Is anyone losing interest

[HackneyHawk 64]

I can't resist...........I've said this a million times to anyone that will listen but here I go again

League Speedway needs to be promoted with professionalism and taking itself seriously as a sport to attract new committed partisan supporters of local clubs.

I DO NOT LIKE  Speedway being promoted as a sideshow, you get the picture "extreme sport - no brakes" type of thing.  That is not sustainable.  It should be a serious sport.  If it's a sideshow, people come along like they would to a 'monster truck' show then they've seen it once, the racing thrill soon wears off if they have nothing to support and they don't come back.

A cultural phenomena that has really taken hold over the past 20yrs is more and more people getting into supporting a football team, wearing the merchandise and 'belonging' to a club.  People will even wear team colours of sports teams from other countries.

Put on a decent presentation (which doesn't cost money) and promote the sport as though it means something as a sport and not just a spectacle.

And any 'promoter' who doesn't put some signposts up around the town or try to get the team into local newspapers/tv/radio should be shot!  The general quality of UK league speedway PR is horrible

Edited July 5, 2021 by HackneyHawk

[Ray Stadia 1,064]

17 minutes ago, HackneyHawk said:

I can't resist...........I've said this a million times to anyone that will listen but here I go again

League Speedway needs to be promoted with professionalism and taking itself seriously as a sport to attract new committed partisan supporters of local clubs.

I DO NOT LIKE  Speedway being promoted as a sideshow, you get the picture "extreme sport - no brakes" type of thing.  That is not sustainable.  It should be a serious sport.  If it's a sideshow, people come along like they would to a 'monster truck' show then they've seen it once, the racing thrill soon wears off if they have nothing to support and they don't come back.

A cultural phenomena that has really taken hold over the past 20yrs is more and more people getting into supporting a football team, wearing the merchandise and 'belonging' to a club.  People will even wear team colours of sports teams from other countries.

Put on a decent presentation (which doesn't cost money) and promote the sport as though it means something as a sport and not just a spectacle.

And any 'promoter' who doesn't put some signposts up around the town or try to get the team into local newspapers/tv/radio should be shot!  The general quality of UK league speedway PR is horrible

Doesn't cost money to who? The fans, the riders or the promoters? To put on a decent presentation and to promote the sport properly will definitely cost money, a lot of money which isn't in the sport, maybe never was, probably not for many many years. For speedway (or for 4 riders going round an oval shale track to survive), in my opinion, it needs to go back to grass roots and build from the bottom. The sport needs more tracks and more homegrown riders. The sport needs to be far cheaper for everyone, the riders the fans and the promoters/organisers. It needs to be an amateur sport, similar to grass track. More tracks will probably mean 'tracks in a field', but does that matter? If a rider wants to ride, they will ride for free or even pay to ride, as grass track riders do. The sport needs to get back to everyone loving the sport, i.e. the riders, organisers and the fans. At the moment, everyone is gathered around the patients bed watching the patient slowly die and everyone feeling depressed. However, there are a minority who feel all is well and are ignoring the fact, the emperor is wearing no clothes!  

[marko 956]

Something else which is seldom mentioned is with crowds going down so is the likely effect of lack of volunteers, and that is something speedway depends a lot on, back in the 80s there seemed to be more track staff than there are now, (using Arena Essex as an example)

[waytogo28 2,054]

2 hours ago, Ray Stadia said:

It needs to be an amateur sport, similar to grass track. More tracks will probably mean 'tracks in a field', but does that matter? If a rider wants to ride, they will ride for free or even pay to ride, as grass track riders do. The sport needs to get back to everyone loving the sport, i.e. the riders, organisers and the fans.

And that will be UK league speedway's destination / future before much longer. Looks unavoidable IMHO.

2 hours ago, Ray Stadia said:

At the moment, everyone is gathered around the patients bed watching the patient slowly die and everyone feeling depressed. However, there are a minority who feel all is well and are ignoring the fact, the emperor is wearing no clothes!  

