- The Troy Record's Nick Kling figured on Twitter that, based on an assumption that a season pass holder is likely to average around ten visits a meet, "total reported attendance for meet will need to be reduced by about 4700/day or 188,000 for entire 40 days to reflect an accurate picture." Even if Nick is underestimating the average amount of visits, the announced figures are surely exaggerated to a sufficient degree to affect year-to-year comparisons that generally only vary by a few points at most.
"Does raising admission fees at Saratoga matter? Who knows. NYRA has a built in excuse and it will be hard to measure its benefit or detriment to revenues either way. Internally they probably will, but if the policy looks like a dud it's unlikely they will broadcast it."
When racing makes decisions (in this case an admission fee increase, in others, a takeout hike), it seems the most important thing to racing is not the effect of such a policy (good or bad) from a business perspective, but what effect the decision has on the decision makers.
Let's hope, somehow, an accurate figure that helps racing understand the effect of an admission increase to forward the sports revenues and popularity comes out of this. Unless something radically changes, it looks like the chances of that are between slim and none.
1 comment:
On the Wednesday that week, Saratoga reported an attendance of around 8,000. If 4700 was subtracted, the attendance that day was closer to 3,000 or 4,000. If this is true, then Saratoga is experiencing a serious decline in its popularity. The NYRA cannot afford to ignore this apparent downturn.
Sadly, I don't think the increase in admission fees is the only problem.
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