The continuing decline of Speedway

[adonis 1,454]

42 minutes ago, iainb said:

I can play a game of football, eat out at my local chippy and go and watch a film afterwards all for £6.19

Sorry it took so long

Ahhh yes  but can you watch a game of Fottball .   

 

 

[steve roberts 9,242]

29 minutes ago, adonis said:

Ahhh yes  but can you watch a game of Fottball .   

 

 

...not if I can help it! Getting thru' the World Cup was challenging enough!

[adonis 1,454]

27 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

...not if I can help it! Getting thru' the World Cup was challenging enough!

I'm going to have to whoosh you on this Steve ,    ........ Fottball

[Pieman72 588]

Unfortunately speedway will have to find it's level and as it just doesn't command any interest amongst the population. My biggest issue is that it is boring, expensive and run on a weekday night. The question is who has the finances and leads a relatively sedentary life that enables them to go to a speedway meeting say on a Monday night? 

[MattK 3,447]

2 hours ago, Pieman72 said:

Unfortunately speedway will have to find it's level and as it just doesn't command any interest amongst the population. My biggest issue is that it is boring, expensive and run on a weekday night. The question is who has the finances and leads a relatively sedentary life that enables them to go to a speedway meeting say on a Monday night? 

I'd hazard a guess that there are millions of people who could afford to go to speedway and are sat at home doing nothing on a Monday night. The problem is British speedway does nothing to try and reach out to these people.

Similarly, old people are minted and would likely enjoy the passé presentation found at most tracks, yet most clubs go out to schools and try to promote speedway to little kids. It makes no sense.

[waytogo28 2,054]

2 hours ago, MattK said:

Similarly, old people are minted and would likely enjoy the passé presentation found at most tracks, yet most clubs go out to schools and try to promote speedway to little kids. It makes no sense.

Hey, come on MattK, not all "old" people are minted and I know of more than a dozen ( perhaps 20 ) who have walked away from watching speedway live in the stadium because it IS passe. And past it and old-fashioned and has failed. Failed full stop to engage with it's existing fan base.

[MattK 3,447]

58 minutes ago, waytogo28 said:

Hey, come on MattK, not all "old" people are minted and I know of more than a dozen ( perhaps 20 ) who have walked away from watching speedway live in the stadium because it IS passe. And past it and old-fashioned and has failed. Failed full stop to engage with it's existing fan base.

My comment was was slightly tongue in cheek. However, this doesn't change the fact that one of the biggest problems facing British speedway is that they don't know who their target market is.

The presentation IS passe, at Swindon they play AC/DC and Rockin Robin by the Jackson 5 every week. They then go into schools to try and attract youngsters. It is incredible difficult to have a product which appeals to all age ranges. In fact, very few products can manage this and it is mainly very high-end aspirational brand, something speedway is not.

I don't understand why promoters don't recognise their main customer base is over 50 and market speedway to a wider audience of the same age range.

[Ghostwalker 1,858]

May I suggest that we use the existing thread rather then starting a new one?
 

 

[Pieman72 588]

Unfortunately we live in a society divided by age and while it has been profitable to go after the 'grey pound' and 'baby boomers' ultimately for the continuity of speedway we need to reach out to all. This is not just affecting speedway it's through out society. We have to be realistic and let speedway find it's level. Thanks to all for some excellent posts as we need to discuss the situation and not just 'sit on our hands'. 

[Big Al 708]

The last 72 hours has shown the way forward I think.

A league, however it is actually organised, at the current CL level or even perhaps a bit lower, with admission prices in the £12-£14 region. Riders will have to accept that riding speedway within it will not provide them with sufficient income to make it their main living. However, they should have the right to expect prompt payment and good standard of tracks which should be rigorously enforced. Plus an amateur league with strictly controlled costs.

A second SGP to become an established addition.

Rounds of an expanded SEC taking place in the UK. 

Want a fix of top level league racing? Head to Poland, or watch Polish and Swedish league on TV - because coverage of UK racing will just be the GP's and SEC.

[Grachan 7,314]

On ‎7‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 8:42 PM, MattK said:

My comment was was slightly tongue in cheek. However, this doesn't change the fact that one of the biggest problems facing British speedway is that they don't know who their target market is.

