The Latest Meme: ... promoting racing to sports fans. Bob McNair, recently divested of his thoroughbred holdings, on the idea: "We don't have enough sports fans in racing," he said. "It's frustrating because racetrack operators cling to the notion that they have to cater to the gambling audience. I think they are wrong and you can go to racetracks and see the empty seats. They have to increase their fan base and make sports fans develop an interest in racing." And John Sabini, recently appointed chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board: "I don't propose to be the person who...; [Posted September 5, 2008 11:30 AM]; ---

The More, the Merrier: Feeling left out of the NTRA marketing summit fun? Have some great ideas of your own about how to market racing to a new generation of fans? Put together a few slides then and enter the Self Appointed Fan Committee DIY Marketing Presentation contest! All the contest details can be found here. Hurry, though, deadline for submission is September 17, followed by a round of voting for the "favorite," with the winner announced September 22....; [Posted September 4, 2008 7:30 AM]; ---

Great Idea: ... not so great execution. NYRA announced today the launch of Curlin's Corner, a "multimedia site" that "will give fans an interactive experience" as they follow Curlin to the Woodward. Here's how Curlin's Corner appears in Firefox, the second most popular web browser, on both Mac and PC: Note to the NYRA web developer: The broken images can be fixed by changing the backslashes to slashes and then this table-based, non-standard, usability-unfriendly, bizarrely pop-up and PDF laden, cutting edge for 1999 page will look (mostly) the same across browsers and platforms. Related: Constructive criticism from Green but Game. Tangentially related:...; [Posted August 27, 2008 8:40 PM]; ---

The Fundamental Problem: "Between 1990 and 2000, the North American parimutuel handle increased from $10 billion to $15 billion, due not to some emergence of star horses with long careers but to the convenience of full-card simulcasting and an explosion of new betting opportunities. Since then, the figure has not budged, despite all the feel-good stories.... Instead of thinking like 21st century business operators competing for market share, racing prefers to imagine that some old-style publicity ... will suddenly make it become 1957 again" (DRF)....; [Posted June 29, 2007 6:30 PM]; ---

Search

Archives