It seems that some people are either happy with the current racing offerings or feel that nothing can be done to change peoples perceptions so why bother. My question to these people is where do you think the racing industry will be in 10 years if nothing changes?

In the last 10 years TAB turnover on racing has been fairly static in dollar terms but in real terms (ie. adjusted for inflation) it has fallen and in real per-capita terms it has fallen dramatically. I don't have the actual figures handy but years ago the majority of the public's gambling dollar went into horse racing - now it is a very small fraction. I would also guess (although I have no figures to back it up) that the average age of a horse racing punter has risen significantly and that there simply aren't sufficient new punters being attracted to the sport to sustain it as these older punters start to leave (or die).

If something drastic isn't done to attract some new interest (and hence new punters) then the sport is going to be in serious trouble very soon. The sport is currently dependant on the gambling revenue to sustain it and if that revenue keeps shrinking then obviously costs will have to be cut (and cut drastically).

Personally I think it is already too late to save a lot of the current clubs and tracks - what should be happening NOW is deciding which tracks should be kept and merging the various clubs so that the money can be spent on keeping a much smaller number of tracks in much better condition so that we can have a smaller number of better quality race meetings. By all means the other tracks can be kept running for non-TAB meetings if they can be funded by other means but the TAB support should be directed only to those that will be used for the main racing "circuit".

[ This Message was edited by: becareful on 2003-09-04 10:43 ]