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Speedway to reinvent itself?

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7 minutes ago, Trees said:

It's great that you and your paying public enjoy your show Barry, non speedway fan holiday makers will definitely enjoy "the show" because that's who you are trying to attract.  

I 100% agree that all promoters could do more particularly in the summer holidays to appeal to the kids. 

I personally go to speedway to support my team and/or my fav riders. 

We run our Supporters Club with the fans in mind so, in normal times, we facilitate members going on the track walk, visiting the pits and having photos, doing the coin toss (with photo), watching a race from the centre, watching from a hospitality box, all sorts of competitions for the kids, free raffle for members, we have printed out A4 race cards for the kids,  run a 50/50 draw every meeting, SUPERDRAW once a month, Member of the Week in the prog and online, run the End of Season party, we've done quiz nights and rider nights in the past.  We wish our riders good luck online for every Stars meeting, we post about their Championship matches and scores etc. We currently take photos of our riders and put them online weekly.  We buy our riders personalised artwork at the end of the season and chose members to present them, we run the rider of the year voting and our members present the trophies .....

It's amazing how big the list is when you promote everything you do ....

That's great what you do, however you're doing that for existing speedway fans and sadly the number of existing speedway fans becomes smaller each year. It's the non speedway fans you need to attract that where the Isle of Wight is showing the way.

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Just now, cowboy cookie returns? said:

That's great what you do, however you're doing that for existing speedway fans and sadly the number of existing speedway fans becomes smaller each year. It's the non speedway fans you need to attract that where the Isle of Wight is showing the way.

You say that but if current speedway fans have a good night, tell their friends then the crowd does increase doesn't it, word of mouth and all that. 

Current speedway fans all need to do their bit by retweeting the sharing the promotion of the club instead of just liking posts. 

Most speedway promoters are not just trying to encourage  holiday makers over a few weeks during the summer, they need local people who will come to watch and support their clubs March-September?  

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6 minutes ago, Trees said:

You say that but if current speedway fans have a good night, tell their friends then the crowd does increase doesn't it, word of mouth and all that. 

Current speedway fans all need to do their bit by retweeting the sharing the promotion of the club instead of just liking posts. 

Most speedway promoters are not just trying to encourage  holiday makers over a few weeks during the summer, they need local people who will come to watch and support their clubs March-September?  

Quite right. I do think speedway fans are the worst when it comes to trying to advertise the sport though, we constantly run it down.

Look at the recent Birmingham match thread, it's full of negatives, any newcomers looking in would get deflated very quickly.

We do our bit on Facebook, share share and share only time will tell if it works or not. My Friends have started asking me about the Speedway, so the awareness is still there, just not paying customers.

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13 hours ago, Skidder1 said:

I'll do nothing but applaud the IOW team BUT how much does it cost, do they generate more income than cost or are the Thursday night activities subsidised by other stadium events/activities?

Totally different businesses... the days of the stadium running the speedway ended when Martin and I took it over. This is why you see a totally different mindset to it for the last 6 years, and for the stadium for the last 5 years.

All the best

 

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9 hours ago, Deano said:

Quite right. I do think speedway fans are the worst when it comes to trying to advertise the sport though, we constantly run it down.

Look at the recent Birmingham match thread, it's full of negatives, any newcomers looking in would get deflated very quickly.

We do our bit on Facebook, share share and share only time will tell if it works or not. My Friends have started asking me about the Speedway, so the awareness is still there, just not paying customers.

I think the current fan base is split in two, those who think there is nothing wrong and would probably promote it in a positive manner on social media but they aren't active so SM. The second group are the fans who are active on SM but don't feel they can share or promote the sport because they see what's wrong.

 

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9 hours ago, Trees said:

You say that but if current speedway fans have a good night, tell their friends then the crowd does increase doesn't it, word of mouth and all that. 

Current speedway fans all need to do their bit by retweeting the sharing the promotion of the club instead of just liking posts. 

Most speedway promoters are not just trying to encourage  holiday makers over a few weeks during the summer, they need local people who will come to watch and support their clubs March-September?  

This is so far from correct.. We dont just try to attract holiday makers - they are the cherry on the cake... what we must  do is attract business, sponsors (every single air fence panel sponsored) we atract TV, Radio, we attract Islanders, we attract students to the speedway school, we attract people who realise they associate their brand with our brand "The Warrior Way" purely because other clubs dont fit it... I can list sponsors of the IOW from across the UK and world actually that could just as easily invest it locally to their club and they choose not to.

