6 Times a Year
This post is was originally a comment we received in response to Matt Smith’s On Getting Joe Punter Back to the Track. We thought it was worthy of a little more attention:
I agree that harness racing should be aiming to get those generation X and Yers who attend once a year to attend, say, 6 times per year. To achieve this, some things need to seriously change.
As a starting point, the powers that be would do well to remember that harness racing is a sport. It competes with other sports. The way people have attended live sports events has dramatically changed over the past 50 or 60 years. Harness racing doesn’t seem to comprehend this.
For example, if you look at pictures from Lancaster Park in the mid 1950s, you will see that most of the men attending are attired in 3-piece suits. It is difficult to imagine such a scenario at a Crusaders game today. Yet racing retains this idea that people should get dressed up to go to the races in 3 piece suits. Why?
This has nothing to do with encouraging a glamorous or sexy atmosphere. I dress up to go out to bars, events, plays and the like all the time. But I don’t do it in a 3 piece suit.
Sport has changed a lot in that people watch probably about 50 times more on television than they do live. So to get someone to go anywhere 6 times a year to watch sport the expense and inconvenience has to be outweighed by the experience. At live rugby matches, that experience includes the atmosphere but there is no atmosphere at Addington.
The biggest thing live harness racing does have is that you can get up close to the horses, which remain the chief drawcard. But at Addington they have recently done away with horses walking around the birdcage for 5 minutes before going out on the track. That is the worst crime of all.
You have to bring the horses to the people, because the people love them. That’s how you sell the sport. Addington should have taken every opportunity to show people the horses up close. They have done the very opposite.
Secondly, attending harness racing is entertainment, leaving the races to one side. 90% of the time there is not a race running, so you need to give people good facilities in which they can talk, drink, consider the form and bet. (This is a no-brainer, because all this involves attendees spending money.)
If the facilities are crap, then 90% of the night is a disaster. Take a look at the food at Addington. I took my girlfriend to Addington for what I hoped would be a nice night out earlier this year. However the trackside dining had long since been done away with. We had to make do with the Twiggers smorgasboard of Alison Holst 80s classics. The barmaids were 80 year old boilers. Good luck getting a cocktail.
And there was actually a lift operator sitting in the lift, asking people whether they wanted her to press 2 or 3 for them. She may be the last lift operator in the world still employed! These are a throw-back to the days before lifts with buttons in them. Again, this is a case of the powers that be conflating what was done in the past with what people would find classy and cool now.
There is still equal demand these days for top-notch, classy, dressy, glamorous evenings out (as opposed to the scunge pit that Addington has become; more about that below). But you can’t run it like it was run in the 1950s because we’re not in the 1950s any more.
On an ordinary night Addington gives you the choice between being in a deserted grandstand or heading over to the members stand and being in an overcrowded prison. The so-called “lounge” is like a feral TAB with a pub inside it.
Do not get me started on the cars parked by the outside rail, either.
If the powers that be do not understand that what is on offer in terms of food, beverage, facilities etc is not good enough for what our age group want and expect, then there is no hope as things currently stand.
Basically, no less is required than a complete sweep-out of all the old administrators and ideas.
(Image Credit - the Eiffel Tower apparently still employs lift operators)
