On their knees for ole Frankie
 

http://www.drf.com/news/article/81251.html

How brown can this guy Murphy's nose get in this article?

"Under Frank's Direction"
"So Frank directed we make"
"All this being done with Frank's encouragement"

At least they made some changes, now if they could get 8.5 furlong races on the dirt, they would have some serious racing going on....

Scav

If Murph isnt the best at what he does I will kiss your ass. Not only that the guy is a top notch and treats people unreal.

Not saying that, I am sure he is great and a good person, but I am just sick at how people kiss Stronarch's behind.

Honestly, I think he has done nothing but good for the industry, where there are alot of haters of him, but his behind is going to be raw from all the kisses he has there

No doubt Stronach has revolutionized the game. I long for the day that i'm notified through e-mail that i've been terminated. It is at that moment that I'll know that i've been touched by the hand of GOD.

I'll tell you one thing " Frank " has done.....ruined Gulfstream Park for horseplayers.

Believe me, it wasn't easy.

How has he ruined it?

No one survives long near the top of the Magna/MEC world without total capitulation to Stronach's wishes and desires.. no matter how bizarre. He is surrounded by 'yes men' or finds new ones to surround himself with. He regularly recruits top industry minds into the organization, and then totally fails to heed any of their imput. Underlings guard their turf and do their utmost to keep the 'best and brightest' in the organization down.

3M or P&G it ain't..

Once famed for its gracious and expansive backyard setting to enjoy the winter sun in Florida, there is now not ONE BLADE OF GRASS AVAILABLE TO SEE... Paved over everything...

There is no where to sit for the most part, unless you pay $20 for an indoor simulcast carrel or the dining room minimums... The atmosphere is closed and claustrophobic throughout downstairs.

Betting tellers are difficult to access unless you are in the upstairs dining rooms, and those are no bargain either... There's a taste of the new Gulfstream..

Other than that it's.....mediocre.

and they removed the rail from around the fountain:eek: LMAO

Ya know.. I'm just waiting for some young 3yo to get loose and jump in that thing!

I got to go to the old Gulfstream about three/four years ago and while it was a dump, it was very nostaligic, but was in extreme need to be updated. Their simucast hall was a bunch of 20 inch TV's that were 10 feet in the air, it was hilarious. Hawthorne was a palace compared to it

BUT, I have to say that it was absolutely awesome to be around an open air type track. Both Arlington and Hawthorne are 'closed' and air-conditioned where the old Gulfstream was complete open air, it was awesome and I am glad I got to see it.

I am going their for FOY weekend, I am going to step up and purchase both outdoor seats and indoor simucast so I have some flexibility with what I want to do.

I agree but let me plays devils advocate here. If Franks main goal is to get a casino then why would be care about on-track attendance. Maybe he sees the future of the sport as at home betting and simulcasting. If that is the case, then track attendance doesnt really matter. Dont get me wrong, I agree 100% with what you are saying. I am just trying to find out if track attendance is way down on the list for Frank.

If that was the case and Frankie did think that, he would have alot better online wagering site then Xpressbet....He is by far the worse ADW site out there

I have never used his Xpressbet. But I dont know too many people who use it that like it.

yeah, it is brutal....If his vision was that people were going to be at home wagering, then he would have a better site, at least from a functionality standpoint

Stronach absolutely has that part of it right, no doubt about it.
This game has changed and will never go back to the way it was as far as people attending the races. People used to attend races because it was the only way you could gamble on them, plain and simple.
Now, you can wager from your own home.
Its the way the entire culture of America has changed. We shop online, we stop at convenience stores and pay a 50% markup on a bottle of ketchup, we go through drive throughs, etc. Why do we do these things? Lack of time. When I was a kid my Dad worked for IBM. he worked either 7-3 or 8-4 every day and had weekends off. Thats how America was then. It ain't like that anymore. People are constantly on the go and just don't have spare time. They don't have an entire afternoon to spend going to and from and hanging at the racetrack. They just don't have the time. Racetrack attendance is never going to go up, it will only continue to go down. And quite frankly who cares? Its the handle and money bet that drive the game, not how many people are there.
You have to take racing to the people by getting it in as many homes as possible and making online wagering as east as possible. They also need to build more Simulcast/Sports Bar/restaurant facilities all over the place. People dont wanna sit around a dreary OTB all day long, but they will watch soem races and make a few bets if they have all the football games going on around them with some decent food and beer. Some folks will walk into these places just to drink and eat and watch football or basketball or baeball and get exposed to the races by accident, and end up liking them. Its a soft sell, not a hard one. You simply won't get folks to just sacrifice their Saturdays with the wife and kids to go to teh track all year, its not gonna happen. But they may log on to the PC for a while and play a few races and then go out and mow the lawn or take the kids to a movie.
Stronach knows this, and he knows that the bigger you build a track now, the more empty seats you are gonna have now and in the future.

You know Oracle, the last time I was in Louisville I noticed that sports bar would have the games on and then also have TVG on. There were several people with their lap tops wagering, drinking and watching the game. Oh yeah, the name of the bar was Buffalo Wild Rings and Wings.

