Fred A. Pope:
If you didn't read the letter of Patrick Roche (TDN Jan. 9) you
should, because he tells you what is important.
Sports are about competition. Business is about competition.
Racing, as a business is not a competitive sport, because it is limits itself to only wagering revenue.
Racing is the only hybrid, global sport. It is the one with legal wagering grandfathered into the laws of most countries. That was enough before television.
The gambling side of the hybrid nets only about 5% of what the sport side of the hybrid flows to other sports in media rights, sponsorships and merchandising.
Patrick seems to be saying the other 95% is the answer for racing. I agree.
As long as racing survives with only wagering revenue, governments will control the sport and cripple the value of bloodstock.
What would it take for racing to compete for the other 95% in sports marketing revenue?
First, you need a racing product that is worth producing at the level of other sports. Then you need to produce it at the level of other sports. Thoroughbred racing is a stronger sport than most realize.
In our major racing countries, one or two events have sold-out attendance and ratings on par with successful sports: The Kentucky Derby, the Melbourne Cup, the Epsom Derby, the Japan Cup, the Arc, the Hong Kong Cup, etc. As a marketing person, I add up the major event audiences in each country and get a cumulative international audience thathas great value to media and sponsors. But, wagering issuesbetween countries keep them apart.
So we know major racing events can compete as sport, but each racing country is an island that cannot afford television production on the level of FIFA Soccer and other global sports. Five cameras cannot compete with 50 cameras and a $2 million production budget cannot compete with a $50 million budget.
Today, television is not about the “play”; instead, it is about the “re-play”, where multiple cameras provide the up-close images that commentators use to thrill, analyze and educate the audience to their sport. A key moment in FIFA World Cup Soccer is crafted into a shared memory with a billion people. There are companies that can do this for our sport using new revenue from media rights and sponsorship.
Racing is facility-based in every country, while all other global sports are talent-based and use commercial rights to leverage facilities and governments. Changing the current structure would be revolutionary.
What if there was a way for racing to become competitive as a global sport without having a revolution? What if the gambling side can be left alone and the sport side can be developed to go after the other 95% and make racing a sport with a future?
This riddle has a solution. First you need to figure out what it is you want to have happen. Then you figure out how to make it happen. The answer is evolving.
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