Re(1): Ocala '73 data Posted on May 22, 2023 at 11:54:48 PM by 40yrfan
Good research Tiger. Those figures had to be pleasing for the fronton's management. Jai alai was a sport that very few of the people of Ocala had ever seen. Over the course of the season
a lot of people caught the fever including in-laws of mine, whom I never thought would be caught there. A larger number of people in Gainesville were at least familiar with jai alai as they had moved there from cities that had frontons. By the end of Ocala's first season over 240,000 people went through the turnstiles wagering over $11.8 million. The average performance handle over the course of the season grew to $78,911. That was a lot less than
the amounts wagered at the larger frontons. But, considering that the population for the Ocala/Gainesville area was much smaller and that a number of those people were the working poor or students making $1.60 per hour minimum wage, the fronton's handle was encouraging.
