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You can not blame courses for charging expensive rates to get in; if punters are willing to pay. Fact is the Gordon Enclosure (tatts) will be choka block next week. I would not pay that sought of money; thankfully don’t need to as am a member there. But if people did not pay, they’d be forced to reduce prices. Market forces.
In GB people like to go racing as a social day out. It seems the French are less keen, therefore their prices are low.
Am not surprised Bath is expensive, was a regular tatts racegoer at Fontwell (I believe like Bath, now a Northern Racing course). The quality of racing seems to have gone down and the entrance fee up. So have voted with my feet. Used to go three or four times a year to Bath but again, stopped going when Norther Racing took over. If only others do the same, prices would come down. But they don’t.
As already said, people lke to go racing as a social day out. Most are probably not proper racing enthusiasts at all. With Sky / ATR, RUK, and Racing Post to pay for, sadly many enthusiasts have other priorities these days.
Value Is EverythingThe 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.
This is simply not true. Premiership matches kicking off at dinnertime and early evening are shown live on Saturdays throughout the season. I suspect you mean that matches starting on Saturdays at 3pm, the traditional time, aren’t shown live but bearing in mind that matches also start at dinnertime on Sundays, 3pm and 4pm on Sundays and on Mondays at 8pm there are very few Saturday 3pm kick-off games anyway.
On the subject of paying C4, it’s regrettable that racing has painted itself into this corner but if that channel wasn’t covering racing there would be virtually none on terrestrial TV and that really would be disastrous for the sport.
Come watch point to point…….
(NAP).
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Come watch point to point…….
(NAP).
gc
Roll on Black Forest Lodge or the first Horseheath or the first Charing or Kingston Blount or Godstone or ………. I could go on. It won’t be long to the new season. You pointing virgins are welcome to join us on our jaunts around the country. Try Aldington on Easter Monday or Dalston’s annual bash. Great fun.
The point to point comments smack of inverted snobbery.
The remarks regarding unimaginative programming of individual racecards are valid and cards where 50% or more of the races are run over the same or similar distances are not uncommon – Haydock and Newmarket take note.
I went to Thirsk for the first time on Saturday. £13 into Tatts (the paddock), convenient free parking just over the road and very compact with easy access to the pre-parade ring and paddock.
Plenty of food and drink outlets were available and, in the grand scheme of things, the prices were reasonable – although the pints had a healthy head.
The quality of racing was modest but so what!
Lots of coach parties were in attendance but we didn’t experience any trouble. However, the insistence of females (young and not so young) to dress like lap dancers and plaster themselves with fake tan on a damp Saturday afternoon in North Yorkshire was bemusing.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I am a member plus live a hop step and a jump away therefore I can walk to the course, I wouldn’t bother going to Bath either. Take tomorrows card..
17:55 Apprentice Handicap (3yo, Class 5, 1m 3f 144y, 6 runners)
18:25 Maiden Auction Fillies’ Stakes (2yo, Class 6, 5f 161y, 15 runners)
18:55 Selling Stakes (2yo, Class 6, 5f 11y, 8 runners)
19:30 Claiming Stakes (3yo+, Class 6, 5f 161y, 9 runners)
20:05 Handicap (3yo, Class 5, 1m 5y, 8 runners)
20:35 Fillies’ Handicap (3yo+, Class 5, 5f 11y, 8 runners)6 Class 5/6 low grade races, 4 of which are over 5/6 furlongs and 2 are for unreliable girlies. You would think that punters would avoid the place. Quite the opposite, the place will be packed! Until punters vote with their feet and pockets there is no motivation for the ruling authorities to change their ways and clean up their act.
In addition to the reasons above, I shall attend as it gives me a chance to practice pitting my tissue against the on course bookies to small stakes and drink Bath Ales beer at a semi reasonable price
You can not blame courses for charging expensive rates to get in; if punters are willing to pay. Fact is the Gordon Enclosure (tatts) will be choka block next week. I would not pay that sought of money; thankfully don’t need to as am a member there. But if people did not pay, they’d be forced to reduce prices. Market forces.
Gingertipster is right, Goodwood membership is amazing value. If you take advantage of some of their reciprocal days at other racecourses as well, you only need go racing 15 times a year – not even to all of goodwood’s own meetings – and you are "in profit" relative to the cost of day tickets for premier enclosures. You also gets discounts and free entry to other great days out there like the motor sport.
