ouch

That’s the point I’m trying to make when people bring up advertising or “it’s the best kept secret” - it’s not. Enough people know about speedway at Belle Vue every meeting to fill it several times over but they choose not to come. It’s the product, not the knowledge that it exists. We can all do our own market research with regards to attendance. Why don’t we go to every meeting? Why don’t we visit away tracks. Why don’t all my friends, family and work colleagues not attend when they know we go and have regularly discussed it with them? Why don’t the BH crowds revisit regularly? We are speedway nuts as we take the time to come on here so it’s difficult for us to understand that speedway is just not popular.

I still think £28 for 2 adults to sit in the grandstand at Belle Vue with an unlimited number of 11’s or under in tow and 12-17’s at just £6 each offers good value. The Colts take half a second longer per lap so it’s hardly noticeable yet not only do newbies not attend, the local speedway fans that visit Belle Vue week after week and know full well it’s happening choose not to attend as they don’t want to.

I picked heat times to be representative of anything the officials put out on the tannoy. You can only take the official line at face value and I think any fan relaying that information should not be berated but encouraged. Fans quoting what officials have to say from trackside to those of us not there should not be labelled as attention seekers imo.

So when they announce the race times over the tannoy that’s to be considered hearsay? Relaying the official word at the stadium to fans back home is perfectly acceptable and should be encouraged. Reposting the opinion of Karen from Skegness is not. Fingers crossed for Jason one the true ambassadors of the sport and a supporter of UK speedway. Top bloke as well.

Not unexpected despite the good natured wind ups about The Aces away form. The fact is in their hunt for league glory they have won 5 out of their last ten away meetings. Ipswich could well match this on Monday with their trip to Birmingham but having said that if it wasn’t for the rain gods seeing our fixture there cancelled, we could have been looking at 6/10. More amazingly one of those loses was due to a narrow last heat defeat at Leicester. Happy away days as usual for The Aces, bring on the next one

Most UK tracks do all seem to be a very similar shape with similar shale, where making the gate and pinning it to the white line seems to be the order of the day and it doesn't matter how good a rider or engine or setup is behind, they will not get past.

I’ve brought a countless number of people to speedway over the decades with next to none showing any interest in returning with any regularity. I’ve helped run coaches to away tracks up until fairly recently but that was getting increasingly difficult and has now almost stopped altogether. There needs to be a hook of some kind to engage the public with and that takes a canny marketeer, a bit of luck in hitting the zeitgeist of the time and a not unsubstantial amount of money. We need hero’s and villains, fan rivalry (good natured) and most importantly a spectacle on track with delays that let the atmosphere evaporate kept to a minimum or filled with something to keep the fans hot with anticipation. It’s a better man than me who can find and exploit that hook, especially in this new social media age but it must be there, mustn’t it?

Running on a Monday night doesn’t help. The last time we ran on a Saturday we had thousands attend, conversely if Mildenhall had run their stock cars on a Monday night it would not have been well attended. Also The NSS run nearly twice the amount of fixtures as Mildenhall and familiarity breeds contempt. I’d imagine stock cars, like any other business, would play to their strengths. We saw our sports strength last night but do we collectively push for that or are we just happy ticking the heats and fixtures off to get through the season?

Sorry, no facts to back this up, just my opinion. Promoters don’t release attendances, much to the frustration to their fan base. I could no more prove the NSS plays out to more punters per season as I could prove it had more than Buxton in 2018. It’s just observation and opinion so I appreciate your point.

When Lakeside had a rammed stadium when admission was free, did all those people keep their experience to themselves when meeting friends and family and then did everyone have collective amnesia? The attendance the following meeting was back to a typical speedway event. Make no mistake people know about speedway, they choose not to attend. I’ve taken many many friends and family members to speedway over the years but they don’t return as they don’t like it, it’s not because they forgot.

PCMT British Final 2 x GP Play offs League meetings both Aces & Colts

More people watch speedway at the NSS during the season than at any other venue so to lay the blame of a sparse crowd at our feet is very unfair. This is the first time in ten years that the crowd has been disappointing and there are circumstances that have resulted in this. The travelling fans who don’t turn up anymore I remember coach’s from all clubs for the BLRC at Hyde Rd or a Coventry British Final but now pretty much nothing. It’s not just about travelling fans though as local fans from other clubs won’t support an individual meeting like this or the PCMT. If they did then other clubs would run such an event. Speedway just isn’t popular anymore and thats the cruel reality for us. People say advertise but we have done it all over the years - you name it we have done it. Even people who know about speedway don’t attend as they don’t like it enough and thus pick and choose. Anyway, what an awesome nights racing and a fabulous final. That should be the benchmark for ALL venues. Forget tinkering with the rules or mucking about with fancy suits and bike covers etc. Sort out the racing and I for one would be parting with my money at away tracks as I’ve done in the past and I’m not alone. Gate ’n’ go is a killer for an exciting sport like ours. Sort it out!

I’d stick by him and help nurture him back to the form we know is there. Even with his current form The Aces will make the play offs and they are 17 weeks or 40-50 meetings away for Tate. When Dan came back from his big smash he scored only 3 points in his first three away meetings before slowly picking up as the season progressed.

Here here! Ashton, Tate & Norick are the three youngest riders in the top league and all three have been called out recently. People need to give their head a wobble.

To be honest I didn’t expect Ipswich to do what they did with the track to enable them to win. I thought they were better than that, in every sense of the word.