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NO WORD FROM THE BSPA

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5 hours ago, M.D said:

I was with an old friend this morning, we go back 25 odd years, he's not a speedway fan but has been to a good few meetings with me but not for a few years..

An intelligent man, runs his own business, a Yorkshireman living in the south he tells it as he see's it and as a kid went to the Shay a few times.

I spoke about a few things and he said "Get an American marketing team in, they know how to promote and put a show on when you get people in to watch, people want more entertainment if they are paying £12 to get in for a night" My reply was its more like £18 now for the evening and his reply was "Thats the first bit they've got wrong"

He does have a point.

It's easy to say that the admission prices are too high when it isn't you trying to balance the books. I'd say compared to many other sports 18 quid is about right. The problem with speedway is that the BSPA/SCB and promoters still have the 1950s attitude that they are doing the public a favour by staging the sport. When they understand that the public demands for entertainment are higher than decades ago then sport may move forward but the top tip is don't hold your breath.

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11 hours ago, winstoncigar said:

The bikes are the problem, to the uninitiated (new fan) they look like something from the 1970's, which is pretty much what they are.

They aren't though are they?

Even to the uninitiated a 1970s speedway bike is a lot different to a current bike.

 

 

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41 minutes ago, Hot Shoe said:

It could have been worse. It could have been another farewell meeting that wasn't. :D

I got conned at that one as well!

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12 hours ago, acef said:

We don't want the old man and his dog showing up. 

 

 

Blimey you are beginning to sound like SCB and his campaign against old people. :shock:  Afraid I have been a fan since I was 8 years old and was taken to Blackbird Road by my dad so it's 70 years now and counting. I'm beginning to feel  I shouldn't bother going especially as I take a dog with me. :D

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On ‎7‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 8:03 PM, acef said:

 

This is where speedway fails every single time. You can't sell a team aspect if the racing (the core product/foundation) isn't right. 

 

For speedway it really isn't difficult. The speedway is the hook, the team element is the sell. In that order. 

The flaw in your view is that even if the product is right people still don't come and, worse, they continue to leave.

The obvious example is Belle Vue. Fantastic track and racing. Brand new stadium (no standing on broken concrete or a mud bank in the rain). In Neil, Hayley & Chase the best presentation team in the business. 

Their gates have decreased by most accounts by one third this season. 

Somerset has a deserved reputation for excellent racing. Debbie Hancock, however, has said that their gates are 'not good'. Word I get is that they lose a substantial 5 figure sum every year and when they cleaned up a couple of seasons ago  it was nearer 6.

Until the NSS came along, I'd say Normanby Road Scunthorpe was the best in the country - I have had the pleasure of seeing some truly brilliant stuff there over time. Yet Rob Godfrey has continually complained about his poor attendances, and indeed threatened to close the track unless they increased a couple of years ago.

I have, for a few seasons now, thoroughly enjoyed my trips to Workington. Decent stadium, good track, top quality presentation. Yet I know that when I have been that the attendance has been about half of the break even figure and Laura Morgan has lost a couple of thousand pounds every time. 

My own view is that good racing does increase gates or at least those clubs that provide it would be in dire straights without the additional fans it pulls in (I know this for certain, I am of one of them). But its not, and never will be, the sole answer and a single panacea to all of speedway's problems. We simply have to take a far broader approach than just concentrating on that, and ignoring those who come for the team element is one of the reasons why the sport is in the state it is now. Constantly taken for granted for years, they have finally had enough.

You might hook someone with good racing. But if the stadium is a dump, the toilets are filthy, the promotion surly, the presentation puerile and the food inedible they won't stay on it for long.

 

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Promoters are telling fibs somewhere... do you really think every one of them loses money year on year? 

Stoke as an example, Tatums been promoter there for years. Never won a thing really since i have been following speedway. Yet hes still there losing money year on year apparantly!? Do me a favour. 

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Promoters are telling fibs somewhere... do you really think every one of them loses money year on year? 

Stoke as an example, Tatums been promoter there for years. Never won a thing really since i have been following speedway. Yet hes still there losing money year on year apparantly!? Do me a favour. 

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1 hour ago, Halifaxtiger said:

You might hook someone with good racing. But if the stadium is a dump, the toilets are filthy, the promotion surly, the presentation puerile and the food inedible they won't stay on it for long.

