Public support keeps Arena Leisure in the running
Doncasterracecourse owner Arena Leisure has stated that public attendances at its courses were continuing to prove resilient against underlying economic conditions.
The group, which owns and operates seven racecourses in the UK including Royal Windsor, Folkestone, Longfield Park, Southwell, Wolverhampton and Worcester, said that it had benefited from hosting additional fixtures and that media rights and operational efficiencies had helped mitigate anticipated shortfalls from its hospitality business.
In July, Arena announced a transformational media rights deal with SIS that is expected to deliver revenues of £106m over five years from 2012 including £32m in upfront payments.
During the four months to October 31 Arena hosted 106 fixtures, including 13 additional, unscheduled fixtures resulting in 303 fixtures hosted over the 10 months to the end of October compared to 300.
Total attendances at Arena's racecourses in the period were 279,000 (compared to 259,000 last year) including 53,000 at the four days of the St Leger festival at Doncaster Racecourse.
As expected, corporate and private hospitality business over the period continued to be impacted by the economic conditions.
Over the 10 months to October 31 the group's hospitality customers amounted to 34,000 compared to 48,000 for the same period 2008.
Income in the year to date from media rights sold to licensed betting offices is ahead of 2008 levels reflecting a contractual increase of 4% for the year and an increased average number of races staged per fixture.
Arena said that work on the Lingfield Park Marriott Hotel and Country Club development was progressing well and was expected to be operational by 2010.
In a statement it said: "Despite tough trading conditions, trading for the period has been in line with expectations and we expect this trend to continue for the remainder of the year.
"The transformational media rights contract with SIS has shown that Arena's product is a valuable and significant component of UK racing's offering to bookmakers and the deal has crystallised this future value for shareholders as well as immediately strengthening the group's balance sheet."
