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The continuing decline of Speedway

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Perhaps we look at the wrong way. Attracting old fans back might be easier than attracting completely new ones. They'll already know the basics.

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4 hours ago, moxey63 said:

The young, as has been stated, are more interested in their own things. But, remember, folks...  don't use this as an excuse, what about other age groups? Think we've fallen into a trap in which it's the young we think will save speedway. Win back the oldies and even the new oldies.

No one demographic age group will transform speedway in my opinion but of course we must try to be attractive to all.

I have been watching things on the island and I have posted this before about what is happening here. We are getting lots of groups of families and couples who make "new" friends at speedway. Now when I was a child I had my friends at school, sea cadets, local to home and speedway and every group of friends was different - had my friends at speedway dropped off, I probably, would have left too. In fact I did leave for a while as a child with the sea cadets until speedway changed it race night again and I was straight back.

My point is attracting news fans, rekindling the love of former fans has to be gelled by something and that something in my view is the club, the community (in whatever form) and friendships - that strengthens the fan base, encourages away travel and social activity which in turn brings in new fans, new sponsors, new momentum.... sounds easy I guess, but we all know it is not and on the Island we started from scratch and slowly, slowly we are now seeing momentum in every part of the club.

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3 hours ago, martinmauger said:

My point (in a round about way as I was tired) was if folk don't rurn out to watch a special or at least different high-ish profile meetings then the sport is in a worse state than thought.  E.g. my first ever meeting was a World Champs Qualy at Hull in 1974, when I told regulars I was going that nite quite a few said they weren't going as it wouldn't be as good as a match but that I would still enjoy it.  I did !  It was the same when Hull staged England v Australasia or USA, some locals gave them a miss but more fans from out of town attended and so the crowds were bigger anyway.  The GB v Aussie match showed that folk ( more folk? ) will still attend such meetings if they feel they are worth watching & value for money, Cardiff GP being the most obvious example.  Seen that too....

One of the biggest frustrations is that the Sport itself still can generate great crowds in this Country when it is done well...

The meeting you allude to in Glasgow was promoted well (as the Glasgow promotion seem to do, even at short notice)...

And it had credibility as both teams were represented by riders from their own nations...

Which got me thinking..

Imagine if NKI the Danish Champion had been advertised as guesting for Australia to replace Jason Doyle (as could conceivably have happened if it was a Premiership match)...

Ludicrous to suggest it I know but that is effectively what British Speedway does each week...

If it was allowed to happen in that Test Match, even with lots of promotion,  I can guarantee the crowd would have been several hundred lower. (In fact promoting it would have done more harm than good)...

Tens of thousands of fans who don't attend British Speedway regularly attend Cardiff every year proving that their is a market for the Sport...

However. Until it runs itself like a proper sport, at a price point that reflects its value, (rather than at a price point delivered in hope it will cover the participants costs) it simply wont work...

When you cannot promote what's on show with any real conviction and belief in your product then you do have problems I reckon..

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8 hours ago, moxey63 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, mikebv, but was it you who posted the Play-Offs and the fact that Belle Vue lost them to Wolves and the recently introduced Tai Woffinden all but distinguished their returning interest when they tried the new track three years ago? It proves the POs can wipe out quite a sizeable group if so. I think the rules and set up have to be foolproof to keep any new or returning fans coming back. That is why it's good that old fans who no longer attend can still post why they stopped attending. Better than just vanishing and providing no feedback as to why. It would be nice to know, apart from popping their clogs of course, why fans stop coming.

How does prove anything ..got any stats or figures ? what about the wolves fans who went back to Wolves because Woffy came back and they won the play offs . old fans won't come back anyhow as they enjoy moaning to much, that is why even they don't  to speedway they spend time on a forum going on about the past .

The sport needs to aim at young fans not people stuck in 1975 .

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3 hours ago, mikebv said:

 

And it had credibility as both teams were represented by riders from their own nations...

Which got me thinking..

Imagine if NKI the Danish Champion had been advertised as guesting for Australia to replace Jason Doyle (as could conceivably have happened if it was a Premiership match)...

Ludicrous to suggest it I know but that is effectively what British Speedway does each week...

 

But we had guests when speedway was massive ..it ludicrous to think that a team who are  not champions can win the champions league but guess what it happens in football  . What about Cricket ? they have a rule that  when you they show a video review  you can be given not out even when you are . As I said before you get hold any sport and find  so called ludicrous rules but as  the champions league shows it  does not always stop crowds coming 

Look at this year ..let have fixed race nights so we have less guests ..so they do it and then the fans moan  that they  what there own race night back even if it means having  a team full of guests ..

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6 minutes ago, orion said:

How does prove anything ..got any stats or figures ? what about the wolves fans who went back to Wolves because Woffy came back and they won the play offs . old fans won't come back anyhow as they enjoy moaning to much, that is why even they don't  to speedway they spend time on a forum going on about the past .

The sport needs to aim at young fans not people stuck in 1975 .

Have you ever thought about trying to put together a sentence that makes sense with the correct punctuation. You also ought to think about your grammar and consider your construction of a balanced argument as your failure on both counts leaves a lot to be desired. I doubt that few if any can take you seriously and however much you complain, insult and show your opposition to to an ageing population, which you continually portray throughout your posts, you simply belittle your standing in terms of being taken seriously but I doubt you even understand that.  Winge as much as you like about the older generation but at least most of us have had a life, have had an education and show respect for others all of which seems to escape you and is beyond your comprehension. 

