Are we ‘attacking’ racing by saying that many people who attend racing events for the first time find the sport complicated, long-winded, and boring?
Campbell + Campbell are the managing agents and team behind Triple 8 Racing – www.triple8racing.com.
We recently ran a few posts on our platforms stating that the racing community do not want to admit or acknowledge that many first time race goers find the sport inaccessible.
We received some feedback about this and we thought it a good opportunity to respond, they suggest in the Sporting Post Mailbag.
Over the last few months, we have begun to gradually communicate why we believe racing has a bright future.
Our viewpoint has been clear, the sport needs to innovate to appeal to a large, untapped young audience and our proposed new racing product is the Triple 8 Racing Series.
Part of our communication included the following statements: ‘what the horseracing industry does not want to hear is that newbies who attend racing events find the sport takes too long, is difficult to understand, and boring’.
While we have been largely ignored with regards the team-based, short format racing structure of Triple 8 Racing the assertions that people might find racing complicated and boring really got people worked up.
The focus of the feedback we have received is that we are attacking the very industry that we have worked with and who have supported us. While I need to tread carefully, I do believe it is important that some hard truths are faced before solutions can be found.
Because the horseracing community are a committed and passionate entity with the sport built into their DNA they find, in my opinion, it hard to admit that others would not love the horses and the sport as they do.
We are a company that builds events and our success is determined by whether we have an audience who wants to attend these events. We have built festivals, all manner of corporate events and, for almost 10 years, horseracing events.
Our goal for racing has been to, firstly, bring thousands of new people to racing and then, secondly, to get them to love these events and the racing so that they would want to come again and again or at the very least watch racing on TV or online.
We have seen thousands of first timers attend racing events we have worked on, but we have not seen these people become racing fans. We believe that only when we achieve this second part of our mission will we see large scale growth for the sport.
Over these last 10 years we can say with all honesty that we have been genuinely impressed by the level of support and encouragement we have received from the racing community.
We have been hosted as guests at many racing events across the country, we have had doors opened by owners and trainers, we have had countless meeting with the operator, the racing authorities and the owners body.
Key people have patiently listened to us present some admittedly off-the-wall ideas. Almost everybody we have met has gone out of their way to help us in some way. In addition, at some of our racing events the only significant ticket sales have been to companies or groups from within racing.
Almost everybody we have worked with or met is hoping for the sport to enter a new era of success and growth. We share the belief that the restructuring of the sport operators will result in positive change and we are sincerely grateful for the many people who have patiently explained the sport to us and educated us on the many facets of the sport.
Saying that, we are also painfully aware about what we have learnt from those non-racing groups who have attended our racing events and that is that many did not understand or enjoy the actual racing.
For them, the glitz, parties, and social elements were their focus and while some did enjoy having a punt, we battled to make racing the highlight of their day.
This has frequently been a bone of contention at the Summer Cup, Durban July, and the Met, where horse and racing lovers become frustrated by the large crowds showing an ignorance and disdain for the racing in favour of their parties. Other sports and sport businesses have been in a similar position and they survived by creating a new product that was fast paced, easy to understand and extremely entertaining.
This is why we built Triple 8 Racing and this, we believe, will be our contribution to creating a massive new audience of passionate fans for the sport.
We believe, having met and worked with so many people in the racing industry, that there is a substantial opportunity for us and the many partners we work with to build our businesses and our brands around the sport.
A new dawn beckons but as far as fans and spectators are concerned there needs to be a radical shift towards a racing product that they want.
Triple 8 Racing may not be for the purists, it may be gimmicky, but whatever else, it will be immensely entertaining (never boring!), and if we play our cards right, it will contribute significantly to the growth of racing in South Africa.
