There's no way what Finley describes is going to happen. As far as getting more people out to the track, that ship has sailed. The only growth in the sport is ADW and aside from SoCal, Saratoga and big days at the other places, people are just not going to spend the extra $20 it costs to drive, park, admit and have a lousy sandwich to go to the races live. People shop, pay their bills and gamble online. They are not going to drive to Hawthorne in March when they can bet any track they want in their living room.
Aside from takeout, the biggest problem is that all the tracks gave away the store in the 80's when they cut the simulcasting revenue-share deals that provide very little revenue to the tracks actually running the races. All the host tracks thought simulcasting was found money and didn't recognize how much it cannibalized their live product. The simulcasting deals are what is killing the sport along with takeout.
It's absurd that places like Yonkers, all of the Ontario harness tracks and most other tracks even exist today. There's no valid economic reason for all these tracks artificially propped up by unfair simulcast deals and slot machines to exist. When a place like the Palm Beach Dog Track handles $200k each on NYRA and Gulfstream every winter Saturday, with less than 25% going to those host tracks, something is very wrong.
But these mostly small tracks with slots and/or simulcast deals are making money. Lots of it. And most of the slots tracks are partnered with big gaming companies who are far better than traditional race track managers at playing the game at the legislative level. They will fight to the death to resist any change. And they will most very likely win.
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