We hear all the time that "the system is broken" in harness racing. Everyone is an expert in complaining, myself included, and pointing out problems is low hanging fruit. What we need are solutions - actionable, logical and viable courses of action that can make a difference. I'm certainly not going to solve the industry's problems in one column and quite frankly we all have differing views on what is really broken. Many people see post time drag as a major issue; me, not so much. In a perfect world every race at every track would go off right around post time, but it is far from the most pressing issue from my perspective. But that is perhaps an argument for another day. I want to shine the spotlight on the live racing experience. For all intents and purposes the expectation that people are going to come to the track to watch live horse racing as a "night out" is antiquated. Few people love the sport more than I do but outside of work I visit my local tracks maybe once a year. There are a number of reasons for my lack of attendance, including the cost of gas and tolls, the 150 to 210 minutes of travel time involved, and the lack of reasons to show up in person. The first two issues aren't going to change unless I move closer to the track, but the last item can be corrected, or at least improved. What are the current advantages to being at the track? There is a social aspect to attending the races with friends or family. Back in my younger days I would go about once a month with friends to Yonkers Raceway or the Meadowlands. We often shared a meal in the restaurant and watched and wagered on both the live and simulcast tracks. I still know people who do that from time to time, but it has simply become too easy to sit at home and watch the races. The main advantage I enjoy when visiting a track is the ability to watch the horses warm up and score down. There are many clues as to horse fitness and intent for those willing to spend their time observing. Sure, you can catch some of this at home, but you are at the mercy of the in-house broadcast team, and they might not show what you want to see. How can we make the on-track experience more attractive? I'm going to focus on two very simple wagering-related possibilities. The first involves rebates. While every Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) service offers different rewards, a person in New York can sit in their house and collect a 5% rebate on every bet made at almost any harness track. For those that wager heavily, depending on your state, even higher rewards are available. So consider this for a moment, you can sit at home and get 5% or go to the track and get somewhere between 0% and 3% depending on your wagering level. Let's do some simple math. You visit the track 10 times each year and handle $500 per visit for a total of $5,000 of money wagered each year. At many tracks you get nothing in rewards for wagering at the windows but for the sake of this example we'll use the Meadowlands. Your yearly total of $5,000 puts you at the Bronze level in their Player's Club and would earn you a blended rebate of about 1.25% for wagers placed on the Meadowlands (slightly less for other harness tracks). That would equal 6,250 points which could be used for a $60 betting or food voucher. Assuming you lived just 20-25 miles from the track and there were no tolls along the route, the cost would be approximately $57.80 for the year ($2.89 per gallon for gas times two gallons per trip times 10 trips). Even if you got a 0% rebate for sitting at home there would be no advantage for showing up at the track because you'd simply be getting your costs back for the year. If you are getting even a small rebate on an ADW, staying at home is instantly better for your wallet than traveling to the track. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Most harness tracks get about 3% of every wager made at an ADW, and we'll say a blended 20% (it could be a little lower or higher depending on the track and wagers made) through on-track wagers. So what if tracks dug deeper into their pockets and offered 10% back to on-track customers. Using the same example above, a person who shows up at the Meadowlands would get $50 in points per visit, basically a free meal in Pink or Trotters. Now that is at least some incentive to come out to the track. Another thought could be to use the same idea in a different light. Anyone who dines at the track and can produce at least $500 in betting tickets gets $50 off their dinner bill. This could easily be marketed to a more general audience and can be done at reduced levels as well: $250/$25 or $100/$10. A requirement would be that the person must provide their email and home addresses so they could be added to the marketing list. There would obviously be some short term cost to the track but it has the potential to create new customers, and it doesn't have to be a permanent promotion. It can be only for the first five visits for new customers, giving people enough time to enjoy the track and perhaps get acclimated to the environment. Pivoting slightly, my next suggestion really only impacts more serious bettors, but it could be a game-changer. There has been some chatter online and in other publications about Computer Assisted Wagering (CAW) and how these groups of people make large wagers at the last possible second before the race starts. This action alters the final pools and can make horses go from 3-1 to 6-5 in a hurry. While I have mixed feelings about CAWs in general, why not provide an advantage to people who come to the track and support your product in person? I suggest that all (or any) tracks close wagering at off-track locations when the pacers or trotters are called to the starting gate but leave them open until the field is released for on-track patrons. There is about a 30 to 45 second gap between those two periods of time. Think of the advantage being live at the track could be in terms of finding the right price, seeing which horses are on the gate and ready to leave hard, and being able to notice a breaker behind the gate. This practice would also keep players from showing up at the track and wagering via outside ADWs on their phones because they would lose the on-track edge. The above suggestions are 100% designed to provide value to on-track players so they have more reasons to show up. They work in the same spirit as any promotion. I get a few offers every week via text and email from local restaurants where specials and discounts are included to entice me to show up. I get a bowling email at least once a week offering discounts or free games (one literally came in while I was writing this column). Sports betting sites send me daily emails with promotions (I got two already today). Even my credit card company sends me at least one email a week outlining potential offers. I can't remember the last time I got an email or text from a track that outlined any special deal. They always simply tell me that there is something going on but rarely provide a “carrot on a stick” offer to get me to show up. If tracks want people to attend they need to provide a better reason than live racing. While that used to be enough years ago, sadly those days are long gone and the industry needs to adjust accordingly.