How Do We Attract A New Young Audience?

[secretagentmole 2]

Perhaps just promote it a bit more, I am sure most residents of West Norfolk are not even aware of the existence of the Lynn track for Banger racing let alone speedway (I am a Fen Tigers man myself).

The events are hardly listed in bold print in the local newspaper, hell I think it is just an inside the pages job, not a back page special. When a meet is on I don't hear about it on the local radio, it is very much to the "them that know about it".

 

They need posters in the town centre when a match is on, they need articles in the newspaper, on the radio, get them hooked. Emphasise the closeness of the competition.

 

It is noisy enough, it does smell enough.

 

There are families come at Mildenhall, heck there was even a young girl practising on the track after the Challenge meet! But Mildenhall should target the local air bases (Lakenheath and Mildenhall), let them know when the short track is on, hell the Yanks love speedway! A couple of quid off for serving personnel and there would be a good few more in there!

 

Bored of no overtaking during a race? Want to hear a roar from the engines? Want to see shoulder to shoulder gladiatorial action? Want to watch someone drift a bike round a corner? Speedway!

[THE DEAN MACHINE 4,756]

THE following is part of a pice I wrote for Speedway Star this week. Comments?

 

THE biggest conundrum facing the current crop of British promoters is how to attract more people through their turnstiles and especially those of a younger generation.

Speedway Star has a vested interest in this.. to be fair the polish crowds all seem to be young , so for all its faults and it has a few polish speedway seems to have the answers and they don't buy programmes either

Edited September 28, 2016 by THE DEAN MACHINE

[Boffy 84]

Tai Woffinden is the most marketable personality speedway has had in this country for years....Yet all I see is the older fans moaning about his appearance, his loyalty to the flag and occasional swear word !

 

He doesn`t need British speedway...but British speedway really needs him !

Listen to what he says about track preparation..race nights..young British riders being put on a fitness program.

 

Above all he interacts with the young fans and goes out of his way to promote the sport.

 

British speedway needs to listen and learn....or its going to fade away

[moxey63 1,785]

"Just promote it a bit more," call the fans. Then the crowds will come flocking back.

But it isn't that simple. We are being forced-fed so many things we should try these days and speedway surely has had its best days at dragging them in.

Fans demand that everyone who hasn't seen speedway must like it, they just need showing what it is. It is a "I like it, everyone will;" scenario.

But just tune yourself away from being a fan for one moment. The SKY channels are on and a new sport is on in the background. Do you cock up your head and take notice, put down what you are doing and begin to swat up on this new-found thing you didn't know about? I doubt very much. Those that go fishing are probably having the same argument... "Why don't we see more about fishing?" they wonder.

One of the joys of my cottoning on to speedway was that I found it myself, by accident. Nobody was there, prodding me towards the nearest track. But then I spent my early years bemoaning the fact that it wasn't covered enough!

A post further back on this thread refers to riders, 20 years ago, that mingled in the bar with fans. But 20 years ago we were in a dire old strait. We asked the same questions then. And, don't forget, the sport didn't have all the lavish coverage from satellite channels it has now, all that publicity. And people call for more coverage to entice new fans! The new age of speedway live on that box in the corner came at the same time people had more thing to do, as always through the speedway ages.

There is no quick answer.. maybe there isn't an answer. But for a sport that needs more fans, it certainly has enough clubs running every week for seven months with the ones it has.

In politics, this week Labour has told its members to be ready for a snap election. Well, speedway must be ready for its next trickle of new fans, and must shake itself down and sort out the rules, regs etc, and try and act as if it want to keep any new fan it may attract.

Waste of time, a new fan turning up, and watching more tractor activity than actual speedway bikes.

Edited September 29, 2016 by moxey63

[CookieIpswich 249]

British Speedway needs BT Sport - SKY Sports is the wrong platform

[RPNY 608]

In what way? Not being facetious, I don't live in the UK anymore so it's hard to see the different coverage from the 2 channels...

