Are there no horse sports fans in North Dakota?
Organizers of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games were asking that question yesterday after learning that tickets for the 2010 games have been reserved by U.S. Equestrian Federation members in 49 states and the District of Columbia, plus the Virgin Islands, Bermuda and Canada.
The missing state is North Dakota, which ranks 48th in population, with only 642,200 residents. Organizers want someone in North Dakota to reserve tickets before Nov. 15 when phase one of the reservation test program ends.Then they could report to legislators and others that spectators are coming from all 50 states.
"It (ticket information) is really encouraging and gives us a great forecasting tool," said Tandy Patrick, chairwoman of the World Games 2010 Foundation's Board of Directors.
Ticketmaster is accepting reservations and deposits of about half of the eventual purchase price -- exact prices have not been set -- from federation members to test the ability of its reservation system to process deposits for an event that is nearly three years away.
After the test, the system will be shut down for evaluation before reservations are taken from other equestrian groups and the general public.
Reservations are being accepted only for "series tickets" -- those for all events in one or more of the eight world championships to be decided during 16 days of competition.
Marty Mathews, the foundation's chief financial officer, said 8,911 reservations had been made by yesterday morning and $2.4 million in deposits had been recorded.
About 650 reservations were made for more than one series of tickets, which probably means the buyers will remain in the Lexington area for longer periods. Longer visits probably will mean a larger boost for the local economy.
More reservations have come from Texas and California than from Kentucky, Mathews said, but that may change as more reservations are made.
He also said 95 of about 400 booths in the games trade fair have been reserved by 54 companies that have made $230,000 in deposits.
"Only about 24 percent of those are Kentucky companies," Mathews said. "There is tremendous interest outside the state of Kentucky in this."
He said the total cost of the booths will range from $12,500 to $20,000, depending on size and location.
Mathews also told foundation board members that October was the "turning point" when the $200,000 monthly fee from Alltech will no longer be enough to cover the salaries of its growing staff and other overhead costs.
The foundation's increasing income from tickets, booth rentals, sponsors and other sources, plus bank loans if needed, will close the gap.
Alltech, the Nicholasville biotechnology company, is paying $10 million in monthly installments to be title sponsor of the games.
