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Midland Red

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It has been said before, but it is well worth repeating....the cost of admission is only part of the reason why people choose (or choose not to) attend an event. Wasps Rugby use the Ricoh, and average 18,000...with their highest attendance this season just short of 27,000. They charge up to £56 a seat, and don't have to give tickets away to get a decent crowd. 

The lesson to learn is to produce a package of entertainment that fires the public's imagination and makes it a "must see event" each and every time. Then the price of admission is not so important!!

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5 hours ago, Richard Weston said:

I think there is quite a bit of evidence around that shows free (reduced) admission doesn't lead to an overall upswing in attendances in the medium or even long term. Mr Pairman's experience just backs that up.

My memory says Lakeside was packed one week when it was free – the next, when it was normal admission prices, the attendance was also 'normal'

In the early days of Sky, Eastbourne dished out loads of free tickets – lots of people attended; never to be seen again.

All this, of course, begs the question what can speedway do to retain people in such circumstances? 

 

Indeed Lakeside was packed when free.

I arrived in Car Park and could not believe the amount of Cars,it was unreal.

Thought I had arrived at wrong event,this cant be Speedway ! :D

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Mr Pairman speaks from genuine experience; and that could be repeated by many other promoters going back decades.
And still people here are not prepared to listen.

I have lost count of the number of times I have personally taken up a one-off offer to sample something new or different at reduced price.
Cinema Tickets, Rugby, Cricket, Football, Local and London Theatre, Restaurants and many more things over many many years
And yet I count up very few where I have ever returned to the same venue or event when it is full price on the back of that offer-visit..
Even when I really enjoyed the experience immensely.

In fact, the knowledge that a cheaper offer may one day appear in my inbox is reason enough to wait until it does
Or take up a totally different offer from somewhere else.

I cannot really expect other people to do differently to what I have done myself, often.
So why are so many people here convinced otherwise just because it is Speedway

Edited by Grand Central
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4 hours ago, Steve Shovlar said:

I went to the Lakeside v Poole meeting when it was free entry several years ago. Over 7,000 and a very good match as well. The roads around Lakeside were completely gridlocked. Remember hearing the following week it was back to normal service.

When it was free, which from memory was around 2006/7 people were coming from all over the country, not just Poole , but from places like Wolverhampton, who linked it in with a shopping trip. No way fans like that would ordinarily come down for a match that didn’t involve their home team. And, it has to be said Poole, even in 2006 were more of a draw than most

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On 2/11/2018 at 9:05 AM, Midland Red said:

Reduced ticket prices

Free tickets for schools

Attendance:  over 28,000 v Accrington Stanley

Lesson to be learned for speedway promoters?

Any lessons learned will be judged by how many of the 20,000 over the average attendance this season turn up again when they have to pay.

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On 2/12/2018 at 8:41 AM, ch958 said:

said this before and i expect i'll say it  again - free or reduced price tickets in return for email addresses (mail the tix to that address) and bombard with info  and adverts, ask questions and act on the answers.

Its the first day of GCSE Marketing. It costs at first but once you have contact its free

This is what CCFC did. They gave out vouchers to the schools, which had to be filled in with contact details to claim the free ticket.

 

This ends up with more records in the "supporter database" so more promotion/marketing can be directed at a bigger audience. 

 

Simply having a free for all in terms of attendance will only work for one week (and that's only if you get the additional benefit of extra spending e.g food/merchandise)

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On 2/12/2018 at 1:32 PM, Mr Snackette said:

It has been said before, but it is well worth repeating....the cost of admission is only part of the reason why people choose (or choose not to) attend an event. Wasps Rugby use the Ricoh, and average 18,000...with their highest attendance this season just short of 27,000. They charge up to £56 a seat, and don't have to give tickets away to get a decent crowd. 

The lesson to learn is to produce a package of entertainment that fires the public's imagination and makes it a "must see event" each and every time. Then the price of admission is not so important!!

Premier League football is a perfect example of the same thing. People are prepared to pay up to £60 for a ticket if it's something they really want to see. People on this forum talk about presentation, music, interviews and so on, but the bottom line is that the sport itself has to stand on its own two feet as an event. 

It doesn't matter how cheap the tickets are one week, what music you play, how many sweets you give the kids, how many furry mascots are dancing on the centre green, how many chubby 16-year-old girls are on the start line or how much inane babble comes from the bloke with the mic - if the racing isn't any good or if there isn't enough of it people are not going to part with enough cash to make the whole exercise worthwhile.

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On 12/02/2018 at 1:32 PM, Mr Snackette said:

It has been said before, but it is well worth repeating....the cost of admission is only part of the reason why people choose (or choose not to) attend an event. Wasps Rugby use the Ricoh, and average 18,000...with their highest attendance this season just short of 27,000. They charge up to £56 a seat, and don't have to give tickets away to get a decent crowd. 

The lesson to learn is to produce a package of entertainment that fires the public's imagination and makes it a "must see event" each and every time. Then the price of admission is not so important!!

