HRI keeping ‘watching brief’ on track admission prices as attendances drop

Horse Racing Ireland’s boss has said “a watching brief” is being kept on racecourse admission prices as trends indicate a drop in attendance figures for the first half of 2022.

However, ahead of this weekend’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby festival at the Curragh, HRI’s chief executive Suzanne Eade insisted she believes going racing remains value for money.

Eade confirmed that upcoming statistics for the first six months of this year will show a drop in crowd figures compared with the same period in 2019. Precise figures though are still unknown.

In the first half of 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, total attendance at the country’s 26 racecourses was 555,475, up from 510,337 in 2018.

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The average attendance at that time rose by 6.2 per cent to 3,346.

Eade said returning to such levels straight away was always going to be difficult and pointed to a new HRI advertising campaign launched last week which concentrates on encouraging 18- to 35-year-olds to consider racing as a social day out.

She also said she wasn’t overly concerned with the immediate trend but acknowledged the growing cost of living issue could provide racecourses with challenges in attracting people through the gates.

There has been growing attention recently on admission prices to racecourses in this country.

General admission to Saturday’s €1 million Irish Derby at the Curragh is €50 although it is cheaper if booking online beforehand.

In contrast general admission to Sunday’s French Derby at Chantilly was just €10 and only €5 if booked online.

An official attendance of just fewer than 12,000 was reported at the 2019 Irish Derby. Saturday’s renewal will be the first since then with unrestricted crowd access.

In relation to criticism of admission costs, Eade said: “I’ve heard that anecdotally, at certain events. But we’ve seen the numbers at Punchestown [Festival] being strong and Fairyhouse [Easter festival] all those numbers are strong.

“But as we face the current headwinds with costs, with inflation, we are definitely very mindful of it

“I think there is still great value in going to a day’s racing, particularly if people buy in advance.

“We will definitely keep a watching brief if there are sectors within the pricing structure that need to be revisited. But I haven’t seen that to as large an extent as maybe may come down the road.”

She said: “It’s up to the individual racecourses and they’re going to have to monitor it at the different levels.

“It may mean that they look at different demographics, have they got it right in every section. It’s about value at the end of the day, what people feel is value for money. Compared to other sports, and other events, I think we are still good value.”

Having come through the worst of the pandemic, Eade pointed to encouraging attendance levels at the big National Hunt festivals so far this year.

“When you look at the performances overall, racecourses have done an excellent job coming out of Covid, made everybody feel they were secure and in safe spaces. So, we hope that keeps us in good stead.

“What we’re finding now that we’re coming into summer period is that we’re competing with a huge amount of other social and entertainment events as well as other events that have been deferred, like weddings.

“It sounds crazy but this is what we’re seeing at the moment. So, we’re up against it competitively.

“That’s why we’ve re-engaged with the younger community to make them realise it is a social event and you can get quite a lot out of coming to a day’s racing.

“So, I’m not overly concerned. It would be hard to get back to 2019 straight away, I feel, but what we’re doing is probably pressing a bit harder at the moment to make sure we do.

“We know people are consuming it. They’re watching it. The main thing is to get them back to the same levels post-Covid,” she said.

Eade appeared before the joint Oireachtas agriculture committee last week where HRI was criticised for “abusing its position” in relation to the distribution of media rights income.

Senator Rónán Mullen claimed that crucial media rights income was distributed disproportionally, favoured larger tracks, including the four owned by HRI, and some smaller courses were disaffected.

A new media rights deal is being negotiated ahead of the current deal winding up at the end of next year.

The HRI boss said she was unable to talk about negotiations due to confidentiality agreements.

However, she did say: “There are 26 racecourses and in the last two rounds of deals there was unanimous agreement to all elements of the deal. There are other small racecourses that are very happy with the deal. The all voted unanimously in favour of the deals.

“They had some significant increase in the last five years in terms of both earnings per fixture but also the fixture increases have helped racecourses and was really very supportive of them during Covid.

“Maybe there were some things in the questioning that we need to go back on and check some of the validity of the arguments.”