Luxury Viewing To Be Set Up for Preakness Infield

Regular infield-goers at Pimlico will lose most of their prime view of the homestretch for the Preakness Stakes. (Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)

Kentucky Derby infield tickets cost $40. Indianapolis 500 infield tickets are $20.

Pimlico also will sell new $18 general admission tickets, without seating, into the grandstand.

"A couple years ago, we made a strategic decision about the marketing and sales of the Preakness," said Executive Vice President Karin De Francis. "We were going to maximize our time and effort toward the efficiency and operation of the Preakness and, second, maximize sales."

High-end marketing of sports events to an exclusive clientele is a steadily developing trend, according to Shawn Bradley, chief operating officer of the Bonham Group, a sports research and consulting firm in Denver.

Bradley said sky suite seats on the rail of the Preakness are similar to recent cutting-edge trends in marketing such as NASCAR sponsors riding in the pace car before races, or big spenders at PGA Tour events watching play from the "rope inside the rope."

"It's what we term 'experiential marketing,' " Bradley said. "There's a segment looking for that kind of experience. You need to offer these kinds of things or they may not come. People we're talking about don't wait in lines and don't mix with the public."

At Petco Park, the new home for the San Diego Padres, fans willing to pay $250 per game enjoy a private entrance to a restaurant and bar underneath the stands where they can watch the players warm up, Bradley said. A private hallway leads to them to their seats directly behind home plate.

"The real trend in design is the luxury -- you need a great event experience," he said. "You can't just give them privacy anymore. You've got to have both."

The PGA Championship, for example, to be played this fall at Baltusrol Country Club in Springfield, N.J., offers premium PGA hospitality chalets for the week at $180,000. A table for 10 in a chalet costs $27,500.

But what of the rank-and-file Preakness infield fan?

The infield became party central when former general manager Chick Lang opened it for the Preakness for $2 in the mid-1970s, according to Pimlico historian Joe Kelly, 87.

Kelly marvels at the infield ticket's rise to $50 as well as the huge crowds that turn out for the Preakness, like the record 112,668 that showed up last year to see Smarty Jones run away to a record victory.

"It's unbelievable, isn't it? In 1955 they had about 29,000," Kelly said. "It wasn't really a big crowd."

The Preakness first offered corporate tents in 1987, the year after they were introduced in the inaugural Maryland Million at Laurel Park.

"The thing of it is, way back in Man O' War's time, somebody called the Preakness a sleeping giant," Kelly said. "Jim [Gagliano] is right -- it is a world event. It's up there in the big league sports attractions. To me, it's a real extravagance to pay $50 to get on the infield, but when you line it up next to lesser events, it's a pretty good deal."

While the free-for-all atmosphere of the infield has been scaled back in recent years -- people used to cart in living room furniture for the day -- it will still cater to a young crowd.

"It's 25-year-old guys drinking beer. It's those people coming to the infield drinking beer with their girlfriends," said Dave Hill, program director at Baltimore radio station 98-Rock, which has hosted the infield festivities since 1977. "To be honest, it is the biggest thing in Baltimore. It is the gem of Baltimore. I still believe [for $50] they'll show up in droves."