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Ditch the Family Tag??

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5 hours ago, MattK said:

There is no crossover between speedway and the bikes you can ride on the road, unlike MotoGP, WSB and even motocross.

I thinks it's a reflection of the actual number of motorcyclists in general. Older guys 40 to 60 seem to be the norm these days with the occasional 20 year old. Modern kids seem to miss out the motorbike stage at 16/17 as it used to be, and now buy their Corsa's, etc, and then on to family cars when they settle down.  A few years ago a motorcycle trainer said to me that the number of new provisional licences for m/bikes was down by 80%, and there seems to be less since then. 

Edited by Tsunami

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I can't ever remember seeing many motorbikes outside a speedway stadium...maybe 5 max...but go  to real bike racing and there are thousands sometimes.  So even 40 years ago bikers didn't go to speedway in their masses.  

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2 hours ago, Baldyman said:

I can't ever remember seeing many motorbikes outside a speedway stadium...maybe 5 max...but go  to real bike racing and there are thousands sometimes.  So even 40 years ago bikers didn't go to speedway in their masses.  

It is strange how the two have rarely mixed. Peterborough BMF weekends attracted thousands of bikers (and I do mean thousands, back in the day) - very few watched the Friday night Speedway, even though they were already in the stadium. 

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Speedway is the one of the few motor sports where the fans are not particularly interested in the mechanical side of things

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But they love sticking numbers in boxes and names between lines in a programme :blink: .   

So what other type of sports are speedway fans interested in????    For me it's all motorbike racing...I'm probably a bigger fan of moto gp and superbikes than I am of speedway.   I also like some types of car racing...and most extreme sports...oh and darts..

Edited by Baldyman

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11 hours ago, iris123 said:

Not sure why the 'family tag' is detrimental to the sport.It is after all what ended up taking football to a new level after decades of being a male dominated sport that was going downhill.Also if you look at the packed arenas that MotoX jumps get and see the crowds....also families,not just male motorcycle junkies.

I don't think being family friendly is a problem but don't believe it's the way to market the sport these days. If you look at the crowds for the X games or other extreme sports events they are no longer male dominated. Lets face it when you were 16 would you and your friends have been more likely to want to watch a nice family sport or something mad, bad and dangerous?

11 hours ago, Baldyman said:

I'm glad you say most...I'm a huge motorbike racing fan....follow and attend as much as I can...and have road bikes...Maybe not many fellow bike riders or bike fans follow speedway cos there isn't any bike brand association??? Or maybe it's cos most other bike fans think it's just going round and round in circles?

 

Plus I can take my road bike..which is raced in superbikes and take to the track myself .

Me too, if it's got two wheels and is racing I'll watch it and have done since I was a toddler. Strangely I have had motorcycles pretty much continuously since 1971 yet don't have a road bike licence and am still not bothered about getting one. For me motorcycles are for racing, preferably off road although I currently think the best racing on offer is BSB.

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17 hours ago, Hodgy said:

It is strange how the two have rarely mixed. Peterborough BMF weekends attracted thousands of bikers (and I do mean thousands, back in the day) - very few watched the Friday night Speedway, even though they were already in the stadium. 

Tis true.  Used to be an off-road than an avid road biker (done a bit of moto-x & speedway too!)  and there used to be the Memba Rally, for full BMF members only, camping Friday to Sunday, at a concrete / tarmac stock car track near to the Showground.  Peterbrough usually had a proper meet on the Friday but I never, ever got any takers among fellow bikers to join me.  A few would watch the demonstraions on the Sunday BMF Rally for campers, non-campers & general public (I think) but that would be about it.

