Breeders Cup attendance and ratings up! Because of Zenyatta!

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by Kasept

I've been to every Oaks/Derby the last 10 years and have a pretty good feel for the building and how it is when full. Friday's crowd was shockingly sparse. Saturday was well attended, but the attendance numbers certainly were ticket sales figures.

As to the original point, the 60 Minutes story on Zenyatta undoubtedly drove TV viewership up, but Churchill always hosts the best attended Cups. Zenyatta wasn't as big a draw in person as she was in front of the box given the Saturday gate was basically at the average attendance of previous BC visits to the Ville:

1988: 71,237
1991: 66,204
1994: 71,671
1998: 80,452
2000: 76,043
2006: 75,132 (Avg. 73,456)
2010: 72,739

Next year is going to be a better barometer IMO, not comparing it to SA or past BC's.

Shouldn't you add Friday and Saturday together to make comparisons to previous years? Obviously they are watering down Saturday so direct comparisons to me don't make a lot of sense to other CD years.