

I bet it gets built out better each year.