mikebv

No... They just leave Speedway... Adrian Smith a case in point. . He had very limited knowledge of Speedway when he became CEO at BV, but was "blown away" by the core, raw product that took place, and saw huge untapped potential... Unfortunately he was less "blown away" by the operating model around it, and several of those who delivered such a model... One of a good number who knew what was needed, but stopped from doing anything, so those "tiny, tiny empires", many of which want so many different things from fhe sport, could keep doing the same thing ad infinitum...

It is a total sh*tshow isnt it?.. But.. Let's be honest.. Anyone who has followed UK Speedway for any decent length of time, are not really surprised in any way shape or form are they?... Just par for the course...

I'm still totally devastated he cost the Colts the title .. No idea when it was, or that he even rode for them... But I am truly devastated nevertheless... In fact, I may never get over it ...😁

There has certainly been plenty of dense fog blinding the way....

The big challenge the UK version of the sport has is to make it relevant... If you run a team sport there has to be a "tribal, them v us, feel" to the competitions.. And the competitions must have something seen to be tangibly worth winning in the eyes of any prospective, (and even actual), followers.. The "War of fhe Roses" at the NSS is a case in point... Two local rivals yet hardly any away fans are in attendance even on a BH Monday which then delivers a flat atmosphere... Many "non regular" BV fans will visit on that day, so a huge opportunity to impress them enough to attend more... Often all it does is reinforce to them that their low attendance level is justified, and what made them visit less frequently iinitially is still the way that the sport is ran.. In short. Nothing has changed to entice them back.. The sport just meanders, doing the same old, same old, and, I presume, believes it will suddenly become popular again.. Give away fans free tickets if needs be to get them there, get a bit of banter and atmosphere going, build some tribal rivalries which can be "milked" ongoing... There is plenty of room in the stadiums to fit 100 or more away supporters I would suggest...

I've watched Speedway in the USA and it's a similar vibe... It is a "night out" and not just a Speedway meeting... Kids races, sidecars, handicap racing, riders stalls with their merchandise, various competitions for the crowds to enter through the night, food and drink served to you in the stands, and a presentation level that keeps you engaged from announcer to roving mike person.. The towns I saw the racing in had a good many banners and boards up around them, including on the interstate, and loads of fhe restaurants, bars and hotels all had posters in their windows advertising the track and the racing... Crowds were "very decent" too, no GP riders in attendance, and, mainly, ex UK riders in their 40's and 50's dominating proceedings.. Speedway can be a great night out... The UK version just needs to find how to show it much more often..

There is definitely a "less is more" feel to UK Speedway due to so much of it being delivered poorly... Less meetings but much better planned, promoted and delivered could help it keep going... Two teams, seven riders per team, (any adhoc seven riders per team), fifteen heats, four laps clutch start, birthday dedications over the PA to octogenarians, etc etc etc, and all to try and win competitions very low on relevance and kudos, simply doesn't engage enough people anymore.. The racing itself though could still be "sold", and even more so if fhe prizes of the competitions engaged the wider public... Watching Speedway racing should feel like you are attending an "event".... Unfortunately, it rarely feels like you are attending one given the "sales pitch" and "race day experience" is so far away from being where both are required to be in 2026...

The riders can be Full Time from April to October and get another job from November to March.. Not enough people pay to watch UK Speedway to have so many riders earning a full years salary... When I ran businesses my payroll budget flexed up if I beat my sales budget, and dropped down if I didn't hit my sales numbers.... I couldn't keep laying out more than the income justified so, many times, I had to pull in the payroll spend by cutting overtime or not replacing leavers.. My team were "disappointed" at times as their earning potential was reduced, as was I as so was mine... Life eh?

The Danish model would give HL's five rides a night, and possibly six .. Conference the sport into two seven team Conferences, where you race your "local teams" twice home and away, and once home and away with the other seven.. That's a total of 36 matches.. Add in a KO Cup and a minimum 38.. At five rides a night that is 190 races per season.. At two points per race (8 point average) it scores 10 points per night for five rides.. At £150 a point that is £1500 x 38 matches, which equates to £57k (FOR SIX MONTHS WORK!).. And, given there would probably be no GP riders, and the No5 in each team would be NDL SS level at best, you would think an established 30 something DU would score well... You don't have to only work from April to October...

Racing around the flat packed beds and the dining tables? Flat pack racing... I like it... Could catch on...

Well it certainly wouldn't work at Edinburgh... Their promoter couldn't work out how or why the city's basketball team got three times the crowds Speedway got...

