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Trevor

Race Nights - What do you think so far?

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At the start of the season we switched to set race nights. To bring back the stars, and have full teams racing against each other. The authorities foolishly stopped the return of the big names, by the one eight point rider rule. On the issue of less guests, do you think it has worked? What affect has it had on crowds size, for the clubs that have had to switch race nights?

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It's been an absolute disaster for one of my local tracks, Rye house. Since giving up their Saturday race night, their crowds have plummeted. The end of the season can't come soon enough for some clubs.

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33 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

It's been an absolute disaster for one of my local tracks, Rye house. Since giving up their Saturday race night, their crowds have plummeted. The end of the season can't come soon enough for some clubs.

Rye House will never work as a mid week track. The trouble is much of their support is not local but from all over Hertfordshire. People just don't have the time or inclination to get home from work, change, grab a bite to eat and rush out again.  The chaos on Govia trains at present is also doing the club no favours.

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1 hour ago, Trevor said:

At the start of the season we switched to set race nights. To bring back the stars, and have full teams racing against each other. The authorities foolishly stopped the return of the big names, by the one eight point rider rule. On the issue of less guests, do you think it has worked? What affect has it had on crowds size, for the clubs that have had to switch race nights?

the big names haven't come back because of £££. And don't say if you bring them back crowds will rise because there's no guarantee and people will go bust finding out.

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Can't see King's Lynn fielding a full side on Weds until the Danish league matches are over.

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The execution of this decision added to which you have fewer meetings in the Championship meaning that no team/rider can get some momentum going and probably a further reduction in fans going to mid week meetings probably will result in disaster for some clubs who may not come to the tapes in 2019 and others with a bloody nose financially speaking.

Racing does not match the quality seen in individual events such as the British Final yet most supporters are fickle and only want league racing which is and will never be what it was many years back. Bikes have changed, with few exceptions riders can’t team ride and the double up is a joke and with no hope of the top stars ever returning to British racing you have a sport in its twilight years. It is going nowhere and those in charge have dug such a huge hole from themselves it is unlikely they can get out of the mire that they have created.

The current fixed race nights are a disaster for the sport and would only work if the fixed days revolved around weekends and for that to happen and possibly see clubs survive, the sport at domestic level has to forget the other nations and start to rebuild for the future. The chances of that happening are nil.

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1 hour ago, Hawk127 said:

The execution of this decision added to which you have fewer meetings in the Championship meaning that no team/rider can get some momentum going and probably a further reduction in fans going to mid week meetings probably will result in disaster for some clubs who may not come to the tapes in 2019 and others with a bloody nose financially speaking.

Racing does not match the quality seen in individual events such as the British Final yet most supporters are fickle and only want league racing which is and will never be what it was many years back. Bikes have changed, with few exceptions riders can’t team ride and the double up is a joke and with no hope of the top stars ever returning to British racing you have a sport in its twilight years. It is going nowhere and those in charge have dug such a huge hole from themselves it is unlikely they can get out of the mire that they have created.

The current fixed race nights are a disaster for the sport and would only work if the fixed days revolved around weekends and for that to happen and possibly see clubs survive, the sport at domestic level has to forget the other nations and start to rebuild for the future. The chances of that happening are nil.

Difficult to argue with anything you say there Hawk127.

But will British Supporters accept no foreign Riders or 'Stars' in this Country. Would the Fan Base drop even lower without them?

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4 minutes ago, The White Knight said:

Difficult to argue with anything you say there Hawk127.

But will British Supporters accept no foreign Riders or 'Stars' in this Country. Would the Fan Base drop even lower without them?

Many Championship teams run on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday without top riders and they on average attract smaller crowds than mid-week Premiership teams with stars.

So the evidence suggests the answer to your question appears to be "yes" the fan base would drop further without them.

 

The follow on question to this is whether Championship teams with smaller crowds, but in turn lower costs are more profitable (or at least more sustainable)? The number of Championship clubs that seem to be in perpetual financial difficulty suggests not.

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3 minutes ago, MattK said:

Many Championship teams run on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday without top riders and they on average attract smaller crowds than mid-week Premiership teams with stars.

So the evidence suggests the answer to your question appears to be "yes" the fan base would drop further without them.

