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The continuing decline of Speedway

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8 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

...that's, of course, if darts can be regarded as a sport?

I don't know about the English language bit in Swedish we have two words; sport and idrott.
The latter is a more narrow/specific word for sports that are more physical like football, icehockey, tennis, atheltics gymnastics and etc
while sport is more general and also includes stuff like billiards, darts motorsports and other sports that aren't as physical as idrott.

So yes darts is sports.

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29 minutes ago, mikebv said:

I run a Supermarket 1.6 miles away from the NSS and often mention going to Belle Vue to my team..

My team often then say 'it's a great night at the dogs'...

I do my best to educate and mention it's not 'the dogs' but 'Speedway'...

The comments then range from "Is that still going?" to "Is that still going I used to love going to Speedway"...

The 'World Famous' Belle Vue Aces'?

The 'Manchester United' of Speedway?

The reality is they are not even heard of 1.6 miles away...

That is the size of the task the Sport faces...

That is more serious I than I feared. They know what speedway is, just that they don't know it's still there. I know Belle Vue are quite good with publicity on social networks, but is this only reaching speedway fans? 

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9 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

That is more serious I than I feared. They know what speedway is, just that they don't know it's still there. I know Belle Vue are quite good with publicity on social networks, but is this only reaching speedway fans? 

I think most of the social media marketing is going to existing speedway fans, as far as I can see. For example, unless you boost your post on Facebook how would it reach new people. Unless the fans have to do it  - a new version on "bring a friend"?

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14 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

That is more serious I than I feared. They know what speedway is, just that they don't know it's still there. I know Belle Vue are quite good with publicity on social networks, but is this only reaching speedway fans? 

When I was recently at Berwick they had posters in shop Windows and leaflets in the Tourist INfo centre, so they make an effort.

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As a former fan I have kept an eye on this forum over the years and this topic is very interesting but at the same time sad as it appears that the sport I once loved is close to the end. I was driven away 10 years ago but mid season rule changes the farce of guests and tactical rules. I made one trip last season to my local track Ipswich and that was it one trip in 9 seasons! What drove me away was still there guests daft tactical rules and then you got to add in the double up down shake it all around rule. 

As an ex supporter looking in it appears that the main issues facing the sport are that it's to expensive for the fans riders and every one involved. The bikes are to fast the tracks to slick the racing not great. Add in all the daft rules the fact that you no longer have your team because they ride for everyone else the local community cannot form a bond with these guys. You need to cut costs for all provide value for money and have seven guys contacted to your club and your club only. 

I think I read somewhere that Jonathan Chapman suggests a franchise and draft approach didn't the late great John Berry suggest something along those lines in one of his books years ago.? The BSPA need to wake up or this once great sport will be gone by 2020. Work on getting the product and rules right then try and intice the list supporters back and then go out after new ones. While I'm a used to go to speedway man I'm only 42 so not an old stuck in my ways chap. 

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would yo or someone explain the details of the franchise/draft plan? Sounds interesting

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15 hours ago, mikebv said:

I run a Supermarket 1.6 miles away from the NSS and often mention going to Belle Vue to my team..

My team often then say 'it's a great night at the dogs'...

I do my best to educate and mention it's not 'the dogs' but 'Speedway'...

The comments then range from "Is that still going?" to "Is that still going I used to love going to Speedway"...

The 'World Famous' Belle Vue Aces'?

The 'Manchester United' of Speedway?

The reality is they are not even heard of 1.6 miles away...

That is the size of the task the Sport faces...

Get onto the Aces management and see if you can have some free/cheap tickets to bring all your team along :)  Hoping to do something like this for my colleagues although we are 40 miles away from Lynn, your lot they have no excuse not to go along haha

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4 hours ago, Spl77 said:

I think I read somewhere that Jonathan Chapman suggests a franchise and draft approach didn't the late great John Berry suggest something along those lines in one of his books years ago.? The BSPA need to wake up or this once great sport will be gone by 2020. Work on getting the product and rules right then try and intice the list supporters back and then go out after new ones. While I'm a used to go to speedway man I'm only 42 so not an old stuck in my ways chap.

I thought Oh No! Another poor old disillusioned 65 - 80 years old fan ( just like me ), walking away after 50+ years of watching UK speedway until I read your last sentence. Now I think Oh No! We are in the mire for sure now!

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4 hours ago, Spl77 said:

As a former fan I have kept an eye on this forum over the years and this topic is very interesting but at the same time sad as it appears that the sport I once loved is close to the end. I was driven away 10 years ago but mid season rule changes the farce of guests and tactical rules. I made one trip last season to my local track Ipswich and that was it one trip in 9 seasons! What drove me away was still there guests daft tactical rules and then you got to add in the double up down shake it all around rule. 

As an ex supporter looking in it appears that the main issues facing the sport are that it's to expensive for the fans riders and every one involved. The bikes are to fast the tracks to slick the racing not great. Add in all the daft rules the fact that you no longer have your team because they ride for everyone else the local community cannot form a bond with these guys. You need to cut costs for all provide value for money and have seven guys contacted to your club and your club only. 

I think I read somewhere that Jonathan Chapman suggests a franchise and draft approach didn't the late great John Berry suggest something along those lines in one of his books years ago.? The BSPA need to wake up or this once great sport will be gone by 2020. Work on getting the product and rules right then try and intice the list supporters back and then go out after new ones. While I'm a used to go to speedway man I'm only 42 so not an old stuck in my ways chap. 

I echo exactly what you say. In fact, this could be me writing this. To me, I don't care if it's a boring match, racing not up to much. I do care that I am following a so-called sport where the rules are set in concrete, novelty ones aren't introduced to bring some kind of quick, shortlived air of excitement at the detriment of the whole sport to existing fans and fans that have long grown fed up and departed. I would say a lot of them got fed up because of the silly rules over the years.

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1 hour ago, ch958 said:

would yo or someone explain the details of the franchise/draft plan? Sounds interesting

Surely, the way it is run now, is a franchise? 

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1 hour ago, Ray Stadia said:

Surely, the way it is run now, is a franchise? 

its several different businesses - i imagine a franchise would have to buy into and follow the rules of an overall controller with the overall controller being independent and in absolute charge

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23 minutes ago, ch958 said:

its several different businesses - i imagine a franchise would have to buy into and follow the rules of an overall controller with the overall controller being independent and in absolute charge

I was actually thinking of that idea the other day.

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These franchise things might sound good if you look at the success stories,but can be painful if your team is bought and moved from New York to California or from Munich to Hamburg as has happened.......

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more difficult to move a speedway team i would think - if there were suitable venues available people would be looking at them. I don't know of any other than Oxford

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A franchise will have say 8 teams in an elite league.Say Someone with money from Kent or London thinks that Sittingbourne will be an attractive place to host speedway then he buys the franchise from one of the clubs with an elite franchise,it could be your team

That is how franchises work.It happened to the Munich ice hockey team,it happened to some US team in New York.Just what is the advantage to any speedway team belonging to a franchise?I would think the only person to make money from the idea would be the person or company running the franchise,rather than all the clubs

The system works in other sports because there is enough money,in some sports millions to be made and if the franchise say’s we run on Monday night or Tuesday night the stadiums are still packed.I can’t see that being the case that speedway promoters will pay out money so they will be told when they will run.Just look at all the ballyhoo at the moment.Ice hockey fans turn up on a Tuesday and American football have Monday night games.Speedway fans,we are told are special and will only turn up at the weekend.......ho hum 

Edited by iris123
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