Sadly, I don't think there is any evidence to support the argument in your first sentence. Some of the biggest attendances each year are at the likes of Kumara, Kaikoura, Cromwell, Tauherenikau etc. All tracks that have relatively poor facilities, average fields at best in some cases, and are located near no large population centres.
On the other hand some of the tracks with the best facilities, reasonably good fields, and that are located in large population centres, do very poorly: namely Ellerslie, Te Rapa, Trentham, Riccarton (yes, I know they don't have any public facilities).
I was at Hastings a week or so ago to see Melody Belle win. The facilities haven't changed much since I was last there about 30 years ago, but they are reasonably clean and tidy and it is a nice enough racecourse where you can park close to the stands and take in your own bottle of wine. The track was good, the weather was fine and warm, and the racing was reasonable, highlighted by a $200,000 group one race with a superstar race horse: but really, there were very few people there and very little atmosphere, despite Andre's best efforts to make it sound exciting. There were probably no more than 40 odd people watching the races from the public grandstand.
Unfortunately there is very little interest in NZ Racing and no matter what the industry does to try and attract people it is easier for genuine punters to watch the races at home on TV, and increasingly those punters are betting on Australian racing. The "extra" people that are attracted to some meeting by promotions etc are generally the party types, which in many cases detract from the experience for regular racegoers, although it is certainly great to have some atmosphere at a race-meeting.
I don't want to sound negative, but racing is in decline and will never return to the days of old when it ruled the gambling and entertainment world. We have to be realistic and make the best of what we have. How we go about that is the big question.
The trouble with having many years of non-racing outsiders in key positions is that they have been unable to ensure we continue to get the basics right and make the most of our strengths. There are many examples of the basics and strengths that should still be priorities, but they hardly ever get mentioned on here and never seem to be a focus of those running the show (into the ground).