Summer Cup - Improved Attendance At A Price?

Let's start off by congratulating the 'connections' on managing to lure 11,000 bodies to the racecourse for the Summer Cup.

Although the day turned out to be something of a punter's nightmare there was scope to 'get out' in the later races even if the two major features might already have put most players in the poor house. I'm never sure if 'roughies' on a big day are a good or bad thing - so many of the once-a-year racegoers wager on their fancies for reasons unrelated to form that you would like to believe that one or two of them might have fluked the odd win on the eventual winners and gone home with tales to tell their mates.........

Nevertheless - totting up the cost of marketing this event for a turnout of 11,000 would probably be enough to use as a case study in Accounting 1.01 entitled 'How To Spend A Fortune To Almost No End'. And that's a concern as a repetition of that kind of outflow for such a small turnout would probably be enough to quickly cool off all sponsors but for the robber barons such as the cellular operators who continue to print money as long as people continue to yak.

Assuming that, say, R5 million was spent on various promotional exercises ( and that's probably a very, very modest guess ) then you can calculate that it pans out at R454 per attendee. Do that more than once a year and you are quickly in trouble.

My guess is that if you offered everybody who wanted to pitch a sponsored R 500 betting voucher (redeemable on course only so you are forced to attend) you would probably end up with the same result except that you might boost turnover by a further 5 bar by virtue of the marketing budget going through the tote instead of to event management companies.

When it comes to all the sideshows that racing seems to believe are essential to staging an event of this nature you just lose me! I know of no other sport that feels the need to introduce unrelated gimmicks to lure customers to their premier events. And at the same time doing little or nothing to 'reward' or incentivise those who support it through thick and thin. In fact - regular racegoers ( if there are any still left! ) are simply brushed aside on days such as these.

So although it would appear to represent progress I doubt whether it is sustainable. And I'm pretty sure that many of the novices went home broke after Saturday's results thinking : My folks warned me that it is crook!

what was the gate entry charge on the day?

Don I think Elvis posted it was R50, however I am sure if you were in Furious/Elevation/tent town/box etc, you were given a badge?

So would guess not many paying at gate.

Either way - it was a great day and well attended for JHB. Even if the marketing side was high, so be it. If this is the price to pay for getting the people back trackside it has my support. Well done Phumelela and the RA!

Have only heard positive vibes about the day but after watching the Bruss show, dont you just want to get down to the Cape <