Victoria Racing Club chief executive Kylie Rogers has revealed an ambitious goal to grow New Year’s Eve into a blockbuster date on the Flemington calendar.
Early ticket sales and dining packages point to a 12,000-strong crowd for Wednesday’s twilight racing and event fixture, more than double traditional New Year’s Day Flemington attendances in the past.
“We get on average about 4000 on New Year’s Day,” Rogers said.
“If we could turn 4000 to 12,000 in our first New Year’s Eve, I have ambitions to get to 30,000-plus in the coming years.
“If we get 12,000 that’s great and our forecast looks like it will be 12,000.”
Major race dates at Flemington, outside Melbourne Cup Carnival – the four biggest days in Australian racing by every metric – include Super Saturday in March and Turnbull Stakes Day in October which attract up to 15,000-strong crowds.
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The inaugural Flemington NYE twilight card is set to surpass this year’s Super Saturday 10,916 attendance.
“We’ve sold a good number of tickets,” Rogers said.
“You never know how many members turn up but four out of five dining areas are sold out.
“It looks like it’s going to be a comfortable 20C and there’s plenty to do on the front lawn, we’re illuminating all of the elm trees with a light show, karaoke, DJ booths and pony rides for the kids.
“Once the races finish at 7.30pm there’s a couple of hours until the 9.30pm family fireworks and then midnight.”
A crowd of around 12,000 is expected for New Year’s Eve racing at Flemington on Wednesday Picture: Jake Nowakowski
Flemington traditionally hosted the Listed Bagot Handicap (2800m) on New Year’s Day and until 2022 the Group 3 Standish Handicap (1200m).
The Listed Chester Manifold Stakes (1400m) initially replaced the Standish, moved to mid-January, then the Listed Kensington Stakes (1200m) joined the Bagot on the January 1 race card last year, as the Chester Manifold went to Cup Week.
The VRC broke with its January 1 tradition this year, as part of a targeted “blockbuster content” strategy to identify, market and build on select race dates.
A leading Harvard Business School entertainment industry expert popularised “blockbuster content” in 2013 with publication of the book, Blockbusters.
“It’s a premise the AFL has used to identify certain dates in the schedule,” former AFL executive Rogers said.
“You nominate the ones ‘we’re going to grow’ to 30,000 or 60,000 or 50,000 or whatever the number is.
“In my heart of hearts, I didn’t believe we could get there on New Year’s Day (attendance growth).
“We’ve identified Anzac Day, Super Saturday, New Year’s Eve, obviously our four days of the carnival … one of our blockbuster content days this year was Champion’s Day and what we did with DJ Fisher.”
Victoria Racing Club boss Kylie Rogers has bold plans for New Year’s Eve racing at Flemington Picture: Jake Nowakowski
More than 65,000 defied wet and wild weather last month on Champion’s Day to draw the curtain on a successful Melbourne Cup Carnival and then partied long after the last with DJ Fisher.
Rogers said the NYE experiment stood out as one of “six or seven race day events” on the Flemington calendar with massive attendance growth potential.
“You have to try new things, if you’re not going forward you’re going backwards,” Rogers said.
“Change is never easy but it is an experiment I hope goes really well because I believe we’re the base for something pretty special on New Year’s Eve for all Melburnians.”