They can do what they want with prices. But most businesses raise prices when there is a demand. We'll see what happens, but I'd bet this will be a failure.

The secondary market often sells tickets for less than face value which is why the yankees have tried to set up their own with mandatory minimums. I went to a day game last year at Yankee Stadium and got 2 club level tickets with a $90 face value for $40 each. Of course I had to pay close to $40 to park.

This price increase isnt going to affect Belmont because pretty much no one goes there anyway. Most of the time when I stop by Belmont I see very few people that dont old racing licenses that gets them in free.

Nice long term plan for fan growth

I just have a hard time seeing why this is such a big deal. Good Lord it's not even the price of going to a movie.

... and we're talking Belmont.

Well worth it. :)

$6 is a deal breaker.

wow

i agree.
i paid more than that to walk thru a dead guy's house. and the house wasn't even that nice, but the memorabilia was-even if the tour guide wasn't historically accurate!

Can we not act like NYRA isn't being played like an accordion by the state here? The hatchet man they brought in is trying to come up with a 2014 budget that allows them to "make money" without the VLT revenue at the states bequest. Long term growth, fans, players, horsemen, breeders, horseracing, etc is not the focus here. Lets stop pretending that NYRA is run like some Fortune 500 company ok? It is a political pawn in a play to steal the VLT money currently going to it. It will be harder to take the money if the numbers dont show that they CAN make a profit, regardless of what tiny % that it is. The underlying theme is that they are going to try to make NYRA more "attractive" for the privatization but that is clearly just blowing smoke.

They are raising admission prices, it happens everywhere. It costs $14 to go to a movie on Long Island. It costs $15 to go over the Verrazano Bridge. It costs $40 to park at Yankee Stadium. Plus does anyone believe that if CDI winds up running NYRA that this will be the last rise in fees? Especially if the VLT money is cut?

I would move my training tack to Europe. More sustainable.

Like I said earlier, we don't just go to watch. You bet $100, you spend at least $20 on average just on betting. PPs, parking, food, etc. It all adds up.

Again how much did you spend last year watching live races. Was it more than zero? Just so you understand it is $6 times the amount of days you go.

Yeah if you train for the Queen

yes, definitely more than zero.
but, when i decide to go somewhere, i don't quibble over a couple extra bucks. now, if it went from 3 to 20 a day, you might be on to something. but knowing that other tracks charge more than 5, 5 just isn't that big a deal. especially when i've paid twice that just to park to wander around a city i'm visiting.

In your rush to defend price increases you do realize they have also indicated they will be raising the price on seats and parking. But since you do not buy the product it won't cost you a dime.

But arent there incidental costs involved with any kind of entertainment?
Every means of going to the track has gone up in recent years (and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon), I would think that would be more detrimental to people not going track then the couple of dollar increase that's going in to effect now.

i've answered the question several times from you about if i went to the track. now i don't even buy the product? i have to go out of my way to load a green dot moneypak to refill my twinspires, but i do it to bet. yeah, i don't use the product....
i'm not defending them, i'm saying it's not much of an increase and that it's not a big deal compared to prices on other products. or are you like george bush, if you're not with us you're against us?
i honestly can't remember what we paid per person to get into louisiana downs. or if we paid to park there. i don't know what delta charged us either. i think oaklawn is still $2, don't remember if we paid to park or not. i'd have to ask my husband, he's the one who pays all that. he probably doesn't remember either.
we went to dallas a couple months ago for a hockey game. i don't recall the ticket prices there either. we took a taxi since we were going to imbibe, i think it was $20 each way. if it cost $22 instead, it wouldn't have mattered, we'd still have taken the taxi.

Sure, but none of these have the added expense of gambling.

In the end, the more I think about it, most people that go to the track are probably not serious bettors. So the $5 or whatever isn't a big deal to them. I think this thread shows that.

A serious bettor is actually being pretty foolish going to the track on a regular basis for a wide variety of reasons.

You do understand this thread is about price increases for admission, seats, and parking, at NYRA tracks.

'most people that go to the track are probably not serious bettors'.

thats pretty funny. horse owners are the biggest bettors..and those gold room guys put more through the system than most 50c partweelers on line

I'm not in New York, so I don't know about any gold room, but horse owners are the biggest bettors? Come on. Like anything else, some bet big, some bet small, some don't bet. And there is a difference between being a big bettor and a serious bettor, i.e. one trying to win money.

For someone who goes to a NYRA track on rare/infrequent occasions (except for spinners) this will likely not be a huge deal. For those that go often (not many of them that don't already have credentials) it could add up. Will it positively or negatively impact attendance remains to be seen. If it does end up negatively affecting attendance, then the more important question will be how, if any, it affects handle?