Hollywood Park Reports Meet Declines

Hollywood Park finished its 40-day Autumn Meet Dec. 21 with declines across the board in attendance and handle, the Inglewood, Calif., track reported.

Overall daily handle averaged $8.9 million, down 18.3% from the figure of $10.9 million during a 32-day meeting in 2007. The on-track average of $1.05 million was down 21.6% from the average of $1.3 million in 2007. On track-attendance fell 12% to 4,353, compared to 4,944 in 2007.

The ADW average for the meeting of $1.4 million was down 22.8%, but it improved following the settlement of a 17-day dispute, rising to $1.6 million daily from $993,320. For the 23 racing days after the ADW situation was resolved, total handle averaged $9.3 million, down 15.2% from 2007.

“Although we came close during our summer meeting to matching our record-setting meeting of 2007, we ran into a double whammy in the fall with the poor economy and an unexpected ADW standoff,” track president Jack Liebau said in a news release. “The ADW average handle was down more than 43% from 2007 during the first 17 days of the meeting when players residing outside of California could not bet on Hollywood Park races.

 “The decrease in business affected everyone as purses had to be cut,” Liebau added. “The ADW average jumped more than $600,000 a day once out-of-state wagering came back on line with the four major ADW providers in late November, putting our figures in line with the national trend.”