Big-Budget Belmont: Fans Incur Steep Ticket Prices

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The increase of Belmont Stakes Day general admission tickets from $50 to $75 wasn’t the only price hike racing fans experienced last week when tickets went on sale to the general public.

Many Belmont Stakes Day (Saturday, June 7) reserved seats were only available as resale tickets, with some costing thousands of dollars. Two resale Clubhouse seats, for example, were listed at $3,562 apiece when the general sale began on Feb. 13. A number of resale grandstand seats in various sections were priced in excess of $1,000. A ten-person Easy Goer table was priced for resale at more than $500 per person. 

Racing fans took to social media to express their frustration, telling the New York Racing Association (NYRA), “it’s shocking to see what you are attempting to charge this year” and “the whole ticketing process is unreal…everything is sold within one minute and already being resold at a higher price?”

Last year, NYRA reported that 120,028 people attended the four-day racing festival in Saratoga, with a sold-out crowd of 50,000 attending Belmont Stakes Day.