The presentation IS passe, at Swindon they play AC/DC and Rockin Robin by the Jackson 5 every week. They then go into schools to try and attract youngsters. It is incredible difficult to have a product which appeals to all age ranges. In fact, very few products can manage this and it is mainly very high-end aspirational brand, something speedway is not.

I don't understand why promoters don't recognise their main customer base is over 50 and market speedway to a wider audience of the same age range.

I don't know if anyone has been watching the Hockey World Cup on BT Sport, but it's interesting to see that the music they play is similar to what they play at speedway. Kashmir by Led Zep, and that one that goes "Right Here, Right Now" blaring out. And when England scored, they played the same tune that they play at Swindon when there is a 5-1.

Also interesting, that someone commented that it was a big difference playing in front of a big crowd as they are used to playing in front of crowds of about 200.

Speedway has its problems, but Hockey is something everyone knows about, yet apparently attracts crowds of about 200 despite GB winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics, and plays the same old music to a crowd consisting mainly of young women.

[DC2 11,150]

 

Bowls. That's your answer. Speedway appeals to old people and so does bowls. There's 5,000 bowling greens in the country and 400,000 players.

Alternatively, your answer could be doctors' surgeries, even more old people there.  

 

[Humphrey Appleby 13,938]

18 hours ago, Big Al said:

A second SGP to become an established addition.

Rounds of an expanded SEC taking place in the UK. 

Want a fix of top level league racing? Head to Poland, or watch Polish and Swedish league on TV - because coverage of UK racing will just be the GP's and SEC.

How are privately promoted events that take money out of the sport, and in some cases even charging local tracks for the 'privilege' of hosting, going to take the sport forward? One of the reasons that speedway is in the mess that it's in, is because it doesn't benefit from the few semi-lucrative events it actually has. What little money there is needs to be kept within the sport. 

And why do people think Polish and Swedish speedway remains relatively viable year-after-year, whereas the fortunes of other countries fluctuate wildly? Precisely because league speedway provides the fan identification and continuity that individual racing does not. 

I'm also not sure how many times it needs to be pointed out, but when all the top riders used to ride in Britain, the sport still saw diminishing crowds. Trying to put on expensive meetings more than once a twice a year will simply undermine the novelty for existing fans, and the new audiences to whom the sport really needs to be appealing, have essentially never heard of any of top riders anyway. 

[steve roberts 9,242]

50 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

How are privately promoted events that take money out of the sport, and in some cases even charging local tracks for the 'privilege' of hosting, going to take the sport forward? One of the reasons that speedway is in the mess that it's in, is because it doesn't benefit from the few semi-lucrative events it actually has. What little money there is needs to be kept within the sport. 

And why do people think Polish and Swedish speedway remains relatively viable year-after-year, whereas the fortunes of other countries fluctuate wildly? Precisely because league speedway provides the fan identification and continuity that individual racing does not. 

I'm also not sure how many times it needs to be pointed out, but when all the top riders used to ride in Britain, the sport still saw diminishing crowds. Trying to put on expensive meetings more than once a twice a year will simply undermine the novelty for existing fans, and the new audiences to whom the sport really needs to be appealing, have essentially never heard of any of top riders anyway. 

...This is an area that the late John Berry used to raise. Whereas once upon a time the one-off World Final when staged in this country would provide a divided income for British tracks (as well as other FIM and shared BSPA events) when the GPs came along the whole scenario changed and with little interference from the BSPA who allowed the circus to dictate it's own terms.

[steve roberts 9,242]

16 hours ago, Grachan said:

I don't know if anyone has been watching the Hockey World Cup on BT Sport, but it's interesting to see that the music they play is similar to what they play at speedway. Kashmir by Led Zep, and that one that goes "Right Here, Right Now" blaring out. And when England scored, they played the same tune that they play at Swindon when there is a 5-1.

Also interesting, that someone commented that it was a big difference playing in front of a big crowd as they are used to playing in front of crowds of about 200.

Speedway has its problems, but Hockey is something everyone knows about, yet apparently attracts crowds of about 200 despite GB winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics, and plays the same old music to a crowd consisting mainly of young women.

...Personally I've never totally gone along with the music played argument. In all my years going to speedway the music was often of the latest chart selection which is what the younger generation (those very people the sport needs to attract) tend to listen to anyway and, therefore, able to relate to same...which is more than I could half of the time!