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Max – not negative just being realistic.
You made a very telling point in your post and that is we are already converts and also we are the evangelists.
Yes we do need people to sell the sport – the trouble is baiting the hook to catch the new converts.
The point I was trying to make, perhaps clumsily, was it is now more difficult to catch the new racegoer via television – there is much less chance of them coming across racing on an ad-hoc basis.
I am always trying to get as many new racegoers as possible coming to the sport – and over the years I have managed to introduce many new regulars. There are, of course, some who will never take to the sport – but it is a great feeling when I do manage to recruit another newcomer to the sport, especially one who has vowed they would never like it.
One of my best converts last year was a nephew of mine visiting from Oz, a biker who was only interested in racing if there was an engine involved and had never even thought about going horse racing. I persuaded him to come racing with me at Stratford, we got there early – we walked the course and he saw the obstacles up close. I explained everything that was going on and by the end of the evening he was hooked – and he didn’t even back a winner. Indeed he insisted on going racing again before he went back home and he is now a regular racegoers back in Oz.
I feel it is incumbent on those of us who do love the sport to be the ambassadors to attract new racegoers. It takes time and effort but isn’t the sport worth it?
"The point I was trying to make, perhaps clumsily, was it is now more difficult to catch the new racegoer via television – there is much less chance of them coming across racing on an ad-hoc basis."
Paul, we’ve talked about the mid-nineties pre-exchange Morning Line before and I’m sure someone mentioned that the programme was once popular with hungover students – Big Mac the obvious draw. Ratings were solid too. What are the ratings now?
Ch 4 racing can be saved and their media guys can pump it throughout the day. Neil mentioned Soccer AM. That’s a potential model. His comments reminded me how dead football was in 1988. A pariah’s sport – now the country can’t get enough.
TV led that: There must be a way to (partially?) replicate the success of the rise of football.
Something went wrong with TV racing and I’m not sure what. The emergence of Poker? Betfair? Social trends? The digital revolution? The ratings decline can be inversely correlated with the rise of Internet boards too, despite Channel 4 being an early pioneer.
Don’t forget the ML was a unique concept at one point. Innovative and fun. I never missed it and I bet most here didn’t either.
In the end, did we forget that the next generation of anything is led by the enthusiasm of elders, and that misery and cynicism is more contagious than smallpox? I think we did.
Great story about your nephew. If each one of us did that we’d have no trouble, would we!
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