Walk Up Ticket For Belmont
 

I'm considering driving in from CT on Sat, early... Do any of you have tickets...? thought it could not hurt to ask. But the real question is do you think there will be any difficulty buying tickets, even GA, on the street and what do you think I will have to shell out to get them.

Do you know how many GA seats are released Sat morning?

Thanks!

I/L

I think you can walk right up to the gate and pay your $10 and get GA. If you can get a seat outside that typically includes the $10 admission charge as there is a stub on the bottom of the ticket for admission.

I'm selling tickets on my new site....www.Spudhub.com

Seriously though you'll have no problem walking up...jsut may not be good seats but your in.

Spuder

I have said this before, but it bears repeating:

Just get there butt early, find your spot on the rail, and guard it with your life. Guaranteed to see some horse flesh.

i'm driving down from upstate NY and just purchasing a general admission ticket and finding a spot somewhere

By butt early, he means before 9am...

I think the gates open at 830. Before the beer ban the place was a mob scene (in the park behind the track anyway) by 10-1030. Since they put the ban in place, there hasn't been an attempt at a triple crown, so we are really in uncharted water here. I remember the first year of the ban how empty the place was, and it really hasn't been crowded since 2004 (Smarty plus beer = 120,000+ people). There were only 61,000 in 2006 and 47,000 last year so you could've walked in after the Manhattan and found a place along the rail.

I still think the ban on beer will limit the total number of people going to Belmont that day, but the people going will be those who want to "see" the races and therefore viewing areas will be at a premium. I've heard some outlandish predictions on the attendance, but I'd be shocked if it got too far over 100K.

There'll be 120,000 people, beer or no beer. You can't bring beer into the Derby, and that doesn't stop 150,000 people from showing up every year.

As for the question, GA doesn't get you a seat, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. You can roam the track and look for a good spot in the morning, and $10 is way better than some of the absurd prices people are paying that won't get them a great view anyway.

Don't buy a GA ticket from anyone on the street. Walk up to the gate and buy one. I doubt they'll turn anyone away, but if they do, it'll probably be in the afternoon.

Yes, the get 150,000 EVERY year for the Derby. We are not in Kentucky (this is NYC where there are other things to do), and this is not the Derby, it never will be. If there were only 120,000 people here on a day when half a city traveled for a hero and you could party til the cows came home and general admission prices were $3 and $5 not $10 and $20, and reserved seats were not as outlandish as they are now, I would be very, very surprised to see that many people again, ever. And does anybody really LOVE Big Brown anyway? Certainly not the way people comepletely fell for SJ.


In regards to your other advice, very true. I don't even think there is a such thing as a general admission ticket. So DO NOT purchase a general admission ticket from anyone, it's a scam. They will not turn anyone away.

This is a major sporting event that will attract just about every casual fan in the tri-state area. Racing may be declining in prominence, but the attendance figures don't support that, as the TC races and Breeders' Cup perenially get huge crowds. I'd be shocked if there weren't at least 115,000 people (if weather cooperates). 103,000 showed up in the pouring rain for Funny Cide, way more than there should've been.

Shoot, they stopped letting people bring beer into the grandstand/clubhouse of the Preakness, and that hasn't caused attendance to dip. I think people come to see a potential Triple Crown winner, bringing in one's own beer is secondary.

Thanks to Everyone...now
 

If I can just get my teenage son to get up a 6:00......:)

put foot in ass....:zz:

and repeat if necessary.

yeah, but up here we are used to bringing coolers in. i agree with you on GA, the seats are usaully the "boring" people anyway. i like being in the yard, just like i like the infield at the derby. how can you run your mouth,drink and smoke when you are stuck in a seat next to the q-tips!

not sure if this had been answered or not.... but whats the difference in GA $10 and Clubhouse $20?

either way, look forward to seeing you guys up there

-bt-

GA gets you into the grandstand area, Clubhouse actually gets you into the Clubhouse area.

and i assume $20 clubhouse tickets don't give you a seat?

-bt-

They do not, but you're inside and much nearer the finish line. You can stand right above the seating area and watch from there. There's also a pretty good bank of tv's with benches in the area.

thanks boss

-bt-

Elmont Street Parking
 

can someone give me a little closer orientation as to where you can find legal street parking. There are neighborhoods directly south and southwest of the track entrance. I assume that we are not talking about north of the rail line or east of the track itself. On google earth, I could not see any walking path that would get you on to track grounds, parking areas or anywhere.

