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Heineken,JS parent company, is reported to have been growing increasingly anxious about horse deaths.
Good for them, if your report is correct (doubtful). I wonder if they are as equally anxious about the effects of drinking alcohol on family life and the many lives lost or ruined by it.
Alan Lee in The Times (normally ultra-reliable)
John Smith’s is to withdraw its sponsorship of the Grand National meeting. This latest, shock setback to the world’s most famous steeplechase can largely be explained by commercial reasons but Aintree officials concede that negative publicity has been a factor.
Two horses have died in each of the past two renewals of the National, leading to calls for the race to be drastically altered or even banned. Disquiet at Heineken, parent company of John Smith’s, had been growing and its nine years of backing will end after the meeting next April.Alan Lee in The Times (normally ultra-reliable)
John Smith’s is to withdraw its sponsorship of the Grand National meeting. This latest, shock setback to the world’s most famous steeplechase can largely be explained by commercial reasons but Aintree officials concede that negative publicity has been a factor.
Two horses have died in each of the past two renewals of the National, leading to calls for the race to be drastically altered or even banned. Disquiet at Heineken, parent company of John Smith’s, had been growing and its nine years of backing will end after the meeting next April.Matter of opinion about Alan Lee, not a fan myself.
Lee Mottershead todays Racing Post "Even in off the record briefings, senior Heineken figures have stressed the decision to part company with the Grand National has been purely commercial".
Lee Mottershead todays Racing Post "Even in off the record briefings, senior Heineken figures have stressed the decision to part company with the Grand National has been purely commercial".
And being associated with a tainted product is very "commercial" so no ambiguity in either of the Lee’s quotes.
Alan Lee in The Times (normally ultra-reliable)
John Smith’s is to withdraw its sponsorship of the Grand National meeting. This latest, shock setback to the world’s most famous steeplechase can largely be explained by commercial reasons but Aintree officials concede that negative publicity has been a factor.
Two horses have died in each of the past two renewals of the National, leading to calls for the race to be drastically altered or even banned. Disquiet at Heineken, parent company of John Smith’s, had been growing and its nine years of backing will end after the meeting next April.Matter of opinion about Alan Lee, not a fan myself.
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Not being a fan of Lee’s writing is one thing, questioning the reliability of his sources is another altogether. Do you know of a piece he has written which turned out to carry unreliable info from sources?
I don`t think the race would be much diminished for a major cut in the prize money. It may reduce the appeal for those with top class chasers but it`s rarely been much about that type anyway. Time to pitch it at a lower level. There`ll still be enormous interest.
Their current sponsorship deal will not be renewed when it runs out next year.
Is this indicative that the public perception of the race is actually negative for racing generally ?Not according to David Yeats of The Mirror.
Channel 4 highest total viewing figure in it’s entire 30 year history was 13.8 million back in 1985 for the final episode of “A woman Of Substance”, while in the past decade it has reached only 11.2 million for this year’s opening ceremony of the paralympics.While the beeb can boast figures of 26.9 million for the opening ceremony of this year’s olympics and back in 1986 30.5 million for Eastenders where [Dirty] Den served Angie with divorce papers on Christmas Day.
The experts predict an audience of between 5.5 million to 7 million for Channel 4 first Grand National.
Next month Channel 4 will begin its new makeover coverage and bring new facets to broadcast racing but will be watched by fewer people than say it would be by broadcasting it on the beeb.
It’s this commerical reason and the fact that a firm looking to sponsor a major sporting event would reckon to get back four times its spend as a result of the exposure.
I don`t think the race would be much diminished for a major cut in the prize money. It may reduce the appeal for those with top class chasers but it`s rarely been much about that type anyway. Time to pitch it at a lower level. There`ll still be enormous interest.
Who would benefit from a major cut in prize money?
How can it reduce the appeal for those with top class chasers if you say it’s rarely about that type anyway?
Why would you want to pitch it at a lower level?In fact the quality of horse running in it has increased markedly in recent years (Gold Cup winner last year) so much so that all horses are now in the handicap, there used to be many out of the handicap, some a long way out.
No doubt the prize money has been some incentive, so hopefully it will reach a million this year and continue at that figure when John Smiths have gone.
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