The Albury Pacers Cup usually attracts thousands of spectators every year, but Hogan said Saturday week will be a vastly different scenario with the NRL trial game kicking off two minutes after the first race across town.

Speaking yesterday, Hogan said sports fans in the border city will be forced to choose between watching Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm at Lavington Sportsground or supporting the local $10,000 Pacers Cup.

“Of course it will effect our crowd, only a certain number of people go to these sporting events,” he said yesterday.

“People love to go and see a good level of sport, if the trots wasn’t on I’d go myself.

“It’s one of those things that happens and we’ve just got to live with it.

“When the NRL and council set the parameters that’s what happened.

“I’m confident it’ll still be a good night.” Coincidentally, the first race of the Pacers Cup will run at 6.58pm, just two minutes before Raiders and Storm officially kick off at 7pm.

According to Hogan, going head-to-head with the NRL is not ideal, but believes the Pacers Cup will attract regular punters and those not interested in rugby league.

Hogan said out of the substantial population of Albury-Wodonga he would expect to see at least 2000 people walk through the gates of the AHRC next Saturday.

“It’ll split the crowd one way or another,” he said.

“But I’d be more terrified to lose the crowd if it was an AFL game more than an NRL game.

“This is AFL territory, we’re more AFL in Albury, where as Wagga is the opposite because its further into NSW.

“There’s a massive population here, if we get our regulars and a certain percentage of people who don’t want to go watch the football we should be ok.”

AHRC will follow the same format as the highly successful New Year meeting, with free entertainment, kids rides and excellent fields.

“We’ve got eight races and they should be good quality fields, and we encourage people to come along,” he said.

“It’s a good night out, we know it’s a big one.”

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