Whether you work in an office, a barn, or elsewhere, my guess is that most people around you know little about college basketball. Why would accountants or marketing professionals in big cities, for example, have any knowledge about a bunch of 19 year olds playing for the Weber State Wildcats, Wofford Terriers or the Delaware Fightin Blue Hens?
Yet, last year, an estimated 50 million people participated in March Madness office pools, paying money to put their limited college basketball prognostication skills on the line. According to Pregame.com, wagering on last year’s March Madness tournament was estimated to have exceeded $12 billion, more money than was bet on the 2013 Super Bowl. This year’s figures were likely similar.
It would be very easy to think that from a betting perspective, college basketball would have everything against it heading into their championship tournament. No-name teams from unknown locations playing against top schools. All games are played at unfamiliar neutral sites and during the afternoon while people are busy with their lives and tied up at work.
But whether NCAA basketball officials will acknowledge this or not, March Madness has been packaged for betting. Complete with a tidy one page bracket that can be filled in, followed and wagered on. Games are played one after another, suited perfectly for network TV and Internet streaming from the cozy confines of one’s desk. Colourful team names, plenty of trumped up David vs. Goliath stories, and most importantly, a reason for every real person who wagered some money to feel like they’re a part of something – maybe even an expert for a week or two.
If college basketball could succeed the way they have with March Madness, there is really no reason to think that horse racing could not. Perhaps, the sport needs its own version of the popular tournament – 68 horses competing in ultimate match races down a closed Yonge Street in Toronto?
How about going back to the Rideau Canal, the Plains of Abraham or the Canadian National Exhibition? In the Maritimes or on the west coast, who wouldn’t flock to the streets for a true championship of horse racing?
Sounds strange? Well it’s not. In fact, the popularity of harness racing over the last 150 years in Canada is largely due to bringing the sport to the people, on our roads, at our county fairs and on our frozen waterways. Racedays at tracks were also extremely well attended, but bringing horse racing to the public has always been essential to its growth.
Surely the 68 colleges involved in March Madness could have moaned about all of the games being played at neutral sites across the United States, where they are not able to sell tickets or merchandise. When this event was first established, many of them probably did. But now, it is clear that a strong central vision benefits everyone.
The packaging of horse racing also requires tremendous vision and cooperation. And instead of tweaked versions of what is currently being done, we need to work with blank sheets of paper and creative thinkers who understand the tremendous assets this sport possesses. Frankly, I’d put our horse names against college basketball’s team names any day. And I’d take people’s love of the horse above their love of bouncing balls on hardwood floors.
In my lifetime, I want to walk into a downtown office and be asked to participate the Horse Madness bracket challenge or fantasy pool. And I assure you, nowhere on my bracket will I be selecting a Fightin Blue Hen.
Darryl Kaplan
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