Crowds

[IainB]

What are the crowd sizes like at your track this season? I've noticed they seem to have been well down at Leicester for the British semi and last night against Lynn. The crowd was abysmal for the British Final in Monday and there didn't look to be that many there tonight at Scunny on BSN. I heard there was a big turn out at Ippo on BHM though. 

[Youhave2minutes]

There seems to be more of the crowd queuing up at the tracks ice cream van than watching the racing

[midlandred]

Not sure the word “crowd” applies to UK speedway any longer

[MattB]

Have only been to Birmingham and Plymouth so far.  Brum crowds are poor and have been for the last three seasons (think they were up a bit last year, but certainly not enough to break even), crowd at Plymouth last night was decent to be fair.

[PhilTheAce]

Down at belle Vue. But I put that down to the GPs. 
 

proof will be in the pudding when the GPs been and gone though 

[IainB]

1 hour ago, MattB said:

crowd at Plymouth last night was decent to be fair.

Saturday night 🤔

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

On 5/16/2025 at 9:48 PM, IainB said:

What are the crowd sizes like at your track this season? I've noticed they seem to have been well down at Leicester for the British semi and last night against Lynn. The crowd was abysmal for the British Final in Monday and there didn't look to be that many there tonight at Scunny on BSN. I heard there was a big turn out at Ippo on BHM though. 

The BH crowd at Ippo has been estimated at approx 4500

[IainB]

33 minutes ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

The BH crowd at Ippo has been estimated at approx 4500

A Bank Holiday 🤔

[Fromafar]

35 minutes ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

The BH crowd at Ippo has been estimated at approx 4500

Easily the biggest crowd in GB .IMO

[IainB]

28 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Easily the biggest crowd in GB .IMO

How many will be back on Thursday night though? A winning team no doubt helps, it's not going to be 4,500 though. 

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

The BH crowd at Ippo has been estimated at approx 4500

Ipswich traditionally always get a big crowd on BH's, (particularly when the weather is good). I remember the GF crowds were often the highest in the UK for the whole of the season...

The issue they have, like all other tracks, is maintaining something similar the next meeting, let alone the rest of the season..

Where do all these disappear to? And why? 

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

16 minutes ago, IainB said:

How many will be back on Thursday night though? A winning team no doubt helps, it's not going to be 4,500 though. 

Regular I think is in region of 1500-2000

[Sir Sidney]

24 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Ipswich traditionally always get a big crowd on BH's, (particularly when the weather is good). I remember the GF crowds were often the highest in the UK for the whole of the season...

The issue they have, like all other tracks, is maintaining something similar the next meeting, let alone the rest of the season..

Where do all these disappear to? And why? 

Quite possibly because there is little riding on most matches because of the play off system.

They will all be back for the play offs. A shame 3 sides won't be in them and so don't get a boost - and the 4 who are in it can't be sure that the playoff numbers boost outweighs the reductions all through the year 

[ouch]

10 hours ago, mikebv said:

Ipswich traditionally always get a big crowd on BH's, (particularly when the weather is good). I remember the GF crowds were often the highest in the UK for the whole of the season...

The issue they have, like all other tracks, is maintaining something similar the next meeting, let alone the rest of the season..

Where do all these disappear to? And why? 

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. 

[mikebv]

51 minutes ago, ouch said:

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. 

The sport does have "more than enough" of a following of those who "love it", yet what it never does is target market them..

Why do those who turn up (every year) at tracks on BH's then sometimes never attend again that year? And, more importantly, who are they? 

The club's spend nothing to directly market their product to individuals who actually purchase their product "sometimes", or even "semi regularly", yet spend millions on riders, who, clearly, don't put many extra bums on seats by their attendance..

You only have to have an email or a mobile number to see how businesses try to keep punters coming back, as you get bombarded with "special offers" once you have purchased something off them..

Speedway in the UK would be far more successful than currently if it just got those who do know about it, actively follow the sport on TV, and also attend occasionally, to make more visits..

You do that by using the information your punters provide and then target them with specific personal offers to try and attract them to attend..

Much easier than expecting 500 "newbies" to suddenly attend is to get 500 "non regulars" to attend with some inducements, and, as we know, the bigger the crowd, the bigger the atmosphere, meaning, potentially, the more chance of crowd levels consistently improving, as the virtuous circle gets turning..

An example is the BF. The crowd must have been around 2000 down on the previous year. Therefore all those who didn't attend, but did the year before, should by now have had an email offering them 15% off next years event..

Speedway doesn't need loads of "new fans", it just needs to get more repeat visits from those who actually do follow it....

To do that however, you need a marketing strategy fit for the IT generation of 2025...