Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie's 16th Spring Thoroughbred season ended last month with a strong finish to another challenging year of live Thoroughbred horse racing in Texas.
After a slow start due to the cooler than normal spring that prevented turf racing until early May, the live racing calendar was shortened to 3-day racing on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays the final three weeks of the season
The experiment worked as live on-track handle, simulcast out handle and live attendance increased 15% across the board. Over 86,000 customers attended the final seven days of live racing featuring a Dollar Day, two 20-minute fireworks shows and three concerts, presented by Bud Light, in addition to the live horse racing. These customers wagered $2,573,239 on-track for live racing plus another $2,562,057 wagered on-track for simulcast races around the nation. A total of $5.1 million was wagering on-track. Final season-ending averages included a modest 2% increase in average daily attendance and total live product wagering finished with a 1% increase
But overall totals declined due to the 50 day live racing schedule versus 53 days of live racing in 2012.
And therin lies the rub with horse racing in Texas.
Lone Star Park, the flagship Class One horse racetrack in Texas, is struggling to fill race dates due to a shortage of horses caused by a continual decline in the quality of racing in Texas.
In The Beginning
In 1997, Lone Star Park was the shining new racetrack on a hill offering $15.6 million in purses for horsemen from all over the country to race for with a large stable of owners living right here in Dallas/Fort Worth.
Spring racing dates were conducted over a 5-day period Wednesdays through Sundays and featured 73 days of live racing from April 17 to July 27.
A year-round simulcast facility called the Post Time Pavilion opened 11 months prior to live horse racing and generated over $100 million in simulcast revenue. Some of the money was earmarked by horsemen to aid purses and the rest helped with construction costs of the $100 million racing facility being constructed next door that was being compared to the greatest sports venues of all time in advertisements.
Opening Day attendance was 21,754 on Thursday and two-time Eclipse Award winner Skip Away raced here on Sunday before a crowd of 24,717 in the $250,000 Texas Mile and finished second. A total of 73,544 customers attended the races that weekend and wagered $5,063,962 on-track on live races plus another $2,532,593 on on-track simulcast races from around the country. A whopping $7,596,55 was wagered by Texans on live horse racing right here in little ole' Grand Prairie.
Our inaugural spring Thoroughbred season live attendance totalled 712,673 for a daily average of 9,762. For an encore, in 1998 Lone Star Park drew over 715,995 customers for a daily average of 9,808 becoming the first racetrack in modern times to generate an increase in attendance from year one to year two.
Soon the NTRA would sponsor our All-Star Jockey Challenge and the best jockeys in the world were appearing in Grand Prairie every June competing in an innovative four-race competition to determine the best jockey. Not long afterwards racing's richest day, the Breeders' Cup, came to Grand Prairie and the world's best horses were competing for the sports top honors right here at Lone Star Park before 53,717--the largest crowd to ever witness a horse race in Texas in the modern era and the youngest track to ever host the Breeders' Cup Championships.
A new advertising slogan soon was being touted all over Dallas/Fort Worth using the horses as spokespersons with the tagline, "The Horses Are Ready. Are You?"
All signs pointed upward for Texas horse racing.
However, things quickly went downhill.
The Second Chapter
In 2002, Lone Star Park was sold to Magna Entertainment Corporation (MEC,) a publicly traded Canadian company controlled by successful horse owner Frank Stronach.
MEC owned Lone Star Park for seven years, oversaw the successful Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships in 2004 and implemented other innovative racing product offerings including HRTV and Xpressbet among others. However, succumbing to the global economic collapse in late 2008, MEC filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and Lone Star Park was among the tracks sold through the bankruptcy process.
All the while, a plethora of alternative gaming options opened in neighboring states. First in Louisiana, where riverboat casinos had previously been in place, slot machines were now available at Louisiana Downs at the horse races. Then, Indian casinos started popping up in Oklahoma especially two on the Texas border. New Mexico would soon follow suit. The internet age soon was embraced too as Account Deposit Wagering companies began popping up in cyberspace allowing customers to establish an account and wager online in Texas--all of which Lone Star Park receives zero towards purses.
