The state of the off-course Totes in SAF

is there any merit in suggesting the facilities need an upgrade?
most of them look pretty dire, and have been for decades.

The understatement of the year Don ! I always ask the question. Would you take your wife to a tote ?
Filthy, health hazard !

And the reason the bookies win hands down on comfort ?

We seem to be going over loads of old topics

If they had only acted on some of our suggestions 5 years ago

Social media campaigns

Blanket marketing

Music nights

All stuff we put to them 5 ,6,7,8 years ago

Bob I must agree. Surely they have done their market research/ surveys before launching any campaign ?
Don how long have you been involved in racing, are you a punter or an owner?(maybe a trainer :silly: )
Without sounding rude you ask really kak questions and sound like someone who has no frikkin idea of what is going on in our industry.

hahaha none of the above Neigh!! asking seemingly obvious questions so as to solicit response from those in racing for years. Sorry about the stupid questions all the time but there is method in the madness.

Lets get positive about this and nominate Bob to put forward suggestions, surely it cannot hurt....
Herewith my suggestions if i was tasked with turning GC racing around;
1. Re-visit the offer to Royal GC, offer 15 million and offer to help them turn their course into a 9 hole, 13 green course. The writing is on the wall for this club and it would make sense. Widen both tracks at Greyville.
2. Appoint Pirates to head up marketing & programming, give him a platform to interact with trainers, jockeys and the punters to drive interest.
3. Invest in 20 off course betting sites to make them attractive - consider a joint venture with Hollywood Food or establish a partnership with the KEG. Hillcrest is the fastest growing affluent suburb in Durbs and does not have a decent betting shop, i am sure this is true for many areas.
3. Renovate the boxes at Greyville and charge the current annual subscription for July day alone, the rest of the year make them available at R500 per meeting with loyalty points if you book 3 meetings at a time.
4. A loyalty points card for punters with real benefits like priority treatment on the big race days. Loyalty points for introducing new account holders.
5. A punting program on 239, Pirates can do "how to structure exotics", LG & KM can box about the MR system.
6. Start a trainers comment column in all race cards and start trialing maidens and horses that have been rested for more than 60 days.
7. Seriously consider a partnership with the bookies.

Bud, the easiest way to get the answers would be to leave the air-conditioned office and see for yourself. Spend one afternoon in a local tote, and I can promise you, your partner when you arrive home will ask you why you smell so bad !
All of us would make time to answer as many questions as needed to bring about change.

What would TAB do to improve the Totes.

neigh wrote: Bud, the easiest way to get the answers would be to leave the air-conditioned office and see for yourself. Spend one afternoon in a local tote, and I can promise you, your partner when you arrive home will ask you why you smell so bad !
All of us would make time to answer as many questions as needed to bring about change.

100% Neigh

The only way for the operators to know and understand what the punter goes through is to visit the totes and "be" the punter

Maybe Vee and others need to leave their office and spend time at the totes and review the facilities - this will be serious eye opener but I guess its easier to sit back and think all is well

They need to know and understand what is wrong in order to fix it but maybe its easier to assume all is well

I think Vee would run for his Life !

There are NO Facilities to review. On top of that, the attitude of the Operators.

AND of course !! No Bunny Chow !!

Or just get rid of the open bet and charge for Telly Track. Take the profits and Jack the totes up. I mean. ... surely that's fair ?

Louis the bookies always paid for Telytrack and will do again at a fair price

The bookies offered to stop the open bet but the operators got greedy and wanted the lot ( they lost )

The bookies pay for their own premises out of their profits ( risks attached)

The punter pays for the totes premises ( no risks attached )