IGB bucks trend with rise in attendances and increase in cash surplus

THE Irish greyhound industry has bucked a national trend by reporting a rise in attendances and an increase in their cash surplus to €3.15m.

Attendances in 2011 increased by 22,632 to 756,561 from 2010’s figures while the Irish Greyhound Borad’s (IGB) cash surplus rose 7.6% from the €2.88m reported last year.

An additional €469,150 has been allocated to general stadium and operational improvements and over €1.1m has been earmarked for two significant greyhound stadium developments.

“We will be making a number of extremely important announcements in the coming months regarding some very exciting revenue generating additions to our business which will also reinforce the fact that the Irish Greyhound industry is the world leader in this sector,” said IGB CEO Adrian Neilan.

“Greyhound Stadia continue to be a great attraction for visitors to Ireland with close to 40,000 tourists visiting us during their holidays and we intend to further increase that number.”

A greater focus on online marketing led to restaurant pre-bookings up to 192,874 in 2011 while over 25,000 people booked their Christmas parties at greyhound stadiums.

* Michael Fortune will analyse these figures in his column tomorrow.