Roman Wrote:
->
> No one has a loud voice in this fractured sport,
> and if they did, no one would listen.
> And the it's an old man's sport, or the fan base
> is dying off, or it's a niche sport are all straw
> man arguments. The sport does well in other parts
> of the world.
> They all had the same problems the industry has
> here , the only difference is they addressed them
> while we bury our heads in the sand , and the
> industry will be eaten like a carcass by vultures
> until nothing is left.

The one place horse racing is doing well is Hong Kong, or so I always hear. And the only tiny differences between racing there and here is that there the government controls all the racetracks and the breeding of horses. So nearly the same. Oh, and there are no competing forms of gambling like sports betting or casinos. So gee, it's almost identical to the situation here.

Racing IS a niche' sport and it IS being swallowed up by much more appealing forms of gambling. The solution is to make wagering more appealing, but when racetracks can't survive on the current takeout, hard to see big takeout cuts coming. There was a time to change the landscape of the industry but it was 30 years ago when simulcasting became widespread and racing missed that shot. Instead they took a tiny percentage of their own simulcast revenue and eventually strangled their own business.