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37 minutes ago, Hawk127 said:

Have you ever thought about trying to put together a sentence that makes sense with the correct punctuation. You also ought to think about your grammar and consider your construction of a balanced argument as your failure on both counts leaves a lot to be desired. I doubt that few if any can take you seriously and however much you complain, insult and show your opposition to to an ageing population, which you continually portray throughout your posts, you simply belittle your standing in terms of being taken seriously but I doubt you even understand that.  Winge as much as you like about the older generation but at least most of us have had a life, have had an education and show respect for others all of which seems to escape you and is beyond your comprehension. 

 And you  can't add up ..got the answer on on  how  you replaced 50 % of gate money yet ? no point getting bitter because you still can't  find a reply .  And no  point going on about education when can't answer a simple maths question .

What are going to do run off again ? ps is your space bar broken ? 

Edited by orion
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7 minutes ago, orion said:

 And you  can't add up ..got the answer on or  how  you replaced 50 % of gate money yet ? no point getting bitter because you still can't  find a reply .  Did you missed the maths classes under this   great education you got ? 

What are going to do run off again ? 

If that Is the  best you have it confirms what I said. I run a successful business and just enjoy reading pathetic responses like yours. Time to do something interesting so I will leave you to your arguments. 

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7 minutes ago, Hawk127 said:

 If that Is the  best you have it confirms what I said. I run a successful business and just enjoy reading pathetic responses like yours. Time to do something interesting so I will leave you to your arguments. 

So you still can't answer the question and now  you are going to  punch and run again ? I hope in this successful business that you run you never  took 50 % of the income out of it with no idea how to replace it .

 

Edited by orion

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29 minutes ago, orion said:

So you still can't answer the question and now  you are going to  punch and run again ? I hope in this successful business that you run you never  took 50 % of the income out of it with no idea how to replace it .

 

...you're  fine one when it comes to not answering questions. Still waiting for your response to my earlier question?

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6 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

...you're  fine one when it comes to not answering questions. Still waiting for your response to my earlier question?

What was it again Steve ? not 100 minus 50 ? someone already found that a bit hard to work out 

Edited by orion

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1 minute ago, orion said:

What was it again Steve ? 100 -50 ? 

Yes and you know full well despite your attempted deflection of same with your usual cryptic non-sensical response...par for the course really. 

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4 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Yes and you know full well despite your attempted deflection of same with your usual cryptic non-sensical response...par for the course really. 

Not much can be done  Steve ..the horse has already bolted , The only plan has  been to weaken the league cut cots etc and the crowds have fallen as the standard has . No money in the sport to get thou's riders back so we will just carry on with this slow death .

I think all teams should be forced to run junior teams and matches be ran after the main match ( second half's ! your like that :D) and more money put in at grass root levels to get more people taking up the sport 

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17 minutes ago, orion said:

Not much can be done  Steve ..the horse has already bolted , The only plan has  been to weaken the league cut cots etc and the crowds have fallen as the standard has . No money in the sport to get thou's riders back so we will just carry on with this slow death .

I think all teams should be forced to run junior teams and matches be ran after the main match ( second half's ! your like that :D) and more money put in at grass root levels to get more people taking up the sport 

Okay that's fair enough...at least we can both move on now having given both our views/opinions regarding where the sport goes from here despite differing opinions.

I would agree Junior matches because without the right incentives and proper direction where will the next generation of riders come from? I recall reading an Interview with Jan O Pedersen who attempted to set up a proper training school structure in the UK but was met with general apathy from the powers that be and the opportunity was lost.

Both Denmark and Sweden had/has a thriving 50cc scene which had/has produced many riders who went on to become World Class competitors The Grasstrack scene often produced talented motorcyclists who then progressed to speedway but, unfortunately, Grasstrack racing in the UK appears to be at a very low ebb like it's big sister. In the last couple of years I attended a couple of events locally and they were both pretty dismal affairs I have to say!

Edited by steve roberts
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3 hours ago, orion said:

But we had guests when speedway was massive ..it ludicrous to think that a team who are  not champions can win the champions league but guess what it happens in football  . What about Cricket ? they have a rule that  when you they show a video review  you can be given not out even when you are . As I said before you get hold any sport and find  so called ludicrous rules but as  the champions league shows it  does not always stop crowds coming 

Look at this year ..let have fixed race nights so we have less guests ..so they do it and then the fans moan  that they  what there own race night back even if it means having  a team full of guests ..

When Speedway was massive it was down to far many other reasons than just the racing....

And it's National TV coverage focused on International and Individual events which invariably had British winners...

What you got served up at your local track was somewhat different, however you only found out riders were missing when you had paid to get in, not well in advance like happens now via forums and social media. And moaned to those 10 or so around you, not the 1000's who read websites like today...

The Champions League can get won by a club that are not that Countries Champion, but so what?  It provides many more of the best teams in the same competition, giving success in this competition far more kudos than in its previous guise when teams could reach the semis by just beating a few Romanian ferret smugglers or Albanian goat herders...

In British Speedway you can cherry pick riders from any of your competitors to improve your team and help you be successful, even if the help they provide directly results in their own team ultimately losing out on success themselves..

Just think about how you would sell that concept to a wider Sporting audience, in the hope it would sound credible and attract them, especially in a 24/7 modern media age..

It would take some marketing guru to work that one....

Edited by mikebv
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