Now that is the best short description of some of the problems that UK speedway has allowed itself to descend into. Read, mark and learn - but few promotions learn from such a simple but vital lesson. I still demand better racing on a regular basis to tempt me into a season ticket or even going to every home match. We need the whole package if we are ever to attract these mythical new fans. Promotions must learn not to be surly and make sure their presentation is far from puerile. But will they? I agree with Pinny that they cannot be losing thousands year on year - unless it was a tax break for their other business ventures.

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15 hours ago, cityrebel said:

I got conned at that one as well!

Sadly speedway has a knack of shooting itself in the foot.

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12 hours ago, Pinny said:

Promoters are telling fibs somewhere... do you really think every one of them loses money year on year? 

Stoke as an example, Tatums been promoter there for years. Never won a thing really since i have been following speedway. Yet hes still there losing money year on year apparantly!? Do me a favour. 

I dont think all promoters loose money year on year, some do some dont BUT I do believe that speedway must be a nice tax offset if someone has a thriving buisness outside the sport.

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12 hours ago, tonyd said:

I dont think all promoters loose money year on year, some do some dont BUT I do believe that speedway must be a nice tax offset if someone has a thriving buisness outside the sport.

But surely a loss is a loss? If you are offsetting profit from another company, all you are saving is the tax you would have paid on the profit, therefore, you are still out of pocket? :blink:

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19 hours ago, tonyd said:

I dont think all promoters loose money year on year, some do some dont BUT I do believe that speedway must be a nice tax offset if someone has a thriving buisness outside the sport.

It's an interesting belief you have, when a Speedway is nothing more than a department within a company (not a separate entity) then yes you may be right but where the Speedway is a separate company or a separate company within a holding company then not necessarily so. There have been and may well be more tax investigations by HMRC into perennial loss making ventures that receive funds (sponsorship) from sister companies on the basis that the person(s) with significant control may be one and the same. They are viewing it like "My Racehorse Ltd or My Superyacht Limited" where the poorly performing business is being used for tax avoidance. HMRC have already undone some of the benefits to enterprise investors because  investments were made with little or no risk to avoid tax instead of being genuinely invested to develop businesses.

The harsh reality is that Speedway businesses are all losing money, even if you think your club is making a profit it is burning equity faster than it can build capital. Let's say for example Poole was worth half a million quid 2 years ago, how much is it worth now and how much will it be worth when there is nobody left to race against? Wolverhampton could be the same, a steady business for years it's value has been eroded by the state the sport is in. Being able to pay the bills doesn't mean they are making money and as for the joker who thinks Stoke are coining it in, pm me and I'll send you Tatts number you can call him and tell him just that!

Edited by Whisperer
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On 21 July 2018 at 10:46 PM, cityrebel said:

I got conned at that one as well!

Easter Trophy at Kent tonight. Another conit's not even Easter.   :mad:

 

 

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When the new Belle vue track got the go ahead I welcomed the new track but stated at the time about the League situation in the future

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11 hours ago, topaz325 said:

When the new Belle vue track got the go ahead I welcomed the new track but stated at the time about the League situation in the future

Sadly I had the same misgivings. ..

No point in having a state of the art facility and no one turns up to visit it...

When you analyse it, it's quite incredible to be honest just how many 'regular customers'  British Speedway has lost in such a very, very short space of time.....

Usually a 'shrinking business' will lose a certain 'few' percentage of customers gradually year on year over a period of time before it becomes a threat to its existence. Giving the ailing business time to re-assess it's operating and business plans and re group... 

Speedway on the other hand seems to lose double digit percentages year on year, and seems to do seldom different to stem the tide (never mind turn it)....

My track it is suggested has dropped from 1800 average in the first year it opened to around 1000 average in its third...

An incredible (and frightening) drop...

Almost half its customer base gone....

The whys and wherefores for this have been covered off at length ad infinitum, so I won't cover old ground....

It is truly staggering though the deluge of unsolicited feedback given by fans (and more importantly possibly ex fans), to those who run the Sport by its plethora of online media, and of course the World's Best Selling Speedway Magazine, the Speedway Star...

Staggering too is there appears to always be an abject refusal to listen and act on the feedback given...

It is truly a 'Great Sport' (as BT showed over weekend with their various programmes)...

Just so sad to see it ran in a way that cannot deliver the crowds the Sport deserves..

Edited by mikebv
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