Better than I could put it myself! Next season - 4 Premier League tracks and only 3 make the "playoffs"? Already the bulk of all teams are made up of double up riders. I believe tha final season of UK league speedway will consist of riders being chose from a pool, who make themselves available on the night and who roughly fit into some sort of loose averages limit. The real rider circus.

[davie10 58]

fed up with it long time ago same old rubbish getting served at inflated prices , i have still to was a match on telly all the way through without either turning over or falling asleep 

[iainb 4,962]

22 hours ago, HackneyHawk said:

I can't resist...........I've said this a million times to anyone that will listen but here I go again

League Speedway needs to be promoted with professionalism and taking itself seriously as a sport to attract new committed partisan supporters of local clubs.

I DO NOT LIKE  Speedway being promoted as a sideshow, you get the picture "extreme sport - no brakes" type of thing.  That is not sustainable.  It should be a serious sport.  If it's a sideshow, people come along like they would to a 'monster truck' show then they've seen it once, the racing thrill soon wears off if they have nothing to support and they don't come back.

A cultural phenomena that has really taken hold over the past 20yrs is more and more people getting into supporting a football team, wearing the merchandise and 'belonging' to a club.  People will even wear team colours of sports teams from other countries.

Put on a decent presentation (which doesn't cost money) and promote the sport as though it means something as a sport and not just a spectacle.

And any 'promoter' who doesn't put some signposts up around the town or try to get the team into local newspapers/tv/radio should be shot!  The general quality of UK league speedway PR is horrible

Also at the risk of repeating mys

21 hours ago, Ray Stadia said:

Doesn't cost money to who? The fans, the riders or the promoters? To put on a decent presentation and to promote the sport properly will definitely cost money, a lot of money which isn't in the sport, maybe never was, probably not for many many years.

Also at the risk of repeating myself from a couple of other threads... Leicester have done little to nothing to promote the fact that they are current league and cup winners, you really have to dig down on the website to find that out, there was not even a preview of the opening match in the defence of the cup for the home match... yet they'll put a press release out about being concerned about the lack of ticket sales.

Yes promotion can cost money but there's lots of things you can do that cost little to nothing and at Leicester this is just not being done. Many potential supporters are attracted by success but the fact we're reigning league and cup champs seems to be dirty words at Leicester. There's nothing around the stadium or in the presentation to signify that you're watching something special (even if you're not, new people aren't going to know this). There are adverts on some busses in the city, they've not had league and cup champs added to them

[Ray Stadia 1,064]

25 minutes ago, iainb said:

Also at the risk of repeating mys

Also at the risk of repeating myself from a couple of other threads... Leicester have done little to nothing to promote the fact that they are current league and cup winners, you really have to dig down on the website to find that out, there was not even a preview of the opening match in the defence of the cup for the home match... yet they'll put a press release out about being concerned about the lack of ticket sales.

Yes promotion can cost money but there's lots of things you can do that cost little to nothing and at Leicester this is just not being done. Many potential supporters are attracted by success but the fact we're reigning league and cup champs seems to be dirty words at Leicester. There's nothing around the stadium or in the presentation to signify that you're watching something special (even if you're not, new people aren't going to know this). There are adverts on some busses in the city, they've not had league and cup champs added to them

I think the thing is, speedway teams have this person who runs the show, who is called 'the promoter'. The title sounds like he is the man/woman who holds the purse strings, is cash rich, is an expert in marketing and media marketing and an expert organiser. The reality, is the promoter is a speedway enthusiast, probably has a business to run, so has limited time, makes no money from the sport, probably loses money, but hey, he/she is an enthusiast. Perhaps the name promoter should be scrapped. The name promoter is normally given to someone who is organising a one off event, such as a pop/rock concert, who would likely be cash rich, as he/she will be running a promotion company. Team manager is probably a more accurate title.   

