NYRA CEO, pathetic!

[miff]

So, in addition to a Jan 1, 5% withholding fee/tax for NY bettors with out of state rebate houses/ADW\'s, now increased fees for the signal.The Clueless Clowns at NYRA obviously do not understand or care about the implications to the whale rebater/big player grinding out a  point or two after rebate. The rebate houses are only holding a couple of points now, after signal cost and rebates.The NY 5% tax/fee plus the increased signal fee will be difficult, if not impossible, to absorb especially if they have many NY clients.

So sad, people with a seat at the table have no f--king clue, seriously!
 


NYRA Budget for 2014 Calls for Hike in Fees
By Tom Precious(Bloodhorse)
 
The New York Racing Association is finalizing a \"fresh look\" budget for 2014 that will hike fees imposed on simulcast partners and raise prices for racetrack admission and parking while cutting a number of expenses, including money saved by ending training at Aqueduct Racetrack during non-racing periods at the facility.
 
\"We\'re doing our best to try to perform on a break-even basis,\" NYRA president Christopher Kay told a group of state regulators Dec. 2 meeting.
 
Kay did not immediately reveal the amounts to be raised by hiking fees imposed on those taking NYRA\'s simulcast signal. \"They may not like it. I\'m sure there will be some opposition,\" Kay said.
 
Kay said NYRA\'s 2014 budget, expected to be approved by its board the week of Dec. 2, will raise general admission prices at Saratoga Race Course and Belmont Park from $3 to $5 and clubhouse admission from $5 to $8, levels he said are comparable to other major tracks in the country. He said entry prices, which do not affect free admission at Aqueduct, have not been raised at Saratoga and Belmont since 2005.
 
Robert Williams, chairman of the Franchise Oversight Board, which monitors NYRA\'s finances, questioned Kay about raising prices after NYRA saw a drop in attendance at Saratoga this past summer despite major expenditures on marketing for the track\'s 150th anniversary.
 
Kay said NYRA will be making a number of improvements at the tracks to enhance the experience of patrons, including a new facility at Saratoga and improved technology to view races. He called the admission fee increase \"modest.\"
 
Kay said the 2014 budget envisions an operating profit of $250,000, separate from money NYRA will receive from video lottery terminal revenue at Aqueduct.
 
\"We need to use those (VLT) monies to grow our business\" and not just as a subsidy to make up for red ink budgets, he said.
 
Kay also said NYRA now plans to keep Aqueduct open, answering a question posed by Williams about NYRA looking at the possibility of constructing a synthetic track at Belmont that could be seen by some in the industry as an initial move to making it winter-ready. But, Kay said, NYRA does \"need to be prepared\" if closing Aqueduct is ever an option.
 
A NYRA spokeman later said there is no plan to install a synthetic surface at Belmont in 2014 or any other time.
 
Kay said the budget envisions experiments that, if successful, NYRA will keep in place when it hopes in 2015 to return to a private operation and out from under the authority of a state-imposed board of directors. Susanne Stover, NYRA\'s chief financial officer, called 2014 \"an important year\" for NYRA during the last scheduled year of the state running Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga.
 
While Kay had been hoping to use the VLT revenue to grow NYRA\'s long-term business, the racing entity is facing two major expenses–pension costs and a federal income tax liability–that will eat up that revenue in 2014.
 
NYRA plans to close Aqueduct for training for two to four months a year.
 
\"Maybe shorter, maybe longer,\" Kay said. He said NYRA will talk with the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen\'s Association about the plan; the organization has raised concerns that closing for training could hurt pari-mutuel handle.
 
\"We\'d have to generate $44.6 million in handle to get those funds,\" said Kay, who noted that additional barns are set to be built in 2014 at Belmont to handle horses now kept at Aqueduct when that facility is dark.
 
On a year-to-date basis through three quarters in 2013, NYRA\'s net revenue totaled $122 million, down 1% from the same period in 2012. NYRA officials attributed the drop primarily to fewer race dates.
 
On-track attendance was off 9%, due, in part to declines at the Saratoga summer meet and for the Belmont Stakes (gr. I). Operating expenses were up 4%.
 
NYRA said it generated 21% of the nation\'s Thoroughbred racing handle. Aqueduct\'s VLT casino, meanwhile, had a daily win per machine of $433, up from $371 during the first three quarters of 2012.
 
Williams, the state regulator, called it \"a little odd\" that Saratoga saw an attendance drop when NYRA had a major marketing campaign associated with the track\'s 150th anniversary. Kay said NYRA next year is planning to broaden the marketing outreach, which he said this year was heavily tilted to attracting local patrons, to an area between Boston and Washington, D.C.

