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Everything posted by bellevueace
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Good post, its amazing how those in charge are so short sighted not to see they are going to actually destroy their own business, but back in the 70,s when crowds were large and teams numerous nothing was reinvested back into the sport. Just to think then Poland wasnt even on the speedway map in comparison to today, surely British speedway should look at their model and how they grew it, its probably gone too far here so no big business would come onboard as a main sponsor as speedway as nothing to offer and can you imagine councils here getting behind their local clubs with the backing they get over there, at least Manchester council got behind the stadium here or we wouldnt have a club let alone a GP.
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I totally agree with you i remember hearing the powers that be saying the sport needs more tv exposure to make people aware and get crowds up, the opposite has happened and especially with clubs now doing their own live streams, its far cheaper for people to stream than attend, you cant beat being in the stadium, i wonder if clubs make enough to cover the loss of footfall into the stadiums thanks to TNT and their own streams?
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Thats what i mean by a realistic option Alexandra stadium is really no different to BV as regards to its location and would be a temp track, many football stadiums host concerts, boxing, american football but would all be out of reach of speedway cost wise and also said stadiums wouldnt open the doors for the crowds a speedway gp would pull, id love to see speedway in a stadium like Tottenham Hotspur, but as in Cardiff in the latter years the crowd would be swallowed up by empty seats, cost of hiring would be prohibitive, the days of the Wembley finals with 90,000 crowds are long gone and even the reported 100,000 that was quoted for the 1976 final in Poland. Do you think this is why the current rights holders seem to be taking speedway away from the big stadia? When they came in it was big plans for major stadia and to expand worldwide, perhaps they have seen it to be not worthwhile. Strange really as today younger generations are all about extreme sports but the majority dont even know what speedway is and you cant get much more extreme than racing 5oocc bikes with no brakes.
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I get your point but moving the center of the event a quarter of a mile away is only 440 yards surely that wasnt the cause how long does that take to walk? As you said earlier "All I’ve said was it shouldn’t be at BV" Where else could it realistically be in the UK? Its here or no British GP, if they had put a large fan park next to the stadium how many more would it really have attracted? And lets not forget Parklife was on too.
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Wembley attracted massive crowds far greater than anything seen in Cardiff for the world finals and the stadium was in the middle of nowhere, no big fan parks not based in central London, for me i stopped going to Cardiff quite a few years ago when the novelty of the stadium wore off the processional speedway did it for me, i like Cardiff as a city, i can spend a weekend there enjoy it without having to sit watching poor fare ontrack or being ripped off in hotels. Im just a speedway fan who puts the emphasis on the racing, you cant compare speedway gp to F1 for example how many people attend Silverstone for example, thats completely different go there its like a small village, speedway isnt on that level, even in Cardiffs heyday i used to note in the mainstream media when all the important sporting dates were given for the year the speedway gp never got a mention and that was in the days when it attracted 40 to 50 thousand, instead of people pulling it to pieces lets enjoy it for what it is, a minority sport event, the comments about catering are valid though.