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Sidney the robin

2019 One big league will it happen.?

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1 hour ago, KrisB said:

Whatever happens, the planning/proposal must happen now so that the AGM is merely the formal approval 

Things are already in progress.

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The worry is if crowds at Swindon, Poole, King's Lynn and Wolverhampton are down because they have all retained their traditional race night. If anything, I would expect their crowds to increase because FNR has more or less solved the doubling up problems, which so many fans complained about. The enforced Monday nights have been a disaster for Belle Vue, we know what it has done to Rye House, crowds seem to be down at Leicester. I don't know about Somerset but I can see that a move away from the Friday problems on the M5 could be a benefit.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but is it just coincidence that it's the old guard who managed to retain their race nights and the newer promotions who had to change?

I can see no alternative now to one league with riders committed to the UK and teams racing on whichever night best suits them. Clubs must also live within their financial means. Anything else is just more tinkering around the edges and again not facing up to the realities of the current state of the sport in the UK.

Edited by Aces51
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Ford is a shrewd businessman and has to make Poole speedway pay, if he is talking about time to get out you know the sport has reached or very nearly reached the point of no return. Should be a wake up call for the BSPA but don't hold your breath.

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7 minutes ago, bellevueace said:

Ford is a shrewd businessman and has to make Poole speedway pay, if he is talking about time to get out you know the sport has reached or very nearly reached the point of no return. Should be a wake up call for the BSPA but don't hold your breath.

And when it all collapses most of them will look around and still not understand why

Edited by A ORLOV
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Every other promoter has to make it pay and if Ford was a speedway fan then he would tough it out and take some leadership.

He has done very well out of the sport so now is the time to give something back. His comment about getting out sounds like a threat but to who?

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Lynn crowds are pretty consistent to previous seasons I would argue. Up on the 2nd half of last season. Pooles will pick up now they have a winning team with the casual fans probably returning. If most of the championship sides are struggling then it’s kind of expected. The 2nd league in this country is way too strong. I think the problem with that started in the early 00s when they altered the conversion rate. Used to be that a pl 10point rider was an el 5 point rider. The pl decided that is was independant to the bigger picture. Their garden was rosey and they didn’t want to slightly weaken. Now we have this situation where there are teams in the championship who are big enough to have stepped up. And teams signing riders they can’t afford to have just to try to keep up with them. 

 

if the advertising and pricing was right the crowds would be much bigger. It’s an old argument now but £18 is a lot of money to pay and it’s not going to attract new people. New people to speedway need to watch 3/4 meetings to get familiar with names and stuff. I was talking to a guy who went for the first time. He doesn’t want to part with 36 pounds plus extras for him and his wife each week too familiarise. Don’t compare the price to mainstream sports. They don’t need new fans. That happens naturally. Maybe give 3/4 free family tickets to every local school kid. See how many come back for all 3/4 meetings and hope some of them stick around. If it was 12 pound per adult there after I feel it would work. But if you keep weakening the product and not lowering the main adult price then there is a problem.

You could get Grand Prix seats for 19 pounds. And that’s 2/3 levels above British speedway

 

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14 minutes ago, A ORLOV said:

And when it all collapses most of them will look around and still not understand why

That is the tragedy of the whole massive decline of UK speedway. They will not listen to anyone ( including lifelong fans ) and believe that the word feedback means something like poisonous assassin or despicable enemy. They view the people who have put forward constructive ideas as one of those.

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34 minutes ago, Aces51 said:

The worry is if crowds at Swindon, Poole, King's Lynn and Wolverhampton are down because they have all retained their traditional race night. If anything,

The crowd is down at King's Lynn which never recovered from "Holdergate" last year and is half of what it was in 2015. A night that pulls in more than 1,000 is a good one. For the recent match V Poole is was around that and certainly no more than 1,200. Of course, fixed race nights at KL have not worked out well, as Denmark took priority over several team members on several possible Weds.

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It is noticeable that the time when crowds are down at Swindon is when the opposition is not that good or the weather is iffy.  Fans are picking and choosing the meetings they go to and as I predicted if there is a good meeting on tv people are staying at home to watch it.

We had some meetings scheduled for wednesdays but now apart from the meeting against Leicester they have been moved to thurs or mon.  It will be interesting to see what the crowd is like for a wed night when Leicester visit.

Edited by A ORLOV
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12 hours ago, Bald Bloke said:

Putting "a fair few on the gate" at Poole, won't help the rest of UK speedway in general.

 

But I was just talking about the Poole crowds which I've seen. I have no idea what any other team gets.

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1 hour ago, GWC said:

Every other promoter has to make it pay and if Ford was a speedway fan then he would tough it out and take some leadership.

He has done very well out of the sport so now is the time to give something back. His comment about getting out sounds like a threat but to who?

Why does he have to tough it out? When he came promoter, he said it was just for 5 years to improve the club and then was going to sell it on. So way past that!

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1 hour ago, waytogo28 said:

The crowd is down at King's Lynn which never recovered from "Holdergate" last year and is half of what it was in 2015. A night that pulls in more than 1,000 is a good one. For the recent match V Poole is was around that and certainly no more than 1,200. Of course, fixed race nights at KL have not worked out well, as Denmark took priority over several team members on several possible Weds.

Out of interest are you privy to attendance figures or are those comments based on your own observations? 

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2 hours ago, GWC said:

Every other promoter has to make it pay and if Ford was a speedway fan then he would tough it out and take some leadership.

He has done very well out of the sport so now is the time to give something back. His comment about getting out sounds like a threat but to who?

How much has Matt Ford made from speedway in say the last 10 years?

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1 hour ago, lisa-colette said:

Why does he have to tough it out? When he came promoter, he said it was just for 5 years to improve the club and then was going to sell it on. So way past that!

Was that before he bought out his partner?

If so then he has a substantial investment that currently isn’t doing as well as in previous years.

Maybe there will be a reorganisation that doesn’t suit his expectations and fair enough.

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