On the RadioTab ‘raceday’ program this morning with Steve and TC there was a lot of discussion as to why crowd sizes as a whole have been down across Australia, especially during carnival times. Last weekend was Slipper day and I believe only 19,000 attended the track and that is what have people talking.
There are so many different reasons punters/race goers are deciding against going. For starters $50 to get into the Slipper seems a piss take to me? Think of the how many young blokes out there would look at taking their girlfriends or wives out there for the day and straight off it is $100 for you to have the pleasure of walking through the gate, yah! Then you have got to think of having a feed at the track, something decent + another $50. Then if you are keen to let the hair down and buy the Mrs a few drinks you can easily pay $35+ for an $8 bottle of Champagne, or $6-7 for a $1.50 stubbie of beer. Or you could be family heading out to the track and that puts you in a similar predicament.
To tell you the truth I don’t think I have the answer as I don’t know exactly what the clubs have to do to make coin. Of course they can sell things at cost price, I know that, but surely the clubs around Australia who have carnivals that now go for 5-6 weeks could try something different. From what I hear Caulfield is leading the way.
I wouldn’t mind knowing what you guys think? Or if you have ideas?
*At first thought I came up with a couple that may work.
**$5 Day – Where entry is 5 bucks, beers/champagne is $5, you could make some of the food $5. That doesn’t sound like much but if you promote that day young people will think it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than going to the footy and the drinks are a few dollars cheaper than the $7-8 you pay at the footy as well. That saving would be in their wallets and let’s face it they would probably put a few extra bets on with that money while they are there to help turnover as well.
I would do this on one of the first weeks of the carnival and at the end of the day I would be handing out flyers/free tickets to the final day of the carnival to try and get some of the people back who have had a great time. The tickets could be two for one entry, or even allow entry for two people for free to get them back and enjoy another day at the track where they can let loose a bit without worrying about their money and so they don’t leave the track and tell their friends “it was a great day but it is just so expensive to go, I won’t be going again till next year!”
That is just one theory I had where the clubs would still make plenty of money but the public feel like they have a win as well. These days with social media etc they would get that much positive publicity it wouldn’t be funny! But each club is their own and they all have their own marketing teams that shouldn’t need us average race lovers giving them ideas I’m sure…. In saying that I would like to know some of your ideas if you think they may actually work. Just send a one paragraph e-mail to me with your idea. If we get enough I may post an article up with some of them featured next week , and who knows, maybe someone around Australia will take notice and give them a try?
At the end of the day we have a few great race clubs up here and we all just want to see them succeed. Let’s hope we get some crowds to the winter racing carnival when it kicks off.