[FrankD.]

Einstein\'s the lot of them!!!!
Incredible totally inf$#%^&*$credible.

Along with the stellar product they will put on the track over the next 5 months!
Yes indeed they are truly enhancing our race track experience !!!!

[Boscar Obarra]

You mean the 5% thing wasn\'t an April fools gag? Really?

 Dumber than spit.

[richiebee]

I will grudgingly give credit where credit is due.

DRF reports that NYRA has announced that for the months of January, February and March that Aqueduct will race on Mondays and be dark on Wednesdays. This has always seemed like a no brainer: On Wednesdays, Inner Dirt racing competes for the simulcasting dollar with a superior product being presented by Stronach Anita and Gulfstro Park; on Mondays there is no such competition.

The other things I\'m hearing, such as increased admission at Belmont and the Spa (\"There hasn\'t been an admissions increase at Belmont since 2005\" says the Boob from Toyland)(someone tell the Boob that there haven\'t been any real improvements made at Belmont since 1970); such as closing Aqueduct for training a few months a year to cut expenses; such as enhancing the ontrack experience (6500 live gate on Saturday, just awful for a card which featured the early winter book fave for the Derby and an outstanding Cigar Mile) give me no hope that anyone in this current regime, from Kay on down, could spell \"Clue\" even if they were provided the first three letters.

Nobody talking about quality of racing, safety of horses and riders, building a nationwide brand, cultivating brand loyalty among horseplayers.

[BitPlayer]

Miff -

I don\'t think trying to negotiate higher signal fees is a new thing for NYRA.  We\'ll see how they make out.

My (uneducated) guess is that the 5% fee is driven more by the OTBs (and the patronage recipients who run them) than by NYRA.

For me, the bottom line is that no one seems to be able to run a non-boutique racetrack without something else (usually slots) supplementing its income.  That\'s not a tenable situation for the long-term health of the industry.  With more and more wagering moving away from the track, signal fees (which many feel are too low for historical reasons) are a logical thing to be looking at for enhanced revenues.

[moosepalm]

In reading this thread, and nearly every other one devoted to the Gang that Can\'t Shoot Straight, or shoot anything else other than its own foot, my first thought is that Carl Hiassen or Dave Barry, writers who skewer the many follies and foibles of Florida politics, overdevelopment, etc., should moonlight into NY politics, and need not look any further than the horse racing industry to find ample fodder for another book.  

So, on track attendance is down, but price of admission will go up, the line of thinking being that our product is deemed increasingly less appealing to the public, so let\'s charge them more for it.  Now, if the rationale is to bring in more revenue, but you\'re creating an additional bar to increased attendance, does that not also mean you will also have fewer consumers of the overpriced crap that is served at the majority of non-privately run concession stands?  Is this a favorable trade off?  On the plus side, they can reduce costs of \"free\" crap that is given away, because fewer people will be spinning at five bucks a pop, much to the dismay of thousands of nieces and nephews who will be denied yet another cheesy white tee shirt or red hat to add to their annual Christmas gift collection.

Of course, as is frequently noted, the nature of the wagering business is shifting dramatically to the comforts of one\'s own desk, laz-y boy, or patio furniture.  Someone might want to mention that, and its implications, to them as they figure out how to pay the heating bills at Aqueduct by squeezing out more revenue from all those empty seats that they\'re warming.

[miff]

Bit,

Actually the 5% is the brainchild of NY State after an investigation of wagering. The 5% was embraced by NYRA and supported by the NY horsemen.None of these groups have the slightest knowledge of what there are doing here.\"They\" believe that this will force players handle from ADW\'s/rebate houses to NYRA 1 accounts and NYRA tracks.Rebates will drop by 5% IF the ADW\'s and rebate houses comply with the NY State edict.(hear some places won\'t but NYRA signal may get pulled)


By doing this(5% fee),\"They\" see that NYRA gets the WHOLE takeout on bets(blended 20%) instead of just the signal fee portion(like 8%) from many high volume venue ADW\'s/rebate houses.

Just highlights the disconnect between those in charge and the players and the overall poor treatment of the players.


Mike

[Deadrockstar]

So the 5 percent surcharge would not apply to \"regular\" providers like xpressbet?

[BitPlayer]

Miff -

NYRA itself on gets 10% of the fee.  The OTBs collectively get much more.

http://www.drf.com/news/new-york-add-5-cent-fee-bets-made-out-state-companies

It seems fair to assume that the rebate houses will reduce the rebates for NY residents by the amount of the fee.  How do you think NY whales will respond?