Fast-forward 16 years and gambling advocates estimate over $3 billion is leaving the state of Texas annually wagered by Texans in these neighboring states offering alternative forms of gaming that is illegal in Texas.
Along with the horse racing customers, the Texas owners who were so excited to race their horses at Lone Star Park in 1997 were also exiting the state for greener pastures and higher purses.
And still Texas is one of a handful of racing states that still does not offer any form of wagering other than that kind done at the Texas parimutuel facilities. No ADW (Advance Deposit Wagering), OTB (Off-Track Betting) or Instant Racing (machines that operate like slot machines but use previously run races--many from Lone Star Park to determine the outcome.) To further add fuel to the towering inferno of lost revenue, public sources estimate that tens of millions of dollars are wagered illegally in Texas by ADW companies with zero being contributed to our purses.
The recently conducted season at Lone Star Park offered just under $7 million in purses for 50 days of live racing for an average of approximately $130,000 per day. Compare that to the $15.6 million offered for 73-days in 1997 averaging $214,000 per day and you see the conundrum facing Texas racing.
Texas racetracks can barely survive on horse racing alone. Even with year-round simulcast revenue, the high overhead costs of conducting live racing meets sap operating revenue.
Also, older facilities need lots of capital improvement money to keep pace with father time.
Then you have the never-ending threats to success that accompany an outdoor live entertainment venue: weather, the economy and competition.
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If You Build It, They Will Come
In the competitive Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, spring weather can be very unpredictable teetering back and forth from cold, rainy springs to sun-drenched 100-degree droughts. Economic cycles come and go but the competition is fierce in Dallas/Fort Worth for over 6.2 million customers entertainment dollars.
D/FW is one of a handful of markets offering Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA, NHL plus NASCAR. Add in the third-largest attended State Fair in the United States, one of the most successful theme parks in the country and ground-zero for two of the largest entertainment companies competing head-to-head for concert talent and you have a murderers row of entertaiment options.
And that is precisely the dilemna facing Lone Star Park.
What do you do to encourage customers to visit your facility with a declining product offering on the track facing overwhelming competition with better product offerings off the track?
The key is to create an alternative form of entertainment that complements the horse racing to carve out a niche market to support your other areas of revenue that are comprised by a declining racing product. At most racetracks, wagering revenue is king because of the alternate forms of gaming: casino wagering, ADW's, OTB's or Instant Racing. These outlets lessen the emphasis placed on attracting live on-track customers which, outside of a handful of larger tracks, no one is focusing on anymore in this alternate form of wagering world.
However, at Lone Star Park, non-wagering revenue is a significant part of our total live racing revenue as a testament to our emphasis on attracting live customers who not only have to come to Grand Prairie to legally wager but also spend non-wagering revenue dollars on our entertainment event days.
Plus, attracting live racing customers, especially first time visitors, is essential to introducing a new audience to horse racing. Core horse racing customers don't grow on trees and the ones that exist are disappearing. You have to cultivate their product life cycle just like any other product offering: introducing them to your product, giving them a reason to come back by offering an engaging and inviting experience combined with superior customer service and then teaching them the basics of how to play.
You also have to continually update and refresh your product offering to keep up with the Joneses, as well, something Lone Star Park's parent company Global Gaming Solutions has done to the tune of $11 million since 2011.
It Might Be Called The Sport of Kings But In Texas Entertainment Is King
Lone Star Park understood the challenges facing a new racetrack being introduced into a heavily competitive market like the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex all the way back in 1997.
Which is why we supplemented our live racing with entertainment from day #1.
Yes even with the likes of two-time Eclipse Award winning horse Skip Away and Kentucky Derby winner Real Quiet and trainer Bob Baffert, a slew of the top Hall of Fame Jockeys in the country with names like Bailey, Day, Delahoussaye, Desormeaux, McCarron and Pincay, Jr., competing in the NTRA All-Star Jockey Championship and even hosting racing's richest day, the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships which attracted the pretty people of horse racing, Lone Star Park has had to supplement the horse racing with entertainment to attract customers.
