A major sporting venue has dropped its beer prices. After one day, no one is complaining
Paul Lock turned up at Sandown racecourse on Saturday to celebrate his son Tyler’s buck’s day alongside 36 of his son’s friends.
He didn’t expect free entry and Melbourne Racing Club’s lower beer prices and cheaper food – $4.95 for a hot dog or a serve of “fat” chips – to be part of the deal.
Father-of-the-groom Paul Lock, left, and father of the bride Kev Kelly enjoy the MRC’s new beer prices at Sandown.
Nor did the father of the bride, Kev Kelly, who had come down from Queanbeyan to celebrate the day. Both were pleasantly surprised.
“I think $8.50 for a schooner is reasonable,” said Lock, who lives in Mildura. “I am not buying all the beers, but I am buying a few, and it is definitely better all ’round to have cheaper prices.”
Kelly agreed, although he was quick to say a schooner was $7 back in his home city in NSW.
“So it should be made more affordable,” he said of sporting venues cutting prices. “I think it is a great idea. People can have a family day out if they want to bring their kids.”
MRC chairman John Kanga has driven lower trackside prices.Credit: Getty Images
The pair joked that the $4.95 Four’N’Twenty pies on the takeaway menu were the sort of “health food” that would see them through the afternoon as they “cut loose” ahead of the February 15 wedding of their kids – Tyler and Madison.
The MRC threw open its gates and cut prices at Sandown on Saturday as the racing industry continues to wrestle with dwindling off-season crowds.
Melbourne Racing Club’s “Buck the Cost” logo.
As part of its “buck the cost” campaign, the club slashed the price of a glass of wine from $11.50 to $10 and schooner of Carlton Draught from $10 to $8.50 – a $3.50 saving compared to the $12 cricket fans paid for the same size beer during the MCG’s Boxing Day Test.
The MRC cut the price of hot chips ($4.95), four-point sandwiches ($7.95) as well as a serve of fish and chips ($9.95). It also added $4.95 hot dogs and $4.95 Four’N’Twenty meat pies to its takeaway menus.
“Generally speaking, the prices are outrageous,” MRC member Lorraine Nesbitt said.
“You are looking at $11-plus for one round of sandwiches. So reducing that today ($7.95 at Sandown) is a good thing. But it really should be more regular than every now and again.”
Her husband, Robert Nesbitt, welcomed MRC chairman John Kanga’s price-cutting initiative.
He said people took a certain amount of money to the track and whatever they saved on food they would put into wagering turnover.
He also wanted to see a return to conditions that allowed families to bring an Esky with their own food and drink, “like they do at the picnic race meetings”.
As it stands, major sporting venues allow people to bring their own food, but not their own alcohol.
The budget-draining price of food and drink at Melbourne’s major sporting venues has become a growing point of contention in the current financial climate.
This masthead reported last week that lunch for a family of four – two adults, two children – at the Australian Open over the past fortnight could cost $120, including $14.50 for a can of beer (375ml) and $12.80 for two 600ml bottles of Pepsi ($6.40 each).
Last year, the MCG charged $6.20 for a meat pie, $6.20 for a serve of chips and $6.20 for a 600ml soft drink.
Jamie Melham (nee Kah) has returned to racing as a married woman.Credit: Eddie Jim
The MRC is one of the country’s wealthiest sporting clubs that oversees three racecourses – Caulfield, Sandown and Mornington – as well as owning 14 poker machine venues that made a $45 million profit last financial year.
On early evidence, its buck the cost campaign was a success – helped by a top of 26 degrees on the first day of a long weekend.
Rooms beneath the main pavilion were full, there were lines at the two bars, queues at the two snack outlets and a positive vibe among patrons as the multiple rows of bookmakers courted business.
A mixed collection of racegoers were scattered across Sandown’s vast lawns – a venue that has been heavily criticised in the past for its lack of atmosphere – as a number of notable storylines played out on the track.
Champion hoop Jamie Kah was back riding as Jamie Melham following her wedding to jockey Ben Melham at Rosemont Estate in Gnarwarre on January 19; an emotional Will Freedman paid tribute to his late friend Sam Kavanagh after winning the eighth race on the card with Coastwatch; and stars of the saddle Jamie Mott and Damian Lane rode doubles.
The MRC intends to adopt its new cut-price menu at all its venues until the end of July. It will offer free entry at Sandown again this Saturday.
Kanga said the club was working towards a point at which free entry became a normal practice, outside major race days such as the Caulfield Cup meeting.
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