Downey's California:
--Cheerleaders, $1 admission on Fridays to anyone 30 or under, $1 prices for beer, sodas or hot dogs, plus a sports bar with live music . . . these are among the tactics Hollywood Park will use, once each week, to lure a new generation to horse racing when the famed track's 59th season opens Friday night.
"Horse racing is at a crossroads," explains R.D. Hubbard, the track's chairman.
"To those of us involved in it, horse racing is a great sport with thrilling action, beauty, tradition and the stimulation of gambling. To those not so close to it, however, horse racing is slow, intimidating and potentially expensive. Our goal is to introduce as many patrons as possible to the product, with the hope that a percentage of them will be converted into racing fans."
Disney tried something similar with baseball. The traditionalists objected--even while nagging the game over a loss of appeal to a younger audience--and screeched that cheerleaders were embarrassing the sport, as though anything more could. (Baseball's purists whine about everything, the big babies.)
Eventually, Disney withdrew cheerleaders from Anaheim Stadium, even though the NFL and NBA have accepted cheerleading for years.
Hubbard is hip to the fact that today's market will not tolerate a sport that moves in slow motion.
"Unfortunately, in this age of slot machines, lotteries, and scratch-off games, the youth of today demand more than one race every 30 minutes," Hubbard says.
"We make no apology for introducing night racing, live bands, 'hippity hop races,' a cash-cube giveaway and cheerleaders to the Friday night mix. We don't do these things every day--just once a week, to attract new fans alongside our respect for the preferences of our existing, more conservative fan base. We're building a base for tomorrow.
"Unfortunately, the competition is fierce and the popularity of our core product of horse racing is waning. It's a far cry from the glory years, when racetracks faced little competition from other sports, while holding a virtual monopoly on legalized gambling."
Off-track betting has cut into horse racing's on-track attendance in many states. And casino gambling has proliferated, from Native American lands to riverboats. Las Vegas attracts not only degenerate gamblers, but family vacationers. This is why horse racing needs to furnish something more than simply a place to place a $5 bet.
