Sky Sports New Deal

[Star Fever 274]

 

You MAY have to wait until the Tapes go up for the first Meeting to make up your mind then.

 

The Advance Publicity is APPALLING!!! :mad:

 

Exactly

[weatherwatcher 664]

I don't think that showing speedway on Sky makes one iota's diffence to crowd figures. It is on team on one night and if it is not your club on that night you will turn up on your local stadium to watch your team race that is if you are a true fan. Ok like many I have.t the spare cash to go to every race at home and I am not in a postion to go to away matches due to ill health.

If you where a true supportwer and it was your clubs turn to be shown on sky then either record it or watch it the day afyer that way you get to watch the racing twice or more. One the one at the track that is the real speedway with all the thrills spills and the smells and bells. All be it a cold shivery expirence. But if the racing is half good then you forget about the cold until you are on your way home.

I for one love to watch it on tv and love it even more watching it live at my local stadium. So no I don't think that the tv coverage has done any harm to the droping figures at the stadiums just a changing world, where people now have so much going on in thier lives that very few people, have an interest in our sport.

I for one have a feeling of going back in time when I went to Cradley Heath and Long Eaton now that I have my 9 year old grandson at my side. He loves the sport at the moment but I don't know if it will be that way when he gets to the age when he finds out about girls and he wants to go out with his mates on a race night. I can live in hope.

The only thing that has changes is peoples life styles.

It is a bit like our old corner shops.

[NIGE9359 8]

If there is a new deal, I hope (but I don't expect) that the promoters have told sky that clubs want to hold their meetings on their normal race night rather than sky browbeating them into always changing to monday nights.

 

Maybe then the "live" attendances would look better - I know a lot of people who can't get to the track on mondays as they have other things to do but never miss a meeting on normal race night

[The White Knight 9,039]

If there is a new deal, I hope (but I don't expect) that the promoters have told sky that clubs want to hold their meetings on their normal race night rather than sky browbeating them into always changing to monday nights.

 

Maybe then the "live" attendances would look better - I know a lot of people who can't get to the track on mondays as they have other things to do but never miss a meeting on normal race night

 

You don't really think SKY gives a toss about that do you? :rolleyes:

 

As long as their schedules are filled - they couldn't care less. :angry:

Edited January 26, 2014 by The White Knight

[george.m 3,063]

 

You don't really think SKY gives a toss about that do you? :rolleyes:

 

As long as their schedules are filled - they couldn't care less. :angry:

Of course they don't care TWK.

Between themselves, Sunderland and Man Utd they manufactured Sunderland's successful passage into the Capital One cup final just to wind you up even more!

[Tsunami 10,219]

 

You MAY have to wait until the Tapes go up for the first Meeting to make up your mind then.

 

The Advance Publicity is APPALLING!!! :mad:

Over the top responce.

 

The advance publicity is not Appalling, it is absent and you already know why. See this thread.

As you said yesterday 12 more weeks to go, and you don't get adverts for football or any sport with that lead time.

[Skidder1 7,658]

Over the top responce.

 

The advance publicity is not Appalling, it is absent and you already know why. See this thread.

As you said yesterday 12 more weeks to go, and you don't get adverts for football or any sport with that lead time.

Except for the Sky promos for their Summer Sports coverage.........!

[Tsunami 10,219]

Except for the Sky promos for their Summer Sports coverage.........!

Yes, the general one only.

[stevebrum 6,829]

don't think I actually blamed sky, I maybe should of said sky hasn't increased attendances

What about the meetings advertised as £10 that SKY covered that were very well attended?

Would promotions have dared to try without SKY?

[Conkers in Gravy 120]

If there is a new deal, I hope (but I don't expect) that the promoters have told sky that clubs want to hold their meetings on their normal race night rather than sky browbeating them into always changing to monday nights.

 

Maybe then the "live" attendances would look better - I know a lot of people who can't get to the track on mondays as they have other things to do but never miss a meeting on normal race night

 

I know it's a pain when meetings are moved around for TV, but every other sport has the same issue - even :Premier League football - so I reckon we'll have to put up with Monday nights.

[The White Knight 9,039]

What about the meetings advertised as £10 that SKY covered that were very well attended?

Would promotions have dared to try without SKY?

 

I asked this question a while ago steve - nobody answered it.

 

IF SKY was so good for Speedway - why have Gates gone down in the last FIFTEEN Years and not up. Fifteen years being the length of time Speedway has been broadcast.

 

You would have thought that if our Sport showcasing on SKY was doing the job of getting Speedway in to the General Public's eye - that Gates would have gone UP!!

 

It patently obviously hasn't. Sadly.

[stevebrum 6,829]

I asked this question a while ago steve - nobody answered it.

 

IF SKY was so good for Speedway - why have Gates gone down in the last FIFTEEN Years and not up. Fifteen years being the length of time Speedway has been broadcast.

 

You would have thought that if our Sport showcasing on SKY was doing the job of getting Speedway in to the General Public's eye - that Gates would have gone UP!!

 

It patently obviously hasn't. Sadly.

My point is how do we know gates have gone down BECAUSE of SKY?

Attendances were falling before SKY came on board so it is obvious that its part of a pattern that was forming before their involvement.

It doesn't even bear to think what a state our sport would be in if SKY weren't involved.

SKY have made Speedway visible. Plenty of sports fans have an idea what Speedway is these days.

SO, who`s job is to ensure we get people coming through the turnstiles because of this visibility??

NOT SKY - that is down to our governing body, no one else.

 

Thank god for SKY at least for keeping our sport visible and recognising what a great product it is.

