mikebv

The thing is.... There is a "decent" following for it.... Much greater than the "average" attendance at each track... As is proved each Bank Holiday and during the Play Offs... (And the PCMM also at the NSS).. If the sport could deliver those sizes of crowd levels each meeting during the season, the sport would be in considerably better health.... They just need to find a way of doing it... Getting those who follow the sport closely, but attend infrequently, is a huge market and opportunity to capture and re-engage... The Lakeside example didn't work because it was a one off grand gesture, and you don't win lifetime loyalty using such techniques... Glasgow show that getting people to attend several times before having to pay is a mechanic that does work, as they will have started to buy into the sport, and maybe developed some emotional attachment to the team.... If you invest in a "loss leader" you need to have clear follow up plans to ensure those who have taken advantage of it, return often... Getting the many who still follow the sport but don't attend often, to attend more frequently, would be a lot easier to do than attract the same number of "newbies"...

Excellenf Post.... The modern world... And it doesn't have to cost much to get tremendous cut through if you use the modern digital platforms to regularly "bombard" those who get sent down the algorithmic "rabbit hole" to your "TV channel"... Just. Target your market... And saturate it with "content"... Just 30,000 per week extra out of a population of 80m, plenty of whom living less than 45 mins from a track, would deliver triple digit percentage growth... And, small numbers they may be, but, given the low starting base, in "real terms", these nunbers could transform the sport overnight... But it needs to be coordinated, nationally... Clubs giving stickers out from the foyer of a local supermarket is fine, but the whole sport needs to get itself recognised, as that will generate much larger, quicker results... Promoters collectively spend literally a seven figure sum on riders each season... Yet plenty of people living within a mile of some tracks won't even know the sport, never mind the track, exists... Maybe cutting that rider outlay back by say 15% and, instead, giving this cash to an experienced, professional marketing and advertising agency, who use modern day techniques, and have evidence of success in this field, would deliver much bigger crowds than any GP rider appearing at any UK track would..? Plenty can (and already should), have been done, given the clear and obvious results have shown the folly of doing the same thing over and over again... Staying insular in their own Speedway Bubble Echo Chamber won't help the sport grow, as has been proven, therefore, let's hope they are actively trying to bring in some quality people from outside the sport to drive their brand forward.... We take the p**s on here by saying each year that this is the most important AGM ever, ever, ever, etc, etc... But this year, it genuinely is probably true.. Let's hope those in charge can deliver the sport in a way that allows it to achieve the undoubted potential of its "raw materials"...

Cash only... #cough.....

To be fair.... It was the Oxford promotion's quotes.. So. I presume. They would have had a "modicum" of "inside information" as to why they quit the top tier...

It is available at all good newsagents.... And supermarkets... And on line... And by subscription...

In last weeks Speedway Star the Oxford promotion explained why they have ditched the top tier...

Watching the Colts is akin to me watching United's U19 Academy team... And I wouldn't pay £15 to watch them... If you could get in for £15 to watch the Aces, with kids in for free, then you may have half a chance... Or maybe not...

But the fans obviously couldn't afford it as they didn't turn up in sufficient numbers.. So the promoters couldn't afford it... Hence Oxford pulled their top tier team....

I hope somebody told him that UK Hockey didn't allow teams to borrow each others players each week..... And a good many Ice Hockey players are actually American and Canadian and are fully pro for the UK season... And also, a night at the Ice Hockey delivers lights, music, noise, the odd fisticuffs, and..... ATMOSPHERE!!!! With plenty of kids there too.... A typical view from someone within the UK Speedway Echo Chamber Bubble though...

The unavoidable problem is.... A select few can afford to run a top tier team to contend for the play offs.. But most can't.. And without the TV deal I would suggest the select few would struggle too... And ultimately it is..... Hundreds of thousands spent to achieve... (?????) Answers on a postcard to win a "Happiness is 40-38" sew on badge...

Some of the many possibilities have been on here ad infinitum.... And its a lengthy random list... Would they work? Who knows? However, given the current challenge facing the sport, it is crystal clear that the current operating model and business plan doesn't... Mark Lemon in the Speedway Star pretty much outlines what they haven't done well, and the opportunities that exist, yet you do have to ask, why has it taken so long to spot when the fans could point the inherent flaws out time and time again... Let's hope those who have got the sport in the UK to where it currently sits, can move it forward... Doing the "same old/same old", once again though, wont deliver it, given the past many years of evidence available..

A blank canvas. And build it from there, using all the experience gained from what hasn't worked.... Bottom line is barely 25,000 pay to watch each week, with literally millions of people living within 45 mins from tracks... Suggesting what has been done, (over the past two decades in particular), clearly hasn't worked... So... Try something different...

