Quote:
Originally Posted by thaskalos
Here is a novel idea...just so you don't think that I am all "whine" and no solution:
Many racetracks are flush with casino-generated profits, which have been used to push purses in some racing jurisdictions to the stratosphere...a technique that has done NOTHING to improve the game in any meaningful way. What if these tracks used some of that money to fund a weekly in-house handicapping tournament...with a generous prize-pool. They have the money, but they choose to hand it over to the trainers...without giving a DIME back to their much-maligned fans. Don't you think that a weekly in-house handicapping tournament with a serious prize-pool would generate some interest in those ghost-towns that our racetracks have become? Didn't the poker tournaments resurrect POKER...which had died long ago?
You rekindle people's interest with the tournaments, and then they'll come back for the "live action"...just as they've done with poker.
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Have the purses increased from those racetracks? A case by case basis might leave room for debate, but tracks committed to racing should have increased purses, increased the quality of racing, increased the quality of breeding, etc. That is where the monies are focused. Developing the thoroughbred racing and breeding industries.
A sad fact, most tracks that gain some additional form of wagering, whether it be slots or a card club, racing quickly becomes a second class citizen in their own venue. Often they are now bought up by larger gaming conglomerates, and there is ALWAYS a financial separation and analysis that nearly always show horse racing are a liability, not an asset. At best they turn a mild profit and are allowed to continue until a sufficient number of politicians are bought off to allow decoupling. Then the actual racing surface and backside can be sold off to develop a parking lot or strip mall, whichever is deemed more profitable.
AlsoEligible brought up a point that should be considered a
key point - sports betting. West Virginia just approved it. Pennsylvania and others may be next. What happens next and how racing can compete or coexist with it may dictate what happens to many tracks around the country.
