£10 Sport?

[Grand Central 2,654]

No flak. Just an idea. Word is that Tony Mole is about to reopen Bradford. Why not everyone on BSF who agrees with the "Speedway fo a Tenner" idea club together as a consortium and go into partnership with Tony Mole, and put your own money where your mouths are?

Bradford could then be the £10 Team you all want. If they succeed then you will be hero's and will show the way to everyone else.

 

I'll have to politely decline your kind invitation.

I cannot put my money where my mouth is at the moment as I am a little over extended.

 

I made the comment that I thought RBS were not performing well so have had to put all my savings and spare time into running their company; and that comes on top of my previous commitments to Syria, the G8, the EU and the promises I made to Michael Gove to sort out his GCSE problems.

 

The thing is I keep forgetting that whenever you express an opinion on any subject in the world you always have to be prepared to take on the running of the whole thing.

Otherwise you are meant to be silent.

Silly, silly me.

 

If EL promoters receive £100k sky money which seems to be the general consensus on here, then running 14 meetings a year would cost in the region of £36,400 per season in rent and first aid leaving £63,600 for other expenses. Those expenses would'nt get anywhere near this sum so a fair amount of £63k would be left for riders expenses, add to this entrance money, programmes and sponsorship.

We need to employ riders that are committed to the EL and living in this country ( I think a lot of riders live in this country anyway during the season ) thus cutting out expensive flights, if they want to ride in Poland/Sweden then let them pay for flights both ways or the riders to contribute towards them

Why don't clubs employ a mechanic or two to look after all there riders bikes, they could even clean them after the meeting because the riders would only need them in this country ( obviously a different system would have to be put into place for doubling up riders ) the club could then buy there own van to transport them and the riders could use there own cars as 99% of the working populace have to. This would'nt cost any more than now as clubs are already paying out for mechanics and vans for some riders.

 

I think I would agree with a great many of the cost cutting points you make.

I fear that others may attack you on the basis that the figures may be a little off.

 

Each club gets quite bit less than £100,000 for sure.

There is the GoSpeed cut for a start.

 

.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Grand Central

[ch958 2,398]

In a country where a pint of quality beer is about £1, by your logic it costs 12 pints of beer to see a Polish speedway meeting. That's at least twice as much as it costs in Britain.

 

tax skews the price here though so your argument is a bit flat

[michaelcroucher 30]

Sppedway has got too expensive for this country. People watch their money a lot more now then a few years ago. With this in mind then speedway needs to come down in price. I know some people will say £15 - £17 not bad but when you think you are only getting 17mins avg for £15 it expensive.

 

A race is normally 1min or less sometimes just over with only 15 races as someone has said it works out £1 a race.

 

The thing is for me that I find its not so much the paying to get in it’s the add on like a programme, food, fuel, car parking (which is a joke). A normal meeting for me locally will cost around £40-£50 for the night. I don’t have that type of money for week in week out. I have stopped going to speedway as much for the reason its too expensive.

 

When we had teams all over the place then it wasn’t a problem. Promoters need to do something and we have always said on here that they don’t do as much as they use to. With also riders coming from abroad and not making the money because of their outlay well that’s simple don’t sign to ride for that club.

 

I cant seeing speedway changing for years with its price and everything else. For myself its cheaper to use my Avios points a go to Poland which I have done than watch a match in the UK.

[oldswindonsupporter 42]

If the market will only pay £10 entry speedway has a real issue. Many costs are fixed and many are outside of the sports control. Add in to this the winter clamour of supporters calling for promoters to get their hands in their pockets to pay for the better riders and all together you have a recipe for disaster.

 

Then the sport's governing body (whatever or whoever that might be really needs to grasp the nettle and sort out quite how to make the sport affordable - it is no good chasing a dream if you can not afford it! Be interesting to see what would happen if the TV contract which ends this year is not renewed quite how drastic the trimming of the product might have to undergo, fixed costs or not.

 

Currently there isn't the money to spend on ferrying riders here there and everywhere, forget the riders deserve everything comment, they do, but, not at a price whereby there is ultimately no product.

[uk_martin 1,606]

tax skews the price here though so your argument is a bit flat

 

Not in the slightest. Check out (wikipedia for example) what economists call "opportunity cost" - measuring the cost of an item in terms of the foregone alternative. It doesn't matter what the tax on beer is. What matters is, that in Britain, speedway costs about 5 pints of beer and in Poland speedway costs 12 pints of beer.

 

Also worth noting that the average salary for a citizen of (for example) Gorzow and Zielona Gora, (where the best crowds are to be found) is about £800 per month.(Gross) Now work out the cost of speedway in terms of the proportion of monthly earnings and then do the comparison to the UK.