[Skid Sprocket 243]

A couple of times, without reaction, I have suggested that local schools compete to design next seasons posters during the close season. This would create interest and discussion through research for the design with complimentary tickets for competition entrants.

 

Has anything like this been tried before, any thoughts?

My thinking when resurrecting this thread was what can individual supporters do rather than what promoters etc should be doing.

[uk_martin 1,606]

How about this for an idea...

 

Put on a competition between local schools/colleges for who can produce the best promotional video. Allow groups of students access to the pits, the centre green and anywhere else where they need to go. Schools / colleges can enter as many teams as their arts / media dept can support. Whilst filming, their classmates can also enjoy free admission to the tracks too.

 

Teams can get top tips by having "field trips" to speedway video production studios (e.g. ReRun, Clean Cut etc etc) and maybe Tatum & Pearson can pull some strings and arrange visits to the local BBC / Sky production facilities.

 

Winning videos can be shown on speedway web sites, and maybe also the local BBC and SkySports TV and web sites too.

 

There'll be plenty there to get the educational value that the schools / colleges would want and plenty of opportunities for the students to get hooked on the sport. Most importantly also is that these students are in the age group that are a year or two from being full fare admission payers, which is what the promoters need to make the sport sustainable. A big plus compared to the usual "kids in pushchairs go free" schemes.

 

Only snag I see with this plan is that Terry Russell (Slow Speed International Ltd) will play his copyright hand, won't he, as he owns the media rights of all audio and video shot at speedway tracks? Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

[Skid Sprocket 243]

How about this for an idea...

 

Put on a competition between local schools/colleges for who can produce the best promotional video. Allow groups of students access to the pits, the centre green and anywhere else where they need to go. Schools / colleges can enter as many teams as their arts / media dept can support. Whilst filming, their classmates can also enjoy free admission to the tracks too.

 

Teams can get top tips by having "field trips" to speedway video production studios (e.g. ReRun, Clean Cut etc etc) and maybe Tatum & Pearson can pull some strings and arrange visits to the local BBC / Sky production facilities.

 

Winning videos can be shown on speedway web sites, and maybe also the local BBC and SkySports TV and web sites too.

 

There'll be plenty there to get the educational value that the schools / colleges would want and plenty of opportunities for the students to get hooked on the sport. Most importantly also is that these students are in the age group that are a year or two from being full fare admission payers, which is what the promoters need to make the sport sustainable. A big plus compared to the usual "kids in pushchairs go free" schemes.

 

Only snag I see with this plan is that Terry Russell (Slow Speed International Ltd) will play his copyright hand, won't he, as he owns the media rights of all audio and video shot at speedway tracks? Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

WOW, now that is a plan.

Isn't it in Terry Russell's interest to see the sport grow?

[New Science 1,059]

Tai Woffinden is the most marketable personality speedway has had in this country for years....Yet all I see is the older fans moaning about his appearance, his loyalty to the flag and occasional swear word !

 

He doesn`t need British speedway...but British speedway really needs him !

Listen to what he says about track preparation..race nights..young British riders being put on a fitness program.

 

Above all he interacts with the young fans and goes out of his way to promote the sport.

 

British speedway needs to listen and learn....or its going to fade away

Dear Elite League, Please set your league up it to suit me. and some of my fellow GP mercenries alone

Maximum of 14 meetings a year only. Any more is burnout

Single race night as long as its not Tuesday , Friday, Saturday or Sunday , I'm doing other stuff

Oodles of cash, make it worth my while.

If not then stuff the Elite league, stuff the World Cup and stuff your training schools.

Yours sincerely Tai Woffinden.

PS if my Polish and Swedish clubs might happen to miss the play offs then forget the above and I'm available in September

[moxey63 1,785]

Dear Elite League, Please set your league up it to suit me. and some of my fellow GP mercenries alone

Maximum of 14 meetings a year only. Any more is burnout

Single race night as long as its not Tuesday , Friday, Saturday or Sunday , I'm doing other stuff

Oodles of cash, make it worth my while.

