Newmarket Rowley Mile Bookies

number of tickets / turnover is half or less of what it was 5 yearrs ago and expenses are now close to double.
i have a good number pick and only now attend a small number of days. i can't , for the life of me , understand those that continually attend and keep moaning

Newmarket say attendances up 4% and Bookmaker attendances the same. Is that true?

I used to attend in tatts 8 times a year.  I am now down to the 2000 and 1000 in May and have binned the rest.  If they had tried to kill the track and attendances off they couldn't have done a better job.  Sleeping giant?  Almost extinct!  Like an idiot I paid 25k for my pitch there as it was good at the time.  Probably fetch 8k now if I'm lucky and to be honest I don't think its worth that even.

wasnot,

A sad state of affairs, indeed!

Is the crowd level the same there though? champions futures day excepted

No days are as busy as they were 5 years ago.

the gravy train left the station years ago

Less than 16,000 there for the 2,000 Guineas is disgraceful.  3 weeks later Chester get 24,000 and York get 27,000 on the same Saturday with no classic.  If they ran the 2,000 Guineas at York they'd get 45,000 there.

It cant be down to location 'cos the July Course is different class ! And the reasons are ?

the key to attendance figures as sports advisor means is all based on annual members which may or may not be up 4% but as all replies are from tatts books you can read what you will.
newmarket rowley have made it crystal clear to all that they have no interest in joe public or weather he attends or not over the last five years or they would have addressed this point long before now

Bought a pitch (in partnership) in Rowley Tatts at one of the early auctions.  Paid over £10k.  Went to most meetings for about 5 years.  Sold out my share to ex-partner. He carried on for another 5 years and sold it for £3k in 2010. I see a slightly better pick went for £1250 last April.  I should say the place has gone !!!

fogive me if im wrong but didnt they used to have discounted tickets with some brewery or other,when this finished joe public didnt want to pay full price as for year upon year they were getting concessions.imo this is one of the reasons for the current state of affairs.

Greene King

^ and all the beer now seems to be from Adnams - so no chance GK coming back!

now yarmouth has forged a partnership with greene king and their 3 day festival was the best its been for 20yrs !it is my beleif that the rowley mile is prob the worst attended track that i bet at, and i too have a pick that i paid £20k+ for and it too now is not worth a carrot ! the management have let it slip so badly it is hard to believe less than 15yrs ago £12 million was spent on the new stand/facilities etc !!!!!!

Adnams is different class to Greene King ale to be fair.  I think the biggest problem with the Rowley Mile is what adge said, they don't really want people there, they get in the way of the self styled racing 'elite'.

adge should stay away then wassy - he's certainly not one of the 'racing elite' !!!

We bet on the front line there last Sat. On the 1st 4 races we took 30 bets for £400.  I kid you not. Then we went home. 

  That's abysmal Anders.

Can never understand why bookies dont last the whole trip !!!!!!!

Newmarket put on consistently high class racing on a track which is as fair as most, especially when you see what sort of joke racing tracks they have in other parts of the world eg Santa Anita. What more can they do? Are you saying reduce prices? That's all I can think of.

Might help, like any business though once you drive customers away very difficult to get them back

Perhaps all the fighting scared them off

The only difference I can see from the July course on a Saturday and a Saturday on the Rowley Mile is the weather and no family enclosure for people to picnic and get in a bit cheaper.

wassy might be a bigger factor than people realise

there will always be an element of cross-subsidy in most business's as long as they got the concert revenue on the other course they might not be bothered

On 13/10/12 Newmarket had Future Champions Day, with a good card of quality races and managed a pathetic crowd of 8778 including members.  On the very same day York got a crowd of 20,192 for a much poorer card full of handicaps.

Newmarket need to learn marketing skills fast.

RR Newbury has not been the same place since the mass brawl there in July.  To be fair, I wouldn't go if I'd witnessed that.

wasnot, although u keep using york as an exmaple for attendances,  i think this is a bad example as york will allways  get over 20,000 every time they have a race meeting, im from north east and its the only top race course within a biggish area,  so whenever york races is on its always going to be heavliy attended, newmarket is never going to be this case imo

im sure if newmarket was the only race course insits area say of  a 100 mile + radious or even further, every meeting it had would be massively attended, its not marketing that gets york attendances is what im saying

To be honest I cant think of any other track that would get as poor an attendance as Newmarket for a card like future chamions day and facilities like they have.

Coaches come to York from the midlands by the dozen.  Newmarket is nearer for them.

wasnot or yeah i do remember tha coach load that came up from the midleands, was it 1999 or 2000~?

There are several coaches come from around where I live in the Midlands.  My local club go twice a year, including the October Saturday.