Regards the supporters club activity thats brilliant what you are doing there.. well done.. and you are right likewise I could list for ever on here our fan based ideas and feel free to use them... Free whistles and a lolly for kids, speedway bike display, beat the starter ready to be used, great priced high quality food, kids races, 50/50, 200 club, social events, fans working parties (sounds crazy but brings fans closer to the club - they invest their time in to it, it means more), autograph sessions, riders in the bar, shows, school visits, social club visits, supermarket visits, open the pits, make the riders come through the crowd.... the list goes on.......

Keep up the great work and keep supporting your clubs and I hope your clubs will reinvest that support for you.

All the best

 

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Having attended my first match for 2years this week I have been giving this topic some thought, I'm prepared to be shot down so feel free to comment on my thoughts.

I was introduced to the sport as a 12 year old in the late 80s. I was fortunate enough to witness my team in the old national League which to my mind is still the closest I've seen in this country to the sport being run professionally.

The sport in that league was Great, each team in general only visited once a season the exception being for early season challenge or cup matches.

There was also the national 4 team championship and pairs events plus the individuals which gave the different disciplines that everyone seems to be calling for and the best thing guest riding was outlawed each team had a proper functioning junior/reserve team.

Anyhow why did I become hooked on speedway and gave up attending football?

The ability to be able to go behind the scenes to the pit area pre match to see the preparation, collect rider autographs and actually speak the stars of the track.

Then there was the smell & the noise something completely different to any other team sport.

At that time my local track was still getting close to 4000 spectators a week including a decent number of visiting fans  that gave the centre green mic man something to work with to create an atmosphere, the crowd generated noise  actuall cheering of the home team and booing of the visitors that all led to the atmosphere.

All this was underpinned by the feeling that this was your team they didn't leave as soon as the meeting was over and in some cases before because they had to leave to ride for someone else tomorrow.

The sights the smell wer part of it but without that team aspect I wouldn't have fell in love with speedway.

Move forward to the 2000s and I fell out of love with speedway and eventually gave up all together. Why?

I was fed up seeing the same teams 2,3,4,5 times a season and sometimes with only a couple of weeks between visits, I got fed up as the doubling up and guest regulations became more and more relaxed so that at times the team I supported was made up of 3 riders from another club. For me the attachment to my team was lost and that was that.

Now I attended very occasionally I think on average once a season since 2009, I've been to less home meetings in 12 years than I used to attend in a season.

As for reinvention well the sport has to decide what it wants to be.

A team sport in that case make it a team sport that people can attach too ditch doubling up and work to rid the sport of guests once and for all.

If it's to be an individual sport then come up with some proper classes like other motor sport & run decent championship events.

Whichever it decides the machinery, the track surfaces and the presentation need a radical rethink.

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38 minutes ago, barrybishop said:

This is so far from correct.. We dont just try to attract holiday makers - they are the cherry on the cake... what we must  do is attract business, sponsors (every single air fence panel sponsored) we atract TV, Radio, we attract Islanders, we attract students to the speedway school, we attract people who realise they associate their brand with our brand "The Warrior Way" purely because other clubs dont fit it... I can list sponsors of the IOW from across the UK and world actually that could just as easily invest it locally to their club and they choose not to.

Regards the supporters club activity thats brilliant what you are doing there.. well done.. and you are right likewise I could list for ever on here our fan based ideas and feel free to use them... Free whistles and a lolly for kids, speedway bike display, beat the starter ready to be used, great priced high quality food, kids races, 50/50, 200 club, social events, fans working parties (sounds crazy but brings fans closer to the club - they invest their time in to it, it means more), autograph sessions, riders in the bar, shows, school visits, social club visits, supermarket visits, open the pits, make the riders come through the crowd.... the list goes on.......

Keep up the great work and keep supporting your clubs and I hope your clubs will reinvest that support for you.

All the best

 

You are very good at selling yourself and your product Barry ...... compared to you other promoters are not.

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55 minutes ago, barrybishop said:

This is so far from correct.. We dont just try to attract holiday makers - they are the cherry on the cake... what we must  do is attract business, sponsors (every single air fence panel sponsored) we atract TV, Radio, we attract Islanders, we attract students to the speedway school, we attract people who realise they associate their brand with our brand "The Warrior Way" purely because other clubs dont fit it... I can list sponsors of the IOW from across the UK and world actually that could just as easily invest it locally to their club and they choose not to.

Regards the supporters club activity thats brilliant what you are doing there.. well done.. and you are right likewise I could list for ever on here our fan based ideas and feel free to use them... Free whistles and a lolly for kids, speedway bike display, beat the starter ready to be used, great priced high quality food, kids races, 50/50, 200 club, social events, fans working parties (sounds crazy but brings fans closer to the club - they invest their time in to it, it means more), autograph sessions, riders in the bar, shows, school visits, social club visits, supermarket visits, open the pits, make the riders come through the crowd.... the list goes on.......

