olethefod

At last we seem to have thread that has a common theme, with the exception of someone raising the start girls attire! We have a number of simple concepts that we need addressing to ensure safety for our sport: 1) Take a serious look at pricing and match it too surroundings and customer base. 2) Stop driving away the Worlds greatest talent. 3) Asses if weekend racing is viable due to working practices now in place (We work far longer hours now than in the 40's, 50's and 60's, even though less productive, how productive can answering emails all day be?) 4) If you own a contract, you own the rider and he wears your colours, if you don't want him, sell him to someone offering the best deal. 5) A Cup system drawing teams from all three leagues like the FA Cup, not home and away, one leg only unless drawn. 6) Advertise everywhere and get our hands on a big name sponsor that everyone knows. As I sit here looking at my Wolves line up from the early 70's with Ole Olsen, Hans Neilsen, Finn Thomsen, George Hunter, etc.........I think they were great days, but they ain't coming back so lets drop this 'In the old days' and start to look forward.

I have to say that more sense has been talked on the future of speedway on this thread than any of the others I have read, as they say 'Its bums on seats' that pay the bills! The £5 a head idea is whats needed, to fill the stadiums again, cram em in cheap, I know someone in Kiddy that went to football for years to watch his local southern league team, as the crowds grew he thought it would be good idea to have an advertisement auding at the stadium, this led to ball sponsorship, boot sponsorship and so on, had he not been there then he wouldn't have thrown his cash at the harriers. Budweiser league basket ball was big in the UK around ten years ago, £12 for a family ticket and the same sort of player spectator relationship we have with the riders, 10,000 turned up at the NIA to Bulletts v Sharks the atmosphere was amazing, so they moved to the NEC bunged up the price to £10 and £5 to get in, crowds dissapeared like English summers and so did the bulletts, SKY dropped the league like a hot potato closely followed by Budweiser, the play offs at Wembley attracted 10,000 crowds every year not one day but two. The lesson this teaches is keep it affordable and accesible, the car park at the NEC was £8 on top of the entrance and the NEC is a thirty mile round trip from the old venue in the city. What about £20 family tickets at speedway? Why not race on Sunday afternoon or saturday night? When dad used to come home from pit at 2pm, we could get to speedway by 7pm for a pie and a pint, to get to speedway for seven now, dad has to leave the office two hours early, fight his way home, pick up the family and fight his way through traffic to the stadium, when he gets to the stadium theres no where to park if the gate is more than 1,000 and has to walk his family through some scarey places in the dark to reach the stadium, when we get there we have to queue for half an hour as only one turnstile is open and miss the first three heats, in football they delay the kickoff if people are trying to get in (SKY have to suffer the consequences) in Speedway the people people outside have to hope they set sky plus if the meets on as no one inside really cares if they miss half the meeting.

As always some great ideas put forward on an age old topic. I was just watching the TV and two cycle riders were being interviewed at a velodrome, didn't catch the drift of the conversation but did notice who was sponsoring the velodrome....Tissot the watch maker...They throw thousands at the sport, I would add, even though thousands of people cycle (This has been used on this forum as a reason for the money, the attendances at local cycle meets can be counted on one hand if you don't include the competitors, who sponsors the time keeping on the SGP circuit? TAG, Maurice Lequar, Gucci, Tissot, nope! Some one in the forum said get more people on motor bikes, I hate motor bikes yet love speedway, I love the way the riders put everything on the line week in week out, I love their must win attitude and they way they connect with the fans. Re the £200 million about to be thrown at grass routes football, its because they look and sound professional when interviewed, they wouldn't dream of saying the goal mouth was s**t thats why I missed the penalty, would speedway riders be the same......mmmmmmmmmmm! No. Football had to re-invent it self ten years ago, it drafted in all the best foreigners, we drove ours away by lowering points averages, it built new stadiums, we layed tracks on open land and old landfills and offered a porta loo! What ever we say on here its about hard cash, its business at the end of the day. Over the years the big sponsors have left speedway high and dry as we served up rubbish in tatty surroundings, bad news is, last few weeks we have served up more rubbish in empty tatty surroundings, how can the team rock bottom in the Elite league own the contracts of Nikki Pederson, Peter Karlsson and Tai Woffenden and still not win at home, dont think this would happen to Man Utd do you, so a club wins year in year out because they have the most money and best riders, this is the cruel way of sport, we dont ask federa to use a smaller racket to give the others a chance, anyone heard of Chelsea and the 40,000 thay attract ever week and the five thousand they add to your gate when they visit?

Thanks excellent

How many time have we witnessed riders almost tying for first place this year, one more lap?

I have to agree with Jeff on crowd numbers, I was at Wembley in the early 80's for european final and around 45 - 50,000 were there, he run off was between Olsen , Mauger, Michenek and Collins to give some idea of the talent on display, so this proves big names only known inside the sport have little impact. To move forward we have to look at the fundementals not start anylising the last ten years, theyre gone and should remain so, when I came back two years ago after a twenty year gap, I couldnt get head around the bike covers, the bikes used to gleam under the lights, they now resemble racing billboards! 1. The state of the stadia and entertainment value: When Wolves FC had there stadium go to rack and ruin, the fans left in droves and team fell appart due to lack of funds. Attendances were down to 5,000, inject some cash, build a new stadium, 28,000 watch weekly, teams still rubbish but hey ho! 2. Indoor meetings should be at the start and rear of the season therefore protecting the GP from being rained off, not in the warmest time of the year (Denmark and Cardiff) 3. Tracks should be covered until two hours before the meeting starts (Who wants to travel 100 miles to be sent home due to drizzle) 4. Main one, we have to promote a rider to such a height that everyione wants to know what all the fuss is about and comes to see. 5. Races should consist of six laps to try and kill off the first out odf the gate crap that haunts the sport. And finally, stop driving out the top talent with stupid points reductions.