I dont think Newmarket want people to attend.

So do you think 8,000 is a decent crowd for future champions saturday, as its a little bit hard for them where they are located?  If it was a commercial enterprise rather than under the JCR wings the entire management team would get the tin tack imo.

what was the pricing for this day entry?

I was a member at both Newmarket and Newbury.  It seems to me those in charge at Newmarket have got plenty of scope for improvement entrance cost is hugely overpriced, it is impossible to get a bloody mary, beer is served in a plastic glass and a sit down restuarant experience costs around twice the price of pretty much any michelin starred restuarant in the UK.  If this was a plc the board would have disappeared long ago.  As for marketing pinning your future on with the PR blurb that its the HQ of racing is really just clutching at straws.  Gave up Newmarket membership last year can't bring myself to go to that windswept wilderness any longer, imagine many other racegoers have similarly voted with their feet.  Didn't see the brawl at Newbury, apparently is was scheduled for Chepstow but due to waterlogging a group of Swansea and Cardiff fans where bussed in specially not sure who won though.

I lived near Cambridge for 15 years and could get to the Rowley Mile in less than 20 minutes yet I hardly ever bothered as I just never liked the course although I did go to the July Course often, a completely different feel to the place. I'd rather drive to Fakenham or Huntingdon for a days sport which I was a regular at both, and Towcester for that matter. Even if it were free to get in I still wouldn't go and can't see myself ever going back to the track I'm afraid to say.

I accept it's not just the weather that makes the difference between the two courses, but I do think the Rowley mile suffers from not hosting racing through the summer - it's a lovely vibe on a warm day there.

I've been to the Rowley three times this year. Plenty of room to move about and not overrun by pissed up wannabe football hooligans. Underrated if you ask me.

wassy;you did witness it,so if what you say is true i will have your pitch off you

Newmarket has two great racecourses in a unique setting that people won't go racing there is proof that England has lost its soul.

Newmarket is expensive - entrance, drinks, food. For example premier entrance to normal racedays such as Saturday has increased 25% since the recession started and some drinks prices have seen a similar increase.

Management has changed twice over the past few years and since the woman that ran it a few years ago left - Lisa I think her name was - have been pretty clueless. The current MD seems to think if you spout marketing speak people will believe it. Doesn't work like that love.

correct black sam no finer place to go flat racing.i do however think they could drop the prices,40 quid in members on an auntum friday is to much.

wasnot are you around ?

Hi jimnast.  I'm here but feel like crap.  Sickness bug going through house :(

i am in the same boat wasnot ,never missed anything in my life threw illness,but today is the first time,i was meant to be going to warwick and wanted to ask a question at the bookmakers meeting,so was going to ask you to ask it on my behalf, however i have spoke to neil the brm who will ask it for me,hope your all feeling better soon.

In trying to stimulate discussion - does anyone think there could be the faintest possiblity that the maligned management at Newmarket could ever consider consolidating the two courses into one ? It would of course be another catastrophic venture since I strongly suspect the survivor would be the Rowley Mile which would be reinvigorated by the infusion of Summer meets in the short term but of course eventually return to its soulless self.

OK jimnast.  I was going but not now.  Average number of times each member of house has projectile vomited is 12 :(

Too much information wassy - but hope the 'lurg' is only very short term.

Cheers demo.  Hoping to get to Towcester tomorrow.

couldnt do that demo as if we had another world war the july course would be needed to run the derby on.

Ah yes the old stand at Towcester,the old ladies that used to serve the tea, waitung for Bob Jacobs to come out of the bar, bets in running  ( in real time pre picture delay advatages ) in the tea bar with a certain bookmaker watching the tv with the hill still to be climbed ! I remember it well - happy days.

Your levity jim hints that you think it could happen then, or like most had not considered it ? As I said I made the comment to invite comment but as yet none forthcoming.

hi jimnast;sorry to hear that.it went through our household a couple of weeks backand i wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy(except jockey)

democrat

i think with the summers we now get newmarket couldnt race as often if there were only one course,its not as if the land would be worth much either.

hello dodger how long did it last ?

jimnast;i didnt chuck up but was totally bedridden for 1 day,you slowly improve over the following 2 days,i completely starved it.

ill stand for that dodger,dont want to miss the weekend,also could do with getting some weight off.

Single track couldn't take all the racing. The July course is usually knackered at the end of its season.

Anyway, don't think consolidating into one course would help. The July course does better because it is open in summer.

Single track couldn't take all the racing. The July course is usually knackered at the end of its season.

Anyway, don't think consolidating into one course would help. The July course does better because it is open in summer.