Yarmouth promoter Simon Franklin is introducing a series of cost saving measures follow the track’s anticipated ‘six figure’ trading loss in 2018 writes Floyd Amphlett.
The Yarmouth boss and GBGB director said: “Obviously there are still six weeks until the end of the year but a six figure loss looks almost certain. At year end, I think attendance and tote turnover will probably be down by around 20 per cent.
“At one stage, at the end of the World Cup, I feared it would be far worse. We did make a partial comeback but then were down again during the Derby in September.
“Although RPGTV sponsored the Derby, for the televised Saturday meeting, the semi finals, our tote and attendance was down around 40%.”
Yarmouth is one of the GMG tracks contracted to ARC/TRP. As things stand, the media rights operator is underwriting its tracks in 2018 to a figure previously estimated to be around £13m, before income.
With still no deal for Ladbrokes Coral or Betfred to take the ARC/TRP service, additional income such as RPGTV payments, goes to ‘reduce the ‘tab’, rather than benefit the tracks individually.
So will the situation improve in 2019?
Simon said: “These are commercially sensitive issues which I can’t discuss in detail. However, as I confirmed with my trainers at a meeting last week, we are expecting confirmation of the 2019 figures from ARC very soon and I am confident that they will be what we are expecting.”
The cost cutting measures will include reducing trials sessions to one per fortnight and reducing the number of race reserves.
Simon said: “A trial session costs us somewhere between £450-£500 and we really don’t need to run one every week.
“We are building some additional kennels, which will allow for more trials before race meetings. We have also introduced a second kennelling to allow us to run more trials at the end of the race meeting.
Plus, we are reducing the number of stand-by and travelling reserves.
“They are costing in the region of £130 per meeting. Why should we be subsidising it? Lots of other tracks have five-runner races. Also, having fewer reserves frees up more kennels for trialists.
“We have a good kennel strength here, more than 300 dogs available and we could comfortably manage an extra meeting if needed.
“But we also have to cut our cloth if we are to secure the long term financial health of the stadium.”
Yarmouth, which boasts one of the best welfare and retirement schemes in the industry, might be the first track to admit a trading loss in 2018, though it is categorically not the only one to be in this position.