Yes, equine racing enthusiasts, we offered a Dollar Day in 2004 in the days preceding our 19-day Fall Breeders' Cup Meeting that offered over $15 million in purses!
At first, we tried all the horse racing gimmicks that had lured racing fans to the track for years. Hats, Steins, Glassware, Sports Bags, Six-Pack Coolers, Umbrellas, Wallets filled with cash and Key Chains stuffed with cash. You name it. If it could be bought from China for under $2 and shipped on a slow boat, we tried it.
And this was all before the American Airlines Center (2001), Verizon Theatre (2002), Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco (2003), FC Dallas Soccer Stadium (2004), the House of Blues (2007), Cowboys Stadium (2009) and a rejuvenated Ballpark in Arlington (various years.)
We also added the traditional horse racing handicapping contests and mystery mutuel vouchers to encourage repeat visitation from our core customers.
And, in 1999 we even tricked-up our inaugural Lone Star Million Day which was being billed as the "richest day of Texas racing" featuring 7 stakes races totalling one million in purses. We offered a million dollar horse shoe pitch along with the $1 million racing to guarantee a crowd was here to watch the stellar stakes races that the core fan couldn't wait for and the casual fan in D/FW didn't care and knew nothing about (ESPN/Chilton research showed in 1998 only 48,000 people in Dallas/Fort Worth considered themselves "core" horse racing fans while over 432,000 considered themselves "light users.") A Wallet Day, 20,000 wallets were stuffed with cash, had attracted 20,425 the year before. We were a victim of our own success because only 17,003 attended the inaugural Lone Star Million.
Yes the crowds came for these trinkets and gimmicks but soon they lost their luster. And research showed customers thought the items were cheap, the lines were too long and the item would soon end up in the trash heap or in a garage sale. They wanted more than just a "deal value" and yearned for a "real value" experience. Research also showed that in warmer states such as Texas that being outdoors mattered most, especially in the spring, and live concerts and festivals were prominently mentioned as appealing entertainment options. Duh!
Let There Be Live Music
Between race entertainment was always a given but live music has always been offered, as well.
First between races that stopped for the horse racing (yes, we had the Dixie Chicks on our Courtyard Stage on Memorial Day weekend in 1997,) then post-race concerts started in 1998.
Jerry Jeff Walker was our first act and he too played on the Courtyard of Champions stage. A crowd of 10,083 people attended live racing for the post-race concert, another 10 friends and family stayed for the post-concert acoustic show in our 3rd floor conference room that went way beyond 2 a.m. and Lone Star Park was off and running in the concert business.
Later in 1998, we offered an Hispanic Music Festival featuring Tejano star Emilio in a post-race concert. A total of 12,738 customers attended the horse races on Preakness day and stayed for the post-race concert.
In 1999, in addition to our popular "Party at the Park" on Friday nights, we added a Thursday night music promotion to our entertainment offering with "Sunset Serenade" featuring live music between races combined with drink specials.
These popular promotions attracted the Dallas/Fort Worth entertainment-seekers on weekday evenings and our business was also bolstered by a robust Group Sales & Catering business that added approximately 10% of our live racing attendance for corporate outings. Amazingly, over 50% of these groups, which averaged over 20 people, were first-time visitors to the racetrack. And over 80% were corporate outings featuring key influencers and decision-makers in the DFW market who would spread a positive word of mouth about their experience. Talk about low hanging fruit!
In 2000, we decided to pass on any more racing premium giveaways in favor of live music post-race concerts. We secured a beer sponsor and started small on our Courtyard of Champions stage but were encouraged by the attendance for our first serious attempt at post-race concerts.
We were generally pleased when traditional country music favorites Lee Roy Parnell and Tracy Byrd attracted 9,191 and 9,787 customers for live racing and post-race concerts in May and June but we were absolutely blown away when over 12,435 attended a concert on July 15 featuring a young Texas Country artist named Pat Green. We were further blown away when we counted the food and beverage totals. After three concerts we had outgrown our small Courtyard stage and were ready for the bigtime.
