Is Speedway still a "working class" spectator sport?

[JamesHarris]

I've created this topic as I'm quite interested to know peoples views. If we go back 60 years to the creation of the British League, Speedway could be defined as a true working class spectator sport. Along with Greyhound racing are we seeing the general decline of the sport as people have different interests in the 2020's? I am fortunate enough to be able to access Polish TV channels and even the crowds there look a lot less now compared to ten years ago and if I'm honest I find the racing a bit boring. I've not been to Speedway for a few years but I assume it's £18 minimum to get it?

Edited 9 hours ago by JamesHarris

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

1 hour ago, JamesHarris said:

 I've not been to Speedway for a few years but I assume it's £18 minimum to get it?

Try £21+

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

2 hours ago, JamesHarris said:

I've created this topic as I'm quite interested to know peoples views. If we go back 60 years to the creation of the British League, Speedway could be defined as a true working class spectator sport. Along with Greyhound racing are we seeing the general decline of the sport as people have different interests in the 2020's? I am fortunate enough to be able to access Polish TV channels and even the crowds there look a lot less now compared to ten years ago and if I'm honest I find the racing a bit boring. I've not been to Speedway for a few years but I assume it's £18 minimum to get it?

It is and will always be a working class sport but unfortunately those running the sport or taking part in it think it’s something else and the public are not buying into it 

[Daniel Smith]

Answer to the question, no.

When it's £60 a pop for a family of 4, the working class eliminate is lost.

Speedway's biggest battle is 'middle class' pricing in 'working class' facilities. 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

19 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

Answer to the question, no.

When it's £60 a pop for a family of 4, the working class eliminate is lost.

Speedway's biggest battle is 'middle class' pricing in 'working class' facilities. 

While I agree that the cost is a major factor in people going or not going it is not the difference between it being a Woking class sport or not, there is an unwritten bond between riders/teams that has been severed over the last 25 years, this is why I believe stocks have retained their fan base because they still see their hero’s as one of them 

Edited 6 hours ago by THE DEAN MACHINE

[MattB]

50 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

It is and will always be a working class sport but unfortunately those running the sport or taking part in it think it’s something else and the public are not buying into it 

A lot of speedway people are sadly quite happy for it to be run in this amateurish and low key way as social gathering for their mates, hence anyone who comes into speedway with any form of vision finds that the small-minded existing promoters simply close ranks.

[IainB]

3 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

Answer to the question, no.

When it's £60 a pop for a family of 4, the working class eliminate is lost.

Speedway's biggest battle is 'middle class' pricing in 'working class' facilities. 

A working class family can get a lot of entertainment these days for £60, a nice meal out, some drinks, followed by cinema, in the warm and not going home covered in dust.

It's okay having kids interval runabout races and kids for a quid etc but when they hit 16/17 there's a 2,300% price increase... and they're lost unless they've got a really really good job at that age or parents prepared to pay for them. 

[mikebv]

14 minutes ago, IainB said:

A working class family can get a lot of entertainment these days for £60, a nice meal out, some drinks, followed by cinema, in the warm and not going home covered in dust.

It's okay having kids interval runabout races and kids for a quid etc but when they hit 16/17 there's a 2,300% price increase... and they're lost unless they've got a really really good job at that age or parents prepared to pay for them. 

Spot on...

And teenagers don't want to be seen out where their Dad and even their Grandad goes...

They also "hunt in packs", so let them in for free, as many mates as they can muster, until they leave school, and see if any stay on and pay as adults...

There are hardly any there now, so almost zero to be lossed...

[IainB]

... if I want to go and watch a T20 Cricket match at my local ground on FRIDAY the 30th of May at 18:30, look at the ticket options available to me:

https://www.tixr.com/groups/leicestershire-ccc/events/leicestershire-foxes-v-derbyshire-falcons-123326

A group ticket of 5 for £18 each... the way Cricket sees it, a group of (working class) mates coming for a night out and a few beers, they've seen it on Tv, it's colourful, musical, the crowd are involved with prizes and stuff being given away there's dancing girls. They've also seen speedway and see a load of pensioners sat in camping chairs filling their home made programmes in watching a tractor go endlessly round a track and its on a school night. The way a Speedway promoter sees it, 5 strangers grouping up outside the turnstile to get some money off... and while this attitude remains crowds will continue to dwindle. 

... I remember a few years back at Leicester they wouldn't even let a couple of mentally handicapped people in at a concessionary rate!

Edited 2 hours ago by IainB

[Sir Sidney]

52 minutes ago, IainB said:

A working class family can get a lot of entertainment these days for £60, a nice meal out, some drinks, followed by cinema, in the warm and not going home covered in dust.

It's okay having kids interval runabout races and kids for a quid etc but when they hit 16/17 there's a 2,300% price increase... and they're lost unless they've got a really really good job at that age or parents prepared to pay for them. 

Where can a family go for a nice meal out, some drinks and the cinema for £60? 

[ONTWOMINUTES]

No

[DaveWayne]

3 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

this is why I believe stocks have retained their fan base because they still see their hero’s as one of them 

That's because, despite the vast sums of money they are spending, they are still 'one of us'. Stock car racing is still an amateur sport, the pits are open to the public even during the racing (except for Odsal), and the drivers stand on the terraces with us to watch races they are not competing in. The junior formulas race at the same meetings as the senior formulas with races interspersed, so by the time they hit the top we have been watching them race for years and many of them are from racing families so we probably already know their parents.

[IainB]

7 minutes ago, Sir Sidney said:

Where can a family go for a nice meal out, some drinks and the cinema for £60? 

Maccies or a £10 bar snack with a coke followed by Vue cinema, any film at any time £4.99 each. We are talking working class don't forget. 

[Sir Sidney]

2 minutes ago, IainB said:

Maccies or a £10 bar snack with a coke followed by Vue cinema, any film at any time £4.99 each. We are talking working class don't forget. 

I thought you said nice meal out!

[IainB]

Sir Sidney Snob of Snobbyshire 😜😂

[IainB]

10 minutes ago, Sir Sidney said:

I thought you said nice meal out!

It's how us great unwashed eat Sir Sidney, in fact the kids would prefer a maccies rather than a bar meal. 

[a4poster]

Or I wonder how many people who would fall into the “working class” demographic actually consider themselves to be so in today’s world.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

43 minutes ago, a4poster said:

Or I wonder how many people who would fall into the “working class” demographic actually consider themselves to be so in today’s world.

I’m working class scum and proud of it 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

5 hours ago, MattB said:

A lot of speedway people are sadly quite happy for it to be run in this amateurish and low key way as social gathering for their mates, hence anyone who comes into speedway with any form of vision finds that the small-minded existing promoters simply close ranks.

a social gathering is what made speedway and all this pro althlete garbage just doesn’t wash with the public,at heart people crave reality despite fake being pushed on them and bonds are formed between competitors/teams and the public partly because they see themselves in their heroes and that bond has been lost along the way. Speedway is an amateur sport and there is nothing wrong with that, the reason promoters close ranks is because like in most sectors of society it’s about money and they don’t want anyone coming in to take their slice of the pie no matter how small that slice is