REAL CROWDS AT RACING - IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE IT WORK

WHERE HORSERACING WORKS! JAPAN


SEE THE CROWD - NOT THE BIGGEST RACE OF THE YEAR
This is the average Saturday crowd, despite the fact that the Japanese economy is not good at the moment.
Now, if Masayuki Goto could turn racing around from being in very bad shape in 1979, so can we.

In The Blood Horse, August 19, 1995 he said:
'We look at racing as a business. That business generates revenues from the fans. They are our customers.
Where does the prize money come from? The consumer pays for it. Our first duty, therefore, if we are to run a successful business, is to make our consumers happy so that they keep coming back to do business with us. It is the right of the fan to be the first to be considered. Everything else is secondary. The fans are where we must look to grow our business. Not the owners. Not the breeders.

I know this may be difficult to understand where there is tradition to give all parts of racing an equal say. But for us in Japan it is simple business logic. If we are successful in our dealings with the consumer, the handle goes up, the prize money goes up, everyone is happy. If we are not successful with the consumer, we go out of business.'

attached the scanned article herewith - 5 pages in total for this post.

SAF needs to get with the program...and stop selling the family jewels.
This document which contained a fully laid out save racing campaign and strategy, was given out to industry leaders and key players in1998. Still they don't listen.

Attached files [img]/wp-content/uploads/attachments/443956=1400-Masayuki Goto 1.jpg[/img] [img]/wp-content/uploads/attachments/443956=1401-Masayuki Goto 2.jpg[/img] [img]/wp-content/uploads/attachments/443956=1402-Masayuki Goto 3.jpg[/img]

its never been more relevant as now for SAF racing, hopefully it's not too late. If changes can be made quickly, I am sure there can be a turnaround in as little as 2 years from now.

Attached files [img]/wp-content/uploads/attachments/443958=1403-Masayuki Goto 4.jpg[/img] [img]/wp-content/uploads/attachments/443958=1404-Masayuki Goto 5.jpg[/img]

Just an observation: from reading the hollywood star of the week, when asked about attendance to race meeting, most have a common response, the organisations should spend more time marketing and advertising. Yet those in power obviously probably never read the winning form, because they yet to attempt marketing the game. There is absolutely no advertising outside of big meetings in kzn that I have noticed. Daily I see suncoast casino ads in the paper or sibaya casino ads, giving away cars or having lucky draws. Sibaya has live entertainment like comedy shows, plays, concerts etc, suncoast host a large variety of activities from wine tasting to yoga classes, attracting people to the casino, more feet means more money. The casinos also introduced a chinese gambling game( the name escapes me) to cater for their increase in chinese patrons. P and gc are clearly being outplayed by the casinos, and are of a completely diffirent opinion of how to increase their revenue, or maybe that thought never cross their minds yet. My business is very close to greyville and sometimes only realise there is a night meeting when I'm driving home and see the lights on. If it was advertised well, I'm sure there would be there will be more people at the races. Add some jumping castles for the kids or a cooking class with a top chef for the ladies, whilst racing is on, and you will see many many families on course, and that's just two of many ideas that could work that I thought up in two seconds, which leads me to wonder, what on earth does the gc n p marketing division think about from 9-5, coz nothing is being done.

Local racing is a loss making headache for p lushan,they will be happy to dump it in favour of
overseas racing ,sports betting and a casino licence,which imo makea sense from a business point,but
with sun international about to enter the sports betting market everyone else
better up their game x100 cos they know how to treat customers unlike
phum and gc

I don't understand how it could be as you say " a loss making headache"

Stakes ,transformation ,token black directors,etc

btw if I was a p shareholder I,ll be very happy with the results

as a punter why do we care who runs the operation and how much profit they make?
Good luck to all who got on I say,all I want is a picture of the horses going down to
the start,a clear pic of them coming bk with a commentator that reads the race and
not keep looking for his punt in the race,I dnt even care for on course
presenters discussing their tips or whats for lunch,a online or written comments
section (for the lifeblood of racing who dnt have internet access ) on 1st timers or horses
coming bk from a rest will suffice,

I understand if owners ,trainers,breeders complain about everything,but what more do we want
as punters except a clean transparent sport?

And I also want motor mouth Cecil to stop waffling on like that chick from american pie who
had the experience with the flute one day at band camp

soodum Wrote:

---

> Stakes ,transformation ,token black directors,etc
>
> btw if I was a p shareholder I,ll be very happy
> with the results
>
> as a punter why do we care who runs the operation
> and how much profit they make?
> Good luck to all who got on I say,all I want is a
> picture of the horses going down to
> the start,a clear pic of them coming bk with a
> commentator that reads the race and
> not keep looking for his punt in the race,I dnt
> even care for on course
> presenters discussing their tips or whats for
> lunch,a online or written comments
> section (for the lifeblood of racing who dnt have
> internet access ) on 1st timers or horses
> coming bk from a rest will suffice,
>
> I understand if owners ,trainers,breeders complain
> about everything,but what more do we want
> as punters except a clean transparent sport?


excelent post. what is all so important is the costs involved to stage the local meeting is huge. you have the tracks to prepare and staff to pay etc etc. if you show the oversee meeting you pay the royalties and percentage of turnover, no risk

Lushann... when I went to Kimberley last year with my partner, I asked her brother and his family if they wanted to go horse racing with me. Her brother has lived there maybe 10 years and his wife, I believe, for life. They started laughing when I asked. So I said, "I take it that would be no, then". Their reply... "No no no, we'd love to but there's no racecourse here". Someone from England had to tell them that there in fact is.

Nice post Don. Plenty questions could be asked though as although the logic is sound and makes good business sense, the article does not actually specify what they provide on course to make it an enjoyable "family" day out. One must also remember the huge cultural differences between the two countries. It is beneficial, for example, if you have a population where a large number have money that they can spend in this way, Japan has that, SA much less so. The Japanese are also well known for integrity, no offence but, SA is not.

Soodum, don't entirely disagree with you but... do you have total faith in the integrity and ability of those who run the whole operation in SA? If you don't say yes then I would dare to say that it does make a huge difference and greatly affects the things you say is all you need. To you individually may be less so, to someone who you are trying to attract to the sport it would be a major factor. We "know" all is not completely clean and well but we do it anyway, probably simply because we always have. That isn't a very persuasive argument when trying to make the sport more attractive to newcomers.

englander their is plenty people in vereeniging/sasolburg/vanderbijl who dont now their is the horses on their door step. we go back to the marketing or lack of it

The thing is englander as purely a punter I could,nt care less if nobody goes to the racecourse,or
they struggling to find new owners or new sponsors,if racing collapses today I ll find a new fix

as harsh as that sounds its my view

soodum Wrote:

---

> The thing is englander as purely a punter I
> could,nt care less if nobody goes to the
> racecourse,or
> they struggling to find new owners or new
> sponsors,if racing collapses today I ll find a new
> fix
>
> as harsh as that sounds its my view

lmao Soodum... yup bud, if that is your personal viewpoint then of course that is very fair . I, on the other hand, don't think I would find a new fix

FH... yup, exactly my point, if you don't even tell people its a race course next door rather than a piece of land your dog can sh1t on, what hope have you got?