 

The follow on question to this is whether Championship teams with smaller crowds, but in turn lower costs are more profitable (or at least more sustainable)? The number of Championship clubs that seem to be in perpetual financial difficulty suggests not.

The proof o the pudding and all that...................

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3 hours ago, waytogo28 said:

Can't see King's Lynn fielding a full side on Weds until the Danish league matches are over.

Well the good news is the Danish league goes on holiday for the summer at the end of the month or beginning of July!

Funny that the person with the most to say is someone who doesn’t go,no matter what night of the week !!’

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37 minutes ago, MattK said:

Many Championship teams run on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday without top riders and they on average attract smaller crowds than mid-week Premiership teams with stars.

So the evidence suggests the answer to your question appears to be "yes" the fan base would drop further without them.

 

The follow on question to this is whether Championship teams with smaller crowds, but in turn lower costs are more profitable (or at least more sustainable)? The number of Championship clubs that seem to be in perpetual financial difficulty suggests not.

Perhaps the reality is that the sport is dead in the water financially and it will need to eventually revert to semi-amateur status to survive.

Not sure about the licensing these days but in years gone by tracks had an ‘open licence’ and could run individual meetings but not compete in the league. Maybe that is the only way some stadia can keep speedway tracks open. Rye House use to be one such track. I don’t know the answer but weekends and regional leagues might see more travelling support etc. but many hardy supporters are even unlikely to travel any distance if it looks cloudy as they have little confidence in the meeting actually going ahead.

For too long the punter has had a raw deal and the powers that be have a long hard journey ahead of them if they want to rebuild the faith and gain the confidence of the supporters.

Something radical probably needs to happen but with these so called businessmen allegedly running tracks/teams at a loss you have to question their sanity. If they are trading at a loss, are they trading insolvently? If the answer is yes then some should be calling in the administrators now otherwise the directors become personally liable as the limited company status no longer protects the shareholders/directors. Will the truth ever come out. Only when it is too late and most of the  problems are because the sport is managed so badly.

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4 minutes ago, Hawk127 said:

Perhaps the reality is that the sport is dead in the water financially and it will need to eventually revert to semi-amateur status to survive.

Not sure about the licensing these days but in years gone by tracks had an ‘open license 

This is what I suggested some years ago on here.The Business Plan of league speedway is good for some,but I fear not for all.Instead of forcing clubs to fit one plan it would be better to maybe,like you say,let one or two just do a few open meetings.Better than having clubs close,but I think the other clubs fear having too few clubs in their league and not enough meetings.Catch 22

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29 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Well the good news is the Danish league goes on holiday for the summer at the end of the month or beginning of July!

Funny that the person with the most to say is someone who doesn’t go,no matter what night of the week !!’

 

29 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Well the good news is the Danish league goes on holiday for the summer at the end of the month or beginning of July!

Funny that the person with the most to say is someone who doesn’t go,no matter what night of the week !!’

I don't know who that can be, as I have been a regular attender when a complete Stars team is fielded ( less any genuine injuries ) and I hope to be there on Monday to cheer home "my boy" Robert Lambert, a brilliant British success - to be celebrated. Very few achieve, in five years, what Robert has done. And yes I know he trained abroad before he could ride here , as all those should do if they can.

I am very unimpressed with how KLS has been run in those last five years, when I have missed very few matches. It hardly matters what came first - the chicken or the egg, but a team running mainly on Weds, fielding so many riders with Danish affiliations has left me disillusioned. Not to mention the FRN and the "one over the eight" debacle.

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FNR has largely resolved clashes for doubling up riders but as has been mentioned previously, the crowds at Belle Vue have dropped significantly since the change from Friday to Monday. Why the BSPA ever agreed to Monday is a mystery. There is only one PL team which operated on that night and previous experience at Belle Vue, when the then landlord forced a change to Monday, was that the club had no sustainable future. That is why we changed to Friday as soon as we moved into the NSS. If TV was the reason for Monday all clubs have shown they can race on that night when on TV and could have done so for their televised meetings. As it stands now those clubs that had to move to a Monday race night have also to compete with the TV meeting.

Maybe our crowds will improve when the children are on holiday but that isn't going to compensate for the losses already suffered.

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If I understand Terry Russell 's comments in todays Speedway Star correctly  he feels BSPA have made a right ruddy hames of the whole issue

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