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The new initiative by the BHRB to attract people to the sport has just been unveiled on Luck On Sunday.
Basically, £3.62 million is being spent trying to attract people to the sport, and they’re aiming to focus on the raceday experience, the fun shared and memories created.
Sounds riveting.
Oh dear!
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysHow much will it cost for courses to reopen all the silver rings& family enclosures?Less than £3.62m ?
I wonder how many of those millions will be sucked up by “administration”?
The more I know the less I understand.
So-called betting coups at the bottom end, dodgy looking shenanigans at the top as described in the Derby trial thread.
Why don’t people want to watch or bet on racing? Throw as much money as you like at it, if your product looks bent then don’t be surprised when people look elsewhere.
Like the initiative to attract Students to the Sport by giving them free entry.
Trouble is, Students haven’t got any money.
Another initiative throwing around money and trying to get people interested who don’t care. Instead of better looking after the customers it has got.
Meanwhile, punters who are the lifeblood of the game face account closures and restrictions, or their accounts being rendered useless unless they provide personal information.
Don’t expect anyone in the racing media who depend on losing punters (many of them on the payroll of bookmakers) to raise their voice about it.
“trying to attract people to the sport”
Not this again, I thought Sam Quek had sorted that one
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
So 4 million memories from 4.8 million racegoers?
Were the other 800,000 too bladdered to remember anything?
Plenty of sneering, as expected, here.
So, the question remains: How should racing promote itself?
You lot seem to know what won’t work, so what will work?
My point was that before worrying about promoting itself racing needs to make the sport at least look less open to cheating. Why would people bet on or turn up to something they think is bent?
There are plenty of other outlets for the punting pound. Footballers for example can’t bet on the sport worldwide (not simply their own matches or league) and they can and do get caught. What happens when a ‘betting coup’ comes in? They get applauded, including by some of the very punters whose money they are now in possession of. What do people think that looks like to outsiders?
Sort that out before you worry about anyone coming through the gates.
“What will work?”
Making more effort to look after the customers you have got, instead of chasing after people who are not interested.
I believe most people become interested in racing through older relatives, not marketing gimmicks.
The problem racing has in the prevailing atmosphere is promoting a sport which is based on using animals for betting is a tough sell, especially when most of the media is either not interested or hostile to racing.
But perhaps racing is too harsh on itself. It is still one of the most popular spectator sports in the country. It looks packed out at Perth today, for example. I don’t get why the sport spends so much time and money trying to attract new people, when it already gets good crowds.
There are plenty of ways for people to spend the leisure pound nowadays. Racing still seems to be doing quite well as far as I can see. Isn’t it unrealistic to expect even more people to attend?
If racing is serious about attracting a new crowd, why not offer free or heavily discounted admission? Then have clearly identified people on hand to answer questions etc. Provide a voucher for a free bet on the Tote.
Some racecourses have student days. They are quite a good idea but it has to be said the students generally seem to only be there for a booze up. I am not sure the days make any converts to racing.
CAS,
It’s Ladies Day at Perth, which guarantees a crowd, as it seems to do at any track. Although of course they can only use that trick once per year.
QF,
It would be easier to offer positive input if the marketing guru in charge would offer up some specific objectives and show what things he’ll measure to establish the success or failure of his campaign. But as usual with this sort of thing, what we get is vague, meaningless slogans – e.g. “raise the profile of racing”.
We had all this fifteen years ago with Racing For Change, which talked a lot, spent a lot and produced very little in the way of change.
“I am not sure the days make any converts to racing.”
The marketing and accounting bods don’t care one iota if people are interested in racing: all they want is bums on seats or, to be more accurate, people at racecourse bars.
It’s so disingenuous when you see these marketing spivs pretending that they want to convert people to the sport.
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