Keep up the great work and keep supporting your clubs and I hope your clubs will reinvest that support for you.

All the best

 

Barry

from what I have seen & read you're doing a fantastic job in not only promoting speedway but also shaking up the format.

It would be great to see the Isle of Wight promotion put in charge of UK speedway and to see what you could achieve.

You're certainly light years ahead of the current BSPA who seem to love quotes that compare there business to modern day hunting or the smell of cooking oil.

Keep up the great work.

 

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10 hours ago, Deano said:

Quite right. I do think speedway fans are the worst when it comes to trying to advertise the sport though, we constantly run it down.

Look at the recent Birmingham match thread, it's full of negatives, any newcomers looking in would get deflated very quickly.

We do our bit on Facebook, share share and share only time will tell if it works or not. My Friends have started asking me about the Speedway, so the awareness is still there, just not paying customers.

I think we need to get things in perspective a bit here, I think most Speedway fans (that currently still attend) go along to their local club, enjoy their night out and go home happy, completely oblivious that there's a British Speedway Forum out there. Personally if I were new to the sport I wouldn't be looking for discussion forums in the early days, probably after I'd been going a while and wanted to get something off my chest (positive or negative) I'd search out such a forum. I joined this forum in 2003, originally only to read reaction on the match that I had just been to. It wasn't until 2015 that I started to make more of a contribution as I realised that the sport was suffering from some serious issues and it was in a very real danger of collapsing.

I think most people on here love their Speedway, I certainly do and when it's at its best it sells itself, the trouble is it's not at its best often enough, no where near often enough. There are many people on here that have watched the sport in this country decline over the years to what it was when they first started going and are passionate about it still and feel that they have no voice with those that are running the sport and their business as usual attitude.

I've made many comments on here, a lot of them negative but I can't just bury my head in the sand while the sport around me is in such a state. There is absolutely no way on this earth I would attend Speedway as a newcomer these days if I were "sportless" and were looking to get into something... I'd probably be going along to the 100 cricket. At a push If I'd managed to somehow catch it I'd be looking into the SGP's.

If Birmingham weren't in such financial trouble and the Leicester match had just been another league match it probably wouldn't have generated so much discussion but this was their big chance to entice a crowd, which fair play to them they did and everything about the night was great... except for the Speedway!

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1 hour ago, barrybishop said:

This is so far from correct.. We dont just try to attract holiday makers - they are the cherry on the cake... what we must  do is attract business, sponsors (every single air fence panel sponsored) we atract TV, Radio, we attract Islanders, we attract students to the speedway school, we attract people who realise they associate their brand with our brand "The Warrior Way" purely because other clubs dont fit it... I can list sponsors of the IOW from across the UK and world actually that could just as easily invest it locally to their club and they choose not to.

Regards the supporters club activity thats brilliant what you are doing there.. well done.. and you are right likewise I could list for ever on here our fan based ideas and feel free to use them... Free whistles and a lolly for kids, speedway bike display, beat the starter ready to be used, great priced high quality food, kids races, 50/50, 200 club, social events, fans working parties (sounds crazy but brings fans closer to the club - they invest their time in to it, it means more), autograph sessions, riders in the bar, shows, school visits, social club visits, supermarket visits, open the pits, make the riders come through the crowd.... the list goes on.......

Keep up the great work and keep supporting your clubs and I hope your clubs will reinvest that support for you.

All the best

 

And even if "all you had" were holiday makers, the very fact you go out and promote EVERY MEETING as a stand alone event would mean they would come...

It almost seems as if the attitude down there is "Promote this meeting as if it is our last"...

And that is EXACTLY the missing opportunity for so many clubs.. 

You only have to see how hard all clubs promote "make or break" meetings to see the huge opportunity that exists if they did this EVERY week..

Surely they can see by the increase in crowds when "in crisis", (the majority of whom are their own 'non regulars' answering the call), that they should continue to market and promote themselves every day of the season in exactly the same way..?

It truly wouldn't matter what your were "selling" in the IOW as the promotion mechanics you use would prick the interest of anyone within earshot, (and you certainly shout loud enough to make plenty hear I would suggest)...

Whether in a "seaside resort" or not is truly irrelevant, as its "the locals" who will always be the "bread and butter" you budget for to cover the "basic running costs" I would imagine as they are not transient...

"Motorbike dirt track racing actually takes place in many town and city centres"...

That should be a "Wow Factor" alone when you think about it, and if promoted properly, should at least mean (if nothing else) some curiosity from those living around it..

A wise old coach once told me, as a young 16 year old kid who was lucky enough to play football at a decent level, to celebrate every goal you score as if it was your last, regardless of how many you have already scored that game or season, and regardless of whether you are hammering the opposition...