Years before that I worked in a motorcycle franchsie, only speedway fan of course, and most of the staff watched road racing.  Including some form of production class for mostly standard road bikes, pretty much just lights removed, drain plugs safety wired and racing numbers added.  Now until 125cc, 160cc & 250cc, etc engines were fitted over the last few years,  mostly a 'speedway bike has been a speedway bike' that is one dominent 500cc engine mark with a few challengers.  So, simple to follow then, only riders results count, few give a stuff about engines, tyres, etc.  My fellow colleagues would say that 'speedway is too expensive, too  complicated to follow, too many rules, no passing' yet happliy pay not much less than speedway entry to watch  road racing at converted aifields (usual viewing one bend and maybe one straight), no real facilities to speak of.  And would gleefully pay a heck of a lot more than an FIM speedway event at Silverstone, for example, to stand 1/4 mile away from one bend and listen to the riders disappear for a minute or so and wonder what was hapenning (usually nothing).  Then talk about how they stood and camped maybe in the rain and the Yamahas beat the Hondas or whatever, I would tell them I saw it on TV and had a much better view of the entire circuit & race than they did.  Though I appreciate I missed out on the atmosphere.

Yet when I told them I thought road racing was much more complicated, like what did different coloured numbers mean, Production, F1, F2, National, International, Supersport, etc, classes mean, and that riders queued up behind the leader for lap after lap waiting for a fall, EF or mistake to pass around the inside only, they looked at me like I had 2 heads. 

So yeah, like with Touring Cars, many fans identify as much, if not more with the well-known brands of vehicles as with the competitors....

Edited by martinmauger
spelling, grammar 2x

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2 hours ago, Vince said:

I don't think being family friendly is a problem but don't believe it's the way to market the sport these days. If you look at the crowds for the X games or other extreme sports events they are no longer male dominated. Lets face it when you were 16 would you and your friends have been more likely to want to watch a nice family sport or something mad, bad and dangerous?

Me too, if it's got two wheels and is racing I'll watch it and have done since I was a toddler. Strangely I have had motorcycles pretty much continuously since 1971 yet don't have a road bike licence and am still not bothered about getting one. For me motorcycles are for racing, preferably off road although I currently think the best racing on offer is BSB.

I really don't see why it can't be an extreme sport and a family one. The two aren't incompatible.

I see no reason why a family wouldn't go to something 'mad, bad and dangerous' (brilliant description, by the way).

I might be the odd one out but other motor sport leaves me cold.

 

 

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Have really got into Moto GP in the last few years. The Moto 3 class is incredible, there is almost too much passing!

I agree with HT, speedway can be both family and extreme.

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At the moment it's not really it's not really trying to be either....

 

Moto 3 is awsome....loads of young kids going for it .  I now focus more on road racing than speedway...shame as speedway always used to come first...Sadly not anymore.

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1 hour ago, Halifaxtiger said:

I might be the odd one out but other motor sport leaves me cold.

 

 

Time to get some long trousers then !

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18 hours ago, Gunner85 said:

Being known as a family sports is a good asset to have.

I would question that, if your intention is in attracting a new audience that is going to sustain the sport into the future. We live in a society where the majority of kids (cue the "I know someone who knows someone who will "disprove" this theory" posts) simply do NOT want to do what their parents let alone grandparents do, or go where they go. Kids want to be with their peer groups. Proof is in where they go for their nights out. Check out "town" on a Friday night. People in their teens and 20's will be with others of their age group. You won't see kids of that age down the Derby & Joan Club. So why should speedway be any different?

If you want to attract the youth of today, then you have to give them something that they want, somewhere with other people of their age where they can go, have a laugh, have a drink, and all being well, "pull". You won't get that by promising a "Little House On The Prairie" type environment.

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If it's meant to be a family sport....why do hardly any of the oldies...which is most of those there...not have their grandchildren with them??? A few do maybe but not many.    

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7 hours ago, Halifaxtiger said:

I really don't see why it can't be an extreme sport and a family one. The two aren't incompatible.

I see no reason why a family wouldn't go to something 'mad, bad and dangerous' (brilliant description, by the way).

I agree on both counts but don't think the two types of marketing are compatible

If you go to a Nitro Circus show there will be hundreds of young kids with their parents but the marketing is all about the thrills and spills which means it is still cool for the young adults. They do have the added advantage that the majority of the audience will do or have done a watered down version of what they do.

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I don't think the problem is with families,as I have pointed out,just look at the change in the football audience over the past 3 decades or so and just look at the audiences who go to MotoX jumps or even in my experience ice hockey.The problem speedway has and where the audience attending is noticeably different is the amount of over 40's and even over 60s.Even on the recent link about popular sports in Poland it mentioned the average fan was between 40 and 59,i think......

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