Team Suits and/or Race Jackets

[The White Knight 9,039]

I am firmly on the Race Jacket side of the argument. It is far, far easier to pick out your own Team's logo on a Race Jacket, whereas the Team Suits are very anonymous and frequently you cannot make out the Logo because of Sponsors names and their logos.

I have always felt that way.

That is half the problem with Speedway. The Authorities are always fannying about with changing things that aren't important and ignoring things that are.

[Bald Bloke 3,284]

On ‎08‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 9:20 AM, ray c said:

Poole's colours have always been blue how does Matt ford allow woryna to wear red . What a joke ?

I think race suits look better, more professional, but the Poole team in that pick don't look bad.. Apart from the racing red of Woryna. Looks gash.

[The White Knight 9,039]

1 hour ago, Bald Bloke said:

I think race suits look better, more professional, but the Poole team in that pick don't look bad.. Apart from the racing red of Woryna. Looks gash.

The different leathers added a certain colour to proceedings.

Heaven forbid we try to brighten things up a bit.

[Bald Bloke 3,284]

1 minute ago, The White Knight said:

The different leathers added a certain colour to proceedings.

Heaven forbid we try to brighten things up a bit.

But that red...Looks crap.All the rest ok

[Shale Searcher 1,264]

On 03/05/2018 at 8:11 PM, chunky said:

That is exactly the way I feel! There is nothing wrong with having team suits, but they just seem so damn busy now. It isn't just the names of the sponsors either...

We had team leathers years ago, and teams like Leicester, Wolves, and particularly Rye, looked great. The thing was that the designs were simple, and striking. There is no reason we can't do that now... Again, there is nothing wrong with having a team suit AND a race jacket.

Steve

The Lions suits of the very late 1960's, 70's and even 80's were still designed to be worn in conjunction with club race jackets, that combo looked good...... 

[PHILIPRISING 7,298]

On 4/29/2018 at 1:44 PM, steve roberts said:

...personally I always preferred race jackets and the choice of individual leathers. It made it easier identifying one rider from another.

BUT Sky wanted to make it easier to tell one team from another. It's a team sport. Just imagine if footballers all wore different outfits.

[Sotonian 610]

4 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

BUT Sky wanted to make it easier to tell one team from another. It's a team sport. Just imagine if footballers all wore different outfits.

Race jackets still allow for that.

[chunky 6,091]

6 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

BUT Sky wanted to make it easier to tell one team from another. It's a team sport. Just imagine if footballers all wore different outfits.

Let's go back to black leathers, then! Fine wi' me... 

Thinking about it though, this is another thing that makes speedway unique; by simply using race jackets, it must be the only major team sport where individual members can be dressed differently.

Steve

[Najjer 2,890]

On 5/29/2018 at 2:26 PM, Sotonian said:

Race jackets still allow for that.

I can't wait to see Kane in a green shirt at the World Cup, Dele Ali in a yellow one and Lingard in a blue one... with an England bib over the top. We'd be a laughing stock.

All I see here after reading this thread is people who watched speedway in the 70s and 80s "it was better in our day". Marketing is massive nowadays and it makes sense that it is better to market something that looks more professional than a multicoloured jigsaw puzzle.

[moxey63 1,785]

56 minutes ago, Najjer said:

I can't wait to see Kane in a green shirt at the World Cup, Dele Ali in a yellow one and Lingard in a blue one... with an England bib over the top. We'd be a laughing stock.

All I see here after reading this thread is people who watched speedway in the 70s and 80s "it was better in our day". Marketing is massive nowadays and it makes sense that it is better to market something that looks more professional than a multicoloured jigsaw puzzle.

Why do people always revert to the football analogy? That is a true team sport, where one player plays for one team only. 

Marketing is massive, true, but we are talking about a sport that often leaves itself short while trying to look professional. Shiny suits and a clean-sheen look are brilliant, but then silly rules may spoil any new person's interest to diminish after discovering some riders can't make up their minds which ONE two stick to.

Speedway nowadays has never been more detached from a team sport than it is now, and that's after almost 20 years of the soulless teamwear.It's more like F1.

It is alright looking the part, not that this appears to have won that many new fans over the last two decades when even Live speedway is given away for free. I think we're going backwards. Although, I'm sorry to say, not to the 70s.

Edited May 31, 2018 by moxey63

[Najjer 2,890]

17 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

Why do people always revert to the football analogy? That is a true team sport, where one player plays for one team only. 

Marketing is massive, true, but we are talking about a sport that often leaves itself short while trying to look professional. Shiny suits and a clean-sheen look are brilliant, but then silly rules may spoil any new person's interest to diminish after discovering some riders can't make up their minds which ONE two stick to.

Speedway nowadays has never been more detached from a team sport than it is now, and that's after almost 20 years of the soulless teamwear.It's more like F1.

It is alright looking the part, not that this appears to have won that many new fans over the last two decades when even Live speedway is given away for free. I think we're going backwards. Although, I'm sorry to say, not to the 70s.

