Woz01 3,589 Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) Disappointed about the queue,,, was to be expected though, especially at speedway Disappointed that the majority of the Bees didn't wear their Coventry race suits that they've been bitching on about so much that they've had to pay for Disappointed that (if true) nobody wanted to come out for Heat 15, again riders bitching on about they haven't got a job for 1 or 2 months until they're fixed up... the fans have lost a whole club! Disappointed that there's no Bees in 2017 I bet Garrity would've if it wasn't for that blown engine! I think the campaign wanted their own race jackets for these challenge meetings so it didn't really matter what Kevlars the riders chose to wear. Edited March 20, 2017 by woz01 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Theboss 727 Posted March 20, 2017 Why didn't they want to race in heat 15? Hey Jonathan, you say £2.70 is too much for a programme, the ones at PK's Farewell were a fiver! Needless to say I didn't buy one .... I would imagine PK went to town of his one.... however everything has a value and obviously you felt that was not good value so you didn't buy one. Promoters need to learn that it is better to sell more of something at a lower price than it is to sell less of something at a higher price! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bigcatdiary 3,165 Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) I had an enjoyable afternoon due to the effort all the riders put in to produce some great racing, although the rest of the package emphasised why Speedway is not moving forward: 1. Car Parking - No reason to charge for this, I can guarantee this is included in the rent the Panthers pay the showground and whilst it may only be £1 it annoyed me and I am sure many other's would have been also. Why, quite a few tracks charge for this and with Peterborough it's generally a proper car park, some others charge you to park in a field. 2. Queues - First meeting of season which to me means they had 6 months to prepare for it so NO excuses. Ged may have walked along the queue for 10 minutes to apologise but his time would have been better spent getting the other 2 turnstiles open. I watched with bewilderment as 2 people closed 2 of the turnstiles to help open the extra ones before returning ten minutes later.... sort of going against logic. Bottom line is they should have known the Bees would be well supported and should have been prepared. Failing to plan is preparing to fail. Jonathan I go to Lynn regularly and you Always queue to get in, let's be honest this was meeting 1 of 2017 and the world and his brother turned up. 3. Programme - Why charge £2.70? Surely speedway has learnt by now that £2 is the MOST you can charge without making people feel overcharged. At £2 I would have bought 2 but at £2.70 I bought none and instead kept check of race line ups on the 'speedway updates' website from my phone. I know some will point out that if I was happy to spend £4 on two why didn't i spend £2.70 on one, but bottom line is I hate feeling like I am being overcharged and want VFM on every pound I spend. Fair point. 4. Food & Drink - Probably not directly related to the promotion but again prices were OTT and not VFM. It's nothing to do with the Peterborough promotion as you probably know. 5. Presentation - I was actually impressed with the quality of the sound system in the main stand and found the interviews not too bad (although many rather depressing), however the music playlist was shocking. Here we are in 2017 and yet I thought I felt like I was in a 1980's social club. 6. Information - For whatever reason we was all left wondering what the hell was happening between heats 14 and 15 and for that there can be no excuse, it certainly annoyed me and many others around. It annoyed everyone, apparently some of the Coventry team needed persuading. I want the Panthers to succeed and felt overall I was happy to spend my money on the afternoon, however they need to up their game if they want to encourage newcomers to return. Comments in field I was there early and had the joy of standing around for 40 minutes bored. So to then have to endure a prolonged introduction of riders with sound bite interviews about how sad everyone is when we were told the meeting was being brought forward to allow us to get to Wolves it was a bit of a piss take! As for Peterborough York, I've learned to block to idiot out. I though the one positive of losing Brandon would be losing him :/ I was their at the opening of the gates (1030) it always amuses me that meetings are delayed a lot of the time because clearly people cannot be bothered to get to the meeting in plenty of time. As for letting York have time on the microphone words fail me. Edited March 20, 2017 by bigcatdiary Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Shovlar 10,439 Posted March 20, 2017 Meetings need to start on time. Delayed starts are frustrating for those already in the stadium. Start the meeting and open another turnstile if necessary. But start on time. