Belle Vue v Peterborough Monday 29th April 7.30pm

[Halifaxtiger 5,318]

6 hours ago, mikebv said:

Interesting to read in the SS the other week that Leicester's Saturday crowds in the 'second division' are up on the Monday crowds they got in the Premiership..

No GP 'superstars' riding there this year yet crowds are up? 

As you say, a Friday or a Saturday would get you at least 600 more I would say,...

Twenty meetings, 600 extra, would equate to 12000 more fans..

At £18 that's over £200k more revenue...

As you say, a great product, but not much use having something so good to sell if your opening times prevent customers from getting there..

Doesnt help itself Speedway sometimes does it?

Adrian Smith said at the pre season fans meeting that in school holidays gates were bigger on Mondays than Fridays. Surprised me, but he did.

That can be the only reason why a lot of the Colts meetings are now on Monday nights.

Its not always the case, then, that weakening the product damages attendances.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Halifaxtiger

[Halifaxtiger 5,318]

5 hours ago, keepturningleft said:

Belle Vue would get my entrance money for nearly every match if it was Friday or Saturday, but sadly Monday nights are hopeless for me...

Me too - I'd buy a season ticket. 

As it is, I'll do all the bank holiday meetings......and the Thursdays.

Later in the week and with just one working day to go (for many) that night for me is far more preferable and it will be interesting to see how it affects attendances. 

 

[mikebv 10,292]

35 minutes ago, Halifaxtiger said:

Adrian Smith said at the pre season fans meeting that in school holidays gates were bigger on Mondays than Fridays. Surprised me, but he did.

That can be the only reason why a lot of the Colts meetings are now on Monday nights.

Its not always the case, then, that weakening the product damages attendances.

Running a shop in Mcr, 1 mile from the NSS. During school hols my trade pattern changes too..

When speaking with my customers (6000 of which are classed as having families thru our database), Fridays seem to be the big change over day at the caravan parks for the weekly holiday makers and those who own their own vans around North Wales, North West coast etc will often go away for long weekends on those ones they haven't hired out..

Therefore they shop with me earlier in the week more and come in on Mondays on their return..

Weekends actually see a drop in footfall during the school hols, unless it's cracking the flags outside!

Bottom line for me though is a simple one...

All motorsports run their offerings at weekend as they know it's the time they can get their best crowds..

Speedway has a 'better idea'...

[ouch 1,191]

This was as close as the last one with the Panthers missing out on the bonus point in a fantastic last heat. 

Ricky’s well known early season form continued with only 3 points and this saw The Aces unable to shake off the Panthers for much of the meeting. 

We dug in later on and got the 3 points we wanted in a safe and entertaining match. Top notch. 

[waytogo28 2,054]

16 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Speedway has a 'better idea'...

And the promoters ( Associated or not ) are convinced they are right. Who are we to argue? How does that saying go " build it and they will come" in this case "put it on on Monday and they are unlikely to come".

[bigcatdiary 3,165]

My first visit to the NSS and it looked a very tidy stadium and track, the track looked grippy early doors but it was clear it was fairly slick and all though a few on here thought the racing was good their was little passing after the first corner.

Trapping was paramount as Tungate clearly showed but him apart we lacked heat winners and that’s what cost us mid meeting.

The meeting was run at a good rate and we were on our way home at just after 9pm.

[Bagpuss 10,784]

1 hour ago, waytogo28 said:

And the promoters ( Associated or not ) are convinced they are right. Who are we to argue? How does that saying go " build it and they will come" in this case "put it on on Monday and they are unlikely to come".

You seem like a man with all the answers, maybe you could tell us all which nights the Premiership should run on and how that would work.

[mikebv 10,292]

43 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

You seem like a man with all the answers, maybe you could tell us all which nights the Premiership should run on and how that would work.

As a starter for ten,  I would suggest running on nights you feel you can deliver the most punters....

For Wolves, as an example, Monday might be their best night so carry on...

For the Aces when we opened the average crowd in year one was circa 1800 riding on a Friday/Saturday..

Therefore, for them, run at Weekends...

A basic principle of buisness is open when your customers want you to open..

Speedway, particularly as something in the entertainment sector, needs to open its doors when the punters want them to, not have an opening hours business plan based on when their employees can make it to work..

As that will never work for ANY business. .

Because it can't..

Edited April 30, 2019 by mikebv

[Phil The Ace 2,860]

31 minutes ago, mikebv said:

As a starter for ten,  I would suggest running on nights you feel you can deliver the most punters....

For Wolves, as an example, Monday might be their best night so carry on...

For the Aces when we opened the average crowd in year one was circa 1800 riding on a Friday/Saturday..

Therefore, for them, run at Weekends...

A basic principle of buisness is open when your customers want you to open..

Speedway, particularly as something in the entertainment sector, needs to open its doors when the punters want them to, not have an opening hours business plan based on when their employees can make it to work..

As that will never work for ANY business. .

Because it can't..

It's a double edged sword weekend racing. It's what fans want, but at the same time the same fans dont want fixture clashes. Missing riders etc. 

 

Clubs need to find a happy medium. What that is I dont know. 

