ATTENDANCES at venues operated by racecourse company Arena Leisure have climbed year-on-year, the company said today.
In an interim management statement for the period July 1 to November 11, 2010, arena staged 97 fixtures and welcomed in 292,000 people to its seven racecourses, up from 279,000 last year.
Arena operates Worcester and Wolverhampton racecourses along with five others across England.
Average attendance was 2,014, which represented an 8% increase over the prior year. During the same period last year, it staged 106 fixtures, 13 of which were unscheduled.
Arena plans to be involved in the tender process with Wolverhampton City Council for the award of a small casino licence with tender applications invited in August and a final award expected in May 2012.
“Our belief is that the mixed used scheme of casino, racecourse and an extension to the existing hotel will provide a compelling proposition,” the company said.
The statement added: “Income from media rights to Licensed Betting Offices has continued to be resilient with the current five-year contract to December 31, 2011, being linked to inflation and with the numbers of runners in our races remaining strong.
“Overall we expect to deliver a result for the full year in line with market expectations.
“The recent announcement by the Levy Board of a further £10m reduction in 2011 industry funding will have an impact on all UK racecourses’ profitability in that year.
“At this time, therefore, there is a degree of uncertainty on the funding impact on Arena’s racecourses in 2011.”
