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Despite being the North American leader among Standardbred racetracks in handle, averaging just over $3 million USD per card again in 2024, Meadowlands Racetrack has indicated the track's future could be in jeopardy without an additional revenue stream.
A cautionary editorial penned by Meadowlands Racetrack's publicity representative Nick Salvi and sent to media on Tuesday, Jan. 14 broke down the handle and operating numbers for the historic New Jersey oval.
Meadowlands Racetrack reported that its 2024 combined pari-mutuel handle was down by $18.8 million USD or five per cent compared to 2023 and reported a pari-mutuel net loss of $1.3 million USD from racing revenues less statutory and purse related expenses.
The editorial noted that, "Unfortunately, operating without ancillary revenue from an alternate form of gaming and left to depend on money bet on the races as the main stream of revenue doesn't pay the bills, jeopardizing the industry leader's future.
"The revenue being generated by the sources available cannot sustain purses at the current level, nor does it cover the cost of operations. That problem is compounded by the fact that handle on horse racing and in turn, the revenue derived from it, declines every year."
The editorial referred to data recently reported by the United States Trotting Association that shows total handle on North American harness racing in 2024 was $1,470,658,827 USD, marking a decrease of 7.23 per cent from the year prior, and handle declined 3.35 per cent on Thoroughbred racing in 2024, according to Equibase.
"Despite the best efforts of Meadowlands management to stem the tide by offering a popular betting menu on full and competitive fields, guaranteed pools to enhance the most popular of those, the grandest stakes program in North America and a plethora of both racing and non-racing promotions, the declines in revenue continue and are taking their toll.
"Those financial woes are complicated by the proliferation of sport betting options since FanDuel at The Meadowlands was the first to implement it in 2017. Sports betting took a 30 per cent hit when neighbouring New York came online in 2022, and continues to face greater competition every year.
"While the sports betting is indeed a separate entity from Meadowlands Racing, the agreement with the SBOA of NJ [Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey] dictates that a percentage of the revenue be used for purses.
"In 2024, The Meadowlands added $2.5 million [USD] in sports betting revenue directly to the purse account and another $11.5 million [USD] of that revenue was used to cover the losses accumulated operating the racetrack for the year."
Meadowlands President Jeff Gural spoke to the problem, “Even though we spent over $100 million [USD] to build a beautiful new facility which caters to owners, it has not resulted in drawing people, even horsepeople, to come to the track.
"The reality is that for us to continue to conduct a 90-day harness racing meet, The Meadowlands, like all the other harness tracks in the Northeast, needs the revenue a casino generates to help fund purses and operating costs.
“Every year our main competitor, Yonkers, receives $50 million [USD] for purses while Pocono and Harrah’s Philly each get around $30 million [USD] in ancillary revenue from gaming. Without casino revenue, we receive only a $6 million [USD] grant from the state and unlike the other tracks, we share our sports betting revenue with the horsemen.
"The truth is harness racing only exists in N.J. because we have good lobbyists and provide thousands of jobs and green space, but our customers are continuing to die off which weakens our case each year.
"Making it worse, unlike here at the Meadowlands, the owners at all of the other racetracks are casino companies who would prefer to see horse racing disappear.”
Meadowlands Racetrack provided year-end summaries for pari-mutuel and FanDuel handle at both The Meadowlands and Bayonne OTW for 2024 below in USD.
Combined pari-mutuel handle for 2024 is down compared to 2023 by $18.8 million or five per cent. The 2024 racing season had the same number of dates as 2023 and included the Breeders Crown series in October. Live is down $930,000 (eight per cent), Import is down $8.5 million (10 per cent) and Export is down $9.4 million (four per cent) for the year.
For the last four months, combined pari-mutuel handle is down $4.75 million or five per cent, with live being down $54,000 (two per cent), Import down $3.3 million (12 per cent) and Export down $1.4 million (two per cent).
Pari-mutuel - $1.3 million net loss from racing revenues less statutory and purse related expenses.
Purse - $789,000 loss to the purses of Meadowlands and Monmouth combined.
For FanDuel sports betting the 2024 combined handle is down $206 million (four per cent) from 2023. This consists of $33.5 million (12 per cent) in retail and down $172.5 million (four per cent) in online.
Broken out are figures September through December 2024, football season. Historically, since sports betting became legal, wagering on football results in a redistribution of wagering dollars from racing to sports but has been a boon for FanDuel. (Please note, December is still being audited and has not been released publicly by FD at this time.)
At FanDuel over the last four months, combined handle is down from September through December 2023 $462 million (20 per cent) and consists of retail being down $6.7 million (seven per cent) and online being down $455 million (21 per cent).
The Meadowlands had two other online skins that stopped operating during 2024. Pointsbet was acquired by Fanatics and stopped operating its online platform at the Meadowlands in May 2024 and Superbook stopped operations in July 2024. Both of these significantly impacted the cash flow of Meadowlands negatively compared to 2023.
Bayonne Off Track Wagering outlet is down year over year $5.1 million (19 per cent) in handle for the year and down $1.2 million (15 per cent) for September through December.
Bayonne's impact is about a $500,000 negative impact for year over year.
