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Skid Sprocket

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Posts posted by Skid Sprocket

  1. Posted

    In your opinion !

     

     

    That's what it's all about - opinions.

     

    Do you have a problem with that?

     

    And there's the crunch, there are that many opinions that no change will ever happen due to the differing opinions on this forum. Its time for another "referendum" (but would the results would be accepted anymore than the last one?) maybe then, with a clear voice coming from supporters, the powers that be might just listen. Just my opinion :D.

    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    Unfortunately due to my business and house renovations I have limited time and resources but sometime later this year I intend to start an organisation dedicated to saving and financing speedway. This could be involved with reforming and supporting tracks under a new format dedicated to home grown riders and lowering the costs for realistic admission charges while evaluating whether 500cc Solo bikes are giving the entertainment value for future spectators. Comments please I'm hard skinned so criticisms whatever they are will be welcome !!

     

    I hope that all comments are positive. A bit of background info would be helpful for those of us who don't know you. Only having 50 posts means that you are not a prolific poster but that could be to your advantage, it could show you are more of a thinker than a ranter.

     

    I for one look forward to hearing more.

  3. Posted

    I'd be amazed if there was a substantial return for most speedway sponsors, which is no doubt why the sport has been without a major title sponsor for 20-odd years. Would have thought much of the sponsorship is more akin to being charitable donations.

     

     

     

    I'd agree with that, although it is possible that some of the higher ups in some companies who have been convinced to sponsor a rider or team don't actually realise how low the crowds are.

     

    I still completely fail to see how publishing attendance figures can benefit the sport. We all know that they aren't good so how will making everybody aware of that improve things? The only reason I can see is so that a few people can make some pretty uneducated guesses as to the net income of a track. I say uneducated because most of the guesses you read on here miss out some very vital and expensive costs.

     

    The truth is we have no need to know, if the sport was in a boom where we could use high spectator attendance to pull in sponsorship then it would be different but this is just curiosity.

     

    Our new promoter recently stated that as supporters we were all promoters, and rightly so. When speaking to potential new supporters one of the first questions they ask is what are the attendance figures, how can you answer that. Ok if figures are bad then it may not be easy but that is when your promoting skills come in to play and rivalry sets in to try and beat the figures of the club up the road.

     

    This example may only play a very small part in righting the wrongs in speedway today but every bit of information helps in the right situation.

  4. Posted

    Can someone explain how to multi quote, I have tried clicking on "MultiQuote" but there is no explanation of what to do next. I would like to multiquote on this thread but simply quoting loses the original quoted post.

     

     

    It should work okay as I'm always doing it and I'm thick as a plank on technology. :lol: On the first post you want to quote just click on the black 'Multiquote' which will save it. Repeat the same thing on any other posts until you've finished then click on the box at the bottom right where all your quotes have been saved. That should bring them all up. Just to add you must click on 'multiquote' and not just 'quote.'

     

    Thanks Gemini as you can see it worked :party:

    • Like 3

  5. Posted

    In truth apart from keeping a few current fans sweet what would publishing attendances achieve? I find it very difficult to see what could actually be gained.

     

    I suspect the biggest effect wold be to make those already putting sponsorship money into the sport wonder why.

     

    I would think there is very good reason for keeping the current fans sweet. Any sponsors putting money in will already have the answers we are trying to find.

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    The number of teams operating in speedway is irrelevant to the decline of the sport. The only number to be compared is the number of people attending matches for each team. Do statistics exist comparing crowd levels from 1958 to 2016? That figure is the only one you can use to work out a decline of any kind. One look around the terraces of the team I support over the last three years says it all locally. Much bigger gaps and lots of empty areas around the stadium. Because speedway promoters do not publish attendance figures, we can only judge visually.

     

    The two age old questions. What are the attendance figures? and why won't clubs disclose figures?

     

    Its often said that its some kind of tax dodge but I cant believe that, even if were true then why cant we be given the figures the taxman gets and then we can make our own mind up.

     

    How about some investigative journalism from the Speedway Star?

    • Like 1

  8. Posted · Edited by Skid Sprocket

    To try and bring this topic back to life and pull us out of the doom and gloom I have copied this from the topic "When Did UK Speedway Decline Start". I hope thats ok with Lucifer Sam. Its easy to find the bad news and moan about it so lets dig deep and find some uplifting stories.

    Posted Today, 12:34 PM by Lucifer Sam

    It's worth pointing out there hasn't been a constant decline since 1930, as some seem to be suggesting. The sport was much healthier in the mid 70s than the mid 50s.

     

    In fact, there's never been as few teams as there were in 1958. Even the SAL didn't run that year. So there were just 10 league teams that year. For some reason, they needed much bigger crowds to be able to operate back then (maybe admission prices were incredibly cheap in comparison), but as you can see, speedway is in a healthier state in 2017 than it was in 1958.

     

    All the best

    Rob

  9. Posted

     

    hmmm, good not quite true. But the papers do go with what people want to read. Supply meeting demand. So yes, most of it is football, and horse racing, and at the appropriate times, rugby and cricket.

     

    If the publishers thought that by featuring speedway they would increase their circulation figures, they'd do it...so draw your own conclusions.

     

    What the newspapers are NOT, is a social service. They don't see it as their job to promote businesses that should be promoting themselves. Speedway has to be newsworthy and appeal to the readership, and as it can't seem to appeal to ever dwindling crowds at stadiums, then you can't expect it to make any inroads into the press either.

