Wexford, Roscommon and Sligo are the latest 3 Irish racecourses to partner with Future Ticketing in order to support their re-opening as part of Ireland's exit from the Covid pandemic. Ireland's racecourses are constrained by a total audience capacity set at 500 for the time being.
Wexford's National Hunt calendar of 11 days has been largely held behind closed doors, but with four fixtures remaining before October 25 heralds a winter break, the capacity management tools that control the total volume of spectators, owners & trainers and others at the venue have proved invaluable in managing spectator numbers and expectations.
Roscommon, by contrast, operates across both Flat and Jump disciplines from the track in the north Midlands, just 35km north west of Athlone. The nine annual fixtures from mid-may to mid-September have hitherto survived without recourse to pre-event ticketing, but the pandemic has precipitated a change of heart, not least to manage numbers amidst a racing audience that is hungry for any event just now.
Sligo, the last of the three, is the most northerly of the Republic's racecourses, and also among its most youngest, at just 55 years old on the present site, although racing has taken place in the area since 1781! Like Roscommon, pre-event ticketing has not been on offer til now, and priority has been offered for this week's two day fixture to members of the Supporters' Club, ahead of the general public, which is not yet admitted.
Liam Holton, CEO of Future Ticketing, remarked, " We're delighted to collaborate with three of Ireland's regional and most engaging venues. I hope that the functionality we've been able to offer will be deployed long after the ceiling on attendance has been removed. It's certainly no coincidence that our other racecourse customers are winning higher revenues than previously through consistent appliance of our software to their sales campaigns.
"We look forward to working with other racecourses across Europe and North America as we share our best practice and racing expertise more widely over the coming months."
Racecourses throughout Ireland remain constrained in their numbers permitted as yet as the risk from the pandemic diminishes. An exception was made for Galway last week to raise the normal 500 attendees to 1,000. By contrast, the UK has been enjoying excellent crowds, even though capacities remain below the maximum allowed as yet.
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