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Woz01 3,589 Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) I got into the stadium just after 11 and there was one window open with 2 ladies working, there was also another window with someone inside but wasn't open. Also there were selling programmes at the turnstile, I think it would help if there was a seperate place to purchase programmes. Still I don't want to knock it too much as I had an excellent day. Edited March 20, 2017 by woz01 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stevebrum 6,821 Posted March 20, 2017 Hey Jonathan, you say £2.70 is too much for a programme, the ones at PK's Farewell were a fiver! Needless to say I didn't buy one .... Then you missed out on a treat. More than double the amount of pages with some excellent pictures, coverage and interviews that made it a superb read. I know if people that have already ordered one who couldn't make the meeting. Much larger in size than usual, this was a top class programme by any standard. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shale Searcher 1,264 Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) Then you missed out on a treat. More than double the amount of pages with some excellent pictures, coverage and interviews that made it a superb read. I know if people that have already ordered one who couldn't make the meeting. Much larger in size than usual, this was a top class programme by any standard. Perhaps promotions ought to also supply as an alternative, a simple A4 racecard, with just basic content. Team's, Meeting Races, Track Details, Track Record... Charge a nominal fee of 20p.... I think filling in a Racecard is an integral part of the enjoyment for a good percentage of attending fans... The full souvenir programmes are more suited to the full time followers.... If a hundred buy the simple racecard, as apposed to buying nothing, that's better than losing revenue of 100 x 20p who buy nowt.. Just my opinion.. Edited March 20, 2017 by Shale Searcher Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gemini 4,894 Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) I got into the stadium just after 11 and there was one window open with 2 ladies working, there was also another window with someone inside but wasn't open. Also there were selling programmes at the turnstile, I think it would help if there was a seperate place to purchase programmes. Still I don't want to knock it too much as I had an excellent day. We got there about 10.15am and went in just after 11am. Like you say there were 2 ladies working but another box/window there which I presumed was for season ticket holders? Hopefully they used this after the queues started getting bigger. Regarding programmes I was actually pleased they were sold at the same time so I didn't have to queue up somewhere else to get one. Must admit delaying the start was a bit irritating as we'd got there early enough travelling from Leicester and then wonder why others can't do the same, but this was an exceptionally big crowd so I can understand now that they probably did but there just weren't enough turnstiles open to cope. ......Shale Searcher.......Perhaps promotions ought to also supply as an alternative, a simple A4 racecard, with just basic content. Team's, Meeting Races, Track Details, Track Record...Charge a nominal fee of 20p....I think filling in a Racecard is an integral part of the enjoyment for a good percentage of attending fans... The full souvenir programmes are more suited to the full time followers.... Just my opinion.. Mine too. I stopped buying programmes long ago because they just get chucked in the bin afterwards and the money I save goes towards my petrol getting to the meeting. I usually print my own if I can find out the team order, which is usually hard because promoters go out of their way to make it difficult .. I actually bought one yesterday but then had to write all the names in the one I'd printed for my husband. Oh well it gave me something to do after the start time was delayed. Edited March 20, 2017 by Gemini 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stevebrum 6,821 Posted March 20, 2017 Perhaps promotions ought to also supply as an alternative, a simple A4 racecard, with just basic content. Team's, Meeting Races, Track Details, Track Record... Charge a nominal fee of 20p.... I think filling in a Racecard is an integral part of the enjoyment for a good percentage of attending fans... The full souvenir programmes are more suited to the full time followers.... If a hundred buy the simple racecard, as apposed to buying nothing, that's better than losing revenue of 100 x 20p who buy nowt.. Just my opinion.. Good idea. People should be able to walk into any speedway office and buy a race formula for a nominal charge. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shale Searcher 1,264 Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) Good idea. People should be able to walk into any speedway office and buy a race formula for a nominal charge. Some would buy both, and keep the souvenir programme in Mint condition, and insert the completed racecard, for posterity.. Or fill in the basic racecard, then copy the results into the souvenir programme at home, minus any errors, so do have a couple of secondary uses... Edited March 20, 2017 by Shale Searcher 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
