Sky 2014

[ABS 231]

Sky have NO package for the World Cup. This must be transmitted on 'Free to view TV' ie will be on both ITV and BBC in the UK.

 

Thanks for the heads up on that. It will be interesting to see what Sky comes up with to compete against the World Cup. Clutching at straws somewhat, but speedway might be a good option for sky as the fanbase is pretty loyal. Would be interesting to learn what the viewing figures were for yesterday evening, going head to head with the England match.

[The White Knight 9,039]

Thanks for the heads up on that. It will be interesting to see what Sky comes up with to compete against the World Cup. Clutching at straws somewhat, but speedway might be a good option for sky as the fanbase is pretty loyal. Would be interesting to learn what the viewing figures were for yesterday evening, going head to head with the England match.

 

Well - I, for one, watched the Speedway.

[Hackett 220]

In sales ; you need combine looking after your existing clients, as well as targeting new clients. Speedway on the most part has failed to do both. The product is getting worse yet more expensive and people are voting with their feet - hence the declining numbers. Targeting a new audience is mostly forgotten. Speedway cant afford to neglect its current audience - as word of mouth is and always will be its most cost effective sales tool.

[ABS 231]

In sales ; you need combine looking after your existing clients, as well as targeting new clients. Speedway on the most part has failed to do both. The product is getting worse yet more expensive and people are voting with their feet - hence the declining numbers. Targeting a new audience is mostly forgotten. Speedway cant afford to neglect its current audience - as word of mouth is and always will be its most cost effective sales tool.

 

Too true - one thing travels faster than good news and that's bad news

[A ORLOV 8,628]

Well - I, for one, watched the Speedway.

I watched both at the same time with the big screen showing the speedway and the football on mute , but would watch speedway over football every time.

[moxey63 1,785]

Posts that say the likes of oldace and myself shouldn't be able to have an opinion on the sport because we don't go and watch anymore, is like saying we shouldn't have an opinion on a news story... if we don't buy a paper.

 

That we have watched the sport, shed many of our lifetime hours trudging up and down the roads to support our teams and favourites, that we still have a draw to these websites, doesn't that make us people that should be listened to.

 

We are still clinging on.

 

Alternatively, try discovering the problems with the sport that stopped the people from attending anymore... first, you will have to find the people that can't be arsed even diping into speedway forums, they became so brassed off.

 

If there are three people on this site, no longer attend but post, then just where all the others?

 

If a shop sold you shopped with every day sold you a dodgy pie and it put you off shopping there, you didn't report it, the store would have lost business. Though just one customer, how many others have been lost along the way... through various reasons.

 

If the store didn't welcome feedback, thinking those who no longer shop with him must be odd, then he will one day go out of business.

 

Speedway should be worried - not by the hangers on, who no longer go but still retain an interest - but by the masses that can't even be bothered to stick around, perhaps while there was still opportunity to fathom from them just why they jacked it.

 

Some would take the likes of me and oldace up the nearest country lane, deadpan us with a spade, and then bury us somehere in the countryside.

 

But the same people are posssibly having to pay extra to attend, to cover ones that no longer do so. As another season passes, another couple of digits go amiss from the terraces,

 

If previous diehards are called whingers because they become disillusioned by certain things, and then they just vanish from the speedway supporting fraternity, and there's no one else to replace them, then one day the likes of Eastbourne - and their average gates of 770 - will also disappear, with the ex-speedway fan that used to help swell their support to double this figure... and for a meaningless open meet.

 

Many Birmingham fans will feel slightly disilluisoned by last night's events and the thought they had just been the most consistent team all year, yet were elbowed off the silverware. Half a dozen people have given the thumbs up for the Play-Offs, but what about the ones who don't like them?

 

My bet... they will gradually stop attending.

 

The crowds will go up for the Finals, it's an event (or should be), but the bald terrace on regular matchnights tells me all is not well.

 

Open discussion is healthy; hiding your views and thinking the sport is wonderful - it must be, because you still attend... it isn't the solution.

[The White Knight 9,039]

Posts that say the likes of oldace and myself shouldn't be able to have an opinion on the sport because we don't go and watch anymore, is like saying we shouldn't have an opinion on a news story... if we don't buy a paper.

 

That we have watched the sport, shed many of our lifetime hours trudging up and down the roads to support our teams and favourites, that we still have a draw to these websites, doesn't that make us people that should be listened to.

 

We are still clinging on.

 

Alternatively, try discovering the problems with the sport that stopped the people from attending anymore... first, you will have to find the people that can't be arsed even diping into speedway forums, they became so brassed off.

 

If there are three people on this site, no longer attend but post, then just where all the others?

 

If a shop sold you shopped with every day sold you a dodgy pie and it put you off shopping there, you didn't report it, the store would have lost business. Though just one customer, how many others have been lost along the way... through various reasons.

 

If the store didn't welcome feedback, thinking those who no longer shop with him must be odd, then he will one day go out of business.

