Sport can’t let fans back just for money. It MUST be fun

ON a warm summer afternoon, there truly is no nicer spot than on the South Downs at Goodwood racecourse. Blue skies and panoramic countryside all the way to the Solent estuary, champagne at the Kennels clubhouse.

It is not considered ‘Glorious’ for nothing.

Except on August 1. You might want to give it a miss on August 1. That is when Goodwood will host one of sport’s post-lockdown test events. And what a test it promises to be.

‘There will be eight enclosures as we’re going to split the racecourse into much smaller areas with around 400 to 600 people in each,’ said Adam Waterworth, Goodwood’s managing director.

‘That’s how we’ll manage the social distancing and you will not be allowed to go from one enclosure to another.

‘If you’re in one of the enclosures behind the stand, you won’t be able to go to the front of the stand to view the racing.’

And we’ll pause there because you might be unclear on what is being said. He is not talking about going to the front of the stand as in the rails, or even the lawns.

He is talking about accessing sight of the course, to view the horses racing. To clarify: ‘You would have parade ring viewing and we’ll have big screens in place so that people in those areas can watch the racing from their enclosure.’

In other words, you could go to Goodwood and never see a horse break into more than a trot. Never see a race, except on television.

And the day is open only to Goodwood annual members, whose renewals cost £384. For that money, one imagines, folk must be quite keen. The sort of people who watch horses in the parade ring, maybe even the pre-parade ring, before heading to the course. As distractingly lovely as the scenery is, the race is probably quite important to them.

Pinch points. That is what Goodwood is trying to avoid.

‘Parade ring viewing and the rails and stands,’ Waterworth specifies, ‘ By limiting whereabouts it means we won’t get people congregating in these areas as traditionally that’s where a lot of people want to go.’ Yes,

andd ththere’s’ a reason forf that.tht It’s the point of attending.

Goodwood is being made very safe but what is being missed are the needs of racegoers.

We know why racing wants to reopen for business, why all sport is desperate to get crowds back, but there must be enjoyment for the consumer, too.

Sport cannot just restart with crowds because it needs the money. It has to be somewhere fun to go. This was the point made about restaurants by Jeremy King, co-founder of the Wolseley.

Nobody wants to be proposed to across a plastic divider while a bloke in a hazmat suit pours the wine. The dining experience must satisfy two needs and sport is no different. There has to be more for the paying customer than a television and a brick wall.

This isn’t Goodwood’s fault. Waterworth may be front of house explaining but no racecourse administrator would devise a day in which patrons couldn’t watch the actual races live.

everything about sport’s return, from cricket’s biosecure areas to football’s disinfected goalposts, comes with Government guidance and approval; so this must, too. Goodwood will be doing exactly as they are told.

And if this strands you by the three-furlong post without a clue what is going on at the finishing line, that is a call made in Whitehall not West Sussex.

The fear must be that sport will lose its constituency. That if the planning is awry, the guinea pigs for these test events will lose their enthusiasm and take others with them.

In football stadiums, for instance, the suggestion is that fans’ departure at the end of the game will be staggered.

So everyone is potentially an away supporter — kept behind for the best part of an hour while the surrounding area is cleared.

What about night games, with people up for work or at school the next morning?

Maybe this is a price supporters are willing to pay but it may be an inconvenience too far.

If racing is no longer part of going racing, why go racing at all?