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And you wonder why more tracks don't close.
Here's one of the most popular tracks in the country, running about a month long meaning, and realizing revenue of just $5.6 million. (If you want a handy comparison, the ticket sales alone of tonight's Rams-Eagles game at the Coliseum will be over $6 million.)
That $5.6 million has to pay all the track's overhead. (Yes, they sell a few parking charges, admissions, and hot dogs to the tiny crowds on-track, but not much.)
All the stable area upkeep, the salaries for the hundreds of track employees, all the track maintenance, all the expenses for cleaning up and maintaining the huge plant and grounds, all of it has to be paid out of that $5.6 million.
And that only comes in during the months the track is open. During downtime, the track gets a much smaller amount of money from its off track operation but still has to pay to maintain all those stables and the plant and pay its full time staff.
Horse racing is like the opera and NASCAR. It costs a lot more money to put on than most forms of entertainment. If the sport doesn't figure out how to draw a lot more people out to see its product, it looks very bleak in the long term, especially in Southern California.
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