And so the Lone Star Park/Miller Lite True to Texas Concert Series was born.
In 2001, we followed with traditional country artist Mark Chesnutt (9,449), Pat Green (21,157) and Charlie Robison (12,672) on the larger stage we now use adjacent to the track apron fence. Willie Nelson made his first of three consecutive appearances in 2002 and annually drew over 21,000 customers. We mixed in a slew of traditional country artists such as Chris LeDoux along with oldies such as the Beach Boys and Charlie Daniels but the numbers paled in comparison to our younger, Texas Country artists.
Texas Country Music, or Red Dirt as it has evolved, was sweeping over Texas from every nook-and-cranny, hole-in-the wall bar from Waco to Stephensville creating a following of younger Texans unseen before. And guess what? These kids were out of school by late May early June and looking for their favorite artist to play in their hometown and most of them called home, Dallas.
Names like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Randy Rogers and Eli Young not only drew twice as many customers than the traditional country artist or older "oldies" band establishing all-time attendance records but the food and beverage numbers were through the roof.
As our numbers grew so did the talent fees but we offset those by implementing a late-gate charge to the "price-insensitive" late-arriving concert-goers. Who won't pay $15 to see Pat Green? Plus you get the horse racing with it!
We are also fortunate to have been purchased in 2011 by Global Gaming Solutions, a company who understands the entertainment business and has not only supported the Lone Star Music Series but contributed over $11 in capital improvements to our product offering along with the Grand Prairie Sports Facilities Development Corporation.
If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It
Now you began to see the formula for our successful product offering that remains today: live post-race concerts outdoors under the Texas sky, beer sales, late-gate revenue and sponsorships.
And even the wagering revenue on live horse racing has seen increases versus non-concert nights. And we are definitely creating new horse racing customers as we are now seeing these younger folks coming back and bringing their wives they met at their first Randy Rogers Band concert.
We have experimented with alternate forms of music during our 16 years of post-race concerts. Anwhere from the Beach Boys, Charlie Daniels, Foreigner and Ted Nugent to Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton and Dwight Yoakam but none of these established artists draw the numbers we consistently draw with our tried and true Texas Country music artists
However, there are only so many Texas artists to go around. And everyone else wants them to play at their venue including the plethora of spring music festivals in Texas. Which is why we have cultivated another group of artists recently who have made tremendous attendance increases over the years: Nashville. That's right. The new music now making inroads on our Texas Country scene are the more established Nashville artists. Names like Gary Allan, Billy Currington and Josh Turner. And they are attracting similar if not larger crowds than our Texas Country artists. And they draw a mixture of older customers to complement a younger mix seen more at the Texas Country shows.
As the Texas Country music scene evolves into Red Dirt to Red Dirt Alternative, we know one thing--Texas artists attract Texas crowds who not only buy beer and do not mind paying extra at the gate but also wager. We also sell more suites in Group Sales when we have a concert night. And, sponsors love the demographic make-up of our concert crowds.
The bands have even helped get on the band wagon, so to speak. Just this past month Josh Abbott filmed a "Live at Lone Star Park" music video for their last hit during their concert in July. This video follows other "live at" productions by Randy Rogers and Eli Young from their appearances in Grand Prairie. All at their gigs under the Texas sky at Lone Star Park versus other venues.
The local television stations have also noticed. They regularly book our talent on their popular morning shows as their special musical guests. More exposure for Lone Star Park and the horses to another new target audience who watch the highly rated morning television programs.
Successful entertainment options don't just grow on trees. They have to be cultivated over time and matched with a product offering that attracts customers by satisfying their need for entertainment. And when you get successful, other attractions start copying you and try and steal your talent. You know what they say: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
You can't be all things to all people. Especially in Texas.
As our ad slogan now says: "It's Racing That Rocks You!"
Indeed.
