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Dave Stummings

Thank you to the BSPA

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Some good points on the thread. Speedway is suffering, and the BSPA perhaps needs to review how they operate, that said people have been saying these exact same things for decades and yet here we still are.

I actually think the sport could still thrive, but perhaps would need to change.  In some respect the modern age of instant media and quick one line social media means is perfect for speedway and showcasing the best of our 60 second races. 

The problem of course is you need a collaborative approach from everyone, and employing social media experts and professional web designers to create attractive short clips and social media posts... not just employing speedway mates to design websites that are about 10 years out of date and media experts with no charisma (NP).

Of course, then turning social media views into attendance and retaining requires more collaboration between clubs, including discounts to get people in the door, providing tracks that enable real racing (rather than 4 riders riding around) and making stadiums appealing to want to attend.   I also think making a bigger deal about supporting your local club/team could help, but is pointless when that teams riders ride for other clubs in the UK on different nights.  

Speedway is not dead yet, but I don't see any sign that the BSPA want to make use of the modern technology that is readily available. 

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1 hour ago, TheReturn said:

Some good points on the thread. Speedway is suffering, and the BSPA perhaps needs to review how they operate, that said people have been saying these exact same things for decades and yet here we still are.

I actually think the sport could still thrive, but perhaps would need to change.  In some respect the modern age of instant media and quick one line social media means is perfect for speedway and showcasing the best of our 60 second races. 

The problem of course is you need a collaborative approach from everyone, and employing social media experts and professional web designers to create attractive short clips and social media posts... not just employing speedway mates to design websites that are about 10 years out of date and media experts with no charisma (NP).

Of course, then turning social media views into attendance and retaining requires more collaboration between clubs, including discounts to get people in the door, providing tracks that enable real racing (rather than 4 riders riding around) and making stadiums appealing to want to attend.   I also think making a bigger deal about supporting your local club/team could help, but is pointless when that teams riders ride for other clubs in the UK on different nights.  

Speedway is not dead yet, but I don't see any sign that the BSPA want to make use of the modern technology that is readily available. 

Perhaps we need a moratorium of team speedway for at least one season. That does not mean no speedway action, as the tracks could still be used for individual events. So, what would that do? 1. If all tracks are losing money it will give the promoters a reprieve. 2. It will allow speedway to test whether running speedway as a series of individual meetings, is the way forward. 3. It will give speedway time to rethink how it should be operating in the future, i.e. the best model for the sport. 4. As it would be a drastic action, it would mean the promoters, riders, sponsors and hopefully fans have the opportunity to work together for the sport's future.      

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1 hour ago, TheReturn said:

Some good points on the thread. Speedway is suffering, and the BSPA perhaps needs to review how they operate, that said people have been saying these exact same things for decades and yet here we still are.

I actually think the sport could still thrive, but perhaps would need to change.  In some respect the modern age of instant media and quick one line social media means is perfect for speedway and showcasing the best of our 60 second races. 

The problem of course is you need a collaborative approach from everyone, and employing social media experts and professional web designers to create attractive short clips and social media posts... not just employing speedway mates to design websites that are about 10 years out of date and media experts with no charisma (NP).

Of course, then turning social media views into attendance and retaining requires more collaboration between clubs, including discounts to get people in the door, providing tracks that enable real racing (rather than 4 riders riding around) and making stadiums appealing to want to attend.   I also think making a bigger deal about supporting your local club/team could help, but is pointless when that teams riders ride for other clubs in the UK on different nights.  

Speedway is not dead yet, but I don't see any sign that the BSPA want to make use of the modern technology that is readily available. 

decades ago it was different promoters who weren't listening , but at least back then you could have said all they are interested in is money , because there was money to be had , can't say that now  so there attitude must be it's my money and I'm not being told what to do with it

 

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26 minutes ago, Ray Stadia said:

Perhaps we need a moratorium of team speedway for at least one season. That does not mean no speedway action, as the tracks could still be used for individual events. So, what would that do? 1. If all tracks are losing money it will give the promoters a reprieve. 2. It will allow speedway to test whether running speedway as a series of individual meetings, is the way forward. 3. It will give speedway time to rethink how it should be operating in the future, i.e. the best model for the sport. 4. As it would be a drastic action, it would mean the promoters, riders, sponsors and hopefully fans have the opportunity to work together for the sport's future.      

Good call...

I've said before, Speedway must pay out Millions to riders yet gets zero publicity to that effect.....

The average Premiership club must pay a minimum £20k to riders for both meetings they have to pay out from their home match..

Thats on crowds of circa 1200-1500...

Maybe advertise that £20k as prize money for an individual event with proper advertising and more than 1500 will attend?

Throw in any current team sponsorship into the prize money to increase the prize fund..