The Aces will end up advertising prices for the two GP meetings, the PCMM, and Season Tickets all pretty much at the same time.... It must impact at least one of the three, if not two... With, you'd suspect, the GP's being the one least impacted... Crowds could be a real issue this year...

Who collectively spend seven figures a year on riders?

When I went around seven years ago it was £70 for me and my then 15 year old lad... From the moment of entry where riders had their meet and greet merch stalls, and free event posters given away signed by many of them, to the "have your photo with the Monster girls" (He did, I didn't!),, to the pre racing build up, the actual racing itself (didn't have a clue who any of them were), and the entertainment between hests eg the T shirt guns getting fired, the text raffle for fhe bike, right through to the free giveaways as we left, more posters, stickers etc.. Worth every penny... And so much of it would have cost fhe organisers minimal outlay, yet the crowd left with great memories and something tangible to also remember it by... I got an email that night thanking me and my son for attending and asking for feedback, and 12 months later, an email with 10% off tickets but we were going away so couldn't go.. Proper Promotion by Proper Promoters...

I attended one in Manchester a few years ago.. I said at the time that every UK Speedway promoter should go and see how motorbike racing could be presented.. My lad caught a T shirt and I got roped in to entering the text raffle to win a mini MX bike, which was hanging from fhe ceiling, at a fiver a ticket... They must have paid for that bike several times over given how many phones were in use! Music. Lights. Noise. Colour. Excitement... And a hyped up prize too, where it was said they were racing for a £200k first prize... The reality was that this was the total paid out over the five rounds to the riders.. But nothing wrong with a bit of hype that increases your profile and standing...

Brady Kurtz? Mark Lemon taking one for the good of the sport? Woffy at Belle Vue as back up to Bewley in SWC year to show his fitness levels?...

100% advertise locally... There are Universities/Colleges who do marketing degrees so you could maybe contact them for their students to do some "real life course work".. If you decided not to employ a proper agency obviously.... Nationally? 14 teams running one meeting each would gross around circa £400k at roughly twenty quid on average (based on 20,000 fans in total visiting the 14 tracks for their opening night..)... Maybe all could give up that first nights money and give that circa £400k to a national company to see if they can get some cut through? (Budgeting for one less match per season).. They lay huge amounts to riders in relation to fhe tiny size of the sport, yet dont seem to ever use some of this money to market these riders, and their businesses, beyond those who already know who they are. Surely it's worth doing "something different" for one season to see if it can make a difference? Less riders per team and use the payroll saving for marketing for example?

Glasgow do a very good job in giving out tickets to fans to bring people they know along... The key being "not just one meeting" and "not just one person".... Getting a group there can be very much key to encourage them to keep attending when they are required to pay... Although going from free to £25 could also need some looking at...

The CL game was a "must win" to get into the seeded top eight... citeh!...

I would say that less than 0.1% of the population (80,000?) know who the GP riders are.. And of that 80,000 around just circa 20,000 actually visit the 14 tracks regularly.. And as for fans bringing others along? Do businesses who I use expect me to bring in customers to them? Or do they advertise themselves nationally so people know they exist?

They had over 20,000 empty seats on Wednesday in their CL game so probably not...

Plenty of empty seats when not on TV, too... "Big Names" are only that to the less than 0.1% of the polulation who follow the sport... They mean nothing to the 99.9+% of the population who don't.... What an opportunity for growth though if you could make admission affordable for more people, allied to a properly joined up national marketing campaign to try and make many, many millions of people aware that they have a Speedway track within a 45 minute drive of their home...

Too many seem to want to join in a race to the bottom... Which is quite baffling given the actual "rewards" available... Some see this, and quite rightly, cut their cloth accordingly and sensibly, and ensure Speedway can continue each season at their venue...

Hence whenver I go to watch United away, given so many more fans are in attendance than usual at those grounds that don't sell out.. Eg The Etihad .. We sing.. "Come to see United. You've only come to see United"... In Speedway terms, upon the likes of BV visiting all the current 2nd tier teams, (if there was one league), the crowd levels for their visit would be significantly higher than normal I would suggest.... The novelty would wear off, and probably quickly, but that initial visit would definitely see a decent amount more in attendance..

Most teams are now at die hard levels who will turn up regularly regardless of league position, as, for many, a "night out at the speedway" is their main reason for being there.. I would be very surprised if promoters budget for any crowd increases at all when planning in their forecasted income.. Especially given the age demographics of the vast majority of their fanbase..