mikebv

Joe Screen and Mark Loram.....

Come on Dan.... Turn right.....

And Phil will still drench it....

One of the best tracks in the world and made to look like something nothing anywhere near that level...

Almost four minutes since he has been on telly too...

Well done Fireman Phil....

Another "Special" talent...

Good call ref.... Took a dive....

And at hair trigger reactions too....

I was very, very lucky to grow up watching Peter Collins.... And BZ is the closest to him from the back that I have seen... They both pass/passed riders almost in slow motion given they are/were several moves ahead.... You simply cannot take a line to block him, as he has already decided where you will go, and he will go... Genius on a Speedway bike.. And, fair play to Brady for keeping it close, given the talent BZ possesses...

He's a bit good this lad isn't he?

Just let the locals do what they do on a Friday evening... However .. That wouldn't get you on telly would it?

Usually a great race track..... I wonder why it isn't tonight?

Been excluded...

Keeping the dust under control, on a red hot summers afternoon...

Fireman Phil strikes again...

I hope Dan and Brady have a "Joe Screen/Mark Loram" moment tonight....

One of the major flaws is the failure to use these "grand gestures" for long term growth... Expecting a family to fork out over forty quid the week after they got something for much less, or even free, is the disconnect... I would suggest you need four or five visits to start to "follow" the sport, so these "specials" need to be used as a starting point for long term growth, not a "build it and they will come", game plan.. There should be constant communication with those who got the free tickets, with further special offers to keep them engaged... The IT world we live in is perfect for marketing to the right target population.. My old company would send you coupons if you went six weeks without using your loyalty card... Someone controlling attendance tracking at a Speedway Club would be worth their weight in gold... Kids' (and Adults), names and birthday details, sending Xmas cards to addresses, etc, etc, are absolute winners when it comes to keeping your name in the frame, and any free tickets shoukd only be given out with that info locked into your system.. A constant dialogue to get you attending by using promotional offers is very rewarding for growth...

Maybe with six teams the cut off dates could be delivered? Or five maybe? Or should we just have four to be on the safe side..??

2013?.... Did it work?

Sounds like a good old fashioned meeting... Plenty of needle, plenty of moaning, and plenty of atmosphere... Should sell the 2nd leg very well... More of the same there to keep the crowd involved...

Asking them to lay out circa £40 for mum and dad, (over £50 if sat down as the kid gets charged too), to watch something they know very little about, will always be the challenge.. Even more so on a school day during term time... Seems daft to have all those empty seats near bend four for so many meetings, when some cheap tickets/freebies, may engage some parents and kids to attimes.. And you don't need the same ones attending each week, just keep flooding the locale with cheap tickets... When I worked in marketing for a couple of years, doing a head office secondment, I was amazed at just how low freebies, or low price offers, via coupons, were redeemed... Around just 11℅ to 15% was the averaged/expected/budgeted for, take up... Glasgow are giving away 3000 tickets which should therefore see a redemption of 330 to 450 using industry numbers, which shows how "big" the clubs need to think when doing these trade driving ideas... Hope it works for them, and they have a plan to keep those newbies personally engaged to revisit several times enough to become "hooked" and see the full admission costs as VFM..

I like the idea of a "Super League", with maybe five rider teams? Could Glasgow and Poole be tempted to go into it? Them plus the current six would mean just 40 riders of say four point and above averages... Home and Away once, with top four play offs, and play downs if other clubs want to join the year after... Franchise Speedway, keep your spot or lose it... You can then run the same teams in a hybrid Championship/NDL level with the top riders missing... The big league, home and away once, and top six into the play offs, given the number of teams to keep the league interesting... 3rd v 6th, and 4th v 5th to qualify to the last four... First and Second then pick their opponents in order.. And then one "Super League" that you sell to the TV companies... (With no F***ing Guests in the Super League!.. Twenty quid for Super League, fifteen quid for the hybrid one....

Where would riders come from for any new tracks? Six teams seems to the maximum to be even semi competitive in the top tier... Andt seven, maybe eight, in the 2nd tier... All the tracks lost over the past few years, and still doubling up is fundamental to the sport...

When Poland decide Mondays and Thursdays are the best nights to run their Speedway on every week, then I think we will be ahead of the curve.... As Plymouth has shown, and I believe Leicester has shown in the past, running weekend Speedway delivers bigger crowds, even if riders are missing or of a lesser standard... Clubs need to target kids aged 4 - 11, like McDonald's do, as they know that the loss leader "Happy Meal" will get sold alongside the Adults getting profit making meals too... They also know that on Monday morning the kids who attended little Williams birthday party at McD's on the Friday evening, Saturday or Sunday, will be talking about it, and those who attended will be mithering their parents to have their parties there... And those who just heard about the party, but didn't attend, will be mithering their parents as well!! Flood local infant schools with free tickets for kids and reduced price tickets for their parents or guardians.. There may be some who attend now, but not many, so what you may lose is nothing compared to what could be gained... And just charge a tenner for the Adults, as the vast majority of tenners will be new money, not regulars getting in cheap... But. And this where "grand gestures" never work in isolation.... "Build it and they will come" doesn't work... You then need to keep these people coming at a scaled reduced price, until they get hooked and are prepared to pay full price... And you do that through constant communication via email and phone... Lets be clear though, running on a Monday or Thursday during school terms won't encourage those parents to attend, regardless of whether VFM or not... As for those older kids? Sponsor local football, cricket, rugby etc etc leagues... Attend the games with bikes, and marketing gazebo. Some places have ten games being played at once, meaning hundreds of kids and hundreds of parents.. The beauty for Speedway is you don't need thousands more to attend at each track, just hundreds... Even a very, very basic local marketing campaign will deliver that, for not much outlay, if the right market is targeted, and you keep in communication with them.. Or, alternatively, carry on doing exactly the same thing but expect it all to come good..