Laughable Gazette 'editorial' decries Toga college day
 

It has to be a sad new low for editorial writing... The Schenectady Gazette Sunday was "shocked, shocked" and dismayed over NYRA presenting college day in September at the Spa. Going to make 'em all 'lifelong problem gamblers' don't ya know.

It's OK for the state to sanction and sell lottery tickets left and right to generations of the poverty-striken though... (And doesn't the state regulate the sale of cigarettes and alcohol too?) And the fact that there is widespread illegal football betting going on at EVERY college campus in America obviously eludes the erudite and forward-thinkers in the Electric City as well. I also understand there's also a little binge drinking problem at a lot of these higher learning establishments, but that's just a rumor.

Note the typo in the first graph. Hey, at least it gave them a chance to let you know they know what a bursar is...


Editorial: NYRA should leave college students alone
Sunday, July 19, 2009

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/200...9/719_printnt/

Teens go off to college to learn about all sorts of things — both in and out of the classroom. Gambling may be one of them, and probably one that parents and college officials wished they didn’t learn about. But thanks to twhe (sic) New York Racing Association, the odds of them doing so in the Capital Region are about to be greatly enhanced.

NYRA announced this week plans for its first-ever College Day promotion at Saratoga Race Course Sept. 4, shortly after the school year begins for a handful of area colleges. The promotion will feature raffles for prizes that include $1,000 in “tuition money” after every race. It’s a nice prize, but one we hope NYRA will award as a check made out directly to the school’s bursar, lest any of it get diverted to the $50 window on the way back to campus.

(Please go use the link for the rest of this important and remarkable piece of journalism.)

steve - i don't know the paper well , being from down here , but in there sports section if the post any type of daily line for football , baseball , baketball , etc , etc a letter to the editor whould be called for to point out their hypocrisay

Clearly someone lacks an understanding of Addiction.

I love the reference to Art Schlichter in the comments section as if his childhood was a perfect example of child rearing.

Its a smart marketing move from NYRA. Skidmore kids have lots of parental money to blow on the horses. Many of them already gamble and gamble big. I see them year round at the simulcast. A lot are probably sick of blowing their allowances on coke & booze. Why not target a ripe demographic that unlike most adults living here, actually have money to burn. These kids dont play by the same rules we did when we went to college. They dont live in dorms anymore...they own 600K condos and forget them ever picking up a vacuum cleaner, they all hire maids. Weekend ski trips, spring breaks in Maui, 60K cars...the rules have changed fellas.

I think its great to bring new blood into a sport like horse racing.

Maybe Saratoga will even hire younger bartenders this year.

I will make sure to let my kid know of the date. he was planning on going to Toga with a few of his friends anyway...But now with the incentives, i am sure he will be able to get a few more guys or girls.

I would hate to hear what the Gazette thinks of the Race Track Industry Program..

Don't they have one of the guys from Capital OTB write articles and post daily selections during Saratoga?

Mark Cusano and Bill Heller do nice jobs covering racing for the Gazette who market the paper non-stop during the meet giving away copies daily outside the track. .

This piece is an utter joke. They didn't bother to check with NYRA about the distribution of the tuition prizes, which of course are going directly to the colleges of the winner's. And newspapers remain mystified why circulation and advertising continues to dwindle.

Of all the things to editorialize, this would be 1,567th on the list.

If consistent, the Gazette will neither market Cusano and Heller selections to "fatten its bottom line" nor accept advertising from gambling-related interests; it will stop posting odds-lines for football and other sports in its sports sections, and it will no longer list winning lottery numbers.

Oh, and let's not forget the annual article about how racing is a "dying" sport and how NYRA needs to market it to a younger dempographic. Of course, now that NYRA implements what has been a wildly successful program at Keeneland, the Gazette criticizes the move. Priceless.

Golf clap..

This is basically never an issue in Tucson since hardly anyone here and at the Daily Star knows of the Program. And usually when we do get mentioned we at least we have Todd as our poster child with the Daily Star, so most of the coverage is positive.

Now, if Rillito were to do this things might be different. Might have to try that in the Spring.

If any as ever been to Kee they know these college kids aren't at the $50 window.

I cant decide if this the funniest or the sadest thing I have ever read.

The tail that comes out for College Day at Keeneland makes it worth it alone

racing should be giving free vouchers to college students who sign up for their ADW

I only look at the horses while at the track.:rolleyes:

More people have now read this thread than have read the Gazette in the past year.

The only time I was at Keeneland it was college day (though everyday there is college day so I hear :{>: ) and they were doing the 1000 tuition prize after each race. I thought it was a great idea.

That Gazette piece was moronic.. I'd be embarrassed if I was the editor..

I thought Rillito was being bulldozed??

I guess the question is what took NYRA so long to go after new (young) blood? Skidmore has been around forever and its the perfect college for kids to gamble. These kids have all the money. Their parents are loaded and they drive 60K cars and live in 600K condos. The rules have changed.
Its about time.

