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英国赛车精英将齐聚平星期六为圣莱格尔,在一个体育项目追溯到17世纪遗产的最古老的经典在唐卡斯特运行233次。偏离这一奇观,不过,这项运动面临着一个不确定的未来。
上午12点24英国夏令2010年9月10日
根据它的监管机构,赛车现在面临着资金危机,可能导致历史课程,在夹具名单大幅减少司大幅裁员,以奖金,关闭,以及对部分的18 000人的生计,它直接威胁员工。
除了资金问题是一个相关的问题。对于所有的经典会议和节庆,一种运动,一旦抓住其高天引起全国关注的品质,现在争夺在主流媒体的空间。
它被弃置在陆地与BBC广播电视只是13频道直播比赛和有4天,支付给表现出来。
赛车是赛车,是有多种解释的弊病,但有一个问题几乎一致,资金问题是严重的,这是一个关键时期,如果运动是留在其目前的形式可行的。
问题不在于为上公众的胃口当然奇观之一 - 求诊的上升百分之3.5,今年 - 但征费系统,它返回一个庄家的利润份额,并已持续了赛车运动的失败,因为非当然收受赌注是在1961年合法化。
从115000000英镑征费的收入已经下降到2007-08年的高峰76000000英镑今年,是由英国赛马协会的估计下降到了最高6000万英镑在2011年,将近百分之五十的下降。
拥有一个增强交易的庄家谈判似乎注定要失败的。
如果双方不能在明年达成最终协议的Governnment月份将确定未来一年的征费的条款。
尼克懦夫,英国赛马管理局总裁说,除非政府在其赞成,马场,固定装置和工作将在发现危险。
“利维已经垮台的一个基本的程度,”他说。 “我们没有得到来自赌博业的公平回报。赛车,他们正在为我们付出给予,而不是一个真正的价值。
“因此将有更少的设备,甚至可能有150多,马场,除非能够找到一种方式作出贡献。将会有课程,将不得不认真考虑其可行性,其结果可能是那些根本改变社区已在他们的心脏的比赛。“
懦夫下周将推出一个“从博彩业公平回报的运动”在联合国旗帜的赛车。
在罕见的一致显示正在执行备份的所有运动的利益相关者,包括骑师,练马师,马场主,稳定的工作人员和饲养者。
“我们有我们体育事业的整体一致,你会听到人们说赛车同样的事情:'一个赛车获得合理的回报。在整个运动的人现在说够了,“他说。
在征费下降是由于庄家的方式运作和赌客的变化。博彩公司从赛车总赢的大致保持在10亿英镑的水平,但其对他们的收入份额有所下降。
对博彩公司的交流和重大举措近海出现减少赛车的利维走。
不过,虽然监管机构是一个最低“合理的回报英镑的1.3亿,是庄家因为他们总认为这项运动的贡献是£ 1.6亿美元,实际上他们应该少付的征费”迫切的。
“这个词了'合理回报'是用词不当,”拉尔夫平顶,在威廉希尔的首席执行官说。
“当一集的赞助费,电视画面付款和征费,传统庄家付出更多的现在比以往任何时候都拥有他们。
赛车不能维持现状,需要有一个根本的转型,这可能意味着在夹具名单和关闭不符合经济原则的一些课程的变化。“
这是已被英国的一些独立的课程面临的一个命题。
上周四,八马斯特森,牛顿艾博特马场,一个独立的轨道,吸引人潮至18天的夏季跳董事总经理,被告知,他的征费的收入将被削减一半,以30万英镑。
课程安排在周一温和10,000英镑的比赛奖金为特征的2010年最后一次会议。这可能看起来像一个财富明年夏天。
“我们要问我们是否有能力做我们所做的。并不需要一个天才认识到,与30万英镑以下,将是非常困难的,”他说。
“像我们这样的课程,像普兰普顿其他独立,珀斯和陶顿,是赛车跳跃的根源。没有我们马不到达安特里和切尔滕纳姆。但是如果你从根本上降低整个内情最终会摔倒。”
独立不是孤立的在感觉疼痛。赛马会马场,14首曲目包括纽马基特,安特里和泻运营商,也支撑了削减。
“一个新的征费削减奖金减少,已为大家谁使从这项运动,”行政总裁西蒙巴泽尔杰特他们的生活一敲上说。
巴泽尔杰特承认,赛车一直在努力争取同其他运动项目的关注,但希望的计划,使这项运动更具吸引力,包括“行政院长”与一二零零零零英镑最低奖池周末固定装置,引进,将有助于扭转形势。
他说:“毫无疑问,我们没有好了其他体育工作做在保持我们的观众参与。我们必须共同努力,为大家讲述一个伟大的运动,我们有更好的故事。”
在此之前,赛车的最重要的夹具,将于唐卡斯特没有,纽马基特或牛顿住持,但在文化局长杰里米亨特办公室于10月31。对结果许多游乐设施。
Racing in crisis: courses, jobs and fixtures under threat as Levy runs dry
The cream of British Flat racing will gather at Doncaster on Saturday for the 233rd running of the St Leger, the oldest Classic in a sport that traces its heritage to the 17th Century. Away from that spectacle, however, the sport faces an uncertain future.
