Mark D

May have been commented upon before but it is rare to have an "executive chairman" in New Zealand. Also very dangerous and and is poor "governance" and will lead to a lack of accountability - not that there has been much in racing anyway

No doubt it is all part of RITA board member and bankruptcy expert, Bill Birnie's, grand plan.

Could be.

Noted on another thread that getting rid of Trackside Radio and fields in newspapers will not help but hinder any recovery strategy. It would seem after watching the "ads" for bonus bets on TS that it is, for both sports and racing, to double down on strategies that recently cost $2m. Should instead be cutting their risk and focusing on the tote.

This is good opinion on it. It seems that some of the staff saw an opening but the cost cutting dinosaurs prevailed. Just how they are going to bring about a recovery when no one knows that the races are on (with nothing in the papers) beggars belief. https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/300021880/trackside-radios-demise-another-serious-blow-for-nz-sporting-world

Yip I have had very similar experiences. Unfortunately the TAB et al have not focused on retaining (albeit aging) punters like ourselves but have kidded themselves that they can attract a new punter - tech savvy etc - much like themselves. They have thrown the baby out with the bath water - there is no turning that around.

Spot on

Read this this morning and imagined that some on here would say that it it is just a few lefties and doesn't reflect public opinion which made me reflect on my own "bubble" - my workplace. Maybe 150 employees no one other than me interested in racing and at least 1 who believes that all horse racing and dog racing should be banned. Racing is not what it was and Peters and co. policies and plans will lead to its demise.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/racing/300016801/anger-at-winston-peters-make-racing-great-again-leads-to-petition-against-government-funding-for-racing-industry

Yip and what do "we" do? Shut down the radio station and stop putting fields in the newspapers (I did read that didn't I?)

Same happened folllowing his recent appointment to head some Wellington (Tourism) Agency. Place had had 3 CEOs in 3 years and obviously could see no future so they hired him as CEO

From the Gamling Act 2003 (note (iii) authorised purpose means,— (a) for class 1 gambling, class 2 gambling, and class 3 gambling, any of the following purposes: (i) a charitable purpose: (ii) a non-commercial purpose that is beneficial to the whole or a section of the community: (iii) promoting, controlling, and conducting race meetings under the Racing Act 2003, including the payment of stakes: (iv) an electioneering purpose: (b) for class 4 gambling, any of the purposes specified in paragraph (a)(i) to (iii)

I think it depends on the class of licence and who hold it. But I'm no expert.

Apologies if this has been covered before but it would appear to me that the revenue from pokies is crucial to racings future decisions. I was surprised to see that Rita's revenue had only fallen to about 46%(?) of previous revenue - I would have assumed it would be much worse. But I now think that this would only be betting revenue and overall revenue would be far worse given that revenue from pokies would be 0%. Therefore I would assume that it would be be suicidal for the TAB to shut down its branches where they house pokies - and as far as I am aware it only runs branches where it has pokies - as these are the lifeblood of the industry. Racing bosses have been claiming that they should receive ALL proceeds from pokies but have not been able to convince Governments of this, and rightly so IMO. It would seem to me that RITA has given up on betting revenue which is dangerous given that Governments can not be "trusted" to continue with this largesse. They certainly can't claim to be benefiting any communities, except maybe Cambridge and Matamata, as they are trying to rob the rest of them of their community assets. Still RITA has shown the wisdom of kamikaze pilots thus far so I guess nothing is out of the question.

Because it's not THEIR industry anymore and they've seen how much money THEY have wasted

Yip I stand corrected

My reaction when asked by a friend was that the $74m wouldn't last 6 months. Now seeing some of the detail I conclude that it will be gone in 6 days.

Slash and burn. No hope

Been listening "on-line" a few nights. Completely miss quite a few races because there is no switch over between TV channels. Lack of retail audio is obvious. Closing down the remaining agencies would be the last nail in the coffin IMO

Totally disregarding Covid 19 it is true to say that the staff have been let down by a series of Boards, CEOs and the Johnny no stars/lackeys that they have brought with them into excessively compensated positions

Got to "herewith". Appropriate thay should use such an outdated and pompous word

Must have been the bleach

Forget the stats? YEAH RIGHT. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/

Taking only a passing interest in these goings on lately but OH MY GOD the stupidity is beyond belief. RIP

To Tony Pike and the NZTA - you reap what you sow