NYRA Leaves Cash On The Table
 

Saratoga is one of the greatest sports venues in the country. If NYRA decided to make fans buy a Personal Seat License (PSL), would they sell? About 2300 clubhouse seats at say, 2k a piece equals 4.6 million in revenue. Just like in other sports, you must buy the season tickets for every PSL you have. These same seats can be passed down from generation to generation. Or at any point you can sell your PSL back to NYRA for the same price you paid. You can't sell on the open market, only back to NYRA. I think a clubhouse PSL would command 2K-2.5K. I think they could also sell some good grandstand seats at 1K-1.5K. I wonder if they have studied this and came up with a figure that clubhouse PSL's would command?

And the move after that should be to license out the picnic tables....

:rolleyes:

Good Luck with that. It's not like a football game that is played 1 day a week 8 times a year where you can plan your schedule accordingly. Compare it to baseball 81 home games with games multiple days in a row. Baseball as far as I know doesn't have a PSL license. Maybe Churchill can get away with this for Derby/Oaks day PSL but IMHO this is a non starter at other horse racing venues.

This is about as good an idea as raising the takeout. So expect it to happen.

Way to kill the game even faster. Have you seen the pix of the empty seats on the Noonan blog, they have reached the saturation point on seat prices. I remember when................................

Yes, but with PSL's in place, NYRA can guarantee that empty seat is a "sold" empty seat.

Finding an opportunity to take a photo of empty seats on a quiet day at Saratoga was hardly Tom's best work ( neither was claiming I said something that I never said, or would say ).

I remember when concert tickets used to be very cheap, and then artists and venues got sick of being the middlemen for scalpers. Funny, those same concerts are still selling out. Same with tickets to sporting events.

Is that how its working with Belmont stakes day seats, where the purchaser is given seats to the other big belmont day, forget he name of that day ?

The Saratoga clubhouse seats bought by season holders seems to have reached the point where they used to be able to sell midweek seats, but not so much now since the price increases, hence empty seats. No ?

"Guests will be able to purchase bundled Clubhouse seating and hospitality packages for Friday and Saturday's championship racing, providing greater excitement and value than ever before. All guests purchasing a reserved seat for Belmont Stakes Day will also receive complimentary general admission for July's Stars & Stripes Racing Festival, featuring internationally themed championship turf racing.

Reserved seats within the Grandstand, which includes the cost of admission, start at $30. All Clubhouse seats on the second and third floors are bundled for Friday and Saturday, and begin at $115. Please visit BelmontStakes.com for further details."

You actually just made my point. Thanks.

you're velcome, just trying to get at why there are many slow days with empty seats in the pix. just as attendance numbers are inflated by season tix holders pass that are counted in daily numbers. Admins want numbers, and no matter if the actual seats have butts in them or not , justlike your response when its pointed out monmouth attendance numbers greatly outpace belmont attendance, but the wagering totals are lots lower per person. $$$ is it, and the buzz of live people don't count ffor much anymore, just have tv camera angles that don't show it, otherwise people will not want to come out, but higher handle counts much more, means you are doing great.now how do you combine the two, ?

Wait, you don't actually believe those Monmouth attendance numbers....right?

I believe them as much as much as the NYRA numbers, probably more because its my home track and i personally see it, although i will freeely admit tat they do have 1 day per month where they give you a pass for the next month with paid admission that day, so paid admits r lower due to this and season passes which few people buy.

So you do or don't believe either numbers ( I'm just trying to get an answer )? Every response doesn't have to be a criticism of NYRA. The topic was Monmouth attendance figures.

Gee and I thought the topic was the brillant idea to sell PSL for Saratoga. You know spend a few grand for the privilege of spending more money even before you get to take a shot at beating the takeout.

I believe the box seats, clubhouse seats, and some grandstand seat PSL's would sell out in 1 day raising about 15-20 million. I believe that would be great for NYRA and the customers who purchased them. I would be one of them. I would still go up there on opening, Whitney, Alabama, Travers, and closing 4 day weekends. I would give my weekday tix away to family, friends, or strangers. I would love that fact of knowing I have my same seats year after year until they plant me in the ground. I will be first in line with my PSL money.

To get back to this topic, i find it ludicrous to even contemplate,as it would go over as a lead fart. Your personal wants are not those of the majority of track patrons. Period. IMHO.

You're right. I only speak for myself. I don't pretend to speak for the majority of track patrons.

Winner :tro:

I go 5/6 times a month to MP in season. Attendance figures are typically inflated. There was a ton of people for the 30 day 19.9 million dollar fantasy meet. I did love that meet but it was not sustainable. On its very best day MP can never be a "quiet" day at SPA and that is not a knock on a great track like MP.

I am a fan of Monmouth and Saratoga and all the tracks we retain today. I want them all to do well.

But to go find the one really lousy idea from professional sports: the PSL, and apply it to a sport that already has serious challenges and is in varying rates of decline, is not useful.

I have no intention of ever paying for a PSL in any sport. Football included. Paying for the right to buy seats? And hoping that the PSL later has value so I can sell it? No thanks. That's a sucker's game.

I agree with you.

I didnot mean to criticize nyra, just make a point that seats there are already priced higher with result being empty midweek seats because non regulars won't pay the raised prices, the weekends they will pay. They probably cannot sqeeze the lemon any more. PSL = no go.

PSL's for Saratoga. Great idea. Next, let's ban coolers and get rid of the horsepath through the backyard.

you love Saratoga and would pay! Just admit it.

We both agree that we love nyra and want them to succeed. thanks, I'm on your team brother.

You would pay too. and you know it..................

Benny, you would pay too. and you know it!

"Your personal wants"

Benny, you are funny!

Psl's are awful in any sport. Why anyone would want it expanded is beyond me.

I don't think Saratoga needs anything. it's one of a kind. don't touch it!

For the fan, I think PSL are not good. But if you could figure out a decent price for a few thousand of the best seats at the premier meet in the US, why wouldn't they sell and generate several million in revenue? NYRA is a business last I checked.

You don't need to sell off the whole track but why wouldn't it make sense to at least do the choice seats and why wouldn't they sell if priced properly?

Don't they already sell those seats?

They don't sell PSL's to my knowledge.

but people do buy those seats? i don't get why someone has to buy the seat, and then buy a license.

No one would buy them. It's not like other sports where you could potentially resell the tickets for thousands of dollars. What does the most expensive seat at Saratoga sell for? Maybe a few hundred bucks on Travers day? What about every non-Saturday? You can't pitch it as an investment like you can in football. There are too many days where you couldn't give away those seats and at Saratoga most of the action is in the backyard anyway.

Many of the best seats are purchased by people who are already heavily invested in the game, either as breeders, owners or bettors or some combination thereof.

One of the few advantages that racing has is that even at top class meets like Saratoga or Keeneland or even Monmouth, decent seats could be had without breaking the bank. The average fan or bettor could bring his family to the races without having to make arrangements months in advance and still get close to the action.

It's great to see fans in the seats and it's always a bit sad to see those winners circle pics with empty seats behind them, but... At Saratoga, the winner's circle pic often has the box seats in the background, and it's generally a less populated area, especially early in the day. Not much you can do when the race day starts at 12:30 and the stakes events don't star until 3 or later.