Live Streaming and Inter Track CUTS

The IGB have decided to cut Inter Track pictures to provincial tracks on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and have also ceased live streaming pictures to armchair punters via the internet.

To be honest I think the service has been shoddy at times, but i will miss it if it goes.

I personally think this is a public relations own goal by the IGB.  OK this may save a few thousand euro, but how many people will this further disenfranchise from the sport.

For example, Kilkenny track, based in the greyhound breeding heartland, races on Wednesday.  Joe Soap has bred a nice dog and it is running at HQ that night, so he and Mrs Soap load the kids into the car and drive into Kilkenny to watch the dog run, maybe have a few bob on the tote, buy some drinks and snacks.  Joe won't be there next week unless the card at Kilkenny is a real good one.

This scenario is not made up - this is a guarantee that this will happen. Joe Soap may give up breeding altogether if the tide continues to turn against the smaller man, down the country.

This is the latest in a series of urbancentric moves that has seen weeknight meetings at the (non Dublin) city tracks gradually disappear, and the isolation of smaller tracks gets worse, with the likes of Youghal, Enniscorthy, Kilkenny, Thurles, Clonmel and Longford all doing their best to make ends meet.

The IGB seem to be following a policy where all tracks will all race on Thursday - Sunday, and whereas the Soaps may have gone to Kilkenny on a Wednesday and Waterford on a Saturday, they will now have to choose either/or.

Maybe I am in the minority - but I think this is not dissimilar to the move that saw the IGB cancel the nightly results service on RTE Aertel fo an annual saving of about €20,000.  There was universal disapproval of that move and the service was restored.

I am not a critci of the current IGB management - I am a supporter. I am certainly not one of the gimps that continually try to see the negative in what is going on in the Irish game. But this move is a bad one in my opinion - and if we are supporters of the current management we need to tell them when they are making mistakes as well as slapping them on the back when they have successes.

What do you think about this new decision? I have set up a poll on the right of the screen - take a moment to vote.

Comments

[martin]

Johhny
Kilkennys not that far from Dublin, it doesn't seem to bother Hennessy, if Joe Soap can't be bothered travelling to watch the dog thats his problem.
I'm not a great fan of intertrack anyway, too many races, even at the horses I like to punt at the track I'm at.
Stay away from that political dung anyway and stick to waht you are very good at

[johnnymoyles]

OK - I am closing the vote after a week. 76% of all voters (only 50 voted this time) think the Bord are making a bad decision, 24% think it's a good decision.