 

But last nights crowd was really bad for a monday. 1200 at most. Even with guests and R/R on a weekend we was getting 1800 average. 

 

That tells me though that weekend racing (with guests etc)  overrides 2 full teams 1-7 on a Monday night 

Edited April 30, 2019 by Phil The Ace

[Sings4Speedway 3,247]

17 hours ago, geoff58 said:

we go because whoever the opposition is or at what level its fantastic stadium to watch quality racing !!

 

3 minutes ago, Phil The Ace said:

It's a double edged sword weekend racing. It's what fans want, but at the same time the same fans dont want fixture clashes. Missing riders etc. 

 

Clubs need to find a happy medium. What that is I dont know. 

 

Buy last nights crowd was really bad for a mo day. 1200 at most. Even with guests and R/R on a weekend we was getting 1800 average. 

 

That tells me though that weekend racing (guests etc)  overrides 2 full teams 1-7 on a Monday night 

Certainly seems like the restrictions on using the race night of choice is hitting some harder than others? Although was last nights attendances affected additionally due to the repetitive nature of the visitors? There has to be an element of fixture planning sense applied at some point as its clearly affecting takings and 1200 weekly doesn't sound like a sustainable model for top flight speedway. 

[waytogo28 2,054]

1 hour ago, Bagpuss said:

You seem like a man with all the answers, maybe you could tell us all which nights the Premiership should run on and how that would work.

Gosh! If I had all the answers I would be even more enlightened than Buster Chapman ( thought to be the saviour of UK speedway by some ) and that would be impossible. We will have to settle for the Chapman & Godfrey way of doing things ( rubber stamped by the other promoters ) until either great expansion or total extinction looms. Will we be jumping up and down a la the Polish terraces or standing knee deep in tumbleweeds?

[acef 795]

25 minutes ago, Phil The Ace said:

It's a double edged sword weekend racing. It's what fans want, but at the same time the same fans dont want fixture clashes. Missing riders etc. 

 

Clubs need to find a happy medium. What that is I dont know. 

 

But last nights crowd was really bad for a monday. 1200 at most. Even with guests and R/R on a weekend we was getting 1800 average. 

 

That tells me though that weekend racing (with guests etc)  overrides 2 full teams 1-7 on a Monday night 

Dont think people are arsed about full teams. Most of the casual people weekend racing attracts know nothing about speedway or have little interest in it. 

As I said in my last post, it's just something to do when nothing else is happening around a weekend period. 

The drop off from the bank holiday fixture vs last night was absolutely huge and that should tell us everything we need.

I'm not saying we will get those bank holiday numbers on a Friday but we will certainly see an increase vs a Monday or a Thursday.

Who is riding matters not imo.

[acef 795]

3 hours ago, ouch said:

This was as close as the last one with the Panthers missing out on the bonus point in a fantastic last heat. 

Ricky’s well known early season form continued with only 3 points and this saw The Aces unable to shake off the Panthers for much of the meeting. 

We dug in later on and got the 3 points we wanted in a safe and entertaining match. Top notch. 

Entertaining although I dont think the racing was all that by the incredibly high standards the NSS generally sets.

Still a sight better than pretty much every other venue though 

[acef 795]

4 hours ago, Halifaxtiger said:

Adrian Smith said at the pre season fans meeting that in school holidays gates were bigger on Mondays than Fridays. Surprised me, but he did.

That can be the only reason why a lot of the Colts meetings are now on Monday nights.

Its not always the case, then, that weakening the product damages attendances.

That's because a lot more happens over weekend periods when the kids are off so that time slot is already spoken for.

Generally a Monday is a really poor day to race for us. 

I dont know how Thursday will work out 

[Aces51 2,778]

2 hours ago, bigcatdiary said:

My first visit to the NSS and it looked a very tidy stadium and track, the track looked grippy early doors but it was clear it was fairly slick and all though a few on here thought the racing was good their was little passing after the first corner.

Trapping was paramount as Tungate clearly showed but him apart we lacked heat winners and that’s what cost us mid meeting.

The meeting was run at a good rate and we were on our way home at just after 9pm.

It's funny the impressions we sometimes get of a meeting. I would have put this down as an average meeting for the NSS, perhaps at the top end of average because of heat 15. However, looking back there were 7 or 8 races where there was passing after the opening bends and heat 13, which was exciting to watch despite there being no passes but very close racing, with quite a few occasions where a pass looked likely. I suspect that fans of many teams would be delighted to see passing in about 50% of races.

Tungate did what we know he can do at the NSS but was the only Peterborough rider to impress. Andersen was solid but far from the Hans of even a few years ago and the rest were poor compared to some of their previous performances at the NSS. Only 4 heat winners tells the story. It's difficult to win if your heat leaders can't win more heats than that.

Bewley was superb, particularly once the dirt moved out, Fricke and Bjerre, not at their unbeatable best but gave true heat leader performances. Worrall and Lidsey did what was expected. Berge saved his night with his heat 14 win but should be doing better at home and Wells went back to his early season form after winning his opening race. Like in the cup meeting the Aces never looked in danger of losing.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Aces51