Speedway Promotion or Lack of it.

[Chris116 756]

13 minutes ago, Halifaxtiger said:

Not totally true.

Isle of Wight do shows, carnivals, posters, banners, leafleting - nothing is too small. If you read the Isle of Wight v Mildenhall thread, one fan is going simply because of encouragement by the promoter.

It can be done, and it doesn't have to be ridiculously expensive. Hands on, personal contact is far more beneficial than an advertising billboard.

That one fan is currently on the ferry as I am spending the day on the Steam Railway before enjoying the racing this evening. The Wightlink ferry has TV's all around it and I have just seen a very good advert for the Speedway, although I hope we don't have a crash like the one shown! 

[Halifaxtiger 5,318]

4 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

That one fan is currently on the ferry as I am spending the day on the Steam Railway before enjoying the racing this evening. The Wightlink ferry has TV's all around it and I have just seen a very good advert for the Speedway, although I hope we don't have a crash like the one shown! 

Quick recommendation : buy the Island Liner ticket and do the electric railway as well.

A lot of the stock is older than that on the steam railway !!

[Chris116 756]

2 minutes ago, Halifaxtiger said:

Quick recommendation : buy the Island Liner ticket and do the electric railway as well.

A lot of the stock is older than that on the steam railway !!

I already have my electric railway ticket and as a volunteer guard on the Mid Hants Railway I get very cheap travel on the Steam Railway. 

[barrybishop 896]

1 hour ago, Chris116 said:

That one fan is currently on the ferry as I am spending the day on the Steam Railway before enjoying the racing this evening. The Wightlink ferry has TV's all around it and I have just seen a very good advert for the Speedway, although I hope we don't have a crash like the one shown! 

I have to say it was my decision to inlude the crash at the end of our marketing video on the ferry - not because I wanted one it in, but really to end the video with a shock to the viewer... high impact.... I think the video on the ferry has brought dividends this year and we have spend thousands in market ing this year on the ferry, shows, radio, newspaper, magazines, banners... we do as much as we can cut out cloth to, but I know there is further scope to improve our non social media marketing and as for the social media marketing this is of course dynamic so we have to keep changing with not only the "times" but also our fixtures.

Interesting to read this thread about today's speedway... the truth we have all that is described above on the island, relatively cheap motorsport, heart of the action, interaction with fans, riders and promoters, a fun family atmosphere, plenty of kids entertainment, static bikes displays (not each week), and more.... but as HT said, it takes a lot of time and belief in what your product actually is to be able to stand in front of the crowd and preach about speedway and our show, but once your volunteers believe in it how we believe in it... then you have many, many people singing the same song.... and hopefully new fans, new base to start from. That is a short history of how we started with a business case of just 50 fans on the Island.

[FAST GATER 852]

I think in some respects the sport suffers because of modern lifestyle  ,that is we want everything at our finger tips internet shopping being a good example of one of the reasons  the highstreet retail is dying on it's feet. I watched s/way live for about 8yrs solid untill the end of the 70's sometimes 3/4 times a week, then marriage children etc came along.My wife will watch s/way but is not an avid fan by any means  ,during this time away from the sport I started eventually watching the GP's once they started  and have continued to do so ever since .I eventually started to go to Stoke( as the Port Gunners ceased in the mid 80's) on an infrequent basics until they dropped to the NL league .

My point being am I typical of many modern s/way fans in that except for the British GP I watch literally no live speedway but watch via tv and the internet  ,because unlike some I really enjoy the commentary and the presentation is improving all the time  .When you watch a GP like the last one( the recent SON also) you also realise that the gulf  between the British league and GP's is massive and growing all the time sadly .

[AJK86 180]

I think we have to start with getting the product right, bring it back fully to a semi professional sport to start with and create a league system which will benefit all clubs not just the few.

Encourage signed riders to get out in the towns and cities through winter and more importantly just before season starts as the more interest they drum up the more potential fans come through gates and all of a sudden rider pay will start to creep up again etc

But the product has to be right, the tracks have to be prepared well and then we have a chance of keeping hold of the new fans.

 

[iainb 4,991]

23 hours ago, greyhoundp said:

Yesterday i had to make a delivery to Hinckley Point (Power Station) all visitors to the site are required to have an escort, The person escorting me was a young guy who would be about 25 years old, and lives in Bridgewater, last week he went to watch his footy team over at Cardiff, he said there isnt a lot happening in Bridgewater and its 40+ miles up to Bristol, naturally i asked him how often he goes to the Oaktree arena, he looked at me gone out, wheres that ? i said just up the road on the A38, why whats there ? Speedway, Speedway whats that ?.

    This is the problem with our Sport Promoters simply do NOT do enough to get the Sport out there..

