Ticket Sales For Breeders' Cup At Del Mar Easily Surpassing Those For Last Year's Event

This year's Breeders' Cup at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has "pushed the host" of last year's event, Santa Anita Park, "into the ticket-sales rearview mirror," according to Bryce Miller of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Breeders' Cup President & CEO Craig Fravel said that sales are around $13.5M, "easily eclipsing" Santa Anita's $9.6M. Consider the "larger seating capacity at Santa Anita and the half a year Del Mar has to unload the few remaining premium and general-admission tickets and it paints the run-up even more impressively." Organizers "plan to stretch what normally is a long racing weekend into a full-blown festival, with more than 20 events that include a golf tournament at Torrey Pines, art walk in La Jolla and 5K run along the ocean." Del Mar also "limited seating -- capping it around 37,500 -- to value quality over quantity." The move is "intended to shorten lines at concession stands and betting windows." Del Mar Exec VP & CMO Craig Dado said, "We’re actually putting together a media campaign to explain to people that if you don’t have a ticket, don’t come. Because we’ve never, in the history of Del Mar, had a sellout. We’ve trained people over the years, ‘Yeah, come over. There’s no such thing as a sellout.’ But we’ll be sold out." Fravel said, "Del Mar is a little underexposed internationally. We’ve got a lot of long-time Breeders’ Cup patrons who’ve never been there" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 5/4).