Chairboy 77 Posted May 30, 2017 Shads, that is a good point. I drove up for my first visit to the track yesterday with a few friends. The satnav took us to the shopping centre but we still couldn't see where the track was, even though we were virtually on top of it! I'm not saying this to criticise the Leicester management - I know they have had a difficult time there keeping speedway running in recent years. Better signage would help, as would an audible PA system (another gripe which could equally be applied to some other tracks.) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Perton Wolf 396 Posted May 30, 2017 The shopping center was packed today and no posters up, I guess there are a lot of people in Leicester still unaware speedway has returned to Leicester. Promotion relying on hardcore fans to bring a friend or neighbour is not good enough. Why does Speedway Promotion in this country seem to be so inept? They haven't adapted to social media at all and even old fashioned ways of advertising (posters etc) don't seem to feature for most clubs. I know Wolves have a decent Twitter Feed with 10K followers but there isn't much content up on there either and you wouldn't find anything in the City Centre etc. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 30, 2017 Why does Speedway Promotion in this country seem to be so inept? They haven't adapted to social media at all and even old fashioned ways of advertising (posters etc) don't seem to feature for most clubs. I know Wolves have a decent Twitter Feed with 10K followers but there isn't much content up on there either and you wouldn't find anything in the City Centre etc. Don't be deceived by that Titter Feed of 10k Wolves followers. People tend to join these groups - and that's the end of it solar as they are concerned. How many ACTUALLY follow what is posted - and how does that 10k compare with how many regularly turn up to attend a Wolves speedway meeting? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Happy Hunter 368 Posted May 30, 2017 Were you there? We waited for over an hour, with impeding rain, to go from a difficult track to a first class surface. I'm interested if you think that's justified? Especially considering heat 15 and the eventual result??? An interesting comment over the tannoy (spelling?) at about 14.00, "If you'd seen the track two hours ago, you wouldn't have thought there would be a meeting today. Well when we arrived 20 minutes before that, nothing was happening on track. So what had been done in those 2 hours? Either they had fixed the problems and had stopped work or what happened next was the truth i.e. the riders dictated what needed to be done, which could have been done two hours before. Sorry Leicester. You made mistakes which could have been avoided without a crystal ball. You prepared a tack that riders refused to ride on and then used up a significant chunk of the time before the rain came such that heat 15 cost you a chance of winning the meeting. Whilst I agree with posters that the track staff did an excellent job in the circumstances I seem to recall that someone, possibly Glyn, came on here and explained that, if rain was expected, the best thing to do was to remove the shale before it started raining so that the rain just ran off the hard surface into the drains and did not soak into the shale which would then be difficult to remove because it would be of a wet concrete consistency. This is exactly what happened yesterday - we all witnessed that the tractor with the bucket had difficulty scraping the surface away hence the need to load the bucket by shovel. On the announcement front everyone knew they were being extremely optimistic with their announcements. Its like being treated like idiots! Also the presenter missed a glorious opportunity to get a riders view of the situation when one of the Rockets riders spend about 15 minutes prodding the track near the start. Why did he not interview him. It would at least have made a change from watching the dumper truck racing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robert72 845 Posted May 30, 2017 Why does Speedway Promotion in this country seem to be so inept? They haven't adapted to social media at all and even old fashioned ways of advertising (posters etc) don't seem to feature for most clubs. I know Wolves have a decent Twitter Feed with 10K followers but there isn't much content up on there either and you wouldn't find anything in the City Centre etc. Alan Jones the Leicester PR/Media guy needs replacing as it's clear he is Not doing a good enough job to promote the sport in Leicester as a lot of people still don't know Leicester has a speedway team. Maybe the club should employ a teenager to do the PR instead. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrcts 252 Posted May 30, 2017 Alan Jones the Leicester PR/Media guy needs replacing as it's clear he is Not doing a good enough job to promote the sport in Leicester as a lot of people still don't know Leicester has a speedway team. Maybe the club should employ a teenager to do the PR instead. with you everyone needs replacing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JamesM09 31 Posted May 30, 2017 The way I saw it, perks was clearly unhappy at Ayres by his waving down the back straight and then sped up and clearly aimed his bike at Ayres and let go of it, pure madness from a hot headed perks,looked crystal clear. I'm not surprised Ellis was unhappy at Danny Ayres as he was very forceful in turn 1 (Which IMO is completely stupid with the track conditions), Perks chased him down the back straight went in too hot and lost the back end. Pretty sure there was no intention to put Danny Ayres into the airfence. