Brilliant moves by Churchill

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by philcski

Let's say they hold back 1,000 seats for owners and trainers on Derby Weekend. Got to be clubhouse 300's at minimum, as though not to offend a guy like Porter, right? Those seats are almost $1,000 for the two days. That's a million bucks of lost revenue. You know what a million bucks is to CD's CEO? 2% of Net Income in 2013. Let's just say that correlated 1:1 to the stock (which it's often magnified, but for argument's sake)... 2% is a difference of $30 million to the market cap.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... they don't have people who understand racing and gaming in place, they have knucklehead MBA's who see everything as an asset or liability on the balance sheet and P&L on the income statement. Not saying it's right, but that's what they're doing.

1000 is a way high number Phil and thy never gave away premium seats to anyone but Derby/Oaks horses. My point is that they have changed policy and while the beancounters might not be racing savvy they are smart enough to realize what changing policy is going to do. Sure they want more revenue but believe me they know exactly what the fall out will be. They have cut out or cut back on a lot of petty things like programs for the trainers that cost virtually nothing because they are printing them themselves. The KTA had to sponsor racing programs and it only cost something like $20 a day. That's less than $100 a week. They use shareholder responsibility as a cover regardless

[philcski]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

1000 is a way high number Phil and thy never gave away premium seats to anyone but Derby/Oaks horses. My point is that they have changed policy and while the beancounters might not be racing savvy they are smart enough to realize what changing policy is going to do. Sure they want more revenue but believe me they know exactly what the fall out will be. They have cut out or cut back on a lot of petty things like programs for the trainers that cost virtually nothing because they are printing them themselves. The KTA had to sponsor racing programs and it only cost something like $20 a day. That's less than $100 a week. They use shareholder responsibility as a cover regardless

I'm not sure they do understand the consequences of their actions. That's what I'm saying about the MBA types (or Bobs, if you're a fan of Office Space.) hey, you told me many years ago that CD management was bad news and they really didn't care about the racing aspect of the business, which made the move for you even easier. I'm definitely in agreement on that sentiment but just trying to offer their thought process and corporate reasoning. These guys are not horsemen. They are strictly businessmen and bottom line sensitive.