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The RCA revealed the figures and perhaps bizarrely blamed the weather.
The weather? Surely a hot dry sunny summer would encourage people to go racing what do they want a summer of rain?
The good news for the sport is it is still in 2nd place on the list of attended sporting events.
Miserably small fields (even in good races) and weekend engineering making it impossible to travel by train are also factors. Both have put me off going in the last year.
Would only go to NH fixtures, but never go racing at the weekend, too many people only interested in drinking and showing off with their mates. No respect for other racegoers or any real interest in the racing.
Mid-week racing is much more attractive, it may be lower class stuff on the whole, but that doesn’t bother me.
Small fields are a big negative and there is no way I will attend a six-race card that includes an AW flat race (Lingfield being the main culprit).
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Racing may be second on the attendance list but it does have the advantage of having fixtures 360 or so days a year. Also they presumably count flat and jumps together but do they do the same for rugby’s two codes? Some old stats I found that don’t put union plus league about even with racing even though they are at least a couple of million behind individually.
Totally bizarre to blame the weather I agree. Obviously the World Cup is more likely to be a factor, although for me personally, only an England game and would stop me going on a pre-planned trip to the races. I’d also prioritise the semis and final over racing but those dates are known in advance so I wouldn’t even plan to go anyway.
The long hot dry spell did deter me from going to summer jumping (normally would have gone to two or three meetings).Moving all the good stuff to a Saturday puts me off going as does the trend for loads of mares only races.
espmadrid said…
“Would only go to NH fixtures, but never go racing at the weekend, too many people only interested in drinking and showing off with their mates. No respect for other racegoers or any real interest in the racing.”I only go Flat racing and very occasional AW but totally agree that the sockless selfie taking brigade and their friends of both sexes could be putting a lot of people off going racing.
They tend to go to the big race meetings like the 2000 Guineas,/Derby and turn up in coach parties already under the influence and make a rowdy entrance to the races
What I don’t understand is Why ??
They don’t look at a horse, hardly bet as you say and most often pay premium prices to go into the Members.1000 Guineas Day is the one to go to for a more family day I’ve found but I love to go on both days because of the decent horses running.
The trouble with courses like Newmarket and Newbury for example is their after racing concerts which encourage non racing people to buy Members badges just to get into these occasions and they don’t usually turn up until after racing finishes or worse still hang around the stage sitting on blankets blocking the way for those wanting to get to the betting ring
.When you loook back at old race videos everyone there had turned out to see the horses and jockeys, nowadays there are hen and stag party’s going on and disco bars after racing encouraging even more drinking and often extra police have to be drafted in to deal with those who have over indulged.
I still do really enjoy my days at the races but if racecourses don’t do more for their core customers enjoyment of the day then they will find attendance figures dropping even more and no amount of Little Mix concerts will bring it back up.
JacThings turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...Must be because everyone is staying at home and watching the outstanding coverage on television.
Unfortunately there is little mileage in racing targeting “racing fans” as such because there arent that many around. Especially true of the flat. For all the moaning about the once a year brigade, they do spend. There isnt much mileage in targteing the Weatherspoons coffin dodgers who bring their own cheese and pickle sandwiches and moan to the stewards all day about the price of a cup of tea
Ascot gets its fair share of barbs and Im not keen on the flat saturdays but it works. I know loads of people who visit once a year and love it there and the facilities are well thought out. not sure what more they can do
Cost isnt an issue really IMO. Racing is cheap and there are offers all over the place. Arguably some mid week meetings at some courses could discount a bit but do we really think that a fiver off will bring in thousands
As it happens i think the weather may be a fair excuse. Northerners will never know it but racing is much more appealing on a pleasant day rather than a scorcher. i can get that one
Laying blame on the weather is a device beloved of economists, retailers and those in the business world generally to explain why their forecasts were overly optimistic and/or to rationalise away a poor trading quarter: too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, too average…nowt to do with me guv, out of my hands
To try and contextualize the drop in racecourse attendance it would be worth knowing how other spectator sports have fared in recent years
Eng… Prem Champ L1 L2
2019
2018 38.310 20.489 7.797 4.492
2017 35.809 20.084 7.923 4.752Seems the prem league & Championship are up but lower leagues down
Took a look at the Premier League stats and they are a tad misleading. Looking at the sixteen teams that were in the division for all three years from 2016-2018 came up with the figures below. The two main factors are Tottenham & West Ham who increased their capacity. For the 16 teams 10,935,549 watched in 2015/2016 (average 37711) compared to 12,137,366 in 2017/2018 (average 39926), an increase of circa 1,200,000. West Ham and Tottenham increased over these two years 1,000,030 combined, Liverpool were up 174,000 (didn’t they extend the kop?) but the rest were round about the same. Bear in mind these are ticket sales including Corporate and not legs through the turnstiles.
Team 2016-2018
AFC Bournemouth -5.16%
Arsenal FC -1.05%
Chelsea FC -0.53%
Crystal Palace 1.71%
Everton FC 1.73%
Leicester City -1.38%
Liverpool FC 17.23%
Manchester City -0.42%
Manchester United -0.41%
Southampton FC 0.14%
Stoke City 5.96%
Swansea City -0.43%
Tottenham Hotspur 47.35%
Watford FC -1.79%
West Bromwich Albion -0.45%
West Ham United 38.63%Thanks Steve31 and Aaronineez
Notwithstanding that the figures for the premier league could be misleading, the gist is that they’re more or less holding their own
Steve’s comment “lower leagues are down” suggests to me that there should be some flesh put on the ‘average’ (doncha just luv averages) bones of the racecourse figure by subsetting them into, say, Saturdays, Sundays, weekdays at the gaffs, weekday ‘festivals’, Flat, NH
My guess is that weekdays at the gaffs will show the greatest drop as all the coffin dodgers now while away their days in Wetherspoons eulogising Tim Martin, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg
They’re great places to earwig ‘the will of the people’ Clivexx. Buy one coffee and enjoy an infinite number of free refills
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