Jan Wilson And GRV Board’s Staged Marketing Move Falls Flat
As we foreshadowed yesterday, Greyhound Racing Victoria had leveraged all of the Tabcorp owned Sky Channel resource to drum up excitement about a “huge announcement” tonight regarding the future of greyhound racing.
Not inexcusably, Australian Racing Greyhound presumed that such a significant announcement could only mean a major sponsorship announcement or some other revolutionary agreement or alignment that would've provided serious additional revenue to the industry or at the very least better and more effective wagering exposure.
But, no. What has the huge announcement that would be unparalleled in greyhound racing history and would require GRV Chair Jan Wilson to make a rare appearance at a greyhound racing track?
Well in summary it was the fact that owners and trainers lucky enough to have metropolitan class greyhounds can now race for an extra $220 across the three placings and tab class greyhound will now race for total prizemoney with an extra $50 spread across the three placings.
Well forgive me for not quite feeling the earth shake.
In this day and age where it is more important to be seen to be making change than actually effecting it, that sort of news could've been delivered by the tea lady between races at the coursing on Sunday!
Why not just make the announcment on the website? Why not just deliver the message through the industry owned “The Adviser” publication? Why not just sent that message through to your clubs and let them dissesminate it? Why not just issue a standard media release?
Because it's more about being seen to be, rather than actually being.
The announcement was delivered on the Tabcorp owned Sky Channel at about 7pm on a Saturday night. By far and away there is no way that that announcement is being timed to so that the majority of Victorian greyhound racing participants will see it. They majority simply aren't tuned in at that time. They are targetting a different market.
The whole “huge announcement” public realtions fiasco has been timed so as to increase Jan Wilson and the GRV's manufactured appearance as a “go-ahead” state authority to people other than those that they purport to be “interested in” and “concerned for”.
And what of the Wangaratta Greyhound Racing Club? How well would local Wangaratta participants sleep tonight knowing the GRV had an additional $1.1 Million up their sleeve due in no small part to the fact they closed your local club?
Should we expect any less from our state govering body? Lets face it, there are few other states in Australia where a person could be given an OAM medal for services to an industry just by turning up to a monthly board for eight years in row; while others who toil from morning to dusk seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year for periods far in excess of eight years go unnoticed, unrecognised and unrewarded.
Jan Wilson would have the wider 7pm Saturday night Sky Channel audience beleive that tonight's announcement was all about “the owners and the trainers”.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Well, we’d better bank the money we’re winning now because come 2012, we’ll be back racing for $100.
Interesting development on that front this morning with Tabcorp make an expression of interest in the Betfair aligned TOTE Tasmania. Certainly a period of great uncertainty going forward and GRV’s fanatical attachment to Tabcorp will leave them exposed once the market becomes a free for all. They should be embracing the new players in the betting landscape and ensuring they are better placed to be viable whatever the outcome.
An OBE for you Kevin, for saying it like it is.
[…] the heels of Greyhound Racing Victoria’s (GRV) announcement that they intend to implement modest increases in Victorian greyhound racing prizemoney, GRV have today announced increases to GOBIS and VBIS prizemoney.The GOBIS (Greyhound Owners and […]
[…] the wake of modest prizemoney increases in Victoria of just 5.2%, tonight’s announcement is sure to ring loud up and down the Greyhound Racing east coast of […]