Fair attendance down

Attendance at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona dropped slightly this year compared with 2013.

This year’s fair, which ended its 23-day run Sunday, attracted 1,204,911 patrons, down from 1,438,514 last year, said Michael Chee, Fairplex spokesman.

Officials believe hot weather, and possibly the elimination of $1 admission on the fair’s opening day, helped cause the year-over-year drop.

“We don’t have a scientific explanation, but we do know we had an extended stretch of triple-digit heat during the early and middle part of the fair,” Chee said. “We also didn’t have the dollar day, but the fair opened on Labor Day weekend, and a lot of people were out of town, so that could have been factor. All of those things probably had something to do with it.”

Despite the attendance drop, this year’s fair was “strong,” with spending up compared with the 2013 fair.

“I can’t say that’s a sign of an economic recovery, but it’s a sign of a positive economy,” Chee said.

The absence of horse racing – this year’s 11-day meeting was moved to Los Alamitos Race Course in Orange County, a larger and more modern facility – generated virtually no negative feedback from patrons or vendors, Chee said.

Fairplex had three off-track betting sites this year, and those sites accepted more bets than were placed in 2013, when the races were still at Fairplex.

“Our handle was up this year,” Chee said.