Quote:
Originally Posted by skippy3481
It's a very fine line. The example using other sports is bad one. The average age of attendance at sporting events may be high but that doesn't stop the younger generations from buying jerseys, playing licensed games, and playing fantasy sports. People are still involved... they just don't have the ability, capital or simple desire to see games live.
Horse racing on the other hand will have a problem in 25 years. I'm one of the younger members of derby trail and i have zero friends in my age group that actively follow horse racing. Sure they may tag along for a derby, breeders cup, or a week-end night at a local track... but they really don't care. I've grown up in an era where horse racing gets bumped off of espn for little league baseball.
If horse racing wants to survive after the boomers die, they will need to re-brand the sport. I have zero idea's on what this would entail though. When poker is legal again...and it will be soon.... you'll see a nice drop off from handles.It's built for my generation. You can play multiple tables and get constant action....
Just my two cents for what they are worth
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This. Us young'ns don't have the patience/attention span to learn to read a racing form. I've only convinced one of my friends, many of whom play poker regularly to learn how to read a past performance.
The people who I'm surprised don't jump into horse betting with great interest are all these Sabermetric/stat geek baseball fans. If they bothered to pickup a drf just imagine how they could break down all the different stats, and prioritize which ones are most important to them.
I get Gary West's argument, but you still need to get the 20/30-somethings to have a genuine interest in the sport. Because I doubt when they're nearing retirement that they'll learn out as a new hobby.