If he didn't know about the OTA  just up the road there's no way he's going to have seen Leicester's latest promotional angle... which is "Please come and support us"

[mikebv 10,261]

A big trick missed for me is how the "prize money" is sold to the general public..

Obviously not being privy to exact figures but reading between the lines (and what Matt Ford say Poole lost overall recently v Ipswich), I would think circa £20k is paid out per meeting to 14 riders in the top league..

A huge amount I would suggest given the very tiny standing of the sport and one which would stop a good many non fans in their tracks if they knew, and might maybe spur them on into taking a closer interest..?

Maybe there should be (if the £20k per night for two teams is approx correct) a £20k purse each meeting split £12k to winners and £8k to losers?

Most meetings are won by the home team, so home and away should still see a team pick up the average £10k most weeks..

Would also deliver performance pay too, and maybe inspire more efforts away from home to get the higher purse? Which can only be good for the overall entertainment package.

It would also deliver a presentation each meeting with an interview with the Captains to discuss the match, one team "delighted" with the money won, one team, "disappointed" etc..

You could even do a rider of the night award where the main sponsor and, if seperate, the meeting sponsor, combine to put up a £'s award.

eg if a company puts £10k in per season then over 20 matches that's £500 a match, therefore put that up each week and give them prime time advertising every week, and if you have a meeting sponsored separate at say £500, then add that to it and make £1000 that the ' rider of the night' or 'most entertaining rider' gets. (Or maybe £500 each if you want to run both).

You could even get the fans to text in to vote for the awards.

The sport pays out literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds every season, yet never uses it to make its product sound "big time"...

It needs to start shouting..

 

[NeilWatson 1,988]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

A big trick missed for me is how the "prize money" is sold to the general public..

Obviously not being privy to exact figures but reading between the lines (and what Matt Ford say Poole lost overall recently v Ipswich), I would think circa £20k is paid out per meeting to 14 riders in the top league..

A huge amount I would suggest given the very tiny standing of the sport and one which would stop a good many non fans in their tracks if they knew, and might maybe spur them on into taking a closer interest..?

Maybe there should be (if the £20k per night for two teams is approx correct) a £20k purse each meeting split £12k to winners and £8k to losers?

Most meetings are won by the home team, so home and away should still see a team pick up the average £10k most weeks..

Would also deliver performance pay too, and maybe inspire more efforts away from home to get the higher purse? Which can only be good for the overall entertainment package.

It would also deliver a presentation each meeting with an interview with the Captains to discuss the match, one team "delighted" with the money won, one team, "disappointed" etc..

You could even do a rider of the night award where the main sponsor and, if seperate, the meeting sponsor, combine to put up a £'s award.

eg if a company puts £10k in per season then over 20 matches that's £500 a match, therefore put that up each week and give them prime time advertising every week, and if you have a meeting sponsored separate at say £500, then add that to it and make £1000 that the ' rider of the night' or 'most entertaining rider' gets. (Or maybe £500 each if you want to run both).

You could even get the fans to text in to vote for the awards.

The sport pays out literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds every season, yet never uses it to make its product sound "big time"...

It needs to start shouting..

 

Each Club pays its own riders home and away of course, so a home meeting needs to cover rider pay for one home and one away meeting. A good rule of thumb is 100 points home and away, in my opinion £20k would be right at the top of the range; for a Premiership Club paying more than average and scoring well home and away (hence successful, which should enhance the crowd).  Around £12k would be nearer the mark.

Edited August 8, 2019 by NeilWatson

[topaz325 1,855]

On 8/7/2019 at 4:29 PM, Fortythirtyeight said:

Chicken and egg time.

If a club has no money , and just about every club is losing money every week, then how do you spend money you haven't got on trying to get enough new people to come through the turnstiles to even cover the cost of your advertising?

Glasgow openly admit to spending £100,000 on advertising last year and it made no difference whatsoever to the average size of their crowd.

Its alright saying speculate to accumulate but it didn't work in Glasgow .

 

Although the advertising Glasgow are prepared to do is great , advertising and generally letting the public know about speedway can be done relatively cheaply ie Facebook, social media , even doing small promotional videos via a mobile phone can be achieved.

This small amount of advertising is not the total answer which has already been stated by other posters but a national push to make people aware of the sport.

[Fortythirtyeight 838]

1 hour ago, NeilWatson said:

Each Club pays its own riders home and away of course, so a home meeting needs to cover rider pay for one home and one away meeting. A good rule of thumb is 100 points home and away, in my opinion £20k would be right at the top of the range; for a Club paying more than average and scoring well home and away (hence successful, which should enhance the crowd).  Around £12k would be nearer the mark.

