New look, big marketing push mark second year
Club 52, the Melbourne Greyhound Park's poker room is a year old, but promises to get younger, as it commences its second year of operation.
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"We're going to target a more youthful, hip demographic," said Pat Biddix, Melbourne Greyhound Park's president and general manager. "We noticed that on some Saturday nights, it looks like a college party in here and that gave us the idea to go after the young market."
Biddix said his marketing budget for 2007 is about $400,000 and that money will be used in a variety of ways to bring in new faces from around Brevard County.
In its first year, Club 52's poker operations boosted attendance at the Melbourne Greyhound Park by 50 percent over the previous year, Biddix said. So far, attendance for the year is 107,000. Biddix said the projected total attendance for 2006 will come out to around 130,000, but that's 20,000 short of the park's goal for the year.
"We didn't meet expectations," he said. "But we're hoping to hit the mark of 150,000 for fiscal 2007."
To draw that extra 20,000, Club 52 has a variety of tricks up its collective sleeve.
"We did many things right in 2006, but we also have some great improvements and ideas for 2007," he said. "We're happy with our seasonal business, we get a lot of snowbirds in here from after December through the day after Easter. But we want more."
Biddix said to get more, he's going to spend the $400,000 on marketing the poker room and the park's facilities to the people closer to home.
"We have billboards near Daytona and Orlando, but we really want to get more of the people who are within 10 miles of here," he said.
Some of the things that customers at Club 52 can expect will include:
More night events and more poker tournaments
Events and parties that are geared to those in the 25 to 35-year-old range
More attractive uniforms for some of the wait staff
More giveaways and prizes
Catering more to the women and advertising Ladies Night more heavily Biddix hopes that additional gaming
entertainment, like video lottery terminals -- video slots that are regulated by the Florida Department of Lottery -- would also draw more people to Club 52.
"I'd expand the facilities if legislation was passed that allowed us to get the terminals," Biddix said. "I'd like 750 of them."
In the meantime, Club 52 offers a range of poker and tournaments and it's something Biddix and his team worked hard to get for Brevard County. The room operates when the dogs are running, which is 12 p.m. to 12 a.m., every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Industry experts say the poker rooms serve a purpose.
"Card rooms are great, they make a lot of money for the state," said David Romanik, attorney with Ft. Lauderdale-based Becker & Poliakoff, a law firm that specializes in gaming law. "There's minimal impact on the community and poker is America's game. Why deprive people of something they're going to do in their house anyway?"
Source: Floriday Today