[manchesterpaul 447]

My point is how do we know gates have gone down BECAUSE of SKY?

Attendances were falling before SKY came on board so it is obvious that its part of a pattern that was forming before their involvement.

It doesn't even bear to think what a state our sport would be in if SKY weren't involved.

SKY have made Speedway visible. Plenty of sports fans have an idea what Speedway is these days.

SO, who`s job is to ensure we get people coming through the turnstiles because of this visibility??

NOT SKY - that is down to our governing body, no one else.

 

Thank god for SKY at least for keeping our sport visible and recognising what a great product it is.

 

I agree strongly with the above and have pointed that out elsewhere before. Also the same can be applied to the Sky Sports viewing figures. I'm sure many households have had to cut back by discontinuing their subscription to various movie and sports channels.

 

If you go back to the 70's and compare sports attendances to today there has been a drastic drop with many of them, major and minor. Whilst football crowds are now rising, especially in the lower divisions - possibly due to one hell of a lot more TV exposure of those leagues? - there was a long period after the 70's where even crowds in the top division were very poor to years gone by. When i was little lower levels of the football league had regular five-figure crowds. That all disappeared upon the arrival of the new leisure/electronic age.

 

You can often turn on the tv and witness major athletic competitions and a host of other sports in near deserted stadiums and that despite the vast publicity the 'major' sports receive in all aspects of the media. I can assure you speedway isn't alone in the 'one man and his dog' syndrome. I'm just glad that speedway doesn't have the agreement in place that American Football has where unless around 100% of all tickets have been sold for the game then it is blacked out on local tv!

 

Does anyone remember when Rugby League was first shown on tv, either regional or BBC 2 at something like 11pm at night, WOW! totally deserted terraces many a time and YES! honestly i did once see a man and his dog at one ground lol, Just shows you though how sports can be turned around when you look at Rugby League these days.

 

Also going back to speedway in the 70's when mundane weekly meetings had attendances way higher than tracks can attract for their best of the season nowadays, the vast majority of the general public didn't know speedway existed. Some will disagree but i strongly ascertain that more people have caught sight of the sport and are aware of it's existence nowadays due to Sky Sports and also now with Eurosport coming on the scene. There was no weekly speedway on tv all season either domestic or international. Often we had just the one-off world final in a given year, maybe sometimes a couple more but always highlights up to a week later, NEVER any LIVE meetings.

 

The only times that Sky Sports has had a damaging effect are twofold, firstly, when we had a season or two with the most dire processional racing in televised meetings, often due to rain. Sadly the main reason is because of the striving to get more and more powerful bikes and technical advantages making our sport become more and more like F1 where it's the machine and not the rider's skill that wins the races.

 

The second thing that doesn't help the sport is when you get Pearson and Tatum going delirious with excitement and screaming when there clearly ain't all that much at all going on in a race, or when they make out a rider is about to overtake when it is clear from every single lap of every preceding race all night long that due to the track a rider will NOT be passing. This gives the casual viewer an instant opinion of "if that's the best the sport can offer i for one am switching channels and for sure never ever going to attend a speedway meeting". Don't want to divert this into a commentator's thread so i'll quickly balance by noting that both commentators do have the sport's best interest at heart.

Edited January 27, 2014 by manchesterpaul

[The White Knight 9,039]

My point is how do we know gates have gone down BECAUSE of SKY?

Attendances were falling before SKY came on board so it is obvious that its part of a pattern that was forming before their involvement.

It doesn't even bear to think what a state our sport would be in if SKY weren't involved.

SKY have made Speedway visible. Plenty of sports fans have an idea what Speedway is these days.

SO, who`s job is to ensure we get people coming through the turnstiles because of this visibility??

NOT SKY - that is down to our governing body, no one else.

 

Thank god for SKY at least for keeping our sport visible and recognising what a great product it is.

 

The alternative view to that, of course, is that SKY have also facilitated people watching Speedway from their armchairs. This saves them the bother of getting off their backsides and going to a Meeting. Ergo - less money through the Gates. IF, as is rumoured, SKY are NOT paying anything for the privilege of showING our wonderful Sport - then I fail to see where the benefit TO Speedway is to result.

 

If it's NOT coming through the Gates because folk can stay at home and watch it on Television, and it's NOT coming from the Television Company - PLEASE someone explain the benefit of showing Speedway on the Television and how it BENEFITS materially our Sport.

 

FOR THE LIFE OF ME - I JUST CAN'T SEE IT!!!

[TesarRacing 1,825]

My point is how do we know gates have gone down BECAUSE of SKY?

Attendances were falling before SKY came on board so it is obvious that its part of a pattern that was forming before their involvement.

It doesn't even bear to think what a state our sport would be in if SKY weren't involved.

SKY have made Speedway visible. Plenty of sports fans have an idea what Speedway is these days.

SO, who`s job is to ensure we get people coming through the turnstiles because of this visibility??

NOT SKY - that is down to our governing body, no one else.

 

Thank god for SKY at least for keeping our sport visible and recognising what a great product it is.

Good post.

I think it is impossible to quantify how Sky has affected speedway in the UK since it has been televising it as you say, it was in decline before Sky came on the scene.

 

My personal view and it is a guess, is that may well have been finished as a league sport in this country by now without Sky.

 

I have some mates that are MotoGP/roadracing fans and they started watching speedway on the TV about 10 years ago and are now regular viewers and also go to Brandon 7 or 8 times a season and they see the sport as very exciting. They came with me to watch it a few times many years ago but it took the regular viewing on the TV to get them hooked. Perhaps we underestimate this element of it being live on TV?