     

    I agree, understandably the newspapers are in it to make money. Slightly off the newspaper theme this is where the BBC should take a lead and cover topics that don't have a cash creating incentive. While I dislike paying the BBC licence fee as much as anyone at least it should mean they can lead the way in promoting anything that is not right in the public eye.

  10. Posted

    You may get snippets of news here and there but nothing on a regular basis, as we once had in the 60s and 70s.

     

    I am afraid speedway and other minority sports are knocking at a closed door.

     

    The natonal Press is only interested in one thing: football. Actually, not football - it is Premier League football.

     

    If you work on a sports desk at a national you and your colleagues are judged on how good your PL football coverage is.

     

    There must be something we can we collectively do about it? There are enough members on the BSF to at least make a few ripples if an effort was made!

  11. Posted

    I only read one National newspaper, The People, (I know even I don't know why I bother) and every week mainly in the speedway season I look for some snippet of speedway news and not even a column half inch, ever, and yet every Sunday there is a 16 page pullout called Total Football and around 13 pages of other sports news.


    What is the situation with other National newspapers are there any that ever mention speedway? Maybe the BSPA could do more with regular press releases but would the Nationals print them?


    One thing that we as supporters can do is to let the papers know that there are readers out here and badger them to cover our sport. There are plenty of problems with the sport but in my opinion one of the main ones is that the general public don't even know speedway exists.


    Has anyone tried to persuade the press to change their attitude by such as bombarding them with pleas to publish news?


    I know nothing will come of all this but at least I've got it off my chest.

  14. Posted · Edited by Skid Sprocket

    anything of note? theres nothing on the forum or fb page

     

    Gazette news; page 11 update on Bears school/college competition. Page 33 quiz question on Skidmore.

     

    Page 52 Ecco to sponsor the Cubs and a second half supporting a "junior grand prix". First race tapes up at 7:30 sharp to allow a bit of extra time later and a shorter break.

     

    The rest is mainly on the keenness of Keith Miller of Ecco to support the Cubs.

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    Maybe air fence panels should be in two sections, an upper and lower bit, then there would/could be 4 anchor points, so the bike hitting the upper section would not deform the lower section that the riders slide under....??

     

    Two sections just like this topic, I think the original slid under the fence way back :D

     

    Another way is burying the skirt in the shale but its not very practical and all you are doing really is weighing it down so why not part fill with water to give it some weight and get he same effect if you have somewhere to drain the water after the meeting, the downside is that a punctured section could cause a flood.

    • Like 1

  18. Posted · Edited by Skid Sprocket

    Sounds logical but as always there are issues once you claim to represent what the majority want:

     

     

     

    I've no real argument with most of what you say but just pointing out the difficulties of assuming you know what the majority want let alone finding ways of achieving it.

     

    I would say that the majority of people I know would like to do away with the play off system but any sane promoter would immediately point to the fact that it produces the biggest crowds of the season as proof of it's popularity. It's difficult to argue with their point even if you are sure it's not what the majority want in your own mind.

     

     

    There is a way to find out what the majority want and that is an anonymous poll but the BSF doesn't seem to have that option for members.

     

    If polls could be run on this site the problem then is knowing the subject for a particular poll, maybe members could list their top ten voteable subjects in one short sentence (eg, Do you want to do away with the play off system?) and then a priority list could be drawn up to vote on.

     

    As in all forums there is a silent majority who will not post for fear of being shot down by the more "forceful" members, polls would get a true picture of supporters wants and feelings and would send a very strong message to the promoters.

  19. Posted

    It is still beyond me why a poster like you would want to bring attention to two negative threads, when the thread you are posting on is specifically for posts that are good news.

    To get attention or a wrecking ball, you decide.

    Although you have to carefully read every word that Gustic posts, on this occasion "the good news is" that he did post a link to this one on both the other threads. You have to give credit where its due.

  21. Posted

    Wimbledon Stadium opened in the late 1920s and was for many years a leading centre for speedway in London.

    It closes in March 2017 before being demolished. It will leave those Londoners who want to watch speedway having to travel outside the London area to Rye House, Lakeside Hammers (at Arena Essex), or to Kent Kings (at Sittingbourne} for their nearest tracks.

    Does this count as cheerful first comment to the thread's OP?

    If thats your opinion of a cheerful comment then so be it!

    • Like 3

  22. Posted

    Its very easy and justified to discus all that is wrong with speedway today but to take us into 2017 with a bit of optimism what are the good news speedway stories?

     

    So please, in this topic, uplifting stories ONLY. Anything from your 5 year old grandson meeting his "supporter friendly" idol to what is your club doing to make a contribution to the future of the sport.

     

    :t::t::t::t:

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    The sites for both Newcastle and Edinburgh are managed by a professional website company. Of course in the lean period off season, nothing much happens except announcing signings for the next season. As the webmaster and the managements have other things or business to deal, with other than speedway, one wonders what and how much fans expect to see on an off season website. As long as main issues such as confirmation they are running, the new team, new sponsors, and fixtures, one wonders what are they expected to contribute which critics would just say was unnecessary padding.

    During the season, there is always things to put on, interviews, team news, results,etc, and that should be the main contribution of the website.

    And in the close season we have the fans forums to air our hopes and fears for the new season usually at no cost. We have management, marketing and even riders chipping in all year round in our forum. To sum up; Websites for official news , announcements and results etc. Fans forums for us all to interact and have our say.

    • Like 1
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