I would have thought that public admission fees at big meetings are directly paying towards the prize money in a way they didn’t 5 years ago when some sponsorship could still be come by. As the bottom has now dropped right out of sponsorship, it can’t be the case that owners contributions and the Levy are covering the cost of all the black type prize funds we expect to find at race meetings we pay top dollar to attend. Check out the ROA website for a fascinating table which shows which racecourses are putting their hands into their own pockets (aka spectators) to enhance price money. Newmarket generated £3.5m of its own prize fund in 2008. Only someone very naive would think that came mostly from sponsorship in this day and age. The table can vary month to month but contains surprises. You often see people taking a pop at Northern Racing’s prize money, but some some of their courses have perfomedpro rata
better in the past year than courses in the Jockey Club portfolio though the reverse is also true (No, I don’t work for Northern!)
When Towcester re-opened a few years back after a small spell of closure, didn’t they have free entry and discover that spending on food and drink increased so much from gratfied spectators that they more or less got their "money back"?I think there is a serious lack of imagination sometimes though. For big meetings, bank holidays, weekends even, many courses know they will get decent crowds in – of course they will charge what they can. But…
What about low-grade stuff mid-week? How many people actually go along to Southwell in February on a Tuesday? How many racecourses offer 2-for-1 deals for less popular racedays? Why not?
D’oh! The money made from food and drink turnover alone would make it viable, let alone the longer-term impact of getting more people going racing on a regular or semi-regular basis…
When Towcester re-opened a few years back after a small spell of closure, didn’t they have free entry and discover that spending on food and drink increased so much from gratfied spectators that they more or less got their "money back"?
Still do – only the Easter and Boxing Day meetings currently feature admission charges. It’s a model that may not work everywhere, but does here.
On perusing the 2010 fixture list, however, I note with interest that their late May Friday evening meeting, which has drawn a gargantuan crowd (quite possibly 10,000) the last two years at least (I attended both), has been moved to Whit Monday.
Another meeting to charge for, then? I wouldn’t blame them at all if they did. With no other Rules meeting closer than Leicester, no other National Hunt action closer than Cartmel, and (using this season’s fixture list as a guide) no point-to-point
likely
to be closer than Chaddesley Corbett, they’ve potentially got a sizeable area of the country from which to pool takers on the day.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I went to York today. I took my daughter who is eighteen. I also took my son and his mate, both sixteen. We went in Tatts and it cost me £100 (4x£25). The funny thing is that if we’d gone in the County Stand it would only have cost an extra tenner. They have a reduced admission for accompanied 18-20 year olds at £30 and a reduction for accompanied 16-17 year olds at £15. Full adult admission is £50 in the County Stand. Of course, we’d have had to comply with the dress requirements and none of us were keen on the idea so Tatts it was.
My question is: why do the York Race Committee offer concessions for 16-20 year olds in the County Stand but not in Tatts? My supplementary question is: how does this encourage "the next generation of racegoers" we’re always hearing about? It was a very expensive day for me and it’s particularly galling to pay full whack for two lads who are not allowed to have a bet or an alcoholic drink.
I can report that they enjoyed themselves, by the way, and appreciated seeing Sea The Stars.
On the one hand I am glad York offer some form of concession, but it does seem a little daft that it only applies to the County Stand. Have you tried emailing the marketing department at the course.
e-mail William Derby – I am sure he will be more than happy to explain the rationale
Seems pretty obvious to me – parents that pay to go in the County Stand have children that go on to university and obviously they need to be encouraged to become future members.
Whereas parents that go in Tattersalls have children that work in a mill or down the pit twelve hours a day from the age of fourteen, so obviously they haven’t the time to go racing – and if they do, well Doncaster and Pontefract are more their sort of course anyway.
At least I’m sure that’s how the York committee set the policy fifty years, and change always takes time ………..
AP
PS – I remember my first ever visit to York. We had cut price tickets for Tatts, but dressed appropriately for Members and planned to get a transfer once inside. But York don’t do transfers – nobody ever managed to explain why, but we were made to stand to attention in the managers office while we were inspected and questioned. Eventually, as a big favour to us and being that we were obviously just ignorant Southerners, we were allowed to hand over the cash and given a badge. I felt about two foot tall!
You’ll be delighted to hear York now allow Tatts-Members transfers. Ties can be hired but jackets can’t
Not certain but I think this remarkable innovation was introduced when the new members’ stand was opened a few years ago.
Gus’s tale is pretty scandalous, in truth.
£100 nica, bargain of the century today. tell me you didn’t love it, i dare ya. i had a discount thing off the train and they wouldn’t accept it. bandits.
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