From ESPN’s Bill Finley a couple of good points regarding changes for next year’s BC
On the $10 Cheeseburger: Breeders’ Cup officials couldn’t have been happy that the crowd for the Saturday card was 41,781. Certainly, the weather had something to do with smallish crowd, but it wasn’t the primary reason.
The majority of the tickets are sold well before the event; in this case, well before anyone could have known that the weather was going to be abysmal. From the start, Breeders’ Cup tickets weren’t exactly flying off the shelves.
The real problem was that the costs for seats and general admission were outrageous. To simply get into the track cost $50 for the Saturday card and a decent seat went for $225 or more. For the better part of the day, the people who shelled out all this money for seats couldn’t even sit in them because of the rain.
Once they got you in the gate they weren’t done gauging you. I made two visits to the concession stands, once to buy a $10 cheeseburger and once to buy a $5 bottle of Snapple. Monmouth, and not the Breeders’ Cup, by the way, set these prices.
There were a lot of people, especially locals, who just weren’t going to pay $50 to get into a racetrack. You can’t blame them. When the Breeders’ Cup goes to Santa Anita next year, let’s hope someone has learned a lesson. Racing needs to attract new fans and keep the ones that it has happy. The $10 cheeseburger is bad for the game.
On ‘Win and You’re In’: The Breeders’ Cup Challenge, which is really nothing more than a marketing gimmick, served its purpose. From August on, it attached the Breeders’ Cup brand to a number of prep races and had people thinking Breeders’ Cup for nearly three months.
It would help, though, if the “Challenge” meant something. As it is, all the horses who won Challenge races would have gotten into the Breeders’ Cup anyway, so nothing is gained by winning one of these races. That shouldn’t be.
Post positions can be vital in the Breeders’ Cup. For instance, horses who drew the 13 and 14 posts in the Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies had virtually no chance. How about, then, coming up with a system whereby Challenge race winners get the first picks in the draw. Make it “Win and You’re In … With a Good Post.” OK, so that’s not exactly catchy, but it would make victory in the Challenge races actually mean something.
The latter makes sense: give some additional benefit to the winner of those selected racing that automatically gets the horse in. I doubt the BC will comp the entry with free $ perks - but the better selection easily could work.
