So, how's that free seven hours you have lying around treating you?
What's that you say, "What seven hours?"
It's 2010, a time when the 40-hour work week has gone the way of the paneled station wagon. If you work 50 hours per week these days, you're a slacker to some. In a two-person relationship, you might have 100 to 120 hours combined invested at the old grindstone this week. And the next, and next …
So I ask you once again, "How's that free seven hours treating you?"
While we're at it, what TV show do you watch Tuesday nights at 9? Thursdays at 8? Fridays at 10?
What's that you say, "You DVR them and sneak them in when the kids get to sleep or before they wake up Sunday morning"?
It's a good thing you have those seven hours lying around.
How many sit-down meals have you had with the family this week, or how many times have you gone to a fine restaurant for a few courses and conversation?
What's that you say, "Does Wendy's count?"
It's a good thing you have those seven hours lying around.
What did you think of "SportsCenter" or "Anderson Cooper 360" last night?
What's that you say, "I only read the ticker at the bottom instead of watching the entire 60 minutes"?
No matter how many zeroes you have in your checking and savings accounts, the one thing we can all agree on in 2010 is that the current climate is busy. Too busy. We sprint here, dash there, maybe fire off a text to communicate because heaven forbid we get tied up on the cell phone for a lengthy, six-minute call.
By this time, you're probably wondering where you're going to get that 55 seconds back you just spent reading this column.
Hey, I never said I could stop time. But what I do know is I rarely have seven hours in a solid block to do anything.
Maybe, once upon a time, we all had seven hours lying around to go to the racetrack and enjoy a day of action. Commute, park and enter, watch a nine-race card, fight the traffic and get home. All in an easy, breezy, seven-hour window.
Yeah, like that's going to happen.
Which brings me to the No. 1 concrete hurdle racetracks have to deal with when dealing with their consumers: Time. You can't measure trust. You can't read a needle for apathy. It's impossible to get an exact weight on everyone's wants and needs.
But time, that can be measured. And by any scale used in 2010, you're going to find far more people with an inability to block out seven hours for an activity with any kind of regularity -- even if we love it. And trust me, I love horse racing as much as anything I've come across in my lifetime. Family, horse racing and college football. Give me those three things, and I'll trade you bushels of the rest.
Blocking out seven hours to visit a track has become an event, not a ritual, for many die-hard racing fans, much less the casual observers. Add considerably more time if your drive is more than 30 minutes each way from the local track.
The racing industry needs to continue to punch the time clock -- in the gut -- if it wants to succeed in this ever-busy atmosphere. How can a person multitask their work lives and still enjoy the races? How can the races be presented in a faster fashion, either in live mode or in a simulcast production with one or more racetracks?
Could a 10-race card be broken up into two five-race cards with tied-in wagers specific to that block of races, which would be two hours long? Maybe a pick 5 wager on the first half and second half, i.e., with co-featured races carded in the first and second halves?
The die-hards who want to stay would be in for both halves. The drive-through types, the ones who outnumber those with seven hours lying around, they can something they can grasp and run.
How about a pick 4 that is today's daily double with tomorrow's daily double? I can watch one hour a day online or at an OTB and be involved in jackpot wagering. Make it a rolling double, so each day I can play even if I busted yesterday. Maybe two pick 3s on back-to-back days for a pick 6. You get the idea.
Make the one time a month I can block out seven hours a spectacular outing with first-class customer service, clean facilities and a sense that I'm welcomed. But for the 29 days a month when I can only find time to follow the races in between other dances, hurry it up, I've got things pulling me in 27 directions.
Even when betting online or at an OTB, we rarely have all day for an activity that, quite honestly, may not appeal to every member of the family (and that's not only OK, it's completely realistic).
The answer isn't to bang out the races faster; it's about packaging them in a creative, rapid-fire nature that fits today's consumer. Give me the same thrills I've loved my entire life with the races, but help me work them into what our real lives permit.
There is absolutely nothing on Earth I'd rather be doing than spending seven hours a few times per week, or even once per week, enjoying the races.
But the time for that seems to have passed by all of us in this era we live, not for a lack of passion, but rather a lack of space between the hands on the clock.
Originally Posted on ESPN