Eastbourne 2020

[ruckerroo 792]

unless the rents been hiked up to the gills its hard to see how much bother theyve gotten in, the masked meetings were at least as busy as the unmasked ones imo.

Its the leisure pound option from july 19 thats opened everything up, the scunny match i attended was v quiet

[M.D 463]

1 minute ago, ruckerroo said:

unless the rents been hiked up to the gills its hard to see how much bother theyve gotten in, the masked meetings were at least as busy as the unmasked ones imo.

Its the leisure pound option from july 19 thats opened everything up, the scunny match i attended was v quiet

True, when speedway first opened up a lot of other places to go were still closed so speedway was one of the few options to go for a night out.

Now with other attractions open, people can go elsewhere.

No idea about rent or income streams from the food outlets or bars..

[old bob at herne bay 828]

28 minutes ago, ruckerroo said:

unless the rents been hiked up to the gills its hard to see how much bother theyve gotten in, the masked meetings were at least as busy as the unmasked ones imo.

Its the leisure pound option from july 19 thats opened everything up, the scunny match i attended was v quiet

That's one view, alternatively after the novelty of returning to watch speedway for a few "masked" meetings , and seeing little had changed, people have settled back down to not going to speedway as they had for the past 18 months previously.

Stadium is owned by C. Dugard Machine Tools Ltd as far as I know and rented to the speedway promotion, and to the stock car promotion.  Struck me as odd when the CL/NL double headers were cancelled due to  landlord complaints

Maybe Eric Dugard doesn't like speedway?

[M.D 463]

26 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

That's one view, alternatively after the novelty of returning to watch speedway for a few "masked" meetings , and seeing little had changed, people have settled back down to not going to speedway as they had for the past 18 months previously.

Stadium is owned by C. Dugard Machine Tools Ltd as far as I know and rented to the speedway promotion, and to the stock car promotion.  Struck me as odd when the CL/NL double headers were cancelled due to  landlord complaints

Maybe Eric Dugard doesn't like speedway?

Eric and Margret Dugard I think, Bobs Widow and not the machine tools company.

[M.D 463]

I first went to Arlington in 1976, seen a few laps around the place.

From a fan to involved with a rider and now a sponsor of 2 of the riders and a few past, this could be heartbreaking.

[mikebv 10,270]

1 hour ago, solrac said:

Preferred the days of NDL when run by Connor Dugard. Good fun, loads of youngsters and low running costs.

Quite a few tracks seemed to able to run comfortably in the old NDL...

[SuperSpeed 24]

1 hour ago, solrac said:

Attendances haven't been too bad usually 700-1000 depending on opponents. 

In a Q&A earlier in the season, Ian Jordan said that breakeven was around 875-900.  The Poole and Kent meetings had attendance of 1,000 and 900 respectively (when the capacity was limited to 1,000 by Covid restrictions).  The Edinburgh fixture attracted 800.  I havent seen a figure for Glasgow but it seemed about as busy as Edinburgh to me.  I missed Leicester at Arlington due to family committments so can't comment on that, but the Scunthorpe attendance was apparently only about 550-600.

[cityrebel 2,960]

9 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Quite a few tracks seemed to able to run comfortably in the old NDL...

The middle tier of British speedway seems too strong to me, especially with the likes of Andersen, Crump and Pedersen riding in it.

[cityrebel 2,960]

1 minute ago, SuperSpeed said:

In a Q&A earlier in the season, Ian Jordan said that breakeven was around 875-900.  The Poole and Kent meetings had attendance of 1,000 and 900 respectively (when the capacity was limited to 1,000 by Covid restrictions).  The Edinburgh fixture attracted 800.  I havent seen a figure for Glasgow but it seemed about as busy as Edinburgh to me.  I missed Leicester at Arlington due to family committments so can't comment on that, but the Scunthorpe attendance was apparently only about 550-600.

The crowd figures for the last 3 home meetings have dropped alarmingly. The novelty of live speedway seems to have worn off rapidly. 

[mikebv 10,270]

30 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

The middle tier of British speedway seems too strong to me, especially with the likes of Andersen, Crump and Pedersen riding in it.

90% of riders ride in both leagues...

Just so they can get enough rides to make it pay,.

The middle tier therefore is basically the top tier..

[Sings4Speedway 3,247]

56 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Quite a few tracks seemed to able to run comfortably in the old NDL...

And yet for some reason that was deemed a negative thing by the powers that be (or an alternative viable product to the higher leagues) and therefore dismantled. 

[old bob at herne bay 828]

First went to Arlington at the start of the "modern era" when Dave Lanning relaunched the Eagles into the then "2nd Division" (late 1960's ?)   Occasional trips then as we were West Ham Supporters.   Certainly never been a regular Eastbourne visitor - seen some good meetings there in the past with the likes of Jessup  G Kennett  M Dugard and the effervescent Dave Lanning running the show. Memories.

You only have to look at the fixture lists nowadays for speedway and wonder how anyone can make a succesful business out of an outdoor summer sport that has such a disjointed fixture list with hardly any meetings in the kids school holiday period (and peak tourist season on the south coast ) With both Saturday and Sunday options and 2 teams operating for EB , just dont see why there isn't a meeting every weekend at EB during the peak summer months.  Just 2 scheduled home  fixtures in August, and one of this was rained off (called of 4 days early !) The alarm bells rang for me when I heard that to be honest. 

 

Hope they can sort something out, and make their landmark 90th year in speedway. 

 

 

[SuperSpeed 24]

33 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

The crowd figures for the last 3 home meetings have dropped alarmingly. The novelty of live speedway seems to have worn off rapidly. 

24 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

The crowd figures for the last 3 home meetings have dropped alarmingly. The novelty of live speedway seems to have worn off rapidly. 

The club have to shoulder some of the blame for that, I'm afraid...

We've had two meetings start late because the tapes failed, "15 minute" intervals that have stretched to 40, incessant bouts of tractor racing (and a tractor demolition derby), a reserve who'd rather sit in Poland not racing than turn out for Eastbourne, a "full MSDL second half" with no opposition that consisted of Abilitt racing a couple of junior riders who couldn't broadside and lapped slower than I could run it, an NDL fixture with half a team, a double header that wasn't far off running into the following day...etc, etc...is it any wonder that only the die-hards come back week after week?

My sister has two small boys who love motorsports, and who I'm sure would love speedway too, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to recommend it to her when I can't tell her what they'll be seeing, or reassure her that she'll be able to put the kids to bed at a reasonable time.

For my part, myself and my wife carried our 2020 season tickets over to this year in good faith, rather than go for a refund.  Lord knows we could have used the money at various points over the last 18 months but we wanted to help the club, particularly considering how well run things were (on the whole) during 2019.  We bought our 90th anniversary tickets the day they went on sale, plus the extra merchandise that they were flogging. Sadly at this point in time it's increasingly seeming like a poor decision and, even if the remaining Championship fixtures are fulfilled, we'll be significantly out of pocket compared to paying for meetings on a week by week basis. 

If the rumours regarding the financial situation are true I dread to think what's happened to the money from the air fence fund...and with no air fence there's no Eastbourne next season regardless of the outcome this year

[szkocjasid 3,020]

3 hours ago, solrac said:

Preferred the days of NDL when run by Connor Dugard. Good fun, loads of youngsters and low running costs.

Can't run with the same standard of team now with such a low NDL points limit!

[screm 8,054]

7 hours ago, scoobydoo said:

If they owe the rumoured 50k to the stadium owners there rent must be fairly high not had that many home meetings , 

If that figure is true, how on earth has it been allowed to get to that. Seems crazy to me from both sides.