Try going lower.

Budget for the average Championship team wage bill for 2 matches ( 1 home, one away ) would be around 7-8 thousand, 

less if you get beaten !

[NeilWatson 1,988]

1 hour ago, NeilWatson said:

Each Club pays its own riders home and away of course, so a home meeting needs to cover rider pay for one home and one away meeting. A good rule of thumb is 100 points home and away, in my opinion £20k would be right at the top of the range; for a Club paying more than average and scoring well home and away (hence successful, which should enhance the crowd).  Around £12k would be nearer the mark.

 

6 minutes ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Try going lower.

Budget for the average Championship team wage bill for 2 matches ( 1 home, one away ) would be around 7-8 thousand, 

less if you get beaten !

I should have specified that my figures were for the Premiership, your figures for the Championship are about right.

[mikebv 10,261]

1 hour ago, NeilWatson said:

Each Club pays its own riders home and away of course, so a home meeting needs to cover rider pay for one home and one away meeting. A good rule of thumb is 100 points home and away, in my opinion £20k would be right at the top of the range; for a Club paying more than average and scoring well home and away (hence successful, which should enhance the crowd).  Around £12k would be nearer the mark.

Still a fair few quid to have as prize money Neil..

Maybe £7k to the winners and £5k to the losers..?

With 90 matches a season in the top league, Inc play offs then you could advertise the league as having over a Milllion pound of prize money to be won....

Quite a selling point I would suggest..

[Fortythirtyeight 838]

3 hours ago, mikebv said:

A big trick missed for me is how the "prize money" is sold to the general public..

Obviously not being privy to exact figures but reading between the lines (and what Matt Ford say Poole lost overall recently v Ipswich), I would think circa £20k is paid out per meeting to 14 riders in the top league..

A huge amount I would suggest given the very tiny standing of the sport and one which would stop a good many non fans in their tracks if they knew, and might maybe spur them on into taking a closer interest..?

Maybe there should be (if the £20k per night for two teams is approx correct) a £20k purse each meeting split £12k to winners and £8k to losers?

Most meetings are won by the home team, so home and away should still see a team pick up the average £10k most weeks..

Would also deliver performance pay too, and maybe inspire more efforts away from home to get the higher purse? Which can only be good for the overall entertainment package.

It would also deliver a presentation each meeting with an interview with the Captains to discuss the match, one team "delighted" with the money won, one team, "disappointed" etc..

You could even do a rider of the night award where the main sponsor and, if seperate, the meeting sponsor, combine to put up a £'s award.

eg if a company puts £10k in per season then over 20 matches that's £500 a match, therefore put that up each week and give them prime time advertising every week, and if you have a meeting sponsored separate at say £500, then add that to it and make £1000 that the ' rider of the night' or 'most entertaining rider' gets. (Or maybe £500 each if you want to run both).

You could even get the fans to text in to vote for the awards.

The sport pays out literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds every season, yet never uses it to make its product sound "big time"...

It needs to start shouting..

 

Most if not all sponsorship money goes into keeping the club running, not into riders wages, although no doubt it may subsidise some riders ar some clubs depending how big the ' deal ' is. Average main sponsor would pay around £10-12000 for a season ( some pay less if the club is desperate)

Meeting sponsorship is around £500 at most championship tracks. Take away the actual cost of hosting the sponsors, ( drinks, Buffett, programmes etc) that doesn't leave a lot for the club or for a prize.

The sport doesn't " sound big " because it isn't.

[mikebv 10,261]

22 minutes ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Most if not all sponsorship money goes into keeping the club running, not into riders wages, although no doubt it may subsidise some riders ar some clubs depending how big the ' deal ' is. Average main sponsor would pay around £10-12000 for a season ( some pay less if the club is desperate)

Meeting sponsorship is around £500 at most championship tracks. Take away the actual cost of hosting the sponsors, ( drinks, Buffett, programmes etc) that doesn't leave a lot for the club or for a prize.

The sport doesn't " sound big " because it isn't.

But the money it pays out actually is..

Using Neil's estimates, and he is a man who will know, the Premiership alone will pay out over a Million quid!!

Change "points money" to "prize money" and maybe Speedway will look a little bit more "big time"..

So much of marketing is smoke and mirrors and staying just the right side of the truth..

Looking at the figs for the Championship that too will pay hundreds of thousands out...

So shout out about how much you can win in British Speedway..

The numbers paid out must prick interest from outside the sport if pushed hard enough and often enough and it would also give every meeting something tangible to be raced for..

No point paying out so much and letting it fly under the radar of any publicity..

Use it to promote the Sport...

Edited August 8, 2019 by mikebv