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Thanks Bud. I have to be creative if I want to have some fun here in the Netherlands. The gouvernement here loves to tell people what is good and bad for us. But it is fun to bet on horses.
Annual fixed costs for 2008/09 NH Season were:
Jumps Computer Timeform £579
Timeform ‘Chasers & Hurdlers’ £70
RUK £156
ATR £258 (Sky subs as I rarely watch other Sky channels, all else wanted being available on Freeview)As my rare visits to the tracks nowadays are enjoyed only as ‘days out’ they’re not included. Probably around £200 last season inclusive of travel and nosh.
When I had my £250 ‘Go Racing in Yorkshire’ season ticket and was on-course a couple of times a week or so the gross costs would have been a grand+ per annum. Fun for a while though before Betfair killed off the ‘value of the ring’
Good thread this…quite eye opening. I am surprised at how much some of you pay for racing publications and media outputs per annum, let alone travel. Then again perhaps its more a career than a hobby for some.
I maybe go racing 5 times a year at £50 a go (inc travel) and maybe spend £20 on racing posts through a year. That is it.
Most of the media info i get is free…namely attheraces (channel & website), racinguk website, sportinglife.com, theracingforum (lol).
I used to be a regular racegoer but haven’t been for some years, until today when I treated my Dad to a trip to Bath.
Entrance, racecard and a bite to eat and drink left us £60 down before we started. Apart from The Tatling, no stars or reasons to go through the gates other than the racing, which consisted of four sprints and two ten furlong contests, including a seller and claimer. This felt like rotten value for money. After all, that would buy 3 months of RUK.
I can’t say that I’m hopping up and down with the injustice of it all, cos I did enjoy myself, but it’ll take something to make me feel it’s worth going again.
Lower admission may or may not attract first time racegoers, but I am now convinced that it is essential to win back and retain the lapsed like myself.
I sympathise with you and I’m sure there will be lots in the new re-branding policy to try and bring back lapsed racegoers.
One thing I’d make a priority if I was a racecourse executive would be free racecards. I remember how Sandown used to give them away upon entry and thought this really showed the management in a good light.
Of course tracks could be factoring the cost into the entry price and could also garner more advertising in them, from the increased "sales", to make it pay. However the principle of getting something for nothing would please racegoers and could also encourage people to bet if the articles and betting information in the cards are well presented.
i remember how shocked i was on seeing how dear it was to get into bath when i went there last year,it cost more to get in to watch donkeys racing at bath than a top class days jumping at ascot.
when i returned in august i had already put my bets on before i left and just stood on the inside of the course just past the furlong pole for nothing.i found it much more enjoyable.It was my first time at a racecourse in a few years, when I went to Sedgefield evening races last may, which was organised through my partner’s work !
It was £10 each block booking & included a racecard & pork pie.
The races were all class 5 & 6 & had a claimer & seller to boot.
I ashamed to admit it, but I spent most of my time watching the champions league final indoors.
Although it’s not rated as won of the better courses, I have’nt been to another course since !Mark
You were lucky it was only 4 sprints, I get dragged to Bath by a friend once a year and we usually attend a Friday evening meeting in June when the card is predominately sprints and even less value for money.
Bath is yet another course that I would like to see do away with their three tier enclosure system and combine Members and Tatts.
In a thread I started earlier this week I attended the free Arab race day at Newbury on Sunday and free entry meant hoards of people (albeit some horrendous queuing to put up with) which I think shows people will go racing at the "right price".
>>included a racecard & pork pie.
HA HA! For some reason that made me laugh. The comic properties of pork pies, I suppose.
Brighton Races is a nice afternoon if the weather’s good. The facilities are as ugly as sin, but that’s ‘modernising’ for you. The bar above the parade ring is nice enough and has an amazing view of the coast.I like Brighton, such a charming little racecourse, For me you cannot beat a day midweek at somewhere like Ludlow or Warwick for good honest jump racing.
I am planning on doing a weekend at Bath and Salisbury next June and also trying to do Perths Saturday meeting tied in with a Sunday at Musselburgh.
£40 to get into the premier enclosure at Ascot tomorrow or £25 for the Grandstand with its rubbish viewing. No thanks.
Glorious Goodwood will be the same, I use to go alll five days at one point, now I am only doing two days
The only racing worth going to in person is the jump racing. Aint no atmosphere like it.
£40 to get into the premier enclosure at Ascot tomorrow or £25 for the Grandstand with its rubbish viewing. No thanks.
Glorious Goodwood will be the same, I use to go alll five days at one point, now I am only doing two days
I know it’s not comparing apples and apples but hundreds of thousands of people are happy to those prices and more to watch 90 minutes of premiership football.
The one thing that the premiership grounds have done to preserve attendance figures is to prohibit televised games on a Saturday. Racing on the other hand is paying millions to Channel 4 to televise racing.
Go figure.
You’re right that it’s difficult to compare footie viewing and racing but it struck me at Bath that my £18 entry bought less than 10 minutes of actual racing. The racing experience is obviously more than just the action but on this occasion there was little other than the races. As I say, I did enjoy my visit but overall it was rotten value for money.
As I speak, I see RUK are showing the queues to enter York 20 minutes after the first race, but it’s interesting that they are going into the centre (cheap) enclosure, and do not seem exercised by the fact that they have already missed one and maybe two races.
Clearly the racing is an attraction but only a part of the overall appeal. Much as it goes against the grain to say it, there needs to be more than just the horses if ‘bums on seats’ is the criterion for success.
I am suspicious of all this modernising, ‘how can we make racing more popular’ stuff – I’m 39, so not exactly in the tweed set – because one of the attractions of racing is that it hasn’t got a ‘contemporary’ feel, that it remains cheerfully immune to the marketing men and all the other drones who would make it as flashily offensive as premiership football (after seeing that violent moron Gerrard get bailed out by 12 Liverpool fans in the jury on Friday, I’ve had enough of football in Britain). It’s got style, rather than excess, as its chief aesthetic quality. Sure, there’s drunken chavs – the ones in top hats and the ones in leaisurewear – but by and large it’s hung on to a bit of tradition and in a country rapidly changing out of all recognition, that’s pleasant.
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