mikebv Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 1 minute ago, LisaColette said: Seems strange that most clubs stream and is no problem otherwise they would stop doing it not carry on with it. But it affects Sheffield's attendences a lot? It was mentioned on the Aces Unofficial FB page by "someone" that the in house steam for the Aces is doing good business... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaColette Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 4 minutes ago, mikebv said: It was mentioned on the Aces Unofficial FB page by "someone" that the in house steam for the Aces is doing good business... I suppose a lot could depend on how many neutral fans you get watching. Sure BV would get a few because of the track. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishersGate Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 Lots of fans warned promoters to get there finger out and starting promoting properly or you will lose fans. Unfortunately this season I am one of those fans who has been lost, haven't attended one meeting this year. I don't intend to go back unless things change. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 2 minutes ago, FishersGate said: Lots of fans warned promoters to get there finger out and starting promoting properly or you will lose fans. Unfortunately this season I am one of those fans who has been lost, haven't attended one meeting this year. I don't intend to go back unless things change. No fixtures being published in advance would have meant less season ticket sales given no one knew if they would be available on the eventual dates.. The same (just) five teams visiting twice, and maybe more times in the KO Cup and PO's didn't exactly inspire.. And, at the end of the day, winning such small time cups and leagues is all a bit "meh" isn't it?.. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racin Jason 72 Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 Every speedway club last year lost money apart from Poole and Ipswich which is probably only down to extra play off meetings with large crowds. this season there is no tv money so every club is £70k down before a wheel has turned. Sheffield have lost their main sponsor so that’s possibly another £20k down. Also the cost of starting up of Northampton is possibly being shared by the promotion too so further funding diminishing. But the BSPL have a cunning plan. Simply cut the points limit and loose a few top riders while at the same time put up admission. now this has been done about 28 times previously failing miserably and losing more disillusion fans each time so it’s very likely to work in 2026. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 8 minutes ago, Racin Jason 72 said: Every speedway club last year lost money apart from Poole and Ipswich which is probably only down to extra play off meetings with large crowds. this season there is no tv money so every club is £70k down before a wheel has turned. Sheffield have lost their main sponsor so that’s possibly another £20k down. Also the cost of starting up of Northampton is possibly being shared by the promotion too so further funding diminishing. But the BSPL have a cunning plan. Simply cut the points limit and loose a few top riders while at the same time put up admission. now this has been done about 28 times previously failing miserably and losing more disillusion fans each time so it’s very likely to work in 2026. When you are regularly losing customers, raising prices for those who still shop with you, by inflation busting amounts annually, is truly a brilliant plan... Heaven forbid, ever try and find out why your, once hugely loyal customers, are no longer visiting you... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PersonalResponsibility Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 13 hours ago, mikebv said: When you are regularly losing customers, raising prices for those who still shop with you, by inflation busting amounts annually, is truly a brilliant plan... Heaven forbid, ever try and find out why your, once hugely loyal customers, are no longer visiting you... In fairness, they're probably not visiting because a fair proportion are now 6 feet under... I think they need to focus on finding out why no newcomers want to visit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 16 minutes ago, PersonalResponsibility said: In fairness, they're probably not visiting because a fair proportion are now 6 feet under... I think they need to focus on finding out why no newcomers want to visit. It would be easier to find out why so many still closely follow the sport, but don't see a UK domestic meeting as worth attending... As an example. The GP's showed that there is a decent audience still out there for the sport in Manchester.. BV followers who were happy to pay circa £140, as a minimum, for two evenings of Speedway... But don't see UK domestic Speedway as something worth regularly attending.. The question that should be asked is... "Why don't so many people, who follow Speedway, attend UK meetings?"... Also. "Why don't the 3,000 or so Aces followers at the GP's attend the NSS regularly?".. Another example? "Where are the 5,000 who attended the PO Final at Ipswich every week of the season?"... There is a market of Speedway followers out there much bigger than the numbers who do attend.. Just getting them back engaged and attending would solve a myriad of issues... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 I have been a massive speedway fan for more years than I care to remember and would always defend the sport to the hilt but even I am now starting to have serious doubts. I subscribe to BSN and watched last night's BV versus Northampton fixture. Ended up watching to heat 10 and then found something else to do as I was literally bored to tears. Yes, the opposition were poor and BV are so good on their own track but as far as entertainment goes I'd give it no more than two out of ten. I also watched the GP at the weekend and found myself running on through each race after a couple of laps and this is something I would definitely not have done a couple of years ago. Anyway, back to our leagues. When I check the BSN schedule I have to confess that I am usually disappointed when the next fixture is a Premiership one. I just find most of them pretty tedious, same teams, same riders and run of the mill affairs. The Championship however, is a different kettle of fish. More teams etc and I just find the whole league more refreshing. Give me Plymouth versus Berwick or Oxford versus Edinburgh any day of the week compared to Sheffield versus Leicester or Kings Lynn versus Northampton. In summing up I genuinely hope that the BSPL find a way to make one league work next year with a much more varied fixture list. Belle Vue riding at Glasgow, Ipswich riding at Plymouth etc really does whet the appetite. Much better promotion of the sport is required and costs must be kept under control. If this means no more GP riders etc then so be it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeOldPitGate Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 1 hour ago, mikebv said: It would be easier to find out why so many still closely follow the sport, but don't see a UK domestic meeting as worth attending... As an example. The GP's showed that there is a decent audience still out there for the sport in Manchester.. BV followers who were happy to pay circa £140, as a minimum, for two evenings of Speedway... But don't see UK domestic Speedway as something worth regularly attending.. The question that should be asked is... "Why don't so many people, who follow Speedway, attend UK meetings?"