The recently published British Greyhound Racing Fund annual report appears a testament to the expression – if it wasn’t for the bad news there would be no news at all writes Floyd Amphlett.
‘The Fund’ is perhaps the slickest, best run, most highly respected mechanism that UK greyhound racing has seen, so it must be hugely depressing for outgoing chairman Tom Kelly to report such bleak news. Typically, he makes no attempt to fudge the decline in anticipated income this year. Early predictions, which have thus far proved exceptionally accurate, suggest income will be below £7m in 2015-16, which is down from £7.34 (14-15) and £7.8m the previous year.
Indeed Kelly notes that the anticipated income for this financial year (Apr-Mar) will be roughly half of what it was in 2007/8.
In his chairman’s message, he clearly states the reason for the decline. He does not refer to a the decline in betting in greyhound racing – he acknowledges the success of SKY and RPGTV meetings – but queries “. . not knowing how much of the betting they generate takes place outside betting offices and thus does not produce income to the fund.”
This is a particular thorny issue for Kelly whose board includes directors of betting companies who do not make voluntary contributions from their burgeoning offshore internet betting services.
He writes: ” If the Fund were a commercially driven operation in command of its own fate, the Chairman and Board of Directors would have some difficult questions to answer. However, as BGRF is an organisation that depends totally on voluntary contributions and is thus reliant on the continued goodwill of contributors – and is also vulnerable to the volatility of the betting market – it is, I hope, not avoiding responsibility to claim that we are at the mercy of forces beyond our control.”
The report is not unduly wordy and usefully includes graphs depicting some data in calendar years, in preference to financial years. It is not suitable for readers with a weak constitution