Thanks, I know it will be a charlie foxtrot after the big race, but would like to have some shot at not still being stuck in traffic at 8:00.

I/L

Honestly, I'd just drive to one of the satellite lots and take a bus to the track. I did the same in 2004, one of the most crowded Belmonts in history, and had almost no problem leaving after the race.

do you have any indication where one of those lots is? i figure i'll park somewhere outside the track not in a lot and walk back to the car to beat the traffic but who knows what its going to be like

They actually have on-site satellite lots in the general vicinity of the backstretch. You can walk to them, but it has to be about a mile walk. There are similar spots nearer the main gate off the...Cross Island, maybe?

i would not do that down there. its not saratoga. you could end up miles away. as someone said the backstretch satellite is fine(the parking lot is huge) . then take the shuttle. stay till the last race, many people rush out after the belmont. i don't leave until the last race , it will be like 7:30. but by then many have left. if you are in a hurry well, good luck to you.

Plus, the Stanley Cup has been decided and there isn't anything great to catch on tv on Saturday night anyway.

95 is nice? The men's rooms will be overrun by wimmin by the 6th race

I've made the Belmont in 1977, 1987, and 1989....all with the Triple Crown on the line. Yes, a few years ago, I know.

I walked up without a ticket each time, and had no difficulty.

For Slew in 1977, I was in college and we made it to the Elmont area from a Manhattan bar at about 3AM. Found a closed gas station in a quasi residential neighborhood and slept in the car there for a couple hours until the owner woke us up at about 5:30. Got in line at the track at 6AM, and literally were in the first group of five to go through the turnstile. Ended up with finish line seats in the grandstand.

And, after the fact, realized that Son of Sam had the area where we slept on his targeted ground zero for his 1977 killings...

For both Alysheba and Sunday Sillence I arrived between 9AM and 10AM, and still had no trouble at all parking in the general lot and getting in. I wasn't picky about the seats, as I knew I planned to roam.

For both Alysheba and Sunday Silence I staked out a place on the paddock rail about the 5th or 6th race, and ended up with great photos of the horses before they took the track.

If I were to offer a recommendation, it would be to make the focus objective of your Belmont day to get an unobstructed close up look of Big Brown in the paddock walk.

And a photo to prove you were there at the paddock at the time and on the day.

Hell of a story man.

Thanks.

:-)

Another true story is that I made my first Kentucky Derby in 1975, and loaded up on Master Derby (well, $20 across the board in my youth) as he ran 4th in the Foolish Pleasure year.

My most vivid memory of that day was seeing people I had gone into the infield with at about 8AM puking in Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets at 10AM from drunkenness.

THAT'S a helluva story, too!

Attendance : less than 100K

Maybe if every once in a while you guys said, hey I was wrong, the non kiss asses of the group might feel a little more love towards you and your stupid ass posts. Not that you would care. But perhaps you should have a little more respect for what others post on the board.

It was 95 degrees and Casino Drive scratched.

only 97k, a 20% drop from when smarty went for the triple.

double

So, with CD scratching, wasn't it more likely to see a triple crown winner, if that's what the 150,ooo people were coming to see?

Are you seriously wound up over an attendance prediction? You, along with a lot of others, take what is said here (an internet message board) way, way too seriously.

The posters that seem to be getting the most backlash (ateam, btw, Pants, Hoss, etc...) should all be taken with a grain of salt. A lot of their posts are misconstrued, because of their writing style, as condescending or an attack. Before getting yourself cranked up over a post, take a step back and realize where we are here. This is a horse racing message board, no more no less.

I'm not sure how ateam is a kiss ass, maybe you can enlighten me on that one. No one needs to come on here and find a thread that they made a prediction on, to say I was wrong. If that was a rule, PG1985 would get awful tired looking up old threads to say he was wrong.

Lighten up a bit.
Peace

i was wrong...

first time for everything....

Perhaps the 100+ heat index kept some people away?

I was wrong. I never have a problem saying that.

I'd rather be wrong once in a while and admit it than be widely recognized as the board crybaby who bitches about the price of the DRF being high, the post time of the Belmont being one interminable hour too late, the sun being too bright, airplanes being too loud, the waiting room at the dentist, the one sesame seed on his plain bagel, etc.

The second I start caring about what people like you think of me is the second you'll stop incessantly complaining about imaginary injustices.

By the way, how exactly was..

.. a disrespectful post?