12:24AM BST 10 Sep 2010
According to its regulators, racing is facing a funding crisis that could lead to the closure of historic courses, a drastic reduction in the Fixture List, swingeing cuts to prize money, and threats to the livelihoods of some of the 18,000 people it directly employs.
Alongside the funding issue is a question of relevance. For all the excellence of its Classic meetings and festivals, a sport that once grabbed national attention on its high days is now battling for space in the mainstream media.
It has been abandoned by terrestrial television, with the BBC broadcasting just 13 days of live racing and Channel 4 having to be paid to show it.
Racing being racing, there are many explanations for the malaise, but on one issue there is near unanimity; the funding issue is grave, and this is a pivotal period if the sport is to remain viable in its current form.
The problem is not one of public appetite for the on-course spectacle – attendances are up 3.5 per cent this year – but the failure of the Levy system, which returns a share of bookmakers' profits to racing and has sustained the sport since off-course bookmaking was legalised in 1961.
From a 2007-08 peak of £115 million Levy income has fallen to £76 million this year, and is estimated by the British Horseracing Association to drop to a maximum of £60 million in 2011, a decline of nearly 50 per cent.
Negotiations with the bookmakers over an enhanced deal seem destined to fail.
If the two sides cannot reach agreement by the end of next month the Governnment will set the terms of the Levy for the coming year.
Nic Coward, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, said that unless the Government found in its favour, racecourses, fixtures and jobs would be in peril.
"The Levy has collapsed to a fundamental degree," he said. "We are not getting a fair return from the gambling industry. They are taking racing for granted and not paying us a true value.
"As a result there will be fewer fixtures, perhaps as many as 150, unless racecourses are able to find a way to contribute. There will be courses that will have to seriously consider their viability, and the consequence could be a fundamental change for those communities that have racing at their heart."
Coward will next week launch a campaign for a "fair return from the betting industry" under the banner of Racing United.
In a rare show of unanimity it is being backed by all the sport's stakeholders, including jockeys, trainers, racecourse owners, stable staff and breeders.
"We have the whole of our sport aligned and you are going to hear racing people saying the same thing: 'A fair return for racing.' Across the sport people are now saying enough is enough," he said.
The fall in the Levy is attributed to changes to the way bookmakers and punters operate. The bookmakers' gross win from racing has remained roughly level at £1 billion, but its share of their income has fallen.
The advent of betting exchanges and moves offshore by major firms have reduced racing's Levy take.
But while the regulator is pressing for a minimum "fair return" of £130 million, the bookmakers argue that as their total contribution to the sport is £160 million, they should in fact pay less to the Levy.
"The term a 'fair return' is a misnomer," Ralph Topping, the chief executive of William Hill, said.
"When one combines sponsorship payments, TV picture payments and the Levy, traditional bookmakers are paying more now than they ever have.
Racing cannot maintain the status quo and there needs to be a fundamental restructuring, which may mean changes to the Fixture List and some uneconomic courses closing."
That is a proposition already being faced by some of Britain's independent courses.
On Thursday, Pat Masterson, the managing director of Newton Abbot racecourse, an independent track that draws holiday crowds to 18 days of summer jumping, was told that his Levy income would be cut by half to £300,000.
The course staged its last meeting of 2010 on Monday with a modest £10,000 purse for the feature race. That may look like a fortune next summer.
"We have to ask whether we can afford to do what we have done. It doesn't take a genius to realise that with £300,000 less that will be very difficult," he said.
"Courses like ours and other independents like Plumpton, Perth and Taunton, are the roots of jumps racing. Without us horses don't get to Aintree and Cheltenham. But if you cut away at the roots the whole thing will eventually fall over."
The independents are not alone in feeling the pain. Jockey Club Racecourses, operator of 14 tracks including Newmarket, Aintree and Epsom, is also braced for cuts.
"A reduction in the Levy cuts prize money, and that has a knock-on for everyone who makes their living from the sport," chief executive Simon Bazalgette said.
Bazalgette acknowledged that racing has struggled to compete for attention with other sports, but was hopeful that plans to make the sport more attractive, including the introduction of "Premier" weekend fixtures with minimum prize pools of £120,000, would help turn the tide.
"There is no doubt that we have not been doing as good a job as other sports at keeping our audience engaged. We have to work together to tell a better story about the great sport we have."
Until then, racing's most important fixture will be staged not at Doncaster, Newmarket or Newton Abbot, but in the office of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Oct 31. Much rides on the outcome. |
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