Supercars’ crowd figure of 192,242 for last year’s Newcastle 500 is at odds with mobile phone data which shows an almost identical number of people were in a much larger geographical area over the race weekend.
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The Telstra data, contained in a Hunter Research Foundation Centre report, shows a three-day total of 192,400 people, including residents, workers, racegoers and other visitors, were in an area encompassing the Newcastle East race track, the CBD, Newcastle West, Cooks Hill and much of Bar Beach over the race weekend.
This total for the five suburbs, which the HRFC report describes as the race “event space”, included 57,100 people on the Friday of the race, 72,600 on the Saturday and 62,700 on the Sunday.
It is understood Newcastle City Council, which commissioned the HRFC analysis to assess the race’s costs and benefits, bought the Telstra data and supplied it to HRFC.
If the crowd figure is correct, the phone data suggests only 158 people were in the rest of the “event space” over the three days of the race. The five suburbs house more than 10,000 residents and thousands of workers, and the analysis shows 114,000 people were in the area in a three-day weekend in May.
The apparent contradiction between the crowd tally and phone data was brought to light by Newcastle transport consultant Ron Brown.
The HRFC report uses the mobile data to calculate a “visitor uplift” of 77,800 to the “event space” across the three days of the race compared with the three-day weekend in May.
The “Telstra Insights” figures extrapolate the number of Telstra mobile customers in a given area, taking into account the company’s market share, to estimate population totals.
None of the organisations involved in the race, the council, Supercars or Destination NSW, attempted to explain the contradiction in the two sets of figures.
Council chief executive officer Jeremy Bath said in a statement that the Newcastle 500 was an “incredible success, providing our city with television coverage that was seen by more than 1.8 million people domestically and many more internationally”.
“And, for the residents of the East End, let’s not forget that it was only because of the race that more than $20 million was invested in improved local roads, half of that funded by Supercars itself,” he said.
Mr Bath said the race had also provided 171 new parking spaces, wider footpaths, new water mains, state-of-the-art lighting, high-speed internet cabling and a “much-needed makeover”.
“Residents in any other suburb would be writing thank you letters to Supercars and the City every day of the year if this investment had come their way.”
Supercars said it was “delighted with the number of visitors to the city” last year.
“Event attendance is calculated on tickets sold and accreditation issued across the three days,” a Supercars spokesman said.
“The data proves unambiguously there were substantially more people in the city than on a comparable week – almost 90,000 in fact – with the majority in town for the Newcastle 500.
“A visitor influx of that magnitude is a win for Newcastle and the Hunter.”
Destination NSW said: “The attendance figure announced for the inaugural Newcastle 500 event was calculated by Supercars Australia according to its own methodologies and as such any questions regarding this should also be directed to Supercars Australia.”
Destination NSW said in July that the race had attracted 20,500 domestic and international visitors who had spent about $10.5 million in the Hunter.
Newcastle East Residents Group also questioned the crowd total in July after obtaining a breakdown of attendance figures under freedom-of-information laws.
The figures showed the attendance total included 23,988 tickets for the several thousand residents inside the track, 6377 for business owners and employees, 25,299 “internal tickets” and 14,837 passes for team members, Supercars staff, media, contractors and vendors.
Supercars figures contained in the freedom-of-information release showed Ticketek sales, excluding 8597 corporate tickets, totalled 100,066 across three days.
The breakdown showed 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.
Read more: Supercars announces 192,242 crowd figure
Redacted emails included in the FOI release showed 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.”
Michael Parris
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