Give all 16 riders an average of £1250 each and maybe they could be charged £250 to enter with the four finalists getting the £4K collected on a decreasing scale from the winner to fourth..

If you can generate a 3k crowd then double the prize fund which can only grow further interest..

Bottom line is. It cannot deliver a credible team sport currently so why bother keep flogging that dying horse?

Maybe different promoters could also use the same track? Newcomers to Speedway doing one off meetings with fresh ideas? 

Less meetings maybe, but well marketed and credible, would be much more beneficial than what we have at present..

The racing can be great to watch, as good as in any era, so sell that...

Edited by mikebv
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17 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Good call...

I've said before, Speedway must pay out Millions to riders yet gets zero publicity to that effect.....

The average Premiership club must pay a minimum £20k to riders for both meetings they have to pay out from their home match..

Thats on crowds of circa 1200-1500...

Maybe advertise that £20k as prize money for an individual event with proper advertising and more than 1500 will attend?

Throw in any current team sponsorship into the prize money to increase the prize fund..

Give all 16 riders an average of £1250 each and maybe they could be charged £250 to enter with the four finalists getting the £4K collected on a decreasing scale from the winner to fourth..

If you can generate a 3k crowd then double the prize fund which can only grow further interest..

Bottom line is. It cannot deliver a credible team sport currently so why bother keep flogging that dying horse?

Maybe different promoters could also use the same track? Newcomers to Speedway doing one off meetings with fresh ideas? 

Less meetings maybe, but well marketed and credible, would be much more beneficial than what we have at present..

The racing can be great to watch, as good as in any era, so sell that...

I have always thought  it's all about the money , golf Boring , darts boring , snooker boring . all attract large interest ,  now its not because these things are exciting is it , it's because of the prize money .

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3 hours ago, adonis said:

all very well suggestion an independent  comissioner  ,but who is going to pay them ,? extra quid on the admission ?

All tracks pay their seven riders a fiver less each race..?

(£300 a meeting).

That would put a few grand a week in to get someone 'decent' across the Leagues..

BV used to pay (if 'informed' rumours were true) circa £3k a night for Matej Zagar...

£6k a week if home and away...

Since he left I haven't seen a mass exodus of fans so he didnt bring in anybody extra..

Yet giving £6k a week to a good marketing company would have I reckon..

Speedway spends millions each season on riders who deliver very few extra bums on seats, using an operating model ran by people with a vested interest, which actually dissuades people from attending...

It needs to invest its millions far more wisely to get a better return..

 

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3 minutes ago, adonis said:

I have always thought  it's all about the money , golf Boring , darts boring , snooker boring . all attract large interest ,  now its not because these things are exciting is it , it's because of the prize money .

Hype! Hype! Hype!

You cannot sell the Sport to people who have never seen it nor are even aware of it...

However. Advertising ten meetings locally, with a £200k prize fund, would trigger some interest from those who are blissfully unaware of Speedway I would suggest..

Its got to be 'in your face' these days to get your message out...

And Speedway spends literally millions to remain 'small time' and unheard of...

It needs to get its message out to the wider sporting public so they know exactly just how much is on offer...

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3 hours ago, TheReturn said:

Some good points on the thread. Speedway is suffering, and the BSPA perhaps needs to review how they operate, that said people have been saying these exact same things for decades and yet here we still are.

I actually think the sport could still thrive, but perhaps would need to change.  In some respect the modern age of instant media and quick one line social media means is perfect for speedway and showcasing the best of our 60 second races. 

The problem of course is you need a collaborative approach from everyone, and employing social media experts and professional web designers to create attractive short clips and social media posts... not just employing speedway mates to design websites that are about 10 years out of date and media experts with no charisma (NP).

Of course, then turning social media views into attendance and retaining requires more collaboration between clubs, including discounts to get people in the door, providing tracks that enable real racing (rather than 4 riders riding around) and making stadiums appealing to want to attend.   I also think making a bigger deal about supporting your local club/team could help, but is pointless when that teams riders ride for other clubs in the UK on different nights.  

Speedway is not dead yet, but I don't see any sign that the BSPA want to make use of the modern technology that is readily available. 

THERE has been a huge uplift in the use of social media by many of the tracks (especially Twitter) in the UK and to a lesser extent even the BSPA. But, as we at SS have discovered, it is probable that the vast majority of fans do not which suggest that it might not be quite so effective as one might hope.

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1 hour ago, mikebv said:

Hype! Hype! Hype!

You cannot sell the Sport to people who have never seen it nor are even aware of it...

However. Advertising ten meetings locally, with a £200k prize fund, would trigger some interest from those who are blissfully unaware of Speedway I would suggest..

Its got to be 'in your face' these days to get your message out...

And Speedway spends literally millions to remain 'small time' and unheard of...

It needs to get its message out to the wider sporting public so they know exactly just how much is on offer...

