Will Monmouth Park's new push raise profile of racetrack?

BY JOE FAVORITO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

ON N.J. SPORTS MARKETING

Many pundits still see a combination of slot machines, an aging population and a weak economy as a lingering deathblow to the fractured sport of horse racing. However with the start of a new invigorated meet this Saturday, Monmouth Park is looking to change perception and inject new interest and buzz into the Oceanport track and the sport in general. Can Monmouth help save horse racing?

Saturday will start Monmouth's 50-day elite summer meeting, which will award $1-million per day in purses and has attracted many of the sport's top horsemen and jockeys. The meet will feature the highest purse structure in the country after officials, horsemen, and politicians agreed to a one-year deal that sliced live racing dates to 71 and eliminated Thoroughbred racing at the Meadowlands.

A total of $12.1-million in stakes purses at the high end and a $30,000 purse for $5,000 claiming races at the low end has prompted trainers from New York, California, and Kentucky to summer at the New Jersey shore.

Monmouth's scaled down experiment with 12 races per day is a great next step to prove that less days and more excitement will bring both the casual and the die-hard racing fan out to the track at least once this summer, and once they feel the excitement of live thoroughbred racing they will come back for more.

If more people show, more brands may be interested in ancillary sponsorships and activation opportunities, ala team sports giveaways. With that comes more opportunities to market the track and the races away from the site, which can generate even more traffic and coverage for the sport. Monmouth has long been racing's best-kept secret in the tri-state area. The mega-tracks like the Meadowlands and Aqueduct and Belmont and Philadelphia Park always tended to draw the interest of media and brands in years past, but as the economy changed so did the financial structure for putting together race meets. The larger tracks felt the pinch, opening the door for Monmouth, which has an interesting cache of catering not just to the grizzled daily better but to families heading down the Shore as well.

Will it work? Will Monmouth become the standard bearer for the way racetracks can succeed in a digital world? Will the meet generate more ancillary income for all those businesses in the area? Will it become a destination stop for tourists interested in the rich heritage of racing in New Jersey? Will sponsors come on board? All to be answered. The one that has already been answered is ... can Monmouth find a way to set itself apart? The answer is yes. And that will begin Saturday, with the rest to follow.

Joe Favorito has over 23 years of strategic communications/marketing, business development and public relations expertise in sports, entertainment, brand building, media training, television, athletic administration and business. Visit him at JoeFavorito.com.