mikebv

15 clubs sharing what after VAT? £30k - 40k?... Hardly worth it is it?.. Not up against the longer term opportunity to make the sport look far more popular than many watching would even consider.. Including the key target market, ie the ones who used to attend regularly... £2k per club is worth circa 100 fans entrance... If the sport can sell itself well on Saturday, and, reading between the lines, at the the other meetings planned (the play offs maybe?)... Then far more than £2k can be gained over a season...

As Meat Loaf may have said... "Now, don't be sad, coz four out of seven ain't bad"...

I actually think "less is more"... The NSS holds the PCMT at the start of the season, featuring top level GP riders. This attracts a 2000+ crowd... They also then host two GP's with more than 3,000 Aces fans attending both nights.. The BF, no disrespect to it, is the equivalent of the "Football League Cup" when compared to the "Champions League" of the GP's... And, the League Cup is always a tough seller for the Premiership clubs compared to their Premiership matches.. Moving it around could give it a new lease of life...?

There are seven teams, BV, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Berwick, Workington, Redcar, and Sheffield, that are "Northern" however there never appears to be too many from any of them at the BF, even Sheffield.. To be fair, not too many turn up from Sheffield for play offs.. Maybe moving it to somewhere like Glasgow one year, and Ipswich or Kings Lynn the next would get more interest? Given they have current tracks around them, and/or reasonably recently closed tracks around them... Poole would deliver a decent crowd too I would think, as the likes of Lambert and Bewley will be, like if any Championship team had it, a novelty so would generate interest... Whatever happens they need to do some marketing and, like with all the UK Speedway titles, make the competition actually worth winning, as currently, riders can just pull out such is their lack of desire to win it.... And that cannot be good optics for a National Championship if they want to engage a decent following... As for being Central? Manchester is probably the most Central point from the Scottish teams to the South Coast ones... It's more the lack of prestige in the BF title, and the level of riders on view nowadays, that keep people away for me, more than the venue location...

Or the size of the crowd...

It is a National Championship... Fans should be there, in numbers, from any track that has a competitor, and even if they haven't... Like used to happen.... The reality of course is that the BF is no longer what it was once, and the Aces fans will make up the majority of a small crowd.. If Dan Bewley gets confirmed it will attract more Aces fans to the event, (plus others), however, possibly, the Aces only have a RS rider in the meeting.... This is the third meeting in less than three weeks at the NSS, which I would say is a gamble in today's economic climate... To be honest, I do feel that the BF should move given the NSS holds two GP's which, whilst being great, and much more expensive, do deliver VFM and massively take the shine of the BF, especially when so many RS's and Championship riders are included... There is minimal advertising for the event, if any, locally, but that aligns with the usual Aces lack of marketing.. I am baffled why every track doesn't try and flog, at least 100 tickets each (since April), with these tickets being discounted heavily to offset the high travel costs... Maybe clubs should even organise coaches to get their fans there?.. The BF should be a "Festival of Speedway" pushing the sport forward, instead it becomes just another Speedway meeting...

If they have advertised it locally, I haven't noticed... The opportunity exists for every team to have fans there in reasonable numbers which just may get some recognition from anyone watching in their locality... A British Championship in any sport should have followers from all those competing, and the more teams' fans there the more UK Speedway looks like a "National sport", which, for many non followers it currently won't register as such..

There are about 20,000 to 25,000 who attend the 15 tracks I would suggest.... Most of those people will watch which should give a decent reach for a Saturday evening slot on Itv4.. A shame there hasn't been any coordinated fans travel from each club, even if a reduced admission price was needed , to get some rvisual representation there, which could be mentioned on comms.. And made the place look more full, and the sport more popular.. It's basically a free advert for UK Speedway on Saturday, one that should be used well...

Maybe they didn't announce it earlier just in case fans didn't buy tickets?.. If so, that didn't work out too well did it...? And if they did that for that reason, it hardly speaks volumes of their own belief in their own product does it..? Personally, if the tickets sales are poor, then I would close down a third of the Grandstand and put out some huge Aces, and Sponsors flags across the empty seats... Close up the Grandstand attendees together... Or just close the South side and let everyone sit down and put the adverts across there, like football does on Champions league nights... Getting good coverage for the sponsors... The place needs to look full even if it isn't...

Spot on... It's THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!! The flagship of the sport for domestic UK Speedway.. It it looks as if hardly anyone can be arsed to attend this then the competition itself looks irrelevant.. And if the supposed pinnacle prize of the sport in the UK looks irrelevant, then heaven help the league racing...

Or get out tomorrow, Thursday Friday and Saturday into city centre Manchester and flog them... Give 100 x £10 tickets to every track and see if they can sell them... It is a British Final, not a Belle Vie individual meeting, so every track should have a presence there..