 

Speedway should be worried - not by the hangers on, who no longer go but still retain an interest - but by the masses that can't even be bothered to stick around, perhaps while there was still opportunity to fathom from them just why they jacked it.

 

Some would take the likes of me and oldace up the nearest country lane, deadpan us with a spade, and then bury us somehere in the countryside.

 

But the same people are posssibly having to pay extra to attend, to cover ones that no longer do so. As another season passes, another couple of digits go amiss from the terraces,

 

If previous diehards are called whingers because they become disillusioned by certain things, and then they just vanish from the speedway supporting fraternity, and there's no one else to replace them, then one day the likes of Eastbourne - and their average gates of 770 - will also disappear, with the ex-speedway fan that used to help swell their support to double this figure... and for a meaningless open meet.

 

Many Birmingham fans will feel slightly disilluisoned by last night's events and the thought they had just been the most consistent team all year, yet were elbowed off the silverware. Half a dozen people have given the thumbs up for the Play-Offs, but what about the ones who don't like them?

 

My bet... they will gradually stop attending.

 

The crowds will go up for the Finals, it's an event (or should be), but the bald terrace on regular matchnights tells me all is not well.

 

Open discussion is healthy; hiding your views and thinking the sport is wonderful - it must be, because you still attend... it isn't the solution.

 

Good Post Moxey63.

 

I am on the verge of joining you and oldace in jacking in going to my local Track. I just cannot stand some of the Rules nowadays. I was seething when I left Newcastle the other Night -

 

WHY THE HELL SHOULD I PAY FOR THAT? !!!

 

Like you - I will still come on here though.

[PHILIPRISING 7,298]

WHAT was the straw that broke the White Knight's back?

[EnglishRoundabout 1,752]

You should come and see the toilet facilities at Swindon. An Elite league club with toilets that hark back to the 1950's....shocking way of treating your customers...

[moxey63 1,785]

Good Post Moxey63.

 

I am on the verge of joining you and oldace in jacking in going to my local Track. I just cannot stand some of the Rules nowadays. I was seething when I left Newcastle the other Night -

 

WHY THE HELL SHOULD I PAY FOR THAT? !!!

 

Like you - I will still come on here though.

 

Don't talk to me about understanding the rules, still trying to fathom the man-o-man KOC heats. That was the closest novelty to having tiggy-hit in speedway.

[Halifaxtiger 5,318]

You're not grasping it at all HalifaxTiger.

 

As Tsunami does you are dismissing the views of those that don't go. The very fact they are still on this forum, the very fact they still enjoy to watch the sport but don't go should ring massive alarm bells. What hope of attracting new fans and keeping them if those who love it aren't going?

 

This isn't speculation or pie in the sky stuff, its reality. Fans have been drifting away from the sport for a long time and they are NOT being replaced. Quite clearly the current strategy is not working.

 

You claim that real speedway die hards wouldn't walk away.. I'm sorry but they do and they have. I know of many, many fans who followed their team for years home and away and wouldn't have ever dreamed of not attending. Slowly they began to be worn down by the corrupt way the sport is run, the antiquated presentation etc. Eventually they reached a breaking point and stopped.

 

I may live in Portugal, Tsunami claims my opinion is no longer valid, but I haven't yet reached that stage. I flew over to see Sam Ermolenko ride in the Joe Hughes Memorial meeting and for the playoffs, attended as many meets as I could when in England at other times of the year... each time I come there are less of the familiar faces who have attended the sport for years before.. and very very few new ones. It's the same old people, another year older, but less of them. THAT is a trend that simply cannot continue.

 

I don't think I have ever been misquoted so many times in one post.

 

I actually stated that you should not ignore feedback from whatever source but what you can ignore is the same feedback from the same source that is made time after time. In addition, those who do not go have the right to comment but their opinion cannot be as valid on many issues as those who do.

 

To illustrate that, how can someone who does not go comment on presentation, track quality, the overall standard of stadiums, whether the toilets are acceptable or a thousand other things that only people who attend would be able to know ?

 

Answer is they can't. They won't know (other than by hearsay) that the standard of presentation at Scunthorpe increased spectacularly this season, that Plymouth have built a terrific new stand, that Kent's stadium could be used for GP's, that the burgers at Berwick are fantastic or that Belle Vue's track has improved beyond recognition. I know all of that is true simply because I have been to all of these stadiums.

 

Where I agree with Tsunami is that it is better to pursue those who have never been before than those who will never come back. Listen to the latter, by all means. But if its not reasonably possible to satisfy their demands, forget them because you will be throwing good money after bad.

 

Were have I said that diehards would not walk away ? I haven't, because I know people like that myself. I merely pointed out that my old mate White Knight (who bends my ear about rulings every time I see him) would have gone by now if it bothered him that much.