"Because Michael, one day it actually will be your last ever goal"...

And guess what, he was right!!

Maybe some promotions should have that same attitude as given the run rate of tracks lost over the last decade, that last meeting may not be too far away for a fair few...

More power to your respective elbows down there Barry, Chris and all your team...

 

 

Edited by mikebv
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21 hours ago, HackneyHawk said:

Good luck to them but.....it's a sideshow, akin to a fiarground 'stunt show' type of event.  Speedway should be a professional and serious sport and run like one.

I don't like all the 'no breaks, no fear' stuff, it's amateurish and childlike

Wot a complete and utter numbnuts! 

So your telling me that British Speedway is being run in the right way? 

I would like the IOW to come come back to the National League bringing along the show that they put on. 

I haven't been but I know Martin Widman well as a personal friend as he takes time to come along to the Long Eaton SOS meetings. 

The effort they put in to get the show on is to be applauded. 

Whether you stay for the whole show or not is personal choice, I remember when folk drifted away after heat 13, back in the day, before the 2nd half. 

Pre meeting, during the meeting and after the meeting entertainment......simples really. 

Well done Martin & Barry, uve battled well against bureacy! 

Applaud, applaud, applaud 

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10 minutes ago, PirateShip said:

Wot a complete and utter numbnuts! 

Be kind :t:

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3 hours ago, barrybishop said:

Totally different businesses... the days of the stadium running the speedway ended when Martin and I took it over. This is why you see a totally different mindset to it for the last 6 years, and for the stadium for the last 5 years.

All the best

 

Thanks for clarifying with regard to any stadium subsidy, so as the stadium is seperate I presume you pay a rental and with due respect you haven't answered the question - Do your Thursday race track evenings make a profit?

I'm interested as many of your activities could be paid for by sponsors - which is fine. Many of your giveaways could also be donated - which is also fine!

Edited by Skidder1

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3 hours ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

Having attended my first match for 2years this week I have been giving this topic some thought, I'm prepared to be shot down so feel free to comment on my thoughts.

I was introduced to the sport as a 12 year old in the late 80s. I was fortunate enough to witness my team in the old national League which to my mind is still the closest I've seen in this country to the sport being run professionally.

The sport in that league was Great, each team in general only visited once a season the exception being for early season challenge or cup matches.

There was also the national 4 team championship and pairs events plus the individuals which gave the different disciplines that everyone seems to be calling for and the best thing guest riding was outlawed each team had a proper functioning junior/reserve team.

Anyhow why did I become hooked on speedway and gave up attending football?

The ability to be able to go behind the scenes to the pit area pre match to see the preparation, collect rider autographs and actually speak the stars of the track.

Then there was the smell & the noise something completely different to any other team sport.

At that time my local track was still getting close to 4000 spectators a week including a decent number of visiting fans  that gave the centre green mic man something to work with to create an atmosphere, the crowd generated noise  actuall cheering of the home team and booing of the visitors that all led to the atmosphere.

All this was underpinned by the feeling that this was your team they didn't leave as soon as the meeting was over and in some cases before because they had to leave to ride for someone else tomorrow.

The sights the smell wer part of it but without that team aspect I wouldn't have fell in love with speedway.

Move forward to the 2000s and I fell out of love with speedway and eventually gave up all together. Why?

I was fed up seeing the same teams 2,3,4,5 times a season and sometimes with only a couple of weeks between visits, I got fed up as the doubling up and guest regulations became more and more relaxed so that at times the team I supported was made up of 3 riders from another club. For me the attachment to my team was lost and that was that.

Now I attended very occasionally I think on average once a season since 2009, I've been to less home meetings in 12 years than I used to attend in a season.

As for reinvention well the sport has to decide what it wants to be.

A team sport in that case make it a team sport that people can attach too ditch doubling up and work to rid the sport of guests once and for all.

If it's to be an individual sport then come up with some proper classes like other motor sport & run decent championship events.

Whichever it decides the machinery, the track surfaces and the presentation need a radical rethink.

I would suggest that this view is the No1 reason for so many "drifting away" from the sport as a paying customer.. 

With these tens of thousands though  still keeping a high level of interest in the sport via the TV..

There can be no doubt that the current "Team" operating model doesnt encourage enough to attend and, ridiculously, seems to actively discourage plenty more from paying out their hard earned..

A great night out can still be had at the Speedway, given the exciting, raw material of the racing that is at the disposal of those who run it....

Seems crackers therefore that they keep flogging a clearly not fit for purpose plan, which ultimitely undermines their No1 key selling point which is four riders racing each other..

Edited by mikebv

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