Because is just about the most professional sport going and this is what just about any sport with serious ambition will strive to be as professional as.

I disagree about your point on it not being a team sport. I'm not naive enough to think riders don't see the Grand Prix as being the holy grail of the sport but team speedway is the best form their is in every country. I refer back to marketing again, it amazes me how inept speedway promotor's are at marketing. They have to get the basics right first. The first part of any brand or image that you are trying to sell is the associated colour and then in speedway terms, the team nickname. I've said many times before it amazes me aswell that teams haven't adopted what Kings Lynn done a few seasons ago where every rider all had matching fork covers with the team colour and main sponsor on. In any photo of a speedway rider the one place every time you can pick out a sponsor is on the fork covers... Why do you think in every grand prix that's where the main sponsor is? Because their marketing is actually good!

[moxey63 1,785]

34 minutes ago, Najjer said:

Because is just about the most professional sport going and this is what just about any sport with serious ambition will strive to be as professional as.

I disagree about your point on it not being a team sport. I'm not naive enough to think riders don't see the Grand Prix as being the holy grail of the sport but team speedway is the best form their is in every country. I refer back to marketing again, it amazes me how inept speedway promotor's are at marketing. They have to get the basics right first. The first part of any brand or image that you are trying to sell is the associated colour and then in speedway terms, the team nickname. I've said many times before it amazes me aswell that teams haven't adopted what Kings Lynn done a few seasons ago where every rider all had matching fork covers with the team colour and main sponsor on. In any photo of a speedway rider the one place every time you can pick out a sponsor is on the fork covers... Why do you think in every grand prix that's where the main sponsor is? Because their marketing is actually good!

Can I ask how long you've been attending speedway?

The Grand Prix promoters have more time to promote their meetings every two-to-three weeks, they have all the big names there, so marketing works. I suppose the people who run the GPs are much more professional than the used-car salesmen that run the domestic scene. I recall the trouble the sport had when trying to get a single sponsor in almost 20 years of Live league racing on SKY - despite team suits and the like. As I say, I think promoting GPs is totally different to league racing. That's just 11 or so meetings at the height of summer in Europe.. not 25 or so in a climate where it rains much of the summer. 

[Najjer 2,890]

2 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

Can I ask how long you've been attending speedway?

The Grand Prix promoters have more time to promote their meetings every two-to-three weeks, they have all the big names there, so marketing works. I suppose the people who run the GPs are much more professional than the used-car salesmen that run the domestic scene. I recall the trouble the sport had when trying to get a single sponsor in almost 20 years of Live league racing on SKY - despite team suits and the like. As I say, I think promoting GPs is totally different to league racing. That's just 11 or so meetings at the height of summer in Europe.. not 25 or so in a climate where it rains much of the summer. 

Since 2000.

[moxey63 1,785]

24 minutes ago, Najjer said:

Since 2000.

Thought as much.

I don't think that gives you the knowledge to criticise people who saw the sport in the 70s. They only wish the sport could return to half what it was then. It is frustrating. I saw it back then, and the 80s and 90s. Do you know what, it was about the time you began attending that it started to decline at the rate it is? People who saw the 70s have the experience of what it was then... compared to now when we hand-clap a stadium staging a British GP as a  "success" when only a half sell-out. That's with all the marketing and no chance of a rain-off.  Wembley attracted almost 100,000 for World Finals. 

Speedway, I'm afraid, is no longer a team sport. It has lost the tribal feeling that football has, as so many of your riders fight the following night with another gang of lads in another team. They are merely agency workers, self-employed, who will take any booking to earn a few bob.

I wish you could have experienced from what we had in the 70s to what we have now. I don't think marketing alone will rewind the age of time.

 

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by moxey63

[Grachan 7,362]

7 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

Thought as much.

I don't think that gives you the knowledge to criticise people who saw the sport in the 70s. They only wish the sport could return to half what it was then. It is frustrating. I saw it back then, and the 80s and 90s. Do you know what, it was about the time you began attending that it started to decline at the rate it is? People who saw the 70s have the experience of what it was then... compared to now when we hand-clap a stadium staging a British GP as a  "success" when only a half sell-out. That's with all the marketing and no chance of a rain-off.  Wembley attracted almost 100,000 for World Finals. 

Speedway, I'm afraid, is no longer a team sport. It has lost the tribal feeling that football has, as so many of your riders fight the following night with another gang of lads in another team. They are merely agency workers, self-employed, who will take any booking to earn a few bob.

I wish you could have experienced from what we had in the 70s to what we have now. I don't think marketing alone will rewind the age of time.

 

 

I would say it gives Najjer plenty of knowledge. 2000 is nearly 20 years ago, and the points he makes are very valid.

Yes, speedway was more succesful in the 1970s, but it was a different time. Were speedway the same now as it was in the 1970s it would look so dated that it would attract even lower crowds than it does now.

Team suits are one of the positives of this faltering modern era. The 70s hsve long gone, as have the trends of that time. Life moves on and speedway needs to move with it.