Monmouth Crowd Larger than Belmont Crowd
 

Belmont Attendance 8,428
Monmouth Attendance 8,751

On a day when a returning HOY raced at Belmont against two BCT winners, Monmouth Park had a larger attendance than Belmont? Does NY really think that slots at Belmont aren't necessary or that a new person should head the marketing operation?

Horse Racing is easily the most poorly marketed sport in america. ESPN News? Pathetic.

They keep "dropping the ball" ......:D

And admission and parking was FREE yesterday at Belmont...

The only way on track attendance will become relevant again would be to shut off all of the ADW's.

It's all about handle, not attendance.

Monmouth has working toilets...that is good for a few thousand alone.

It sort of is all about handle, but I can assure you tracks like Saratoga and Del Mar make a fortune with the money people at the track spend.

Belmont is a total waste of a very attractive resource. They could turn it into an upscale casino and the place would be packed every weekend. It is close enough to the city, and located on LI where there is plenty of money.

You could have big name concerts and a casino and racing if they really wanted it.

Instead it is really only used 1 race a year, and that is only if a TC is involved.

It is basically a parking lot for car salesman. No joke.

I would imagine the Atlantic City have paid off enough NY politicians to keep it from ever being a nice venue.

The NYRA also does a terrible job of promoting- the only reason I found out admission was free on Saturday was because I went onto the NYRA website to check out post times. So only people planning on going anyway found out it was free.

I know Curlin was cleared to run with barely a week before the race, but I can't believe they couldn't have thrown together some cheap TV ads and run them on the local stations. I thought the same thing at last year's Belmont- they got a great male vs. female angle and couldn't get an ad together for a few days before the Belmont?

MTH has a LIVE STREAM of their races while NYRA doesn't even offer replays or live audio. Time to catch up with the new technology. (And it's not about the OTB thing because they weren't streaming before.) It's all about CONVENIENCE. People are typically more apt to 'work' in front of their computer rather than their tv.

**** slots
 

The curlin race should have been broadcast on ESPN, Live at 8pm EST with Al Michaels, Stuart Scott, and Durkin on the mic.
There should have been prominent ads for trucks and alcohol on the jockeys, horses and safety rails. We should have been hearing the announcers wax about the versatility of Curlin, the greatness of Red Rocks, and the Broadcast should have been "commercial free" with live wagering on ESPN through the NTRA Call-a-bet/Internet wagering platform.

How about just being on ESPN, not ESPN news, or ESPN a day later on a replay.

How many people, besides those that frequent these boards, do you think would watch if it were live on ESPN?

There was nothing of precendence being broadcast yesterday. If Espn thought they could get viewers, they would have shown the race. Unfortunately, the public at large is only really interested in the triple crown these days.

During the running of the race yesterday ESPN 2 was showing women's golf...I sure hope horse racing especially with Curlin in a race gets more viewers then women's golf

Sadly, Habersham, it is actually debatable. I know...scary.

i will watch people playing cards or sawing a log or fishing if they put it on tv.

i draw the line on all 3 but i follow the Tour de France, so i guess that almost as bad.:o

The attendance was dreadful.

Why not use a mass e-mailing to all "rewards" patrons or offer discounted seats or something? Why not have a marketing plan in place ready to crank up if such an opportunity presents itself? I know that the legalities prevented them from knowing for sure if Curlin would race but they had a pretty good idea that IF he was approved, he'd show up.

The box section was like a ghost town yesterday. The only area that was full was the Garden Terrace on the 4th floor but it was almost all "group sales" types, not small collections of friends out for a day at the track. They would have been there Curlin or not.

All the stops should have been pulled out. Within reason. I can't tell you how many times I had seats for Syracuse football and they changed the kickoff time to accomodate tv.

Go down the street to a neighbor and ask who Curlin is...

Then ask about Lauren Ochoa.

My bet is they get Ochoa first.
Or heck some damn poker player.

We have been thru this a million times but
the reinforcement still hurts.

I have no idea who Lauren Ochoa is.

If you were my neighbor you would know her before Curlin.