The United States Trotting Association has announced that the next meeting of its Television Committee will take place by conference call on Wednesday, February 11. The committee was tasked last year with investigating the feasibility of a national broadcast campaign and delivering recommendations to the USTA Board of Directors upon completion. The group most recently met in late October.

The committee is chaired by Dan Leary, the USTA’s director of marketing and communications, and is composed of members Ivan Axelrod (USTA chairman of the board), Alex Dadoyan (Standardbred Owners Association of New York), Kevin Decker (The Meadows), Moira Fanning (Hambletonian Society), Sam McKee (Meadowlands), Chris Schick (Cal Expo), and Mike Tanner (USTA executive vice president).

USTA President Phil Langley believes that the committee should and will be aggressive and open-minded in investigating various options that would increase harness racing’s visibility.

"Obviously, there are financial challenges that preclude the USTA from funding on its own a multi-race, national schedule of televised race broadcasts," said Langley. "The money just isn’t there to do what The Jockey Club has sponsored for the past few years.

"But all of the new research out there indicates that more people, especially the younger ones the sport would love to attract, are getting their news and entertainment via online platforms. I think that there’s a real possibility there, from both a cost and exposure standpoint. It’s like hockey. You don’t go to where the puck was. You play where the puck is going."

Nonetheless, Langley quickly points out that the USTA has funding available to assist those member racetracks that plan to televise their biggest, most prestigious races.

"We, along with several other industry groups and individuals, gave money to the Meadowlands for the past several years to get the Hambletonian on television and plan to do the same in 2015. We also sent $25,000 to the Little Brown Jug last year that helped fund that race’s live broadcast. But our executive committee also approved a budget line item that would have the USTA provide partial funding for other races, too. We would love to help racetracks help themselves in enabling top events like the International Trot, Meadowlands Pace, Dan Patch Invitational, or Kentucky Futurity, for example, to be broadcast."

Langley asks that all such applications be received at the USTA offices by the end of February so that proper consideration of each request can be given in advance of discussion at the annual USTA Board of Directors meeting, which will take place this year from March 14-16 at the Hilton Columbus Easton hotel in Columbus, Ohio. All requests should contain details concerning the promotion of each respective broadcast, including any advertising, additional sponsors, and/or social media tie-ins.

(USTA)