When I speak about getting wagering into places like restaurants and bars, its because I've seen a few things that have made me think this is a really good idea.
You ever go to a Fridays or chain restaurant place where they have that trivia game you can play on the tv screen? And they have like the Monday night football thing where you can predict the plays and you use that little computer they give you? I myself live that trivia game, and I see people playing the MNF thing all the time. Its fun, and its not even for money. Usually you have to wait for someone to lave to get on of those little devices you play on,because they are all taken. Now thats not even for money!!! People play it because it passes the time and its fun and challenging.
Imagine walking into one of these chain places where they give you the same little device and you can buy credit to bet and the races are on a screen or two? If people play the trivia and MNF thing why wouldnt they play races as well?
Up here in the Albany area Capital OTB has started doing just that in soem bars and restaurants and its been a rousing success. Its not even smart to play up here doing this because you have to pay a 6% surcharge on your winning bets on gimmicks and 5% on wps bets. But people love it!!! One place in Amsterdam was so successful with it that the guy who owns it added on an expansion to the place that was bigger than the whole place was before he started carrying the races!!!
I've been in some of these places and I can see why it works even though you have to be an idiot to take the 6% hit on money paid out. They don't have that stagnant depressing atmosphere that OTBS or tracks have. People sitting there eating and drinking and game son tv, etc and you can bring a wife or gf and she can eat or drink or talk to folks.
This is something the industry would be wise to consider focusing more on. Imagine a TVG/Fridays type place alliance where TVG is on in teh bar area all the time and you could get little machines to bet on? You'd make new fans, I'm telling you.

Buffalo WIld Wings is my favorite type place like that in the world and we dont have any here. I always go when I am in Lousiville. If they opened pne up here in saratoga you wouldn't be able to get in the door.
I agree, I've seen people doing that in places that acrry TVG with laptops. But imagine if anyone could have a device when they walked in and bet? I'm telling you, it would be a crazy success.

That is what we do at Wild Wings up here...The NCAA tourney was absolutely nuts, I have two Pinnacle windows open on my laptop, one with the horse section and the other with CB window open, and I was given control of all TV's to help out with the insaneness....it was awesome

Whoever creates that device will be a rich person. I love Wild Wings and Rings. The place is impossible to get into on a Sunday and Monday during foorball season.

They invented them years ago, called Tiny tims, personal sams, whatever.
Its not hard, but the focus on marketing in this game is all ****ed up beyond recognition.
Spend all this time and worry trying to get people to go to the track, whenyou could bring the track to them so much easier.

You should get the scratch and franchise one, they do those all over

They have tellers walking around Arlington for the seated people, it is awesome. You give them your voucher, tell them what you want, and bam, you have tickets and your voucher back. I never have to leave my seat becuase the beer girl is right by our box and she just brings them to us, I have my own TV, and the teller knows to get to my box with 5MTP...a GREAT ROUTINE

It is alot of money to get a restaurant franchise like that. We lost on the bidding for a cereal bar chain store. We are now trying to get a restaurant First Watch.

it isn't that bad for BWW.

I know that Fatburger wants 1 million up front to start one of their stores....

My buddy looked into a Buffalo WW Franchise, startup was something like $2 million.

Restaurant is tricky and hard for me to really grasp. Sometimes you have to buy the rights to multiple stores, sometimes you have to agree to open X amount of stores in a certain amount of time. I really dont want a career in the restuarant world. I want to buy one and then sell it back when the value is the highest.

Mace, I think that 2 million gets you like 10 stores though. I know the one where I live, the owner had to agree to put in 5 stores, at least 20 miles apart from each other or something crazy like that.

That is the thing, why would you want 5 stores in a 20 mile radius. Franchising is difficult.

not radius...20 miles APART....>i have a like three Walgreens to choose from within a 1 mile radius, and about 4 McDonalds within a 2 mile radius here....

I wish they had more green areas at Gulfstream too and they've admitted making mistakes with the paddock/walking ring area and lack of grandstand seating. Supposedly they've taken steps to ameliorate those two problems. We'll see.

But I actually admire the business model. They made it clear from the start that Gulf would be a handle-driven track and not attendance-driven. They will suffer modestly on the 4-5 big days but how can you fault them for not building a huge grandstand? Those days are over, save the dozen or so big days for the TC, BC, etc.... It makes no sense to use your resources to bulid a 20,000 seat grandstand that's almost never needed.

Business is cooking at the place and purses will be up 18% vs last year. In the meantime there are a half dozen nice restaurants there and there was even a boxing card yesterday evening.

Agree, there is no such thing as a RACE TRACK anymore, it is more of an event center with a dirt oval there....Arlington is the same way, they have all these events their in the off season...don't fault them one bit

I heard Debbie Gibson will sing there soon.

Electric Blue should really pack them in Scuds!!!Standing room only!!

I went to a Debbie Gibson concert at SIU when I was there, it was PACKED with hot chicks in 80's gear, it was awesome

She wrote Lost In Your Eyes after meeting Dixie.Can't believe he forgot to tell ya that.

Too True
 

Look, they went 360 from the old gulfstream, which, btw, was not run down. It had a nice saddling area, nice elevated walking ring, and the ability to race 1 1/16 races for new 3 yos.However, they did need to reconfigure their simulcasting areas. It was a pleasure to go there for a day of horseracing, in a park like setting. Sure there were alot of empty seats during the week, but it filled up on weekends. The new place has 900 seats outside facing the track at $10 weekdays, much higher special event days, there ought to be some wiggle room between 20,000 seats and 900 dontcha think. the walking ring is a joke, its way too small and tight with no grass and trees. The seats going around the walking ring have too little space between the rows, so good luck with the elderly getting in and out. The sun also beats down on you there, they could use some awnings there, all around, to cover those seated .

In summary, there is no " Park " in Gulfstream Park.

I think all we are saying is that they went way too far the other way, in deemphasizing their product, horse racing, in favor of building a multi purpose entertainment facility. You want vegas style glitz, you got it, you want to go racing, go to tampa , where they have not lost site of their business and their fans. Is it any wonder that tampa's business increased significantly at Gulfstreams expense ? Hardly ! They know who their customers are and care about them, something which Magna fails miserably at, while vowing that they are the new paradigm.