NOT sure "speedway spends millions" is likely in this day and age

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3 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

NOT sure "speedway spends millions" is likely in this day and age

Paying out £20 grand for 14 riders per meeting in Premiership, cups and play offs, (over 90 or so meetings in total), would be £1.8M alone without the Championship costs..

Or have the days of £10k per team per night now gone?

 

 

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We need to embrace social media and speedway could be groundbreaking going forward.  

Have a app for your mobile which you can use to fill your programme in.  Still have all the editorial features and advertising. Then every race day you would be sent a reminder of the evenings fixture with all the team news. Regular updates for weather reports and even photos of the track so you can see if it is really dry !!

i would have a camera person in the pits filming all through the meeting which can be streamed onto your app. Action from the pits and interviews could be watched while waiting for the next heat. 

You could have questions posed like guess the score of the next heat or who would you put in as a tactical ? 

Youngsters are not going to come in it’s present form as there are too many delays between races. 

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10 hours ago, Racin Jason 72 said:

We need to embrace social media and speedway could be groundbreaking going forward.  

Have a app for your mobile which you can use to fill your programme in.  Still have all the editorial features and advertising. Then every race day you would be sent a reminder of the evenings fixture with all the team news. Regular updates for weather reports and even photos of the track so you can see if it is really dry !!

i would have a camera person in the pits filming all through the meeting which can be streamed onto your app. Action from the pits and interviews could be watched while waiting for the next heat. 

You could have questions posed like guess the score of the next heat or who would you put in as a tactical ? 

Youngsters are not going to come in it’s present form as there are too many delays between races. 

SOME good thoughts there. In my opinion one of the things that speedway needs to do to both attract and keep new fans especially is providing 'something to do' during the two hours when there isn't any actual racing. And proposals like those suggested above don't have to cost a fortune.

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27 minutes ago, PHILIPRISING said:

SOME good thoughts there. In my opinion one of the things that speedway needs to do to both attract and keep new fans especially is providing 'something to do' during the two hours when there isn't any actual racing. And proposals like those suggested above don't have to cost a fortune.

what has been holding speedway back  about modernising , is good old fashioned greed in the form of gospeed , set up a free app such as has been mentioned ,and it wont take 5 seconds before gospeed appear with their threats of legal action ,   so to try and improve the raceday experience , you have to pay off people who are greedy and antiquated in their thoughts

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1 hour ago, PHILIPRISING said:

SOME good thoughts there. In my opinion one of the things that speedway needs to do to both attract and keep new fans especially is providing 'something to do' during the two hours when there isn't any actual racing. And proposals like those suggested above don't have to cost a fortune.

Totally agree with you. 15 minutes of action is not great value for money especially when you are now paying circa £20 plus plus a meeting.

Will promoters listen...NO....I know speedway has many problems to solve...and the BSPA 'head in the sand' approach has made things much worse.

I have supported speedway since the 1970's and seen many ups and downs but I have never known the sport to be in such a terminal mess....sad to say but the calibre and acumen of todays promoters is at an all time low and the current BSPA management i.e. Chapman, Godfrey & Co are frankly clueless.....they have been incapable of getting a grip on the real issues and consequently speedway is effectively bust and the BSPA are at fault and only have themselves to blame.

Sadly 2019 will see more clubs going under more riders out of a job...more supporters loosing their clubs...I appreciate this may be seen by some as a doom and gloom scenario but look at the conclusive evidence...the BSPA are driving our sport over a cliff blindfolded...this is a realistic view of todays speedway.

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13 minutes ago, Speedtiger said:

Totally agree with you. 15 minutes of action is not great value for money especially when you are now paying circa £20 plus plus a meeting.

Will promoters listen...NO....I know speedway has many problems to solve...and the BSPA 'head in the sand' approach has made things much worse.

I have supported speedway since the 1970's and seen many ups and downs but I have never known the sport to be in such a terminal mess....sad to say but the calibre and acumen of todays promoters is at an all time low and the current BSPA management i.e. Chapman, Godfrey & Co are frankly clueless.....they have been incapable of getting a grip on the real issues and consequently speedway is effectively bust and the BSPA are at fault and only have themselves to blame.

Sadly 2019 will see more clubs going under more riders out of a job...more supporters loosing their clubs...I appreciate this may be seen by some as a doom and gloom scenario but look at the conclusive evidence...the BSPA are driving our sport over a cliff blindfolded...this is a realistic view of todays speedway.

Surely this has always been the same through recent history, even when speedway was flourishing. 15 minutes of action ,nobody seems put off  going to Cardiff for 23 minutes of action. People go to watch sport for the core action not the bells and whistles in between . How many fans watch the half time entertainment at Premier League football, during the Masters snooker final interval fans could stare at an empty table, it doesn't put people off going ,they go for the main event. The first port of call must be to attract supporters on the back of the core product.

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