Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Cannon Shell
The problem that has led to this is the greed of a few tracks, mainly CD. Tracknet came about to try to force other tracks and AWD's to pay more for the CDI signal. THEY are the ones who have led to AWD's not having all the signals. THEY are the ones who have approached Congress about changing the law that gives us veto power over our own product so that they can squeeze us even more leaving us with no leverage. THEY are the ones who use the KY Derby as a hammer, threatening to pull the signal to those outlets that dont conform. THEY are the ones that turned in names to the IRS on the 10 percenters cashing tickets because of the overbearing tax rules on their customers that they have ignored for years. THEY are the ones who refuse to offer the Calder horseman a fair cut of future slot money. THEY are squeezing them BEFORE they have even collected a dime. THEY are the ones that bully individual HBPA's into conforming by use of threats. CD and Magna want everyone to play by their rules even if those rules are severely tilted towards them. We have very little recourse except to strike or withhold the signal. Calder is operating without a contract right now. That is why this has happened now. Should the horseman sign a deal that is harmful for them simply to make sure CD gets maximum exposere for their biggest day? It is bad for us too. If CD makes less money on the 2 days then we make less money too which will in the short term lead to purse cuts. But if we dont force them to come up with an equitable portion of the revenue before they have slots income, we never will. It is an unfortunate situation but the horseman have been knocked unfairly in the press and made the scapegoats far too often simply because we never had a united front. We put on the show. We arent baseball players with million dollar contracts. We just want what is fair. It may suck right now but if we get what we want it will benefit both horseman and players in the end.
BTW- baseball was a bad comparison, they are cleaning up and I would think the cable tv industry and Oil industry would make horseracing customer service look fit for a king.
|
Where does the revenue that the 'horseman' go into?