Breeders' Cup President Avioli Says Ticket Sales Have Been Brisk

Breeders’ Cup President & CEO Greg Avioli said that ticket sales for the November event at Santa Anita Park "have been brisk, perhaps a byproduct of officials slashing prices this year and no longer requiring fans who are interested in reserved seats to commit to Friday and Saturday," according to Art Wilson of the SAN GABRIEL VALLEY TRIBUNE. Avioli said ticket sales have been "moving much faster than we had anticipated." Avioli: "We have just gone over four million dollars' worth of ticket sales for the event, we've sold out just about all of the premium seats, and right now we're left with just a few thousand grandstand seats for the remainder of the event." Avioli noted that the goal is to "surpass last year's two-day attendance total of more than 80,000." Avioli: "We believe that the combination of those price decreases and what we hope is a stronger local marketing effort than we had last year is going to help put more people in the seats and make more people aware of the event" (SAN GABRIEL VALLEY TRIBUNE, 9/30).

BIRD CALLING: Breeders' Cup officials have scheduled a Twitter meet-up, commonly called a tweet-up, for November 6 at Santa Anita during the race. While sports-related tweet-ups have become common in recent months, this effort is more rare by being connected on-site to the event around which it was organized. Race officials have established a special seating area at the racetrack for tweet-up participants, and the event will include a handicapping session with several racing writers, jockey appearances and giveaways that will include a trip to next year's Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).