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Glennylion 89 Posted May 30, 2017 To me it seems like basic "promotion". Needs the media machine in force but basic promotion is lacking. Bank holiday Monday, kids off school, busy shopping centre... is it an issue to put a stand in the centre aisle with signs and a bike and be seen by 15,000-20,000 locals over a 3 day weekend? This public resource is a great way to take the sport to a bigger and new audience. It's not cutting edge marketing but surely it's a vast improvement on relying solely on current patrons to attend and spread the word for you. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honey Monster 47 Posted May 30, 2017 I'm not surprised Ellis was unhappy at Danny Ayres as he was very forceful in turn 1 (Which IMO is completely stupid with the track conditions), Perks chased him down the back straight went in too hot and lost the back end. Pretty sure there was no intention to put Danny Ayres into the airfence.Ayres took Perks wide that's all, nothing more than Harris did to Garrity a few races later. I can't comment on the incident because I was watching the front 2. If the riders were worried about the condition of the track, they should have refused to ride. If you agree to ride, then no half measures. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Glennylion 89 Posted May 30, 2017 Ayres took Perks wide that's all, nothing more than Harris did to Garrity a few races later. I can't comment on the incident because I was watching the front 2. If the riders were worried about the condition of the track, they should have refused to ride. If you agree to ride, then no half measures. Agree. Nothing untoward and no different (less so) than when Garrity and Bjerre both got pushed wide on separate occasions. My instant feeling at the time was deliberate revenge but whether that was actually the case I don't know. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Star Fever 274 Posted May 30, 2017 When will promoters realise that supporters don't care whether a meeting goes ahead or not in such conditions? Apart from waitng ages for the track to be made rideable (hardly ever race-able) They want to see a good match where the state of the track doesn't affect the result . Its well known that a wet track nearly always makes it harder to deal with for the home side than their opponents.so a home win is usually a struggle! I've lost count of the number of times Lynn fans have had to endure long delays watching Buster + tractor doing his best to get the meeting started but its never successful entertainment-wise imo. Seems like the Lions had the same last night so you have my sympathies for what its worth ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honey Monster 47 Posted May 30, 2017 When will promoters realise that supporters don't care whether a meeting goes ahead or not in such conditions? Apart from waitng ages for the track to be made rideable (hardly ever race-able) They want to see a good match where the state of the track doesn't affect the result . Its well known that a wet track nearly always makes it harder to deal with for the home side than their opponents.so a home win is usually a struggle! I've lost count of the number of times Lynn fans have had to endure long delays watching Buster + tractor doing his best to get the meeting started but its never successful entertainment-wise imo. Seems like the Lions had the same last night so you have my sympathies for what its worth ... The track was in good shape. The best time was only 0.5 of a second slower than the track record. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
False dawn 2,294 Posted May 30, 2017 The key questions are... 1. Was the track safe at 2.00 p.m.? [Lots of folk around me thought so. In fact they were looking forward to Bomber giving large out in the dirt] 2. If yes, who brought about the track rebuild? [Lots of folk around me saw the riders healing the track and assume it was them that ruled the day] 3. If it wasn't the ref, why didn't he exert his authority? [believable? Well lots of folks around me thought so] 4. Did anyone look at the forecast? [No] 5. Are Leicester a little bit regretful about what happened given that they might have won heat 15 and maybe the meeting overall? [Lots of home fans went home flat, disgruntled and soaking wet] I'm just a homeless Coventry fan. I don't have any rights here. But I did talk to other fans, Leicester fans and they were asking all of the above. It's them you need to be careful of. A few hundred fans either way can make or break a speedway business in this country just now. The track was in good shape. The best time was only 0.5 of a second slower than the track record. We went from a track that would have been a bit heavy to over an hour later, a track that was bereft of shale. There was a dry line after heat 1. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GWC 495 Posted May 30, 2017 Team mates at Redcar now should be interesting! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robert72 845 Posted May 30, 2017 To me it seems like basic "promotion". Needs the media machine in force but basic promotion is lacking. Bank holiday Monday, kids off school, busy shopping centre... is it an issue to put a stand in the centre aisle with signs and a bike and be seen by 15,000-20,000 locals over a 3 day weekend? This public resource is a great way to take the sport to a bigger and new audience. It's not cutting edge marketing but surely it's a vast improvement on relying solely on current patrons to attend and spread the word for you. It's seems clear Alan Jones is Not up to the job and the Leicester promotion need to replace him and get somebody in capable of promoting the club better. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
