HORSE RACING THREAD
05-02-2010
, 10:40 AM
05-04-2010
, 09:29 PM
Oh wow he died? Wow he must have been in his late 80's right? RIP
05-06-2010
, 02:32 PM
05-06-2010
, 05:04 PM
I missed the second leg.. had the second and third place runners.. by a neck.
Regarding the state of NYC OTB
Quote:
From WNYC
Like Sandy Frucher, the man chosen last year to resuscitate New York City OTB as its new chairman.
"People have described it to me as a gathering of, sort of, people who are down on their luck or losers or whatever," Frucher says.
We're sitting in his home -- a five-story townhouse decorated with antique Chinese vases and tapestries. Frucher says he doesn't like gambling much. He saves his betting for the stock market. But he says he still knows exactly what OTB's problem is. It needs an image makeover.
"In England, horse racing is the sport of kings," Frucher says. "In the United States, it used to be 'National Velvet.' Now, the picture is some poor folks who've had some bad luck, standing in front of a deteriorating, ugly, rotten OTB parlor."
So Frucher has a plan: Change the demographic of OTB customers. He says the current customer base is dying out: 92 percent male, average age of 55. The demographic of OTB's future will look a lot different when he's done with it, he says: younger, hipper, richer. And, a lot more female.
This is Sandy Frucher's vision: twenty-something-year-old girls dancing under chandeliers in trendy bars -- betting on horses in between cocktail sips. In six months, Frucher hopes to install self-service Internet betting terminals at bars like the Village Lantern at Bleecker and Sullivan to replace the OTB parlors he'll shut down.
The Village Lantern is only a 10-minute walk from the Varick Street parlor, which is likely to close since it's one of the less profitable branches in the city. Tonight, one of the Lantern's customers, Shannon Phelan, says she'd gamble if there were OTB terminals in here. She says it sounds like a great excuse to get drunk and yell. "Because that would be hysterical!" Phelan says. "Are you kidding? You are drunk, you whip your money down, you cheer on a horse -- that would be great."
Like Sandy Frucher, the man chosen last year to resuscitate New York City OTB as its new chairman.
"People have described it to me as a gathering of, sort of, people who are down on their luck or losers or whatever," Frucher says.
We're sitting in his home -- a five-story townhouse decorated with antique Chinese vases and tapestries. Frucher says he doesn't like gambling much. He saves his betting for the stock market. But he says he still knows exactly what OTB's problem is. It needs an image makeover.
"In England, horse racing is the sport of kings," Frucher says. "In the United States, it used to be 'National Velvet.' Now, the picture is some poor folks who've had some bad luck, standing in front of a deteriorating, ugly, rotten OTB parlor."
So Frucher has a plan: Change the demographic of OTB customers. He says the current customer base is dying out: 92 percent male, average age of 55. The demographic of OTB's future will look a lot different when he's done with it, he says: younger, hipper, richer. And, a lot more female.
This is Sandy Frucher's vision: twenty-something-year-old girls dancing under chandeliers in trendy bars -- betting on horses in between cocktail sips. In six months, Frucher hopes to install self-service Internet betting terminals at bars like the Village Lantern at Bleecker and Sullivan to replace the OTB parlors he'll shut down.
The Village Lantern is only a 10-minute walk from the Varick Street parlor, which is likely to close since it's one of the less profitable branches in the city. Tonight, one of the Lantern's customers, Shannon Phelan, says she'd gamble if there were OTB terminals in here. She says it sounds like a great excuse to get drunk and yell. "Because that would be hysterical!" Phelan says. "Are you kidding? You are drunk, you whip your money down, you cheer on a horse -- that would be great."
Last edited by Kevroc; 05-06-2010 at 05:23 PM.