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I'm no genius, but it seems to me this is a sport that should be bending over backward to attract new fans. Yet TVG continues to gauge its customers by charging them a small surcharge per bet and then making them pay even more if they want to watch their horses run on the Internet.
That has been my contention for a long time now, it's a no brainer. No business can withstand a dwindling costumer base, higher overhead and survive. This recession will take it's toll.
CTT president James Cassidy may be right when he says this isn't the economic climate for horsemen to be seeking more money or working to get the artificial tracks ripped out and replaced with traditional dirt surfaces.
Note; In your takeout thread, that was my underling theme.
"They can't run a hundred million times.
"I think Del Mar was a success this year. For this economy, it was really good. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact they took a little initiative and didn't race that sixth day. But you shouldn't have to wait until you're down in the dumps to do something." Then Sadler got really wild and crazy. "I'd love to see a rule go into Del Mar that you can't run more than three times at the meet," he said.
That rule is not about to happen, the tracks need those large fields and lousy conditions to create carryovers for the whales.
"It's funny, but anything that you say that affects anybody's money line, they don't like," Sadler said. "When it comes to (management), they like field size, so they don't want anything to discourage that. In an ideal world, you'd run every week in a 10-horse field. But that's just not reality."
The reality is carryovers, without those carryovers and large fields, I doubt Sadler would have said Del Mar had a successful meet.
CTT president James Cassidy may be right when he says this isn't the economic climate for horsemen to be seeking more money or working to get the artificial tracks ripped out and replaced with traditional dirt surfaces.
There's no maybe about it!
Now, about that synthetic tracks mandate, those shrinking purses, the rising costs of workman's compensation ...
I agree, bleeding the players are left is dumb but the likelihood of players at this point achieving anything of real value when all involve are clamoring for a better piece of the pie, what's left it, isn't in the cards. The only place we have a shot to get anything is rebates, for the simple reason they are already built into a player program. We just don't get our fair share. That will be an up hill battle because many support whales getting a free ride. When all is said and done, if they don't throw anything our way, that will be their mistake. Even though I play into higher takeout pools, that don't mean I'm happy with it. There's arguments pro and con about what the net effect would be on handle if there's reduction in rebates that the whales get, thinking they will go elsewhere. I'm not saying doing away with what they get, I'm saying give us players a better share. It's only fair in my mind. Like I said, something is better than nothing. In better times I wouldn't be so willing to compromise on that subject.
Horse players that love the sport should take the position of revitalizing it, not trashing it all the time. From where I sit that's a step in the right directions. The future of horse racing in my opinion is solely based on fan growth, that's the area they have failed on miserable for so many years. We need new and innovative ideas to reverse that trend and I think players can play a part to reach that goal.
Think about it, sense the 60's we've added countless millions of Americans to our population and still growing but racing has been stagnant in fan growth. As matter of fact I think its declined. I don't have any Stats on that but I would venture to say I'm right.
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