Attendance Steady at British Racecourses

ATTENDANCE STEADY AT BRITISH COURSES 
Attendance at British racecourses rose nearly 2% in 2013 to 5,679,941 from 5,581,615 in 2012–although average daily attendance fell by 2.6% to 3,972–according to figures released by The Racecourse Association. Last year saw 1,430 fixtures staged across the country–61 more than in 2012, when a number of summer meetings were abandoned due to wet weather. The most attended racecourse was Ascot, which saw 572,603 patrons through the gate, up 0.40% from 2012. National Hunt racecourse Cheltenham was the next most visited with 409,436, although attendance there was down 8%. York and Newmarket Racecourses hosted 333,504 and 331,615 guests, respectively, both down 2.5%. Chester, with 283,594 visitors, was up 3%, while Doncaster was up 17% with 254,915 patrons. Racing maintained its position in the country as the second-most attended sporting event after football. 
“With the weather in this country being hugely variable, making direct year-on-year comparisons is difficult, especially when conditions can have such an effect on advance and walk up ticket sales,” said Stephen Atkin, Chief Executive of the RCA. “We were pleased by the performance of customer-friendly bank holiday fixtures in 2013, which saw a rise in attendance of nearly 29,000. 
Atkin noted that Cheltenham and Ascot reduced capacity limits at their feature meetings last year, which impact their totals. 
“The objective in both cases was to improve the customer experience, an aspect which has been a particular focus for racecourses this year,” he explained. “Deloitte research and the annual audits by VisitEngland show that racecourses offer a great customer experience at very competitive pricing compared to other major sports. Both are positives that racecourses will be working hard to build on. Moreover, racecourse attendances have proved incredibly robust in the last five years, when set against the economic backdrop.”