iris123 20,972 Posted August 19, 2020 1 hour ago, gustix said: I accept fact and real statistics. I know all about them. Have you ever seen an early 1960s publication 'Speedway Digest'? "Your German-based friend" has DEDICATED himself for the past 10 years in following and belittling me. I have had messages from people who have left the BSF because of his attitude and comments towards them. Indeed elsewhere on the BSF a few days ago Rob McCaffery a much-respected speedway and sports commentator remarked on his attitude towards him and others. Did you see that thread? More importantly , did you see the post from Rob I was replying to using unpleasant terms in regards people who have a different opinion to him. He is a serial offender calling people names on the forum Now, I have tried to supply some factual evidence, have you got any to add or are you just going to waffle on and be rude ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve roberts 9,244 Posted August 19, 2020 19 minutes ago, cityrebel said: You've led a very sheltered life, Steve! I s'pose it's the company that I keep? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ben91 1,743 Posted August 19, 2020 11 hours ago, BWitcher said: When speedway was on Sky Sports, in particular on Sky Sports One, as it used to be known, its viewing figures held up with almost all sports bar football. On the other channels, although viewing figures were lower, it was generally in the top 10 viewed programmes that week, numerous weeks the most watched. Interesting. Assuming this was nearer the beginning of Speedway being on Sky Sports? Would like to see your source of these figures, and the figures the sport has been doing on BT in relation to other sports such as boxing which has had a resurgence in recent years to see just how much things have changed. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iris123 20,972 Posted August 19, 2020 1 hour ago, gustix said: See you next Tuesday. See that is what you are reduced to Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BWitcher 12,453 Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Ben91 said: Interesting. Assuming this was nearer the beginning of Speedway being on Sky Sports? Would like to see your source of these figures, and the figures the sport has been doing on BT in relation to other sports such as boxing which has had a resurgence in recent years to see just how much things have changed. It was well documented on this forum season after season. The source was BARB. Boxing should be blowing speedway away with viewing figures (as indeed most sports should) given the level of promotion and publicity it gets. That said, the most recent boxing event on BT Sports attracted a viewing figure of ... 7300, with a 'peak' of 22,800. Significantly less than the WORST viewed speedway meeting ever on either Sky or BT. Edited August 19, 2020 by BWitcher Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ben91 1,743 Posted August 19, 2020 25 minutes ago, BWitcher said: It was well documented on this forum season after season. The source was BARB. Boxing should be blowing speedway away with viewing figures (as indeed most sports should) given the level of promotion and publicity it gets. That said, the most recent boxing event on BT Sports attracted a viewing figure of ... 7300, with a 'peak' of 22,800. Significantly less than the WORST viewed speedway meeting ever on either Sky or BT. I’m not surprised with the recent Boxing figures for BT. The cards have been almost full of home fighter vs “journeyman” bouts. Anyone with half a clue about boxing would have been able to predict those results and know the events haven’t really been worth watching. Matchroom on Sky on the other hand have at least thrown in a few 50/50 bouts. But that is a digression from the topic at hand of course. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BWitcher 12,453 Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Ben91 said: I’m not surprised with the recent Boxing figures for BT. The cards have been almost full of home fighter vs “journeyman” bouts. Anyone with half a clue about boxing would have been able to predict those results and know the events haven’t really been worth watching. Matchroom on Sky on the other hand have at least thrown in a few 50/50 bouts. But that is a digression from the topic at hand of course. Anyhow, I'm not disagreeing with speedways standing as a sport in the country... just wanted to mention that when it comes to viewing figures, it's 'boxed' weigh above it's weight and matched, if not beaten, some very heavy hitters over the years. Edited August 19, 2020 by BWitcher Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,270 Posted August 19, 2020 1 hour ago, BWitcher said: Anyhow, I'm not disagreeing with speedways standing as a sport in the country... just wanted to mention that when it comes to viewing figures, it's 'boxed' weigh above it's weight and matched, if not beaten, some very heavy hitters over the years. Sky were always "very pleased" with the viewing figures they got, particularly in the first ten years or so.. Often they would easily hit well over 100,000 for the GP's and high 80's and 90,000's (and more sometimes) for domestic racing.. BT delivered circa 50 to 60000+ last time I looked at their figs on BARB which, for them, was also more than a reasonable return, and often would beat their round the world sports and non Premier League football.. I think with Sky it was just the cost of the OB to show Speedway, especially at a time when they had paid out zillions for football, that made them decide to pay up the contract and move on to other sports like Netball which I presume is cheaper to produce and definitely has no weather threats to it taking place.. Speedway's following on the TV though certainly punches well above its weight in relation to its 'live' following I would suggest... Which does make it all the more frustrating to he honest when you see hardly any effort to sell itself when the TV cameras come to town. There is obviously an interested and curious market out there for the sport, sat in their armchairs, so maybe doing more to hide the huge swathes of empty stadia that take 'centre stage' most weeks at the live meeting, and fill the space with fans or advertising, would be worth considering..? 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ben91 1,743 Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) It has always seemed widely accepted that when a club is on TV they will get a lower crowd because fans would rather sit at home because they don’t have to shell out their entrance fee. To me that screams out the lack of value for money there is in attending Speedway. I support Stevenage FC. If we are ever on TV (it has happened a few times) I don’t decide to sit at home and watch, if anything I’m more interested in going to the match live. I’m reluctant to draw comparisons to Premier League football as it is a completely different beast but the majority of games are covered live or given extensive highlights yet it is rare to see many empty seats at these games. There is no substitute for attending a live sporting event, yet the numbers watching Speedway on TV don’t seem to correlate to the numbers who appear to walk through the gates to watch meetings in the flesh. I can’t see that being anything other than a promoting and cost to the punter issue. WWE use a technique with their TV shows when they have empty seats in which they move as many people as possible to the seating that their hard (main) camera faces. This gives the impression of a packed arena. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for Speedway tracks to do something similar when the TV cameras are in town. A track like Sheffield, or Wolves, where fans can’t stand on the back straight would surely be better served having the cameras set up facing the main stand where the crowds are packed in as opposed to in the main stand facing a desolate, empty area. Edited August 19, 2020 by Ben91 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iris123 20,972 Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) Anyway, so far it seems like the top 10 or so are Football Horse racing Rugby Union Cricket Rugby League Greyhounds !! Motorsports...... Tennis Golf Ice Hockey Equestrian (?) This from 2015 about the main sporting events that year The top-10 for 2016 are as follows: Wimbledon — 494,000 Formula 1 (Silverstone) — 327,000 Royal Ascot — 295,000 Cheltenham Festival — 261,000 ATP World Tour Finals — 252,000 The Open [golf] — 173,000 Badminton Horse Trials — 160,000 MotoGP (Silverstone) — 156,000 Burghley Horse Trials — 155,000 Epsom Derby Festival — 154,000 Think both Wimbledon and Silverstone have upped that number in the past couple of years Edited August 19, 2020 by iris123 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,270 Posted August 19, 2020 22 minutes ago, Ben91 said: It has always seemed widely accepted that when a club is on TV they will get a lower crowd because fans would rather sit at home because they don’t have to shell out their entrance fee. To me that screams out the lack of value for money there is in attending Speedway. I support Stevenage FC. If we are ever on TV (it has happened a few times) I don’t decide to sit at home and watch, if anything I’m more interested in going to the match live. I’m reluctant to draw comparisons to Premier League football as it is a completely different beast but the majority of games are covered live or given extensive highlights yet it is rare to see many empty seats at these games. There is no substitute for attending a live sporting event, yet the numbers watching Speedway on TV don’t seem to correlate to the numbers who appear to walk through the gates to watch meetings in the flesh. I can’t see that being anything other than a promoting and cost to the punter issue. WWE use a technique with their TV shows when they have empty seats in which they move as many people as possible to the seating that their hard (main) camera faces. This gives the impression of a packed arena. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for Speedway tracks to do something similar when the TV cameras are in town. A track like Sheffield, or Wolves, where fans can’t stand on the back straight would surely be better served having the cameras set up facing the main stand where the crowds are packed in as opposed to in the main stand facing a desolate, empty area. I attended the SWC at the NSS a few years ago and originally had standing tickets for the first bend, however, upon arrival at the turnstiles we were offered seats on the fourth turn.. Me and many, many others took up the offer... The reason? Well it wasn't the organisers being charitable, it was simply that this section would be more in view than any other part of the stadium, as they showed every start from that camera (positioned directly above our original standing place focusing down the home straight).. They understood how important having a "full stadium" looks to the casual viewer, and the event's sponsors, if you want to grow your product in the ensuing years.. Quite often when the Aces are at home the camera angle at the starting gate (hand held from the centre green just in front of the tapes), shows rows and rows of empty seats interspersed with the odd one or two fans.. The circa 1800 seats are usually around 40 to 50% full on a TV match so there is still approx 700+ fans sat there, yet if you looked at the TV "plenty of empty red seats" would be your over riding view of the place.. Putting these 700+ fans together (for one night only) in line with the camera angles would only improve the overall positive view of the sport from those watching at home.. And any seats left empty would all be together so perfect for being totally covered with large advertising banners for their sponsors, or large adverts for the next meeting at the place with contact details etc.. I am sure for the 'odd time' fans would understand getting moved 'a bit' for the good of their club's long term marketing plan.. It doesnt take much to make something look far more popular than it actually is.. It often just takes a little bit of positive creativity.. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iainb 4,999 Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) On 8/19/2020 at 5:01 PM, iris123 said: Anyway, so far it seems like the top 10 or so are Football Horse racing Rugby Union Cricket Rugby League Greyhounds !! Motorsports...... Tennis Golf Ice Hockey Equestrian (?) This from 2015 about the main sporting events that year The top-10 for 2016 are as follows: Wimbledon — 494,000 Formula 1 (Silverstone) — 327,000 Royal Ascot — 295,000 Cheltenham Festival — 261,000 ATP World Tour Finals — 252,000 The Open [golf] — 173,000 Badminton Horse Trials — 160,000 MotoGP (Silverstone) — 156,000 Burghley Horse Trials — 155,000 Epsom Derby Festival — 154,000 Think both Wimbledon and Silverstone have upped that number in the past couple of years All of those that you mention in your bottom list are one off events with cumulative figures though... If you add together crowd levels of 1,000 for each PL & CL match and 500 for NL, throw in a GP and a challenge, KOC and individuals etc. I come up with 500,000 placing us at No 1 Edited August 20, 2020 by iainb Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ancient mariner 540 Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) On 8/19/2020 at 7:27 AM, Grachan said: Do you know what that stands for? You have just been extremely rude. I got a ban for something far less obnoxious than that. To this day I still don't understand why I received the ban Edited August 20, 2020 by ancient mariner 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Terry 1,319 Posted August 20, 2020 On 8/19/2020 at 7:27 AM, Grachan said: Do you know what that stands for? You have just been extremely rude. Daft old duffer probably doesn't even know what it stands for. He saw another member post it and well, monkey see, monkey do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,090 Posted August 20, 2020 17 minutes ago, Terry said: Daft old duffer probably doesn't even know what it stands for. He saw another member post it and well, monkey see, monkey do. Careful! You don't want "daft old duffer" to get you banned... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
