To add extra races, you have to get NZTR approval for the extra funding which for the most part is not available. Same goes for upgrading meetings to feature level. The programming committee is limited to asking for those, but NZTR finance holds all the cards. They can't just add extra 40k races willy nilly. For the most part if they add one somewhere they have to take one out somewhere else.
Certainly not in Canterbury. They can be in person but most attend by zoom as there are reps from clubs and TA reps from around the SI + NZTR etc. It would cost a fortune for all to fly to Christchurch for one 90 minute meeting and you would still need to juggle spread sheets etc. when there.
Yes. The focus should definitely be financial viability and sustainability but I believe that social acceptability is the number one factor in achieving that. Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges among others agrees with me.
I wasn't really looking at that for the reason you state, but the quarterly data above shows a significant injury rate increase (p<.05) year on year from sample sizes of 9000+ starters. For those whose minds are boggled by statistics, that means that there is less than 5% chance that the increase in injury rates is due to chance. From the data I have seen, I don't see how you could possibly argue that injury rates haven't worsened in the last two seasons let alone that they have improved.
Yeahh, and what is quoted in the Ryan article is actually in the context of his current team. That previous team members aren't mentioned by name in what Ryan quoted,is a mis-read of the article imo. It's just a bit that Ryan chose to quote, not necessarily all that he said or was asked about in the interview.