Barry Stanton
IN DEFENCE OF PROMOTERS
Having worked in the industry for over 20 years and thankfully still with some involvement, I feel that it would be an injustice if I didn’t, just this once, support the beleaguered promoters who seem to be the whipping boys for everything that is wrong within the greyhound industry.
Beleaguered? I hear you say…. don’t they milk our industry dry and take every penny that’s available to them, giving nothing back? Well let’s just take a closer look at the promoters lot and the expectations and responsibilities that fall upon them.
Let’s start with the voluntary levy that certain factions within the sport feel should be shared in a different way – it’s the industry’s money after all isn’t it? Well actually no it isn’t – it’s the promoters.
Granted the bookmakers, before they started making payments, wanted to be sure the money was going to be used in a positive way, that’s why the BGRF was created, but the main reason it was paid in the first place was to compensate promoters for the evening opening of betting shops that took away vital footfall from their stadia that, in some cases, was the difference between the tracks being viable or not.
That betting shop effect has meant that no track in this country would now run a midweek meeting unless they had an RPGTV or a BAGS contract, it just wouldn’t be viable there would be no attendance and they would lose money. The voluntary contributions the bookmakers make, therefore, are essential for tracks to compensate for the loss of revenue and to upgrade their facilities to meet the expectations of the present day race goer thereby maintaining an attendance that keeps a greyhound track in the black.
Those funds unfortunately though are drying up as betting shop turnover drops dramatically for reasons that were stated in my last column. There is virtually no money for grants and promoters now need to find that essential investment from a reducing bottom line.
The running of a greyhound stadium is an extremely expensive proposition. I know, I ran one for 20 years. Most people believed it was an easy business for me to manage because of its ownership but nothing could have been further from the truth. The business was a stand alone entity it lived or died by the revenue it generated and boy did it need to generate a lot of revenue because the cost of running that business ran into several millions of pounds each and every year.
All promoters have similar considerations yet there are continuous demands on them for more prize money, better facilities, free admission, free race cards, discounted beer, discounted everything for that matter! These demands are being made generally by people who appear to have no consideration nor experience of running a business and feel the best way to fill a stadium is to give everything away. In my opinion that is sending out the message that our sport is down market and one that has no value and that could not be further from the truth!
Promoters, with all of these pressures then have to deal with the vitriolic remarks on the forums. They are accused of misappropriating funds that are theirs in the first place, libelled and insulted and generally blamed for everything that is wrong with the industry but I see them in a far more positive light.
When I bought my first greyhound in 1971 I gave no thought to the level of prize money nor the cost of training – it didn’t matter I bought a dog because I loved greyhound racing and I wanted to be part of it, it was my hobby and I needed to pay for it. I bought my last dog in 2015 still holding those views as they had never left me. There was never a thought that I was being exploited either, after all I had a choice as to whether I wanted to be involved with the industry as we all have don’t we? I just saw promoters as providers of the facilities for me to run my dog and to enjoy a fantastic night out with every amenity to hand. I took for granted what was provided without a thought of how it got there or what it cost!
However those costs of providing the facilities we enjoy when we race our greyhounds are substantial. The infrastructure is complex and the staffing requirements are significant. Promoters should not be castigated for their efforts, they should be applauded for them because they have invested huge sums of money to build their businesses that provide us with the opportunity to race our greyhounds and to enjoy our leisure time.
So before you criticise them just remember that their profits are not huge but their investment is and without those promoters there would be no tracks, no jobs and no industry for us to complain about so give them a break and enjoy this fantastic sport of ours.
