Average raceday attendance reveals the real state of play
The day before Glorious Goodwood the Racing Post carried an article marking the tenth anniversary of the BHA.
Two comments by chief executive Nick Rust caught my eye. The first was news that the ill-informed notion that racecourse attendances would rise to seven million by 2020 has now been abandoned. It should have been obvious from the outset that this target could have been met only if the sport underwent transformational changes and/or admission prices were slashed.
The second was his claim that current attendances “are generally on an upward curve”. This cheerful assertion could not be checked until now because official figures for July on the Levy Board website covering the period before Glorious Goodwood were previously too incomplete.
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