It seems to be a view that is a Belle Vue thing .. It isn't, it is a national event, jointly ran by all the promoters... It is the BSP as a collective that needs to ensure a decent crowd.. Personally holding an event of a Championship level, at a track that held two GP's quite recently, isn't the best idea for me..., Even more so when that track is running it's third meeting in less than 3 weeks.. When the British Final ran at Coventry, it was packed, as World Title hopes were on the line, World Class talent was in every race, and Supporters clubs ran coaches from over 30 tracks... No one relied on Coventry to sell out the event by themselves... This, if no Dan B is possibly the lowest standard of BF to be held ever... A tough sell, and one it doesn't look like any promoters around the country have done anything about at their own track... A coach from each would have got a thousand or so there..

Hopefully the start of a longer term relationship... Good to get it on free to air.. Only concern is the optics of it playing out in front of loads of empty seats.... They may to take a hit and do several hundred very cheap seats... "Speedway is that still going?" Will be something many watching will be saying.. Therefore, make it look ultra popular... And ensure every track with a rider there gets mentioned... A "Golden Ticket" to be played..

100%, all very much live for now given the landscape... But a signing like this, later in the season, will always give some fresh impetus to a club, which can only be a positive when attracting people into the stadium.. Especially one that could have a few "dead rubbers" as they are pretty much nailed on for the play offs...

Transparency indeed... I don't know. Some on here seem to expect far too much... Let's hope when the "big reveal" takes place re TV coverage, (have I missed it as it was said to be this morning?), that Dan will also be confirmed as the major surprise to ensure a decent crowd...

Very shrewd signing .. If nothing else, he will get some interest generated and bring more in to watch... USA riders now a rarity so plenty of marketing opportunities locally to create some good publicity, as there is a definite "angle" to work... And, if it works out, a potential long term investment... I would say "typical Poole" but some might smash down their phones, tablets or laptops..

YouTube show quite a few of them... The ones I have seen had Harrison doing the programme presenting and Steve Rider at the track, and, I think, Dave Lanning doing the commentary... Central used to also do a few meetings from what I can see, covering the fair few Midland teams of the time, a mixture of league, cup and individuals... Regional TV companies must have got decent viewer numbers given some had a decent amount of tracks within their reach...

I am sure Brady will prioritise the meeting at Foxhall....

Great occasions... 30+ teams meant a big catchment of fans who could attend... With the vast majority of teams, if not all, getting four figure attendances... Some of which were 5,000 plus... Now we have 15 teams, with a large percentage of them getting three figure attendances, and even the top attended clubs being much less than 2,000 regularly... Maybe moving it around the country would "freshen up" the event?... The main protagonists are Championship riders so taking it to a Championship track with a few top tier only riders providing some novelty value, may improve attendances?... Last night at the NSS, four of the finalists that rode, scored (excluding Ht2 when they all rode against each other), six points from a collective 13 rides... And another more experienced finalist got three points from four rides.. Sadly. Long gone are the days when this title had a good number of some of the best riders in the world in attendance, with 2nd tier No1's and decent top tier SS's making up the numbers hoping to do well against them... £27 to stand and watch too...

And all was being sorted early during this season too... Man Citeh's verdict will be announced sooner...

Take your bike... You might be riding looking at who is missing...

Just watched the Wroclaw v Lublin match... What an atmosphere in the stadium.... Great racing too with Kowalski beating Zmarzlik bringing the house down!! Incredible how exactly the same sport in two countries can be so different...

Spot on.... Strange the GP's in Manchester ran on Friday and Saturday... Monday and Tuesday surely would have been better?..

The big money comes in through the sponsorship and TV coverage.with "the prize" being huge contracts... Huge budgets means riders earning circa €800k for riding for your local speedway team will inevitably bring local, and national, interest, and a decent following... The whole thing then looks "big time", which can only be a good thing when being viewed by the general public... The GP's still pay out decent money with anyone regularly in and around the top six earning £80k to £100k over a season of 10 GP's.. And winning the World Final was never a massive cash prize but the World Champion made big money over the coming 12 months.. I seem to remember it was said in the late 70's it was worth up to £250k in sponsorship, points money, and lucrative appearance fees.. Zmarzlik currently nationally advertisers Aztorin Watches which will be a very nice earner for him I would suggest, especially given the price point they sell at.. Again, bringing "eyeballs" to the sport through his appearance in the adverts.. UK Speedway desperately needs to look "big time" and quickly, and, somehow, bringing big money into it will deliver those optics.. Hopefully someone can make it happen...

Contrived teams being just put together, with minimal affinity being felt by many who closely follow the sport.. It doesn't engender that emotional loyalty that a team sport needs to be successful.... Crowds are better at the weekends than when they have played during the week though.. And heading to the knockout stage the interest and crowds are expected to grow... Sounds strangely familiar....