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MD Jockey Club puts screws to Preakness Infield Party

BIGHITR

WINNING!
Nov 14, 2007
1,084
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Maryland, east coast.
The Maryland Jockey Club reporting on the local news the other night, report the Preakness Infield Party is no longer going to allow patrons to walk in with their own beer. Alcohol will be no longer allowed in! Local news WBAL TV poll has Marylanders up in arms about it.

The spokesman for Pimlico Race track, home of the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, states that the Maryland Jockey Club in an effort to get more of a control on the crowd and allow police to make less arrests, has ruled to no longer allow patrons in with their own beer as they have done for around forty years or more. Instead, Pimilco race track is going to offer beer in the infield for $3.50 each. Add tip and you can see how much that's going to cost patrons. This is in addition to the price to get in.

The reason for the anger in the public, is the current high ticket price to get in. Last time I went three years back, the infield entrance cover ticket price was $50! That's $50.00 just to walk in the gate onto the field! Most think it's a rip off, but allowing you to bring your own beer, and party all day from 7 in the morning till 7 at night, in the bright sunny may weather with over 50,000 young women and men walking around half lit, made it a huge free for all party that most Marylanders will stay in on Friday night just to be there at the gate at 5am in the morning to get a good spot. ANYWHERE in the infield is a good spot! And it's not just Marylander's that enjoy it. People in the past have come from several states, however, last year, Virgin records promoted the event with live worldy known rock bands from the USA and Europe thus making it a world wide advertised event that people came from as far as Europe, Australia, even the former Soviet Union and all around the world just to be there.

The argument now is, it will cost you $50 to enter and then have to pay for all your drinks resulting in a $50 cover charge and still have to pay more to party, whereas before, you'd pay the $50 ticket/cover charge to get in and bring all you could drink and more for your friends and for meeting new friends.

Now as to crowd control. Granted, each year a few jerks get trashed and start fighting each other and this winds up in police walking off with several in hand cuffs towards the paddy wagon, but, most are happy to friendly party, get a little lit, get tan, and attempt to get a few phone numbers from the opposite sex half dressed, and SPF'd up with oil for the hot sunny day. It's one big fun time and has been for years.

The Pimlico spokesman for the Maryland Preakness stated that the Maryland Jockey club said this is a time for change and they want to make the Preakness Infield a more enjoyable experience like the old days, meaning a time like the 30's and 40's where the adults came to wear their best, men in suits, women in frilly southern style hats and dresses, and all were there to bet the ponies. But the age of the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's have seen a more party like, college dorm like drink fest. They use to allow people to even bring in their own portable barbeque grills and allow people to cook out but, along with along with no tent like structures, that was stopped in the mid to late 80's for venders having the audacity to put up tip jars all while offering high prices like $6.00 cheese burgers, $5.00 fries, $3.50 soda's and $5.00 hot dogs.

I personally have gone for many years and never liked the high price to get in, but knowing I could walk in with my own cooler with a thirty pack inside and drink cold beer all day, not to mention, with everyone having a huge supply of their own, you can offer anyone a beer or they would offer you theirs, made it worth the high price to get in.

But now the spokesman states that the reason for change is to take it back to a new experience in the infield like that of the past. But most Marylanders feel this is a joke, because for the past forty years or more, the only people that go to the Preakness that are in the infield are the tailgating type, party hard, college age and up fans that just go to party. For the most part, no one in the infield pay attention to the horses run. Most are in the middle area walking around, drinking or watching a band.

What most feel the reason truly is about, is the $$$$! The spokesman said they will still allow beer, only they will not allow the patrons to bring in their own as they have been allowed since around the 60's or 70's. Instead, he said they would have vendors come in and sell beer for $3.50 a pop, which doesn't make sense when they state that the Maryland Jockey Club wants to control the crowd more and lower the drunken disorderly arrests and make the infield a more enjoyable experience like the past. If that were true, one would think they would ban alcohol all together. However, stating they will continue to allow it, only fuels the fan's anger and feelings that the real motivation is money! Greed! The ol' mighty dollar.

With crowd sizes approaching 60,000, @ $3.50 a pop, multiplied by 7am to 7pm drinking, averaging one beer an hour would net 12 beers per person, thus a tally of somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,520,000 dollars in beer sales revenue. Not bad for one day's beer sales, and that doesn't even include the money in beer sales generated in the club house which holds about thousands more, as well as the contracts most likely made from beer companies who probably pay for the right to not only sell their product in the infield, but to put up advertising in the infield, not only for the infield public to see, but for the world to see when they turn the national camera's towards the infield and broadcast the infield on the world television stage.

So is it really to control the crowd? To make the infield a much more pleasurable experience like that of the old days past? Or is it really all for the old mighty dollar?

Maryland Preakness Infield party goers from recent, past and repeat goers for tens of years know the real answer.
 

BIGHITR

WINNING!
Nov 14, 2007
1,084
0
Maryland, east coast.
IT'S OFFICIAL!!!! Yeh it was about the money.

Local 98 Rock radio station advertisement states "No alcohol, soda, or bottled water will be allowed at this year's Preakness stakes infield party." So that spokesman for the Maryland Jockey Club the other night on local WBAL 11 TV was lying to the public, I said, LYING to the public, when he said the reason was to get more control over the crowd and less arrests. If that was true, then why no soda and bottled water?

AND they are advertising a $50 ticket in advance and this year, or $60 at the gate. I wonder how many liquor flasks they'll find at the gate this year being snuck in? Looks like there may be a record low turn out this year if most Marylander's have their say. Mine included. For $50, plus drinks and food, I'll spend my $100 or more at Maryland's beautiful beachs in Ocean City at Seacrets. I prefer women in bikinis that shorts anyway.

I think I speak for a lot of long time goers of the Preakness infield party when I say, "SO LOOOONG PREAKNESS!!! HELLOOOO SEACRETS!!"
 

BIGHITR

WINNING!
Nov 14, 2007
1,084
0
Maryland, east coast.
Well, they have announced ZZ-Top will be playing along with Buck Cherry, so I guess it will be a leather vest clad biker fest. Can't see the reason why they'd invite an 80's band. Don't make sense. :crazy:

And they said they wanted crowd control. Haven't these people been to Bike Week?