Courses are grateful to racegoers - and we maintain a raceday is good value

The Racecourse Association (RCA) has read with interest the Racing Post's Racecourse Price Index series. It has been evident throughout the series that a number of Racing Post readers have strong feelings about the cost of going racing, and that in some cases racecourses have been made to appear as if purely profiteering from these ventures. We feel this is unfair and would like to offer a different perspective.

Using the Racing Post's data as a basis, we researched the average ticket price of general admission to a range of prominent events over the summer: the Championships at Wimbledon, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the FA Cup Final at Wembley, the Open at St Andrews and summer concert series at the O2 Arena (London), Etihad Stadium (Manchester) and the London Stadium. The comparisons with racing have been further segmented to include festivals (Derby, Royal Ascot, Newmarket July, Goodwood and Ebor).

The average ticket price for our competitor set is £83, compared to £19 for all racing events and £28 for festivals. If upgrading to a premier enclosure, festival tickets remain below the competitor set at an average price of £77. Racecourses also offer complimentary car parking at most events, which is not the case for many alternative sports and leisure venues.

It is also a significant value-add for racegoers that under-18s go free with a paying adult to the vast majority of racedays. This is not the case for the competitor set, where free tickets are, at best, offered to under-16s at the Open, under-tens at Silverstone and under-fives at Wimbledon. And racing comes out favourably when comparing the average prices of some favourite items.

Racecourses are not immune from the significant price increases that have been levied by suppliers. This is a global problem and one that all venues in Britain are dealing with. According to research by the British Beer & Pub Association, the average price of a pint of beer in British pubs has risen 70 per cent in 15 years (£4.07 nationally and £5.50 in London), seven per cent of which has come in the past two years.

We deeply empathise with the British public over how the cost of living has increased and how this must place people in difficult positions, considering food, energy bills and fuel are more expensive than ever. It is no surprise with this backdrop that attendances to British racecourses have fallen this year, but this is a trend felt by many: the Championships at Wimbledon, rugby league's Super League and cricket's T20 Blast have also seen varying drops in attendance.

Racecourses remain grateful for the loyal support of millions of racegoers each year. We are constantly striving to offer a fantastic raceday experience where top-quality sport is enjoyed. We hope these figures offer some much-needed context to the ongoing narrative of the cost of a day's racing. The assertion that racecourses are an outlier at the high end of any pricing index is simply incorrect.

Paul Swain is raceday experience and communications manager at the Racecourse Association

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