This is a really stupid post.

1. Why do people read newspapers.

2. Isn't that the hometown of PG1985? Anyone living in the same town that he does should be given some leeway, as obviously there is some sort of intelligence dampening field at work around there.

3. People clicking the link to read that story can only encourage them.

4. Who cares what some schlub writes in a newspaper (see #1 above).

Thanks for reading it. If they (Skidmore students) werent the perfect demographic to go after, do you think NYRA would put forth the effort?

Fridays, certainly, and the weekend. On Wednesdays and Thursdays it's harder to justify skipping those afternoon classes, since you have to go to class the next morning and the amount of beer consumed at the track might interfere with that goal. (IDs? We don't need no stinkin' IDs!)

Former UK instructor and mother of two current UK students

as a former UK instructor, you should know that you only need to go to class on days that there are tests!! :D

Now if some would bring their Mother's, the yearly treck to Kentucky would be
even better:D

I really wish I hadn't. I'm not sure how you formed it (well, I have an idea), but I can assure you that the picture you have of Skidmore students is pretty far off the mark.

Anyways. . . There's no denying that horse racing needs to attract younger fans, but Saratoga College Day will inevitably and ultimately prove ineffective and worthless (as if NYRA will have a way of measuring) because it is yet another demonstration of the industry's fatal flaw: its unwillingness to showcase the only element of racing that actually matters to the bottom line - the betting. It's fine to lure college kids in with drink specials and ipod nanos, but what's going to bring them back when the party stops? Maybe they should give away vouchers or have some sort of beginner handicapping contest or seminar with Andy in addition to the karaoke and balloon animals. If the goal is to bring in younger fans and subsequently increase handle and ensure future handle when all you old folks are gone, then why can't we just admit that? It's not like the event is going to hurt anyone, and I'm sure it'll bring in a little temporary money for NYRA and provide some eye candy for Scav, but in the end it'll be just another misguided attempt to reach a group that those in charge don't really understand.

The Gazette piece, which could be detrimental, is so far off base and surprising that I wonder if the same idiot politicians who were behind the UIGEA, have blocked slots in KY, etc... tied up Heller and Cusano and wrote this themselves. I thought we as a society (particularly in the Northeast) were moving out of the anti-gambling dark ages, but this is a step back.

Aside from the fact that it's not even well-written, this editorial is more proof that playing the horses has some bizarre stigma that playing the lottery, poker, blackjack or even slots doesn't have. That inexplicable double standard is exactly the reason why I feel NYRA and similar organizations need to have days like these. Not only to attract new blood, but to disprove this unfair stereotype held by many that racing is somehow a more degenerate form of gambling and is just for old folks.

Welcome back Joey......hope to see you at the Spa.

Combine those three into one and I'm totally there.

Ever since Harry Downey died

Maybe Skidmore has changed. My bad. It was a while ago I ran around with some of them, all of which seemed to have cash coming out of their ears and believe me, I wasnt hallucinating getting picked up in cars that cost more than my college education.

Sep 4th is a great day to do this. Friday afternoon, first weekend back. Man I envy those kids. I went to college in a dumpy city whose biggest attraction was a minor league hockey team and a small time division 1 college basketball school. These kids get to live in a town with a racetrack, most live within a drunken walk to. The bars suck, but hey you cant have everything.

I agree with you Joey, NYRA should at least make an attempt to have more fun days like this for a different demographic than what is normally seen at the track. I dont know how much better looking the women can get though. Saratoga has that down and doesnt need much help in that dept!

It sucks that horse racing has this stigma. It isnt fair but easy to assess why when you look around at many of the people who hang out at OTBs and the racetrack. I do think slots very much has this stigma also. At least up here. Most people who live here think the majority of people who frequent the harness track (or racino place) are trashy degenerates.

He now covers college football for a local radio station, it appears he has really turned his life around.

That is fantastic news - :tro:

What's infuriating to me about the sanctimonious "but think of the innocent children" tone of the article is that far more financial damage has been done to college kids by the credit card industry aggressively marketing to incoming freshmen who don't understand what they're getting into. Gambling at the track is much simpler- make the wrong choice, you lose your money. But let's pick on the racing industry instead, because that's easy and safe.

And yeah, as someone posted earlier, clearly the writer has no understanding of addiction.

What's infuriating to me is that the Gazette just got 100 times more web hits than they do in a normal week by posting this rubbish. So what does everyone think they will post more of?

Hahaha....

But in all seriousness, newspapers are dying a slow death. Many have shut down, others have moved operations completely online. There's no shame in moving your paper to the internet as that's where the future is.

As an aside... I recommend the book "Black & White and Dead All Over" which is about a murder in the halls of a major NYC newspaper (likely the NY Times). The author writes about how the paper industry is dying etc., all with the backdrop of a thriller.