 

I think you know that I get exasperated at best by the corrupt practices in the sport and the fact that I believe that many tracks simply do not do everything possible to attract fans. But that will not ever stop me going, because my passion is watching four blokes on bikes without brakes and, as I said before, I never think of the undoubted failings of speedway when the tapes rise and the clutches drop.

 

I also profoundly believe that those who do stop going for the above reasons are, at least to a degree, cutting their nose off to spite their face.

 

What I will admit to very much having trouble grasping is how people who claim to love the sport do nothing but make negative comment about it and never attend meetings. I must admit I am also having trouble grasping the difference between them and those who hate the sport, because isn't that precisely what the latter would do ?

[orion 7,615]

. Half a dozen people have given the thumbs up for the Play-Offs, but what about the ones who don't like them?

 

 

Most of them won't be around for long I expect .

[BWitcher 12,453]

 

 

I don't think I have ever been misquoted so many times in one post.

 

I actually stated that you should not ignore feedback from whatever source but what you can ignore is the same feedback from the same source that is made time after time. In addition, those who do not go have the right to comment but their opinion cannot be as valid on many issues as those who do.

 

To illustrate that, how can someone who does not go comment on presentation, track quality, the overall standard of stadiums, whether the toilets are acceptable or a thousand other things that only people who attend would be able to know ?

 

Answer is they can't. They won't know (other than by hearsay) that the standard of presentation at Scunthorpe increased spectacularly this season, that Plymouth have built a terrific new stand, that Kent's stadium could be used for GP's, that the burgers at Berwick are fantastic or that Belle Vue's track has improved beyond recognition. I know all of that is true simply because I have been to all of these stadiums.

 

Where I agree with Tsunami is that it is better to pursue those who have never been before than those who will never come back. Listen to the latter, by all means. But if its not reasonably possible to satisfy their demands, forget them because you will be throwing good money after bad.

 

Were have I said that diehards would not walk away ? I haven't, because I know people like that myself. I merely pointed out that my old mate White Knight (who bends my ear about rulings every time I see him) would have gone by now if it bothered him that much.

 

I think you know that I get exasperated at best by the corrupt practices in the sport and the fact that I believe that many tracks simply do not do everything possible to attract fans. But that will not ever stop me going, because my passion is watching four blokes on bikes without brakes and, as I said before, I never think of the undoubted failings of speedway when the tapes rise and the clutches drop.

 

I also profoundly believe that those who do stop going for the above reasons are, at least to a degree, cutting their nose off to spite their face.

 

What I will admit to very much having trouble grasping is how people who claim to love the sport do nothing but make negative comment about it and never attend meetings. I must admit I am also having trouble grasping the difference between them and those who hate the sport, because isn't that precisely what the latter would do ?

 

 

You're claiming the 'same old feedback' shouldn't be listened too. That's ridiculous!

 

The question should be asked is WHY we keep hearing the same old feedback. It isn't just from a few old timers who don't go but from regular fans who attended every week and now only go occasionally also.

 

I totally utterly disagree with your end hypothesis too. I would ask if you love the sport, why do you sit by and accept the way it is run. Folk aren't making negative comments about 'speedway' per se, they are making negative comments about the inept way it is run, the poor presentation, the ever increasing cost, the ever increasing use of RR/guests/double uppers, the awful fixture list, the corrupt decisions.

 

Many of those making negative comments do so because they love the sport and it angers them to see the way it is being run into the ground.

 

 

[The White Knight 9,039]

WHAT was the straw that broke the White Knight's back?

 

The Double Points Rule in the Newcastle v. Somerset Meeting Philip. I have no complaints about Somerset beating us over the two Legs. My problem was that because we never got so far behind Somerset at their place, we could not use the Tactical Ride. They then come to Brough Park with TWO chances of using it, which they did once. They were right to do so, it was in the Rules and THAT is the crux of my argument. Somerset were GIVEN an UNFAIR advantage over a Team that had a mountain to climb anyway. How can that be right?

 

I can no longer continue supporting a Sport that I can't believe in. The various stupid Rules are slowly killing our beloved Sport - I know some on here agree with me and I know of others who have left because of the Rules. Those who deny this on here are, in my opinion, simply deluded. Speedway should be encouraging people to attend Meetings in greater numbers. Tell me Philip - how can they do that when the very Sport itself has lost it's credibility.

 

Play Offs, Double Points etc. are WRONG as far as I am concerned - I get angry and upset every time Double Points is used whether it be against my Team - or that of the opposition.

 

 

Sorry to go through this again - but - you did ask.

[orion 7,615]

 

Play Offs, Double Points etc. are WRONG as far as I am concerned - I get angry and upset every time Double Points is used whether it be against my Team - or that of the opposition.

 

 

Sorry to go through this again - but - you did ask.

First of all why are you going to a play off match as you dislike them so much ? no doubt you never got angry when old the tac sub rule was used ...I thought you said that is was just as bad or have you forgotten ?