Mark, I was thinking the same thing, watching all the pagentry leading up to
the derby race. I had watched an hour or so of the events, and the pre
derby race on ESPN, then the race on NBC, or whatever channel it was,
thinking, "this is a lot of hype, and a lot of money has been spent by
farms, owners, trainers, etc. to get to this point, all for a two minute
race, and a lifetime of glory....kinda like autocrossing...except there's no
purses.
Phil O.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark J Bradakis" <mjb@autox.team.net>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 2:24 AM
Subject: Dollars per minute?
> One of the gripes often heard about autocross is that the seat time per
event
> is fairly low, and for events of a national caliber, costs can be fairly
high,
> where 'high' is defined by the entrant. For sure, going to Nationals for
the
> opportunity to spend $XXXX for 5 or 6 total minutes of seat time can
appear as
> a pretty odd expense to those who don't understand.
>
> So this weekend I'm laying about the house, sidelined by a bit of flu,
when I
> have a zillion projects that need to be done. Clicking through the
channels
> I watch a bit of the Kentucky Derby.
>
> How many dollars are spent during the year that can be attributed to the
Derby?
> I mean entry fees, spectator tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals, dining at
the
> local restuarants, gift shops, airline tickets, bourbon, car rentals,
special
> outfits, TV production, the costs of breeding, training, transporting the
> horses, jockey salaries, not to mention the wagers laid down. All for
roughly
> two minutes of competition by a dozen or two horses.
>
> Is there any way that autocrossing could even come within several orders
of
> magnitude of this expense?
>
> mjb.
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