Due to the current operating model, they both need each other, to help subsidise one another.... For me, it is time for brutal honesty and that brutal reality is that the GP stars and the likes of Emil, Chris Holder, Magic and Tai (if not injured), will have taken between them all, circa seven figures in combined salaries... Paid for in the main by the TV money and a significant number of well meaning sponsors putting in high five figure numbers.. Those seven figures would have been far better used as prize money for winning the top tier... Shared amongst the seven teams last year... "A Million Pound Premiership" would have given those who run the sport something to "sell" to bigger, more well known, potential sponsors, advertisers and mainstream media.... The "top stars" were almost "heralded" as being vital for the growth of the sport in the UK, as they would "bring crowds back"... The reality was they were "heralded" by pretty much the same number of fans who were always going to attend anyway, and didn't nationally after the initial novelty wore off, increase crowds across the country, to make these "truly high quality riders", anywhere near even "cost neutral", never mind "profitable", as the vast majority of those potential circa 80 million potential pundits in the nation have (still), not even heard of Speedway, never mind any of the riders who "came back"... For me, we are at ground zero and the sport should "start again"... And not miss (once again), that opportunity... Let's face it, if you were launching a brand new sport this Monday, and someone suggested, at the planning stage, using the current UK Speedway operating model, they would be laughed out of the room... The promoters are well meaning enthusiasts rather than tough pragmatists, and the sport desperately needs, (and has needed them for years), cold, hard, tough pragmatists, that let their heads rule in decison making, not their emotions.... We all would love to watch the world's best each week, and rub shoulders with them in the pits, taking selfies.. The bottom line is though that their combined costs dont, (currently) make economic sense... If the AGM is delayed you can only hope it is because negotiations are still taking place about a TV deal, (as that will be fundamental), however, let's be honest, every TV Company over the past decade, has dropped the sport, so its "stock" may not be running that high... Surely time therefore for a total, well planned, reset and relaunch in the new year... A few steps back to move, hopefully, forward over the next few years.. . Using whatever operating model, and standard of riders, that it can afford to bring growth......

However ... The Championship only pay rates they can afford due to doubling up.... Championship HL's will want (at least), double if they only have one job... Would the Championship stlill be "OK" then?

Is that 2026 or 2027?...

£3.60 for the Speedway Star.... Less if you subscribe or go digital... Still a fantastic publication... Raised its game given most news is now instant on the internet... Lots of articles and discussion points.... Spot on re the current plight by the way, YOPG...

Just read the article and you cannot argue with anything he says... Because, it has all pretty much been suggested on here in the past!!! Almost every sentence I read, I thought "No s**t Sherlock!".... Where we are now has been inevitable for many years, and, (forever it seems), forecasted on here, yet "Mike" seems to have had some kind of epiphany and realised the sport is in serious "you know what"... Even suggesting plenty of things that could be done to get more riders into the sport!.. (Obviously no one, apart from the fans, have noticed exactly the same lads, (getting older), turning up each week, at all the tracks in both divisions, for the best part of a decade!)... The sport, like all sports, needs an "Elite level", however, it seems unaffordable to do it in the UK for enough tracks... And "one big league" will mean riders losing out on the money that doubling up brings, so will want more from their one team, and the league will have plenty of "good" riders missing on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturdays as they race in Denmark and Poland... A right (self inflicted over many years) schemozzle... Magic wand time at the AGM? If so, maybe we need Harry Potter rather than Harry Redknapp!!!

Only in Speedway....

There is a minimum earning level you must show you can achieve to get certain tier level visas .. I presume that is why some riders get/need guarantees? (And double up?)... Before I retired one of my team needed to show he earned (if I remember correctly) £41k to stay in the country... It had increased since his last visa got granted... So I put up his hours and let him work each Sunday for premium time... I then printed and signed copies of his contract for him to send off to the Government depts ..

Correct ... But... Bringing over a plethora of Szymon Lambertski's, and Simon Lambertsen's, to take places UK lads could have taken, was obviously too good an opportunity to miss...🙁

A bit harsh.... 'Arry, in that article, seemed to have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the sport from the early 70's to the modern day...😉

Imagine trying to run 1095 meetings now with such a small pool of riders? It would be three riders per team....😄

Of course you wouldn't... But, the sport clearly isn't at the same level over here. That is why Poland can pay £50k plus a meeting to certain individual riders, using massive TV money, massive national company sponsors and five figure crowds... If the UK had the same income you wouldn't need part time riders... However, by the same logic .. If my Auntie had, had bollox she would have been my Uncle..

You are comparing apples to oranges .. To watch that standard of Poliish racing over here would mean an enormous admission fee to get in.. More than Premier League football... Meaning crowds wouldn't increase, but actually drop... They pay circa ten times the money, so you would need ten times the current money through the doors...

100%... You could have a very decent season of racing with "14 Simon Lambert's" riding each week...... And have a very similar crowd level, (after the initial novelty has worn off after about four weeks), that "14 Robert Lambert's" would deliver.... With one being very much more costly than the other, for very little difference in both the entertainment level and the size of the prize in winning.