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Churchill Downs today might just be the poster-facepalm for an entire racing industry that is foundering for lack of better marketing and public relations.
Here's the scenario:
1. Wes Welker, darned-good football player and pretty widely recognized as an all-right guy, dresses up to attend the track's biggest racing day. (Glamorous!)
2. Welker wins big, and who doesn't like a winner? (#Winning!)
3. Welker celebrates his score by handing out $100 bills to numerous utter strangers. (Populist!)
4. Churchill Downs realizes it made an error in the payout and demands Welker repay almost $15,000. (Buzzkill!)
For the record, Churchill Downs, Welker's score and impromptu philanthropy was good publicity worth perhaps a hundred times what you lost in overpaying on his winning tickets. Asking for some of that money back -- less than 15 large on a day that your own betting service, TwinSpires.com, by itself handled a record $21.5 million -- is CD management face-planting in the souvenirs left after the post parade.
Are you trying to disprove the adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity?
Amen! I was thinking the exact same thing. CD just can't get it right these days.
ReplyDeleteSInce this is the same operation that charged a paraplegic Hall of Fame jockey $500 to park his handicapped van, the only loser is the mutual clerk who will be working all year to pay off the error.
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