When Breeders’ Cup and Keeneland announced at a press conference last month that, in 2015, the fall championship racing event would be held for the first time at the boutique Lexington racetrack, they ended weeks of rumor and did the expected. The details of the deal, however, raise unexpected questions about how many — and which — fans can attend the spotlight days.
The press conference was held at Keene Place, the track’s renovated 1805 Georgian mansion, where Lafayette once slept. Remarks — brief and on point — came from Breeders’ Cup chairman and Keeneland director William S. Farish Jr., Keeneland president and CEO Bill Thomason and Ky. Gov. Steve Beshear, who punctuated the occasion with a celebratory Perrier-Jouet toast shared by the invited, mostly jacket-and-tie crowd that included Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, city business promoters, racing who’s-whos and industry media. The announcement that Keeneland would host the 2015 Breeders’ Cup included news that the event would be held in 2016 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., and in 2017 at Del Mar near San Diego.
The messaging at the Lexington press conference centered on two big-picture bullet points. Breeders’ Cup at the National Historic Landmark track in the heart of racing’s international breeding industry represents a homecoming for the scores of Thoroughbred champions foaled on area farms and for the signature event, which was conceived more than 30 years ago by the late prominent horseman John R. Gaines of Lexington. And the Keeneland Breeders’ Cup experience will be exceptional and unique.
The second point underscores not just Keeneland’s reputation in the industry as a first-class facility but also its fit in the pantheon of Breeders’ Cup sites. Keeneland is considerably smaller — in physical plant, floor area and seating capacity — than Churchill Downs, Santa Anita, Belmont, Gulfstream and most other previous Breeders’ Cup host tracks. It seats only 8,800, and its largest crowd ever has been 40,600. Compare that to Churchill, which seats 52,000 and accommodates 160,000 on Kentucky Derby day, or Santa Anita, which over the two days of Breeders’ Cup last year drew 94,600, including 58,800 on Saturday. And since attendance drives betting (though the lion’s share of handle is generated off-track), there are related financial considerations.
To address those concerns, Keeneland and Breeders’ Cup unveiled plans for temporary tents — single- and double-level, housing customizable individual and corporate suites — and temporary grandstand boxes that will raise the track’s reserved seating capacity to 21,000. More than 7,000 of the added reserved seats will be “premium” in terms of their amenities. The tents will be set in what are now parking lots, a trackside lawn and a paddock overlook. New dining and hospitality areas will be added. (Lights won’t be installed, since all races will be run before dark.)
The emphasis, Thomason said, will be on “providing a great experience for everyone who attends.” That prompts the questions: Whom — and how many — will “everyone” be?
Answers start with the fans who will fill the 21,000 reserved seats. After that, a limited number of general admission tickets will be available, Farish said.
“We’re not sure how many yet,” he said.
Thomason also said there will be limited general admission but didn’t specify the number.
Vince Gabbert, Keeneland vice president and COO, later said that attendance calculations were still being reviewed, but that general admission tickets will likely not exceed 10,000. There will also be a limited number of admission tickets to two designated tailgate areas on the grounds. (No ticket prices have been set yet.)
About 80 percent of the 31,000-ticketed fans (reserved seat and general admission) should have a trackside view of the races. The rest, including tailgaters, would watch the races on monitors. Gabbert estimated total attendance — reserved, general and tailgate — will be capped at 40,000-45,000 each day.
Since expanding to two days in 2007, Breeders’ Cup has averaged 35,000 attendance on Fridays and 58,000 on Saturdays, including a Saturday high of 72,000 at Churchill Downs in 2010. Given those numbers, and Keeneland’s admissions cap, it seems metaphysically certain that Breeders’ Cup Saturday in 2015 will be sold out and likely that thousands of fans will be turned away from one of racing’s marquee days.
“Our goal is not to stuff as many people as we can in for Breeders’ Cup,” Gabbert said. “Our goal is for the right amount of people to have the best experience they can, to engage people, to put on the highest class event possible.”
No previous Breeders’ Cup has had an admissions cap, and such caps have never been part of American racing, which instead has long bemoaned and attempted to address its shrinking fan base. Some in the industry, citing those points and Breeders’ Cup’s mission — articulated long ago by Gaines — to raise the national profile of the sport and increase its popularity, question an admissions cap.
But Michael Amo, chairman of ThoroFan, a Thoroughbred racing fan association based in New York State, said Keeneland and Breeders’ Cup’s plan for the 2015 event “makes sense to me.”
Pointing to June’s Belmont Stakes day in New York as a negative, overcrowded experience for many of the 102,000 fans in attendance, Amo said “more damage” can be done to potential fans by providing an “open venue and a bad experience” than by limiting attendance.
“You have to create a great fan experience to expand our fan base,” he said.
A sold-out, well-run event might give racing some cachet and stimulate future fan interest, Amo said. But he offered “one caution”: Ticketing should be based on “randomization, not pricing structure” skewed to an exclusive crowd of the wealthy and well-connected. In other words, he added, “Keep it entry level.”