Figures obtained under freedom-of-information laws raise questions about the bumper crowd total announced for last year’s Newcastle Supercars race, but Destination NSW is satisfied the event is on track to meet its targets for visitor numbers and spending.
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The government agency told the Newcastle Herald that more than 20,500 domestic and international visitors had travelled “specifically to attend the 2017 Newcastle 500”.
“In total, these visitors spent over $12.5 million during their visit, with about 85 per cent spent in Newcastle and the wider Hunter region,” a spokesperson said.
“These results confirm the event is on track to reach the projected visitation and economic impact targets of 81,000 overnight visitors and $57 million in visitor spend over five years.”
Destination NSW said it had arrived at the figures via face-to-face interviews in the event precinct, online surveys and postcode data from ticketing agencies and airlines.
Read more: Your photos from the 2017 Newcastle 500
The 15 per cent of money Destination NSW says was spent outside the region included the cost of flights from other areas, dropping the total spend in the Hunter to $10.625 million.
Supercars announced a total attendance of 192,242 for the three-day event, but Newcastle East Residents Group, which obtained crowd numbers from Destination NSW via a Government Information Public Access application, has questioned the methodology used to arrive at this total.
The figures show the attendance figure included 23,988 tickets issued to residents and 6377 to business owners and employees. It also included an allowance of 25,299 “internal tickets” and 14,837 passes for race team members, Supercars staff, media workers, race officials, contractors, merchandise sellers and food vendors.
The Supercars figures contained in the GIPA release show Ticketek sales, excluding 8597 corporate tickets, totalled 100,066 across three days.
NERG representative Christine Everingham said the Newcastle 500 crowd was undoubtedly large, but it was important to hold Supercars and Destination NSW to account on the exact numbers.
A Supercars media statement on the evening of the Sunday race finale on November 26 last year said “more than 180,000 people” had come “through the turnstiles”, although a Supercars representative told the Newcastle Herald at the time that the crowd total was based on “purely ticket sales, nothing to do with entry or exit”.
The Supercars statement quoted the minister for tourism and major events, Adam Marshall, as saying: “The city of Newcastle has done an incredible job hosting more than 190,000 people from around Australia and the world.”
Read more: Supercars announces 192,242 crowd figure
The GIPA figures show Supercars multiplied by three many categories of tickets, including 7996 issued to residents and 7633 for sponsors, without knowing whether these people attended the event on all three days, if at all.
The Herald has been told of one single, elderly resident who received eight tickets for each day but left Newcastle over the race weekend. It appears, by Supercars’ reckoning, she would have been counted as attending 24 times.
A Supercars spokesman said all resident tickets had been counted because people had to apply for them, pick them up in person and sign for them. He said the way Supercars had arrived at the attendance total was consistent with how crowds at other sporting events were measured.
Redacted emails included in the GIPA release show Destination NSW has had difficulty obtaining meaningful figures from Supercars.
The following is an edited version of those emails:
Destination NSW on February 12: “The admits in the Sales Price Type table is only [redacted] whereas total admits should be [redacted] ... We will need a clear breakdown of admits by ticket type with the correct figures. Can you please request from Ticketek.”
Supercars on February 14: “I will check with our ticketing department and get back to you shortly.”
Supercars on February 20: “Please see attached below. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Destination NSW on February 23: “Thanks. Can we please request customer extract data and a breakdown by type - Trackside (whether they are Single Day vs Sat & sub Pass vs 3 Day Pass). Pit Lane, Grand stand.”
Destination NSW on March 5: “Hi. hope you had a great week-end. Just wanted to follow up on the below {email above}, so we can manage internal expectations for assessment. Thanks.”
Supercars on March 7: “Hi. I have followed up with our accreditation department and we don't have this information to provide.”
Destination NSW internal email on March 9: “Hi - this will impact our KPI and visitation assessment, as the data we currently have is limited.
“Not sure why he’s following up with accreditation department when we’re asking for data from Ticketek, and confirmation on ticket types.
“Do you want me to request one more time, or do you want to discuss with him the implications?”
Supercars on March 19: “Good Morning. Please find attached the customer extract report with a breakdown by ticket type.”
Destination NSW on March 19: “Thanks for this, but the summary of number of passes sold, by type, is still outstanding. i.e 2 day passes - total # sold, 3 day passes - total # sold, Single day pass - total # sold.”
The announced 192,242 attendance figure far surpassed Supercars’ pre-race predictions of about 150,000.