IRISH RACECOURSE bosses are set to meet Horse Racing Ireland executives next month to discuss options for reversing the downward spiral in attendance figures at race meetings here.
HRI are planning a brainstorming session where they insist that all options will be on the table including the question of admission prices.
Crowd figures for the first half of 2009 are down 17 per cent, a statistic compounded by the 18 per cent drop in attendance figures at the Galway festival.
HRI’s director of racing Jason Morris said yesterday: “Attendances are obviously the main topic of conversation at the moment and we are planning to meet the racecourses to look at the whole area of returning attendances to previous levels.”
He added: “They will be open sessions where we will try to collect the best ideas from across the industry. Everything will be on the agenda, including admission prices. It will certainly be one of the things on our agenda.
“We want an open and frank discussion and see what comes out of it. Brian Kavanagh (HRI chief executive) has already stated our view that it is so important to offer value for money.”
Admission prices to racecourses in Ireland have come under increasing fire recently, including at the Galway Festival where entry fees for the Wednesday and Thursday were €30.
The proposed sessions with racecourses are set to take place in early September with the results intended to be discussed at the next HRI board meeting later that month.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/5edb3a01-3854-414a-a4d1-6fd4b3f3ce92.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)