If not then stuff the Elite league, stuff the World Cup and stuff your training schools.

Yours sincerely Tai Woffinden.

PS if my Polish and Swedish clubs might happen to miss the play offs then forget the above and I'm available in September

 

Tai... is that you?

[uk_martin 1,606]

Isn't it in Terry Russell's interest to see the sport grow?

 

Sadly time has proven that Terry Russell's only interest, duty and loyalty is to his own wallet.

[CookieIpswich 249]

British Speedway need BT Sport to potentially boost interest for the following reasons...

 

SKY Sports is simply all about Premier League Football with most other additional sports added to the channel just fillers apart from the major events like the Ryder Cup etc. Speedway means nothing to Sky Sports and the money that Sky Sports invest in Speedway is nothing to them either - Also looking at other sports that Sky offer, there is no reference in comparison to Speedway.

 

BT Sport currently have the Speedway Grand Prix, they have MotoGP and may well be title sponsor of a Moto3 team next year, I believe MotoGP after Football is the 2nd biggest audience for them - so Speedway needs to sit alongside the other two-wheeled sport on offer on that platform, if you are watching Ryder Cup on Sky with Speedway to follow you switch off - If you watch MotoGP on BT Sport with Speedway to follow I am sure a % may well at least watch the first few races and thats where you capture a new audience.

 

Going with BT Sports and giving the sport a fresh face would be idea but only if the Sport is changed in line with a new era, a move to BT Sport cannot paper over the cracks of British Speedway.

 

BT have recently taken on other minority sports such as Cage Warriors who circa 30,000 viewers per event.

 

BT would pay for the rights and you could even include BT Mobile as the headline sponsor of the series as well

[Skid Sprocket 243]

How about this for an idea...

 

Put on a competition between local schools/colleges for who can produce the best promotional video. Allow groups of students access to the pits, the centre green and anywhere else where they need to go. Schools / colleges can enter as many teams as their arts / media dept can support. Whilst filming, their classmates can also enjoy free admission to the tracks too.

 

Teams can get top tips by having "field trips" to speedway video production studios (e.g. ReRun, Clean Cut etc etc) and maybe Tatum & Pearson can pull some strings and arrange visits to the local BBC / Sky production facilities.

 

Winning videos can be shown on speedway web sites, and maybe also the local BBC and SkySports TV and web sites too.

 

There'll be plenty there to get the educational value that the schools / colleges would want and plenty of opportunities for the students to get hooked on the sport. Most importantly also is that these students are in the age group that are a year or two from being full fare admission payers, which is what the promoters need to make the sport sustainable. A big plus compared to the usual "kids in pushchairs go free" schemes.

 

Only snag I see with this plan is that Terry Russell (Slow Speed International Ltd) will play his copyright hand, won't he, as he owns the media rights of all audio and video shot at speedway tracks? Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

 

 

 

Rather than take the "Only snag" statement at face value (which may be as you say) I contacted Gospeed and had a very encouraging prompt reply from a Wayne Russell. I very briefly outlined the above plan and he thought it a great idea and would where possible remove any obstacles to allow such a scheme.

I realise that talk is easy and promises can be wriggled out of but maybe, in this case, Gospeed should be given the benefit of doubt. He did say that he assumed it would be a national scheme but I would prefer individual clubs to do their own competition.

Edited September 30, 2016 by Skid Sprocket

[martinmauger 584]

Some kind of promotion, anything, would be a good start. How often do we despair on replying to "speedway, what's that ?". Sigh. A guy at work is into stox and hotrods, well any motorsport really, lived around the corrner from Wimbledon stadium most of his life, untll quite recently, and was completely unaware speedway ever used to run there. Also I'm surprised Woffy's PR haven't gotten him featured in bike / music / lifestyle type of magazine, with his piercings and inkwork he looks more like a heavy metal biker guy than a speedway rider.......