Bad example to use, Wasps do still give away a lot of tickets.

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2 hours ago, Conkers in Gravy said:

if the racing isn't any good or if there isn't enough of it people are not going to part with enough cash to make the whole exercise worthwhile.

This is exactly my point but it seems the good Mr Pairman and his mates just will not listen.

People just do not want to buy/consume what is served up as Speedway at most tracks most weeks of the season.  Universal truth.

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The lack of good close competitive racing is partly to blame for even those regulars no longer going as often as they used to let alone newbies. This is could be partly down to the bikes being far too powerful for the tracks but the lack of skilful riders who often seem to be hanging on for dear life is a contributory factor. The art of team riding is virtually dead. 

Get back to basics and make the sport entertaining rather than processional to the point where you might just well be at a drag race meet rather than a team match. As has been said if the product is good enough then price is not an issue but given that most supporters seem to want no more than a league meeting is it any wonder the racing is what it is with infrequent fixtures, lack of talent coming through and what is perceived as poor value for money with no more than circa fifteen minutes of racing over two hours.

In this fast paced instant action society and the lack of patience amongst many, something needs to be done to make it a slicker presentation with more races and perhaps different types of racing alongside the league match. Have a contest for the fastest lap or two laps and allow betting. Each team can nominate four riders if it is two laps then one rider goes first and pulls off the track and the opposing rider comes on immediately to do their two laps. This could be after every three races and the four fastest compete in a grand final after heat fifteen of the league match. Just an idea but someone somewhere needs to think outside the box.

 At the moment presentation is as dull as dish water. Television does help in some ways but live meetings are not the answer. If you sit at home for two hours to watch a live meeting on TV, why on earth would you want to travel to the track. Put more racing into those two hours and people may think it is worth while but not as it stands with delayed starts, gardening, etc. Which makes it boring and an unnecessary waste of time.

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2 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

The lack of good close competitive racing is partly to blame for even those regulars no longer going as often as they used to let alone newbies. This is could be partly down to the bikes being far too powerful for the tracks but the lack of skilful riders who often seem to be hanging on for dear life is a contributory factor. The art of team riding is virtually dead. 

Get back to basics and make the sport entertaining rather than processional to the point where you might just well be at a drag race meet rather than a team match. As has been said if the product is good enough then price is not an issue but given that most supporters seem to want no more than a league meeting is it any wonder the racing is what it is with infrequent fixtures, lack of talent coming through and what is perceived as poor value for money with no more than circa fifteen minutes of racing over two hours.

In this fast paced instant action society and the lack of patience amongst many, something needs to be done to make it a slicker presentation with more races and perhaps different types of racing alongside the league match. Have a contest for the fastest lap or two laps and allow betting. Each team can nominate four riders if it is two laps then one rider goes first and pulls off the track and the opposing rider comes on immediately to do their two laps. This could be after every three races and the four fastest compete in a grand final after heat fifteen of the league match. Just an idea but someone somewhere needs to think outside the box.

 At the moment presentation is as dull as dish water. Television does help in some ways but live meetings are not the answer. If you sit at home for two hours to watch a live meeting on TV, why on earth would you want to travel to the track. Put more racing into those two hours and people may think it is worth while but not as it stands with delayed starts, gardening, etc. Which makes it boring and an unnecessary waste of time.

Spot on. 

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On 14/02/2018 at 4:05 PM, Sir Jasper said:

Bad example to use, Wasps do still give away a lot of tickets.

They give free tickets to the rugby clubs participating in the pre match stuff and occasionally for other things but the simple fact is they don't need to entice lots of people with freebies anymore. £230 for a season ticket again next season is super value.

Edited by Woz01

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On 19/02/2018 at 4:15 AM, Woz01 said:

They give free tickets to the rugby clubs participating in the pre match stuff and occasionally for other things but the simple fact is they don't need to entice lots of people with freebies anymore. £230 for a season ticket again next season is super value.

JLR workers, clients of ACL or whatever its called now are groups who regularly receive free tickets or vastly discounted tickets, dont be naive.

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I don't think speedway needs sideshows to make it attractive. Make the sport more attractive by turning it into a proper team sport, your riders and your team. Cut down on the needless gaps between races, the pointless restarts, for example. People's patience isn't as good as years ago. Even I don't think I could stand all that time to watch 15 heats, so why expect a newcomer who doesn't know what's happening? Panning out a meeting so fans feel they're getting value for their cash is a con in itself. Saying speedway needs sideshows is just admitting it's not a strong sport in itself, which it is. Just got to make sure any newcomer it attracts isn't put off when trying to grasp what it's all about. It is a sport... but not as we know it.

Edited by moxey63

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52 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

 Saying speedway needs sideshows is just admitting it's not a strong sport in itself, which it is.

For the most part it isn't, essentially that's the point.  That's why "Marketing" initiatives such as the one carried out by Mr Pairman, and countless other before him, don't work.

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