[miff]

Bit,

Some may look to NYRA for the same deal they were getting at the rebate houses or pull the plug on betting NYRA tracks. I understand NYRA will entertain a whale type rebate program(unconfirmed)but the implications of computer generated batch bets and live hook ups to the pools by a select few whales may be an issue.

Dont know how this will play out but the overall implications have not been  well thought out or understood by the NY racing powers that be.


Mike

[miff]

Dead,

Info sketchy but think any NY State resident who bets with an out of state  ADW or Rebate house is subject to the 5%(paid by ADW/rebate House, not the player)

If you can believe it, I asked a guy at the NYS Gaming Commission about the law and his answer was unclear.

Mike

[magicnight]

Mike, any idea what type of \"new facility\" is in the works for the Spa?

And I\'m guessing the \"improved technology\" for viewing races is Trakus and some flat screen TVs, yes? Notice no help on \"hearing\" races, so we can expect the usual dead zones in 2014.

\"Kay said NYRA will be making a number of improvements at the tracks to enhance the experience of patrons, including a new facility at Saratoga and improved technology to view races.\"

[SoCalMan2]

richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I will grudgingly give credit where credit is
> due.
>
> DRF reports that NYRA has announced that for the
> months of January, February and March that
> Aqueduct will race on Mondays and be dark on
> Wednesdays. This has always seemed like a no
> brainer: On Wednesdays, Inner Dirt racing competes
> for the simulcasting dollar with a superior
> product being presented by Stronach Anita and
> Gulfstro Park; on Mondays there is no such
> competition.
>
> The other things I\'m hearing, such as increased
> admission at Belmont and the Spa (\"There hasn\'t
> been an admissions increase at Belmont since 2005\"
> says the Boob from Toyland)(someone tell the Boob
> that there haven\'t been any real improvements made
> at Belmont since 1970); such as closing Aqueduct
> for training a few months a year to cut expenses;
> such as enhancing the ontrack experience (6500
> live gate on Saturday, just awful for a card which
> featured the early winter book fave for the Derby
> and an outstanding Cigar Mile) give me no hope
> that anyone in this current regime, from Kay on
> down, could spell \"Clue\" even if they were
> provided the first three letters.
>
> Nobody talking about quality of racing, safety of
> horses and riders, building a nationwide brand,
> cultivating brand loyalty among horseplayers.


I was out at Aqueduct on Nov 30 for a great card. For what it is worth, there were definitely more than 6,500 people there.  The place was absolutely jammed.  Walked all around the plant and dined at Equestris (sp?).  Admittedly, the space devoted to racing is way smaller than it used to be, but the racing area was uncomfortably crowded.  The murals were actually pretty nice.  I would not have made them a marketing point, but they definitely liven up the place and make it more pleasant.  Not sure how they count attendance.  I never went through a turnstile and I cannot see what mechanism could even be used for counting attendance.

The thing that is unfair about the trying to take the casino revenues away from the NYRA is that there was an obvious contract made by which the racetrack gave up a huge amount of value in exchange for future consideration (i.e. a cut of the casino action).  The value the NYRA gave up was use of very choice real estate, customers, and goodwill. I would not underestimate the value of the goodwill.  Building a casino until recently was inconceivable due to the NIMBY-principle and social mores, and the only way a casino could have been built at the time this one was planned was on the basis of the gambling already being present at the location.  After the NYRA performed its part of the contract and earned its quid pro quo, they now want to take away the NYRA\'s part of the deal?  It makes no sense and outside of lewis carroll, it would never happen in the real world.  Who would say -- I will pay you $250,000 and you transfer to me the house, and then after the $250,000 is paid you say -- nah, forget about the house?  It is total lunacy.

As to the 5% issue, is there any chance that people will wise up and do away with it, or is this a fact of life?  Does it only affect NY\'ers who bet NY racing through out of state websites?  If I live in NY, use twinspires, but never bet on NY racing, am I unaffected?

[Themig]

Trakus was being installed back in Sept. Not sure if it is finished but I would guess NO. New TV\'s and maybe a few new Tote machines. How important is actually hearing the call of a race??...LOL.
Maybe they are building another viewing stand just off nelson Ave looking over the clubhouse turn? Seems about right from this crew

[miff]

Magic,

Pretty much on the money.Kay is under the gun to get NYRA in the black.His selection as CEO was based on his business background, he is a racing industry neophyte bringing nothing to the table regarding the game.IMO he is care taking for Albany and trying to dress up the balance sheet for a buyer so that Cuomo gets racing out of his hair.

The few dollars in increased fees may be meaningful to some and is no more than a slap in the face to players.Record monies flowing to NYRA and they turn around and nickle and dime the customer....f--king idiots.


Mike