[uk_martin 1,606]

I'll have to politely decline your kind invitation.

I cannot put my money where my mouth is at the moment as I am a little over extended.

 

I made the comment that I thought RBS were not performing well so have had to put all my savings and spare time into running their company; and that comes on top of my previous commitments to Syria, the G8, the EU and the promises I made to Michael Gove to sort out his GCSE problem...

 

I think that you will find that Tony Mole, Len Silver, CVS, Matt Ford etc etc encounter exactly these considerations as well.

 

Surely though if £10 speedway is such a great idea, you'll be able to convince a backer (try the Dragons Den) as you're convinced that the profits will roll in, helping you to pay for the RBS recovery etc etc out of your Corporation Tax and Income Tax payments... Heck, by the end of it, you could even be accused on BSF of being a greedy money grabbing so and so.

[ch958 2,398]

Not in the slightest. Check out (wikipedia for example) what economists call "opportunity cost" - measuring the cost of an item in terms of the foregone alternative. It doesn't matter what the tax on beer is. What matters is, that in Britain, speedway costs about 5 pints of beer and in Poland speedway costs 12 pints of beer.

 

Also worth noting that the average salary for a citizen of (for example) Gorzow and Zielona Gora, (where the best crowds are to be found) is about £800 per month.(Gross) Now work out the cost of speedway in terms of the proportion of monthly earnings and then do the comparison to the UK.

 

i cant be arsed working it out - Poland's Poland. When people stop watching there they'll have to think of ways to get the crowds back. Whats your idea?

All i've said is its not worth more than 10/12 quid thats why people go the flix or shopping but dont go to tracks. I can go to the pics for 8 quid, watch Whitley Bay, £8, 8 cans Kronenberg £8

[Shale Shaker 106]

i cant be arsed working it out - Poland's Poland. When people stop watching there they'll have to think of ways to get the crowds back. Whats your idea?

All i've said is its not worth more than 10/12 quid thats why people go the flix or shopping but dont go to tracks. I can go to the pics for 8 quid, watch Whitley Bay, £8, 8 cans Kronenberg £8

 

Eight "Ace" £1.49

[ch958 2,398]

Eight "Ace" £1.49

 

i have standards you know!!

[mikebv 10,363]

Eight "Ace" £1.49

 

arlll wash me fookin' speedyweh for that, ar wood, und neva aft ter bray me missus fet ter go neetha..

 

I go back 40 odd years watching the sport 'off and on' and have to say that taking the rose tinted specs off, a lot of what I watched even in 'the good old days' was processional racing with my team BV, in particular at hyde rd, hammering most teams by 20 point margins..

 

The difference from then to now is when we got yet another 5-1 the crowd level, and therefore subsequent noise level, created an 'atmosphere' that was far greater than the sum of what entertainment value we had watched..,

 

Thus it became a self fulfilling prophecy in that the crowd were involved (as you were stood with thousands you were not inhibited to join in), more away fans were there so more banter took place and therefore regardless of result, you had had a 'good night' and would return the week later...

 

Therefore the equation isnt so much about ten pound speedway but what price level will fill the stadium to bring back that elusive crowd level and 'lost atmosphere'..

 

The debate about whether cheaper entrance could be afforded could be counted with how much could you charge for sponsorship/season tickets/bar take/prorammes etc if you had 5000 attending every week and how much extra revenue would the increased local (national?) media interest bring in?

 

Always wondered why promoters dont budget their seasons costs with one less meeting's income and let the 'world' in for free to kick start their season, a full house would persuade far more to return the week after I would venture as it would maybe give them the impression the sport was a success and they had been 'missing out'...

 

One thing is for sure, the sport at its current admission levels is unsustainable in its current guise, as its ever dwindling fan base, eroding almost weekly, is testament to.. .

Edited June 18, 2013 by mikebv

[uk_martin 1,606]

Didn't I read somewhere that Belle Vue tried Speedway for a tenner a couple of seasons ago? The result was an initial improvement on the crowd levels which lasted for one or two meetings and then the crowd levels slowly sank down to the old levels resulting in the same numbers turning up as before, and the promoters getting £5-£6 per person less at the turnstiles?

 

Maybe a Belle Vue fan would care to elaborate/correct me on this matter?

[Irk Deflector 130]

Merge the EL and PL then charge £12 including 8 page race card/mini program on cheap paper.

 

Need to give the promoters a chance of making some money! Track rental, medical cover, stewards take up a huge chunk of the admission money, will need to get rid of over paid Heat Leaders (perhaps a wage cap or income/wages cap could work) and reduce/stop flight re-imbursement. Do nothing and the sport bleeds to death!

