Government open to technological solutions for getting race fans back on course

The UK government has committed to examining technological solutions which may in time lead to crowds being readmitted to sports venues including racecourses.

The newly established Sports Technology Innovation Working Group brings together experts from the sport and health sectors under the chairmanship of David Ross, and has as its core mission the search for innovative ways to ensure social distancing and increase spectator confidence about the safety of venues.

Despite successful test events at Doncaster and Warwick, the immediate prospect of crowds returning to British racecourses effectively ended on September 23 when the Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport suspended all pilot schemes, while on the same day prime minister Boris Johnson warned that it could be six months before sport emerged from its current phase of being conducted behind closed doors.

Confirmation that the work of the STIG is deemed by government as central in any return of fans to live sport has come from the DCMS.

Playing to an empty stand: British racecourses have been devoid of paying customers since the return of the sport on June 1Credit: Mark Cranham

In an official response to a parliamentary select committee report on the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the arts and sports sector, the DCMS said that it was "working closely with a range of sports to understand the current thinking that might allow spectators to return".

The DCMS select committee, chaired by Julian Knight MP, has demanded the extension of the government's job retention scheme as well as continuing the deferral of VAT and PAYE payments for sporting and cultural businesses.

During a House of Commons debate triggered by the select committee's work, MPs Laurence Robertson and Laura Farris – whose constituencies include Cheltenham and Lambourn respectively – made impassioned pleas for racing to be allowed to continue with the pilot schemes on crowds.

The official response from the DCMS to the select committee report noted: "We know that the decision not to reopen stadiums to spectators on October 1 will have major consequences for sports and clubs across the country who relied on those fans for income. Specifically, we know the largest and most urgent concerns are around the major winter spectator sports: football, rugby union and horseracing.

"We are also in intense negotiations with rugby union to provide them with the necessary loan support to protect both the Rugby Football Union and professional clubs, and are continuing to work with the British Horseracing Authority on how best to support horseracing."

At the beginning of October the BHA submitted to the DCMS its estimate of the financial damage wrought on racing by the coronavirus pandemic with levy reform and exploration of an early return of crowds understood to be key planks of its self-help programme.

The DCMS statement continued: "We also continue to work closely with a whole range of sports to understand the latest thinking that might allow spectators to return. This includes the creation of a new Sports Technology Innovation Working Group of sporting bodies and health experts to analyse new technologies which might support this."

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