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Originally Posted by eurobounce
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.
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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.