Edited June 18, 2013 by Irk Deflector

[THE DEAN MACHINE 4,785]

speedway needs to get the feel good factor back , the feeling it had way back when ,it needs people talking about it ,it needs the teraces full but your not going to get that by charging £16+ to watch a league meeting .if you listen to terry russell all is well and you can charge that and people will pay but in the real world where you and i live its just too expensive but also it needs a damm good shake up from the top to the bottom because its bordering on taking the p**s at the moment ,i love world speedway but british speedway is suffering and its time to change .when a rider gets his british licence he has to tick a box to say that if called he will ride in the british final etc , there should be another box saying apart from world championship events they have to put british speedway first and not miss a match for another country ,if they dont tick the box they dont ride here simple , it may sound harsh but without the paying public there is no speedway and it the paying public which really matter and they are being short changed,they are the be all and end all .over the years the scb/bspa/fim have introduced some stupid expensive ideas which have done nothing for the sport but have cost riders more money .ie enviro mats £50 per bike ,stupid idea ,speedway bikes drop very little oil anyway and if they did where the hell does oil come from anyway ? and we dont want to drop a bit of oil where the day before a stock car has dropped the contents of it sump , dirt deflectors £200 per bike ,still the biggest rip off in speedway ever , do nothing to stop flying shale ( phillip rising can suck up to his buddy barry all he likes but they dont work and given the choice they would be gone forever ), silencers £200 per bike ,a joke + a heat shield £80 to stop riders getting burnt by the previous mistake , you couldnt make it up could you , just a couple of needless things and ive saved a rider over £500 per bike , , licences over £70 for a british licence (where does the money go )? on top of £30 for an ACU one ,im sure they dont need to be that expensive ,all these things should be disscussed every year in meetings between riders and bspa to find ways forward without putting up expenses all the time , some of the mechanics are on really good money ,they do work hard but they are being paid what speedway cant afford to pay , vans ,living expenses, maybe its time to end the proffessional rider ,there are a couple in the national league for god sake , there are savings to be made on all sides ,its going to be bloody painfull in the short term but surely worth it in the long term ,surely it would be easier to attract new fans to a cheaper simpler sport that a expensive badly run one and thats where we are today . and then you get nights like somerset tonight just to drive the points home

Edited June 18, 2013 by THE DEAN MACHINE

[pawel115 251]

Speedway in UK is pretty cheap compared to Poland ,for example in Rzeszow ticket for adult for league match is 30zl unless you want the new grandstand then its 50zl in that region most common salary take home pay is in 1200-1700zl range( 240 Pounds-340 Pounds ) divide that by about 5 to get Pounds, when I was living in Poland it use to be cheaper plus the unemployment rate was way lower then, the whole south east of Poland (speedway cities Rzeszow,Tarnow,Krosno) has one of the highest unemployment rates in Poland,lot of folks take their kids to matches then you buy food etc and the cost goes up ,most of my friends who live abroad(UK,France,Germany) would come back to Poland tomorrow for 800 Pounds a month salary.

[Grand Central 2,654]

Speedway in UK is pretty cheap compared to Poland ,for example in Rzeszow ticket for adult for league match is 30zl unless you want the new grandstand then its 50zl in that region most common salary take home pay is in 1200-1700zl range( 240 Pounds-340 Pounds ) divide that by about 5 to get Pounds, when I was living in Poland it use to be cheaper plus the unemployment rate was way lower then, the whole south east of Poland (speedway cities Rzeszow,Tarnow,Krosno) has one of the highest unemployment rates in Poland,lot of folks take their kids to matches then you buy food etc and the cost goes up ,most of my friends who live abroad(UK,France,Germany) would come back to Poland tomorrow for 800 Pounds a month salary.

 

My 'take' on this sort of valuable information is

 

Polish Speedway is doing something sufficiently 'right' that not very well paid people are prepared to pay a reasonably high proportion of their take home pay to go and watch regularly and still in quite high numbers.

Whereas British Speedway does not seem to be achieving this.

 

I presume, from what you say, Pawel, Speedway in Rzeszow 'feels' like a 30zl Sport.

 

I just maintain that, to me, a Speedway watcher of 40 years plus, British Speedway 'feels' like it is worth £10. Right now.

But we are paying up to £17.

Just in dwindling numbers.

 

Whether the costs can ever be reduced to anything like the £10 price point I really do not know.

I suspect that none will actually try and we will have to continue to considerably pay more than £10 but still get just £10 of product.

And numbers will dwindle further..