uk_martin 1,606 Posted March 20, 2017 Perhaps promotions ought to also supply as an alternative, a simple A4 racecard, with just basic content. Team's, Meeting Races, Track Details, Track Record... Charge a nominal fee of 20p.... I think filling in a Racecard is an integral part of the enjoyment for a good percentage of attending fans...If a hundred buy the simple racecard, as apposed to buying nothing, that's better than losing revenue of 100 x 20p who buy nowt.. Just my opinion.. An awful lot of fuss for the sake of 100 x 20p = £20.00 of revenue. And what if you were to charge 20p? All you'd get is the usual suspects on BSF complaining about 20p for an A4 sheet of paper that they can download for free off BSF...You (nobody) can win with this matter. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Theboss 727 Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) Perhaps promotions ought to also supply as an alternative, a simple A4 racecard, with just basic content. Team's, Meeting Races, Track Details, Track Record... Charge a nominal fee of 20p.... I think filling in a Racecard is an integral part of the enjoyment for a good percentage of attending fans... The full souvenir programmes are more suited to the full time followers.... If a hundred buy the simple racecard, as apposed to buying nothing, that's better than losing revenue of 100 x 20p who buy nowt.. Just my opinion.. For a couple of years at Lynn I wanted to keep the costs of programmes down so decided to produce in house an A3 full colour print out which was folded twice so it looked like a normal programme, and sold this for just £1. I basically cut out all advertising (apart from race sponsors) so all nearly all the content from a 16 page programme was squeezed in. Because it was printed at the stadium on the day of the racing the team line ups were right 99% of the time. I measured success in the amount we sold which was around 700 for every 1000 people attending compared to 450 previously. Feedback from hardcare fans was negative because they like the traditional programme, however the numbers did not lie and I felt it helped keep costs for fans down which could also have been contributing to the growing gates. Not sure what format was reverted to after I left the club. It was a shame Speedway Star review always placed it last as they clearly had no commercial awareness and never asked me once the reasons behind the design. ps Sheffield used to produce racecards many moons ago to give away for free with admission, a great idea by Machin at the time! Don't put that on TripAdvisor..No one will come! That is the point Lukas, we live in a world where people DO post their reviews on their experiences and have every right to. I have noticed a significant improvement in customer service at restaurants over the years and I put this down to the influence of reviews on sites such as Tripadvisor, basically managers know they can not risk a bad review so bend over backwards to make sure EVERY customer has a good experience. In my opinion supporters are constantly blackmailed by clubs to bring friends along or the club may not survive another season, shame they do not get things right so we are bringing friends along for the right reasons, just like when you invite friends out for a meal at a good restaurant. Comments in field Big Cat, in response to those comments may I ask if 'well they did it so that makes it ok for us to do it' is really a good argument for anything in life? I do not expect to pay for parking anywhere except where land/space is at a premium eg a city centre. I can not comment on anything at Lynn in past 4 years as I have not been there but before that the queue always moved fast and only a small handful of occasions was a start delayed by 10 minutes because of it. The crowd was not as big as you make out and fact is they failed to plan otherwise they would have had the other windows prepped and opened before the queue developed. Lets hope they learn from it. Edited March 20, 2017 by jchapman Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stevebrum 6,821 Posted March 20, 2017 Some would buy both, and keep the souvenir programme in Mint condition, and insert the completed racecard, for posterity.. Or fill in the basic racecard, then copy the results into the souvenir programme at home, minus any errors, so do have a couple of secondary uses... Would seem a win win to me. Of course people can just download and print off their own sheets if cost bothers them that much. I prefer a programme and it's all part of the experience to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Panthers89 1,922 Posted March 20, 2017 TBH I don't even bother with programmes where ever I go. Internet, and also being sad to know who will be in what heat anyway. Parking is down to showground I believe, as that's been asked before, and its beyond Geds control. Food has and will always be overpriced, again, the showground, no options either. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iainb 5,016 Posted March 20, 2017 it didn't really matter what Kevlars the riders chose to wear. I disagree... when you're fighting a campaign for the identity of a club, the least they could have done was turn up in team colours with that race jacket worn over the top from what I saw of the programme... I saw it over somebody's shoulder... it even had a column by the club mascots, pinky and perky or whatever their names are... £2.70 well saved I'd say Also, another annoyance... was told to sit down by the H&S Nazi's on patrol, I generally like to stand at the top of the stand out of everybody's way, have always done this at Peterborough... and now apparently it's not safe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