[iainb 4,962]

2 minutes ago, Ray Stadia said:

I think the thing is, speedway teams have this person who runs the show, who is called 'the promoter'. The title sounds like he is the man/woman who holds the purse strings, is cash rich, is an expert in marketing and media marketing and an expert organiser. The reality, is the promoter is a speedway enthusiast, probably has a business to run, so has limited time, makes no money from the sport, probably loses money, but hey, he/she is an enthusiast. Perhaps the name promoter should be scrapped. The name promoter is normally given to someone who is organising a one off event, such as a pop/rock concert, who would likely be cash rich, as he/she will be running a promotion company. Team manager is probably a more accurate title.   

British Speedway "Promoters" Limited... I agree, they are franchise holders, but really some promotion really does cost little to nothing and some clubs just aren't doing this, they're doing the "if you build it, they will come" style of "promotion".

It's not difficult and there are some easy wins to be had, if I can think of them as a humble fan then others should also be able to.

[mikebv 10,243]

3 minutes ago, iainb said:

British Speedway "Promoters" Limited... I agree, they are franchise holders, but really some promotion really does cost little to nothing and some clubs just aren't doing this, they're doing the "if you build it, they will come" style of "promotion".

It's not difficult and there are some easy wins to be had, if I can think of them as a humble fan then others should also be able to.

Just read your previous comments Ian and didn't even realise Leicester had actually won anything the year before last..

Never mind a 'double'...

Although, to be honest, I couldn't name you who won the Premiership (was it even called that then?) either...

Probably Poole.....

 

[iainb 4,962]

5 minutes ago, mikebv said:

 

Probably Poole.....

 

Sadly, it was Swindon... where are they now?

[mikebv 10,243]

17 minutes ago, iainb said:

Sadly, it was Swindon... where are they now?

I wasn't far off then...

Both decided not to bother riding in the Premiership this season...

Edited July 6, 2021 by mikebv

[Fortythirtyeight 838]

 

“And any 'promoter' who doesn't put some signposts up around the town or try to get the team into local newspapers/tv/radio should be shot!  The general quality of UK league speedway PR is horrible”

Dear Mr/ Mrs HackneyHawk,

it may educate you to know you need the relevant councils permission, a licence ( involving quite a high fee ) and the local highways authority ( again a fee involved ) to erect signs around any area.

In the specific case of Redcar ( so called because they are 500 metres inside the Redcar council boundary although they are in the town of Middlesbrough ) , when they asked to erect direction signs from the nearby dual carriageway they were told ‘ no chance ‘ as Middlesbrough council would not allow signs advertising a Redcar council facility.

Life is not straight forward so hold fire with the firing squad !
 

[pvm 113]

5 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

 

“And any 'promoter' who doesn't put some signposts up around the town or try to get the team into local newspapers/tv/radio should be shot!  The general quality of UK league speedway PR is horrible”

Dear Mr/ Mrs HackneyHawk,

it may educate you to know you need the relevant councils permission, a licence ( involving quite a high fee ) and the local highways authority ( again a fee involved ) to erect signs around any area.

In the specific case of Redcar ( so called because they are 500 metres inside the Redcar council boundary although they are in the town of Middlesbrough ) , when they asked to erect direction signs from the nearby dual carriageway they were told ‘ no chance ‘ as Middlesbrough council would not allow signs advertising a Redcar council facility.

Life is not straight forward so hold fire with the firing squad !
 

Just reminded me of a road sign that was finally taken down in 2018, 22 yrs after the stadium was demolished. 

[waytogo28 2,054]

On 7/5/2021 at 6:53 AM, steve roberts said:

Speedway's failings I blame almost entirely on bad management skills and indecisiveness down the years (constant unnecessary rule changes for example) when the promoters should have been pulling together rather than appearing at odds and now they appear to be paying the ultimate choice.

In a nutshell, absolutely correct IMHO.

[iainb 4,962]

On 7/7/2021 at 12:28 AM, pvm said:

Just reminded me of a road sign that was finally taken down in 2018, 22 yrs after the stadium was demolished. 

Is that a sign to carry on to Newcastle? They don't miss a trick do they