mikebv

The problem now is that crowds are so low that "winning at home" is key to maintain them, (or at least keep a loss of numbers within cost controls)... You can see from how many times when many mention to others about the sport that the reply is "Speedway? Is that still going? I used to go", shows it was the racing they went for, not the team aspect.. BV is an obvious example where so many "used to go" but thought they had closed down.. If any sports team you had emotional investment with closed down, you would know.. Nowadays that home win can keep the punters who are left, returning as, I presume that is what floats their particular boat...

Been twice, and the 2nd time was only to see if the first time being so poor was a "one off".. It wasn't ..... One of those tracks that average riders, who can gate, can do pretty well at... Not great to watch, but sends the home fans happy with the win most weeks... Victory at home, not entertainment, is the priority for most clubs, with a select few being able to serve up "exciting" home wins...

When it's all going so well, who needs to advertise...?

Absolutely no need for any of that... You only have to see the joy on the faces of the managers and promoters during the TV meetings to see how seriously they take it to know all is well, and that they must be delighted at the way they run the sport, and the direction of travel that they have the sport heading in.... They certainly don't need any outside help from "professionals" in expert fields given they run things so well... More of the same next season please..... And the season after.... And the season after that.. And the etc etc etc (If it still is going)...

Wow....

I would hope that the event had a different limited liabilty company made up to promote it...

Poland have Thursday, Friday, Saturday (and Sundays) tied up... Thursdays given away by the UK... As previously said, post Covid was the time for a "complete reset, and relaunch"... With over a year of no speedway, the sports followers would have been open to some innovation, and radical changes... It got none of the above...

The improving of the levels hasn't worked either it appears, but will have increased costs.. No disrespect to any riders, but hardly any of them put "bums on seats", so lose one "middle level" rider per team and invest that money into marketing.. £40k or so would interest someone to get involved in the marketkng of a club surely? Especially if you add on some commission based on income growth.. Maybe even all 7 could join forces and nationallv advertise? When trying to gain new fans, or getting ex fans to return, the big plus they currently have is that each club is pretty much down to the hard core so any "watering down" won't impact the die hards, and any newbies or ex fans will have either zero knowledge or little knowledge of who the "top riders" are.. And if the clubs keep the "top twos" you would still have GP stars to advertise.. Doing the same old, same old certainly isnt cutting it, so some innovation to the operating model is long overdue....

You cannot get away with what you could do in these days of instant information. For me, I think each top division team should lose their 3rd HL and run six rider teams.. Thus 'spare riders" become available to replace injuries and loss of form.. And. Whilst not knowing all the salary info, I would guestimate, for a season, the 3rd HL would be picking up £35k to £40k, or so... Therefore, use that money as a promotional budget locally... Keep your "crowd pulling" top two.. Same costs but maybe a different outcome crowd wise..? Edit: and use a fit for purpose RR facilty...!!

And yet promoters will still expect their own fans to fork out several hundred quid a season knowing that their own No1 could help another team to a better season than his own ends up with.. A rider could quite conceivably ride himself out of the play offs...

But in those days you had a fair few people in front of you to take the most impact..

Birmingham crowd wise are a "natural" NDL or Championship side 500 to 600 crowds might just get them competitive in the Championship... But would be "very decent" in the NDL... Definitely down to their die hards, so might as well try and run NDL on Mondays, with those in charge of UK Speedway recognising the need to keep tracks going so they allow them to...

There are things that could be done... Eg fewer riders per team, and/or a fit for purpose RR facility, being two that leap out as very doable.. The reality though is that guests are an easy answer to get "any speedway" on, hence meetings without them are now the rarity... Hence, not many watching take things too seriously...

Or the Mickey Mouse leagues..

Team Speedway ran in the Mickey Mouse way it is over here has no chance of success... Regardless of who rides over here... Nice to see Max tonight helping Sheffield into the play offs... The fans of Leicester must be delighted for the Tigers...

Bringing in the GP lads has certainly made a massive difference to crowds haven't they? The crowds dwindled when they all rode over here, taking the majority of the Sky money.. Therefore. What gave those in charge the belief that all would be good with expensive GP riders back again?

Well... Many moan that they only get 15 mins racing....

Clearly the obvious thing to do... And also clearly why the sport isn't taken seriously in the UK... Bringing in Lambert to replace Fricke is seen as a "bad thing", yet not having a full team of your own riders, and, instead, cherry picking riders from other teams on a "horses for courses" basis, to give your team a better chance of winning, is "absolutely fine"...

A couple of very big crowds today...

If fans didn't turn up, I would think the Edinburgh management should maybe look in the mirror first as to the reasons why...? The reailty of course is that the punters who still attend are, by definition of being there, content with what they get served up, so I am sure they will attend regardless of who turns up to ride.. "Select teams" are pretty much the norm these days in the vast majority of matches.. And as for Craig Cook? If he has such impressive mind altering persuasive powers as to make others' mind's up to do things, he is wasting them riding a speedway bike...

All valid comments, and what goes on behind the scenes is something we will never appreciate, however.. The continental tracks alluded to, are often wide and much less tighter than some UK tracks built within the confines of a greyhound track, hence when "grippy" these tracks are not seen by many riders as something they want to take on... Bomber is Bomber, and Bewley is an ex MX rider so both ride conditions that are "deep" with supreme confidence... You kind of get why riders who get extremely well paid in Poland may decide to "play it safe" when conditions over here are not quite to their liking... An injury over here will cost them a lot of Polish money...

Poole have a fanbase used to winning and their business model is solely based around that.. Unlike many other tracks, they actually have a fanbase to lose given the numbers they get.. Hence, they astutely know, victories keep them attending.. Come their leg of the final they will probably top 2000, which for some in the Championship is three meetings worth of attendees.. Many fans around the country attend for "the racing", Poole fans attend more for "the success" as that has been their default position for the past two decades.. Accordingly, their promoters give their punters what they want ..

Which is fair, as they are the ones expected to pay out loads on machinery, so need to earn plenty to pay for it.. Poole winning keeps a a good crowd level too.. Great racing and defeats isn't a recipe for success at most places, and definitely not Poole.. Come "Final's night", any poor racing watched over the season will be forgotten by the 2000 or so in attendance..

Wow... That is amazing,.. But, if correct, perfectly in keeping with the way the promoters run the sport... And they then scratch their heads looking confused on race night, when they see the lack of punters in their stadium..

And many of them use the same riders... Not even enough riders to run one division...