... Also. "Why don't the 3,000 or so Aces followers at the GP's attend the NSS regularly?".. Another example? "Where are the 5,000 who attended the PO Final at Ipswich every week of the season?"... There is a market of Speedway followers out there much bigger than the numbers who do attend.. Just getting them back engaged and attending would solve a myriad of issues... I remember thinking the same when Bill Barker was running Lynn and trying to balance the books by wandering round at half time selling raffle tickets. I once said "give everyone who comes through the gate a questionnaire to fill in relating to what they like/don't like about the current speedway set up and give them a spare to give to someone who used to attend but no longer does). Nothing ever happened and Bill soldiered on with the raffle tickets but as Mike has said there's going to come a crunch soon when the over 40 year old double uppers retire and we are nearly out of people who will step in and take over underwriting the annual track losses. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 4 hours ago, PersonalResponsibility said: In fairness, they're probably not visiting because a fair proportion are now 6 feet under... True enough in my Dad's case.He passed halfway through the 2024 season,so that's roughly £700 in entrance money ( upto lastweek) that the club have needed to replace for him. Multiply by just 10 and that's £7000... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IainB Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 17 minutes ago, Andrew said: True enough in my Dad's case.He passed halfway through the 2024 season,so that's roughly £700 in entrance money ( upto lastweek) that the club have needed to replace for him. Multiply by just 10 and that's £7000... Same here... I've been "flying solo" since the 2018 season 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 1 hour ago, IainB said: Same here... I've been "flying solo" since the 2018 season Me too, since around 15 years ago when he got to the stage that standing around, or sitting down, plus the walking, for any length of time got too much.. He stopped and then I gradually did as I realised I often just went because he wanted to... It wasnt until a few years ago he mentioned he only kept attending for several years because he thought I wanted to!!!... As he said in his broad Cork accent... "It was usually a right load of crap!".... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcone44 Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 me too from 2024, we got a him a electric buggy for his last season, when he couldn't walk so far.. still miss him when I'm there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TB1 Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 On 7/13/2026 at 5:02 PM, IainB said: If you look at their 6 home fixtures so far this season, 2 of them have been against Belle Vue & 2 against Leicester! The first Aces match no Kurtz & Blodorn The second Aces match no Blodorn, Kildermand & Bewley The second Lions match no Dan Thompson Where's the incentive to attend? Imagine if you bought a luxury car for say 30k. Then they removed the electric windows, the air conditioning and stereo and still tried to flog it for 30k. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 10 minutes ago, TB1 said: Imagine if you bought a luxury car for say 30k. Then they removed the electric windows, the air conditioning and stereo and still tried to flog it for 30k. Years ago, you found out when at the track that "headliners" were missing... Now you know usually two days in advance, and even up to setting off time, that "all of a sudden" one of the main riders wont be there... And often, not because he is injured... So much to unpick for the sport to be even remotely a success going forwards... Probably far too much now I would suggest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Irving Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 You’ve got to feel for Sheffield here. It can’t be understated how much of a blow losing Tru7 must have been, especially when no replacement was forthcoming,, To then lose your GP star through injury who without question would have put bums on seats, is another kick in the nuts. Hopefully they can limp through the rest of this season, get a new main sponsor on board this winter and then go again in 2027. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therefused Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 8 minutes ago, Steve Irving said: You’ve got to feel for Sheffield here. It can’t be understated how much of a blow losing Tru7 must have been, especially when no replacement was forthcoming,, To then lose your GP star through injury who without question would have put bums on seats, is another kick in the nuts. Hopefully they can limp through the rest of this season, get a new main sponsor on board this winter and then go again in 2027. then in 2027 we can hope everyone limps through to 2028 and repeat 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Irving Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 8 minutes ago, therefused said: then in 2027 we can hope everyone limps through to 2028 and repeat That’s all we can do really isn’t it? They’ve tried all the “five year plan” nonsense before only to rip it all up 12 months later and change things. There’s so much uncertainty in British Speedway unfortunately with developers/Tracks closing, that we can only really view things short term and take each year as it comes and see what clubs come to the table for the following year. Nothing much is really going to change while the current incumbents are still ruling the roost in terms of taking the sport forward with fresh plans and ideas also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeOldPitGate Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 1 hour ago, Steve Irving said: You’ve got to feel for Sheffield here. It can’t be understated how much of a blow losing Tru7 must have been, especially when no replacement was forthcoming,, To then lose your GP star through injury who without question would have put bums on seats, is another kick in the nuts. Hopefully they can limp through the rest of this season, get a new main sponsor on board this winter and then go again in 2027. Yep nobody wants to see another track close, the Bates family have no doubt poured hundreds of thousands in over the years if they step down will anyone be willing to take it on ? unlikely I would think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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