You guys make good points. Except when you talk about fixing your product. The majority of die hard players are going to play the horses no matter what the races are. The new blood, the people that they should be going after have no idea about things you guys are discussing. The industry as a whole has to make changes to draw this new blood to the sport. Slots and other table games are a good way to get them to the track. But there should be other ideas to get them to understand and eventually play the horses. Aqueduct should strictly be the slots and gaming faculity. It is good for nothing else. They race there at the worst time weather wise and the place is NOT the most family and kid friendly in the world. It would strictly be the place to gamble. Whether, it is the slots or live racing or simicasting. Maybe they could bring Jai Alai back and put it somewhere in Aqueduct. Maybe they could put a 5 star restauraunt in there to also draw people. I do not know about the hotel. Who would want to stay at a nice hotel that is 100 yards away from one of the busiest airports in the world. I also personally think night racing is a great idea and should be explored. Other little things that could be done at other tracks are, make the time in between races shorter. Make trainers and jockeys more accessable. At Saratoga the jockeys walk right through the crowd to get back to the jocks room. That blew my mind. To see and interact with guys like Bailey, JV, Prado is like having Derek Jeter walk past my seat to get back to the dugout. Keep giving away tons of stuff. People love free things. Make sure there are things for kids to do, otherwise parents are going to take them to the zoo and the last time I checked you can't bet an exacta using 2 giraffes and an elephant!
|