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ch958

Guardian article today

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2 hours ago, ch958 said:

get the Guardian online - very interesting article about (the decline of) speedway

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/23/who-haul-speedway-out-of-1970s-back-into-affections-uk-viewing-public

Interesting and thought provoking article.

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Good article and hard to argue with on so many points. For me perfectly summed up by the following.

Corcoran describes the camaraderie in the sport as the glue that holds it together but is damning on the reasons for speedway’s decline. “The bikes’ technology has changed but the presentation has not,” he says. “There has been a distinct lack of innovation and investment and it has been a race to the bottom rather than the top. The sport screams out for a Bernie Ecclestone or Barry Hearn character to grab it and run with it.

“There is nobody centrally driving the sport. If you were a potential sponsor from a big brand you wouldn’t have been approached by anybody. Same goes for TV. They have had centrally negotiated TV contracts but they have been pitiful because the guys you are dealing with are, with respect, scrap metal merchants and used-car salesmen.”

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There is a lot of downside in this article but little is happening to go against it. 

Look at what Barry Hearn has done for darts , they get better crowds than Speedway does 

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42 minutes ago, Icicle said:

we seem to have a 2nd thread on this under "way ahead"

well its not really the way ahead, more wtf happened?

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A hell of a good read , alot of remarks about the "smell" which was castrol oil but when was that last used? Remember in the 70s going to derwent park on sat morning picking up cans of "speedwell "cans to put on our push bikes and dream of being lou sansom !

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11 minutes ago, geoff100 said:

A hell of a good read , alot of remarks about the "smell" which was castrol oil but when was that last used? Remember in the 70s going to derwent park on sat morning picking up cans of "speedwell "cans to put on our push bikes and dream of being lou sansom !

Remember the late Rob Woffenden placing Castrol 'R' in his petrol driven lawn mower so that he could enjoy the whiff when cutting the lawn!

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Do you know what's worrying? That this thread hasn't spread to pages and is a handful of posts. I don't know if there is another busier thread elsewhere, but there seems to be an apathy out there or a set of supporters who are head-in-sand people and can't - or won't - see the demise of speedway in 2019 compared to 15 years ago. We really are seeing a drastic decline. I don't know the answers but I am worried. But, typically, I can't call anyone - because I don't attend anymore either. 

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44 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

Do you know what's worrying? That this thread hasn't spread to pages and is a handful of posts. I don't know if there is another busier thread elsewhere, but there seems to be an apathy out there or a set of supporters who are head-in-sand people and can't - or won't - see the demise of speedway in 2019 compared to 15 years ago. We really are seeing a drastic decline. I don't know the answers but I am worried. But, typically, I can't call anyone - because I don't attend anymore either. 

How - and why - is it worrying? There is nothing written there that we didn't already know. It's been covered to death on the BSF.

I don't think the head-in-the-sand attitude comes from the supporters; we all know British speedway is in trouble. The apathy from supporters stems from the fact that realistically, there is bugger all that we supporters can do to stop the rot...

Steve

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24 minutes ago, chunky said:

How - and why - is it worrying? There is nothing written there that we didn't already know. It's been covered to death on the BSF.

I don't think the head-in-the-sand attitude comes from the supporters; we all know British speedway is in trouble. The apathy from supporters stems from the fact that realistically, there is bugger all that we supporters can do to stop the rot...

Steve

Spot on. 

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29 minutes ago, chunky said:

How - and why - is it worrying? There is nothing written there that we didn't already know. It's been covered to death on the BSF.

I don't think the head-in-the-sand attitude comes from the supporters; we all know British speedway is in trouble. The apathy from supporters stems from the fact that realistically, there is bugger all that we supporters can do to stop the rot...

Steve

Apart from attending live speedway in the UK :)

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1 hour ago, Trees said:

Apart from attending live speedway in the UK :)

Okay, perhaps some of you do have your head in the sand - or at least can't comprehend what I said. Maybe that was a little harsh of me, but...

How many actual speedway "supporters" are there left in Britain? I'm not talking about "ex-supporters". I'm not talking about new ones or potential ones? Even if every real, existing supporter in the UK attended live speedway, they alone would not be able to save British speedway.

Look at the BSF...

I am a real supporter with a life-long love of the sport, but I am one of several on here who physically CAN'T attend.

There are a number on here who CAN attend, but WON'T. I am reluctant to include those as real supporters (they support speedway as it was 20 or 30 years ago - not the modern game), but being the nice guy that I am, I will include those as real and existing supporters. How many of those are there? If every one of those clubbed together and bought a minibus (that's how few of them there really are), and went to speedway in the UK at EVERY AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITY, they wouldn't be able to save ONE track, let alone the sport as a whole.

Look at the TV viewing figures that were mentioned in the article? If every one of those were a weekly speedway-goer, they couldn't save the sport alone.

The sad fact is that there are not enough current speedway supporters in the UK to keep the sport afloat without a major reconstruction, major cash injection, and most importantly, a massive influx of NEW supporters.

Which is why I said that "we supporters" can do nothing to stop the rot. And that is the sad reality...

Steve

Edited by chunky
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6 hours ago, steve roberts said:

Remember the late Rob Woffenden placing Castrol 'R' in his petrol driven lawn mower so that he could enjoy the whiff when cutting the lawn!

I would put a cap full in my old Yamaha xs 360 back in 83 n ride around town :-)

 

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7 hours ago, chunky said:

Okay, perhaps some of you do have your head in the sand - or at least can't comprehend what I said. Maybe that was a little harsh of me, but...

How many actual speedway "supporters" are there left in Britain? I'm not talking about "ex-supporters". I'm not talking about new ones or potential ones? Even if every real, existing supporter in the UK attended live speedway, they alone would not be able to save British speedway.

Look at the BSF...

I am a real supporter with a life-long love of the sport, but I am one of several on here who physically CAN'T attend.

There are a number on here who CAN attend, but WON'T. I am reluctant to include those as real supporters (they support speedway as it was 20 or 30 years ago - not the modern game), but being the nice guy that I am, I will include those as real and existing supporters. How many of those are there? If every one of those clubbed together and bought a minibus (that's how few of them there really are), and went to speedway in the UK at EVERY AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITY, they wouldn't be able to save ONE track, let alone the sport as a whole.

Look at the TV viewing figures that were mentioned in the article? If every one of those were a weekly speedway-goer, they couldn't save the sport alone.

The sad fact is that there are not enough current speedway supporters in the UK to keep the sport afloat without a major reconstruction, major cash injection, and most importantly, a massive influx of NEW supporters.

Which is why I said that "we supporters" can do nothing to stop the rot. And that is the sad reality...

Steve

At the risk of repeating my personal scenario I was a regular at Cowley for over thirty years and the track was within walking distance of my various homes at the time. However since I moved to York (2004) that criteria seriously altered. The reality would now require driving to either Sheffield, Scunthorpe and/or Redcar which would result in having to fork out serious petrol money (plus wear & tear) to attend a meeting that consists of 15 (?) races with admission prices at £15 (?). The sums just don't add up as far as I'm concerned. I've given up talking about speedway to locals as York being a non-speedway town nobody has ever heard of it so even sharing expensives is out of the question.

I'm sure that now the depressing regularity of track closures around the country has also influenced whether 'fans' choose to travel distances to follow their once favoured sport?

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