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It’s behind a paywall, but I guess Jamie Osborne needs a new job.
I’m sure my Wales and West racing team silks will sell for peanuts in 200 years time
The 18 – 25 gimmick on a Friday night sounds a desperate idea. Totally designed to empty the barrels of booze, the horse racing won’t excited many, and those doing their bollocks combined with being tanked up won’t lead to any fighting will it. ..
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
The Friday night idea is hardly original is it, the July Course have been doing it for about 25 years.
And Goodwood have been selling their Friday evening meetings in June as Music Nights for some time.
They are calling it Friday Night Live presumably because it will be held on a Friday evening and is……er live. The Brain’s Trust must have been really stretched to come up with that one.
I am way outside the catchment demographic (18-25) that this is supossedly being aimed at but then again I don’t like AW racing period, so just like the Racing League it will not be getting my patronage regardless of any bells and whistle they whack on.
I suspect that this endeavour could very well go the same way as the Racing League (who’s six cards this Summer were seen by a combined total of just 15,016 racegoers, which averages out to just over 2,500 per meeting) and when you are looking/depending on the 18-25 age group going racing during the deep Winter months of January and February…….well, good luck with that.
AW racing is fine if all you want is something to bet on, it generates revenue for the industry and keeps staff employed.
However, I never watch it and never will, no matter how much prize money they throw at it.
Enjoy it while it lasts, but the novelty will soon wear off.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
I can see why the Racing League appealed to some owners and trainers. It offered a chance for moderate horses to run for decent prize money.
Unfortunately, the racing made little appeal. Lots of almost impossible to solve handicaps with moderate horses was never going to be easy. I seldom had a bet at the meetings.
However, as pointed out as nauseam here and elsewhere, the team concept simply did not work. I don’t know anyone who even began to care about it.
Worse still was some of the television coverage. I didn’t see much of ITV but SSR’s attempts to promote the team angle, with over-enthusiastic Alex and the hapless Josh, was more than a little embarrassing. If someone has to keep on telling you something is brilliant, you know for a fact it isn’t.
And there were times when the whole thing seemed like a vehicle to promote Jamie and Saffie Osborne, which became somewhat grating.
I don’t believe anyone wants to be negative and it is good to try new ideas. But this was a poor concept, implemented badly and it simply failed to capture the public’s imagination. It has to be regarded as a failure.
I find the Racing League , even more aggravating than the Shergar Cup (at least the latter is only one day a year).
It will be a shame if the prizemoney “disappears” as that was at least laudable for the quality of the events , and most of the horses running.
It was just such contrived , over hyped nonsense.
Josh and Alex tried their hardest to whip up the interest , but even that seemed totally
forced , and false.
The idea of Friday Night live fills me with horror , of hordes of drunken , coked up , yobs , fighting at racecourses throughout the land.
I know that I am nowhere near the target age demographic , as I still wear socks !!The bars will be full … and the Paddock empty , why don’t they just leave the horses at home and open the bars with cheap drink
But this was a poor concept, implemented badly and it simply failed to capture the public’s imagination.
All of which was widely predicted on here as soon as it was announced. It isn’t easy to attract new people to the sport. It is complex and requires individuals to be both curious and prepared to invest time getting to understand it. That’s not how things are done these days as we know but all these “initiatives” do is further alienate the core supporters. Soon there will be none of us left.
You would like to think that those who have been championing this concept for the past few years will now hold up their hands and say it was a bad idea all along.
Highly unlikely of course and obviously we could never really expect the likes of Alex and Josh to now show their true feelings, but as said above, if someone has to constantly tell you something is brilliant then it almost certainly isn’t. Last summer, Chapman said something along the lines that if you didn’t like the Racing League then maybe this sport isn’t for you, which I found pretty offensive. Clearly the attendance figures quoted above of just over 15,000 for the 6 meetings show the public knew it was a dead duck all along.This blurb from Wolverhampton about the new initiative looks pretty grim. Why even bother with the horse part of the night?
https://www.wolverhampton-racecourse.co.uk/news/racing/friday-night-live-series-launches-at-wolverhampton-racecourse?_gl=1*jnnd1t*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTk3MzE1Mjk3MC4xNzYzNDA4Mzkz*_ga_77YT71PPT1*czE3NjM0MDgzOTEkbzEkZzAkdDE3NjM0MDgzOTEkajYwJGwwJGgw*_ga_B3J2XL0VKS*czE3NjM0MDgzOTEkbzEkZzAkdDE3NjM0MDgzOTEkajYwJGwwJGgw1. Racing is broadcast live on ITV (fronted by Megan Nicholls)
2. It’s affordable, it’s televised, and it’s guaranteed high energy.
3. Don’t miss the party!
Is this supposed to attract new audience???
Well the program of races for the two meetings being held at Wolverhampton, shows a sparkling level of originality.
Seven races, all handicaps, all for 4-y-olds and up, none over a distance more than 1M 4F. Presumably staying races would be too long for the attention span of the intended audience.
BetMGM feature heavily among the sponsors.
Just one question – how does telling people that the meeting is going to be shown on ITV work as an attraction to turn out on a cold Friday evening?
As an aside, the promoters of the RL showed debts totalling £5M in their last published accounts.
I could actually see this working if it was marketed to that demographic as a Friday Race night in the pub. Limits it somewhat to people who bet on their phones.
Decline in pub going probably means its 20 or so years too late. Still going to the pub to watch racing would still be cheaper than going to the track.
The coverage is also no doubt going to be going up against live football on a Friday night as well.
Either way- its clearly an idea to bring money and new audiences in- worth a try if it can somehow benefit the rest of the racing programme. Might be worth fixing the fundamental problems with the sport first before you try and bring a new audience to it though.
I’m guessing they’ve seen some success in the student nights ( Newcastles looked busy to be fair this year ) and thought right let’s extend this to get all youngsters in , I’ll be honest I couldn’t think of a worse place to go….. But hey I ain’t young
I’m sure most posters on here are miles away from the target demographic for these nights, me included.
I’m not against these schemes, but the racecourses need some joined-up thinking in how to use them to actually market racing, and make clear there is something worth being there for apart from the bar.
I don’t like the way this sport is heading at all. Don’t they have enough on their plate with bad PR without basically turning into nightclub venues and all that entails live on ITV? They are being very naive if they don’t believe 95% of the people turning up won’t be completely off their faces. They might come back to a similar event but they arent suddenly going to fall in love with Racing when they are sober.
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