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The problems are far deeper than that TDK.
Basically Kempton asked the trilaterall comission what their wet dream was. Their reply was astromical overrounds, endless 14 runner fields and a surface that repeatedly throws up unfathomable results. Is it any wonder punters are voting with their feet?
Sorry TDK, you were too greedy. Ordering an extra three deserts after you’d already wolfed down a twelve course banquet really was going too far. Do you have no idea of restraint?
Kempton was probably not the best place to build another AW course but I don’t agree that the results at Kempton have been as unpredictable as some people are suggesting – seems to be no different than a lot of other courses imo.
Placepot last night paid only £41.80…
…as I know to my cost…
I wish it were a bit more unpredictable.
(Edited by Prufrock at 3:33 pm on Nov. 23, 2006)
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Quote: from thedarkknight on 1:11 pm on Nov. 23, 2006[br]The quality of racing at Kempton hasnt been that bad at all – the problems stem from the location of the course and the difficulty getting to it from Central London. <br>
TDK<br> Do they use a different route for the NH racing?<br> Wake up and smell the coffee. At the recent Lingfield meeting, a quality card in AW terms, Ch4 showed pictures of the ‘crowd’ evacuating the grandstand owing to a bomb scare. Frankly, there would have been more people in my local Sainsburys on a Saturday afternoon.
Surely if demand is low (ie, no-one turning up), then the over-rounds should also be low – its a basic rule of supply/demand! Seems like theyre more interested in conning the mug punters in the shops than providing a half decent service on-course.
God, I hope my local track (Newcastle) never installs one of these sandpits – i’d rather go and watch the dogs (and thats bad enough).
<br>
You don’t bet to tight margins if all you are taking is a tenner here and a tenner there and the first even half-decent bet you take will unbalance your book.
You also don’t bet to tight margins when it is clear that even if you offered 2-1 each of 3 in a 3-runner race there are nowhere near enough people in attendance to drum up much business.
The competitiveness needs to exist on both sides of the counter, so to speak.
Quote: from reet hard on 4:08 pm on Nov. 23, 2006[br]
Quote: from thedarkknight on 1:11 pm on Nov. 23, 2006[br]The quality of racing at Kempton hasnt been that bad at all – the problems stem from the location of the course and the difficulty getting to it from Central London. <br>
TDK<br> Do they use a different route for the NH racing?<br> Wake up and smell the coffee. At the recent Lingfield meeting, a quality card in AW terms, Ch4 showed pictures of the ‘crowd’ evacuating the grandstand owing to a bomb scare. Frankly, there would have been more people in my local Sainsburys on a Saturday afternoon.<br>
Lingfield claim that 800 people were evacuated from the grandstand plus 2000 from elsewhere (goodness knows where they came from)= 2800.<br>This was for a Saturday afternoon terrestrially televised AW flat meeting featuring a listed race. <br>I believe target crowd for a Kempton twilight meeting is 2000 which hardly constitues an atmosphere.<br>Maybe all this doesn’t matter. Betting shop needs are satisfied and a limited number of rails bookies show up on course. <br>The bars and catering are currently sub-contracted out at Lingfield, so if they are empty that’s not Arena’s problem.<br>This may change as I understand Arena are taking over the catering.<br>Accepting that Kempton is hard to travel to etc. I feel that supply and demand is taking place. Lingfield has 90 plus meetings a year and the public won’t shell out £14 minimum just for entry ahead of any bets, racecards and food and drink. Racing in the UK is over-priced as racegoers pay for the privilige of bookies being present and are voting with their feet. People may have a perception that the south is affluent with jobs and good wages available but in reality people are mortgaged to the hilt, pay through the nose for entertainment and groceries and get stung on their council tax to subsidise the north. The money isn’t there and something must give.<br>As regards the quality of the actual AW racing, Kempton is as good as Lingfield.
But what are the real economics of this? wouldnt be suprised if these meetings have been budgeted to have no paying customers at all, with the levy covering all. Bit like morning BAGS
in that case, does it matter that much?
Counter argument is that it is eating into the levy but then again wouldnt betting shop punters be betting on something else (or not at all) between 4 7 6 in the winter?
This is more of a question than a statement. just curious to know….
I wondered the same, clivex.
If Kempton’s financing is not partly predicated on the paying customer then why have they invested so much money in such good facilities?
Not just for Boxing Day, surely?
Clivex,<br>Levy payments are only for basic prize money. BAGS/SIS payments for RHT tracks are, from memory, £4500 per race with eight or more runners, proportionately less for under eight runners, though maybe someone with a better memory than me might like to correct those figures.
Think the original Kempton marketing plan assumed large numbers of city workers would go down there to drink instead of going to London bars. Might have had some hope in mid-summer at night, but on a November afternoon?
rivhard
People may have a perception that the south is affluent with jobs and good wages  available but in reality people are mortgaged to the hilt, pay through the nose for entertainment and groceries and get stung on their council tax to subsidise the north.
:biggrin: :biggrin: Best laugh I’ve had tonight…LOL.
I’ll have to go, me whippets got stuck in the privy
Think the original Kempton marketing plan assumed large numbers of city workers would go down there to drink instead of going to London bars.
Maybe but a large proportion of "city workers" come from the bleak east of london. Great leighs will be their home and surely Kempton took the opening of that into consideration.
In fact you could probably drive from Birmingham to Kempton quicker than get back to essex from there
Problem for Kempton is that it is the biggest density of courses in the country and perhaps middle class south west london is not natural punter country
Pru…agree although it maybe needed a bit of tarting up anyway (just as Sandown does). Like you, i like the course and find the rather constant knocking of it a bit strange. Never quite understand why people get so heated about racing they dont have to follow.
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Kempton’s M.D. spills the beans.
I wonder if this article would have seen the light of day without the prompting of such as TRF?:)
<br>(Edited by reet hard at 6:06 am on Nov. 25, 2006)<br>
(Edited by reet hard at 6:09 am on Nov. 25, 2006)
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<br>Duplicated
(Edited by reet hard at 5:00 am on Nov. 25, 2006)
True , we all have slagged off Kempton for debauching racing , true it is a bags fixture and it helps fund racing (heaven help us !!!)  and true we dont have to attend it or watch it
Also true is that most people on this forum like racing and remember Kempton for what it was , a fun place with reasonable racing , with good craic on a wedensday summer evening
the shame is that its now just like Monmore ,or hall green , or Perry Barr , and if you have  attended one of those meetings and felt the empty atmosphere ,and souless  motonony of the fare , all for bookies profit , you would think Thank God this can never happen to racing
<br>It just did
<br>R
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