This weeks Sport for Business Column in the Sunday Business Post covered the reasons why the Curragh Racecourse decided to keep racing during it’s €70 million redevelopment and how it has made that happen.
We live in a world of temporary amusement, fleeting engagement and always moving on to the next thing.
This morning the promoters of Guns ‘n Roses will be dismantling a medium sized town built to cater for fans attending the concert on what is normally a bucolic hillside in County Meath.
The temporary facilities at Royal Portstewart are going up at a pace while those at Malahide Cricket Ground are coming down after a three match series featuring Bangladesh, New Zealand and Ireland.
In County Kildare today, a crowd of around 6,000 will take their places for the second day of the Tattersalls Guineas Festival Weekend.
Carry on
The temporary facilities they will enjoy are there as a means of allowing sport to carry on while the Curragh Racecourse develops permanent facilities that will be among the finest in the country and set a high bar for further afield.
The redevelopment will cost €70 million with one third each coming from Horse Racing Ireland, The Turf Club and a group of private wealthy investors. The objective has been throughout to complete the development without any major overhanging debt.
Part of the mix that goes into that is keeping racing going throughout the two year demolition and build.
It’s important for a number of reasons, not least the fact that the racing surface, acclaimed as among the finest and fairest in the high end world of racing will remain untouched throughout.
Partners
It is also important for the partners with whom the Curragh has built a long relationship and who will be important stakeholders in the new racecourse. This includes the sponsors, the caterers, the bookmakers and the wider racing family.
Shutting down for twon years, allowing racing be picked up piecemeal by other tracks around the country was never on the cards.
In order to make it work though has required planning of immense intricate detail. It has been likened to putting together a 10,000 piece jigsaw of the sky but in the meetings held to date and the first bigger race meeting held yesterday for the 2000 Guineas it has all come together.
This weekend has had tickets available on the day but has come close to capacity. The Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby on Saturday July 1st will be an all ticket affair and is close to sold out already.
Champions’ Weekend
The same is likely for the Curragh’s part of the Longines Champions’ Weekend in September and again throughout the biggest days of 2018.
The brief to Titan Experience, who have been placed in charge of putting the puzzle together, was to give people an experience that was better than that which they have had in recent years as the fabric of the racecourse buildings was in decline.
That this should be delievred on an effective building site was a big ask but so far the signs are positive.
The essentials of a racecourse, the integrity services, jockeys, stabling and owners facilities have all been passed as surprisingly well ahead of what was feared by an audience that is used to more permanent bases.
Entertained
The sponsors and corporate guests are being entertained in better facilities than have been available for a number of years and are excited to see the new racecourse buildings take shape around them.
An interactive facility as part of the main hall catering to the racegoers not being wined and dined paints an evocative picture of what things will be like this weekend in 2019.
It has kept the turnstiles clicking away, maintained the media rights money due to the racecourse and kept the sponsors very much onside. They have been an important constituent as the plans were developed by CEO Derek McGrath and his team.
When Colm McLaughlin and the global guests of Dubai Duty Free have handed out the trophies on the biggest day of the year at the course they will after all be heading north to the Antrim coast into what will be another temporary sporting facility for their sponsored Irish Open.
The thing is that those facilities now are at a level of comfort that would put many permanent buildings in the shadows. It was an essential for the Curragh to do this, to keep the show on the road, to keep the money rolling in.
The fear was that this would be at the expense of a world class sporting experience. Those fears have proven to be groundless. Now moving swiftly along, who has a winner for the 1000 Guineas today?
This article was first published in the Sunday Business Post on May 28th 2017.
Rob Hartnett is the founder of Sport for Business, who will be hosting Unleashing Content, a look at the world of media and branded sports content in partnership with RTÉ Sport and RTÉ.ie on Wednesday June 14th.
