mikebv

And a 'guest friendly' average in both leagues is never a bad thing to run to earn a few extra bookings.. Particularly in the 'guest fest ' era that has taken place over the past five years or so..

Of course you can.... As said before football already does it... And you can sit next to someone in a plane who has paid more or less than you.... Also. You can be in an hotel room and the person next door can have paid more or less than you... If you want atmosphere at a sports event it is enhanced 1000% by having two sets of fans in attendance.. If they won't come because the costs are too high, admission, travel etc. Then reduce them,... Having atmosphere at a team event is a self fulfilling prophecy, the more you have, the bigger the occasion will feel and the longer it will live in the memory, Having zero atmosphere, like so many speedway meetings have, inspires very few to keep returning.. There should be no restrictions to marketing any event... Thats why innovation exists...

Watched an episode of George and Mildred on Dave a few months ago.. The toast was burnt or something and there was then a comment about cinders and a Speedway track.. Hilarious... Big time Speedway is again just around the corner when 1970's crap sitcoms can push it into their script...

Twenty is Plenty.. A pressure group formed to have a maximum price for away fans... Many clubs joined in...

Of course you csn... If you want them there... And you dont get anywhere near the same atmosphere, and therefore sense of occasion, without them.. Hence. Football does it too...

Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest will be once again be proven.... For far too long Speedway has propped up teams in the league at any cost... Hence it has become not much more than a vehicle to allow riders to ride professionally in an haphazard scatter gun way, rather than a bona fide professional team sport which attracts a loyal emotional following and has credibility... Sometimes you do need to strip everything back and start again... When supply of riders exceeds demand it can start to turn round it's fortunes..

Good idea... Another possibility is give out tickets on a sliding scale.. Maybe a couple of £12 vouchers for the next two matches, and then a couple of £14 ones for the next two after, and then charge full price after that.. After five discounted visits maybe the 'Speedway habit' has kicked in and it won't seem a huge jump from £14 to full price... (Or mayne one of the three discounted prices is the successful one in delivering the required volume to profit figure so the old full price isn't needed?)

Spot on.. Only give out their tickets at Edinburgh... No e tickets, no postage etc.. And do it when Berwick are not there! Maybe to ST holders first up to reward their loyalty and then if any left to anyone who wants one.. The sport desperately needs rivalries to create that much needed atmosphere which it is so devoid of at so many tracks.. So time to create it.. Its amazing how a great meeting lives no time in the memory when played out in front of one man and his dog.. And vice versa. You seldom come away from Cardiff thinking 'that wasn't good' because you were surrounded by lots of people and the atmosphere is great, even if the racing isn't for example, a patch on the NSS.. A chance for Berwick to showcase themselves and hopefully it forms part of a longer term much more detailed marketing plan on the back of it, as it won't mean everyone just turns up again at the next meeting. As has been proved several times around the country when other clubs have done this and crowds just drop back to normal after the special offer... It should be the starting point of a longer term marketing plan, not the only marketing plan.. Best of luck to them..

Hope they get a big crowd... Maybe charge Edinburgh fans a fiver, or even free? to try and get a few there to add a bit of spice and atmosphere. And get some emails and mobile numbers off those home fans who attend to target them with offers in the future... It's a big jump from a tenner to seventeen quid and expect all to return the week later... Maybe do some further reduced tickets to those enticed in to get them back into the habit of attending Speedway.. Hope it generates some good short and long term returns.. The mistake so many often make is they have no follow up to nights like this and just think all will return again and pay full price the week later.. Be great to see if Berwick can use it a launch pad to further innovative plans to keep punters coming in.. Great to see some 'promotion'....

To be fair.. I have seldom had a Big Mac that resembles the photo on the wall.. Nor one that tastes quite as good as the advert had led me to believe... The sport needs a jewel in the crown to build everything else around it... Most tracks it would appear need around 500 or so a week more to become at least 'break even'... Just 500... Even if they got that for one week after a great advert for the sport on TV it must help... What they do with them when they get there is then down to the club.. But getting them there in the first place has to be the priority.... The NSS, with a full Grandstand, and lots of away fans to add atmosphere, allied to the usual great racing, must have a chance of being the advert that persuades a few hundred ex fans at least to attend their local track, even if no newbies can be attracted.. In the short term get the sport back on track (no pun intended) and then long term start to replicate some thing similar to what the NSS has to offer (if possible) around the country..

Waiting for the tide to go out?

Excellent post... I've said before that four years ago my son and I went to an indoor Supercross event in Mcr.. Last year they came back to Mcr and I found this out because they emailed me two months out with discount codes to be used, using the details they had from the last purchase I made.. They had also sent me ecard birthday wishes for my lad and Xmas ecards to me and my family in the interim.. Not difficult is it? If you want to make it work, you can, without breaking the bank..

Correct.. There should be some clear demarcation between every league. (If they want to keep three leagues going forward?) You improve and become the best at that level then you move up.. You go backwards and can't compete then you drop down a level.. A natural order of things.. If you look at the top fives in the PL then all are pretty similar standards wise, (and have been for donkeys years), therefore why not run with five man teams until enough riders are available to ride at that level and add another if it suits... The Premiership should be the aspirational level.. The Championship the one that holds those who still wish to climb to the top step, or are happy with their lot. And the NL the breeding ground for new talent, of any age.. Running with five men per team will hopefully lead to excess riders too which puts pressure on those holding the positions which can never be a bad thing. And it will also keep salaries in check as well as providing injury cover credibly.. Still let riders double or treble up as their ability allows until enough riders fill the teams. Ensure no clashes of fixtures but the higher league will have priority if it happens unavoidably.. The UK seems to have a much better pathway now for young riders to progress. Be a shame if they are just thrown in at the deep end before they are ready without any support if they struggle to swim..

There is an easy answer though Sydney.. Market the sport collectively.. Create a brand image collectively... Race on nights when you can get your best crowds not when your employees tell you they are available.. Do market research locally to focus on where to advertise more to increase your reach.. Review the price elasticity of your product to ascertain the right price v the margin/volume needed to meet profit that the customer will pay.. Then set a fixed wage budget % against your income budget, and never overspend it, if you take more than your sales budget then pay the riders more or use this cash to develop your business.. Be innovative, use professionals to support your ideas, and work together to share costs and increase overall impact.. For example. Use the NSS to help sell the sport to those watching around the country on TV. Any TV meeting there run it as a loss leader to create some interest, costs covered collectively. Give 50-100 tickets to the away club and pay for two coaches to get them there. Create the atmosphere so lacking sadly now of it being a 'tribal contest' that team sports should be... In fact give away free tickets to every away team at every match to distribute to their fans (maybe season ticket holders get first option as a reward for their loyalty), and pay their travel at every match. I guarantee that this will create atmosphere and more interest which can only create a more positive overall visiting experience for those in attendance.. And if you have a positive visiting experience anywhere you tend to want to go back. And as away fans are mainly not there now there is no loss of income, just the cost of the travel to pay. And to fund the travel, if you cannot get it sponsored, maybe pay the 14 riders collectively a grand less between them so there's no additional cost involved. Works out about £70 a rider but do it pro rata on a % basis so fair to all riders.. There are lots of things they could do if they worked together for the 'greater good'' rather than doing, for all the best intentions, something by themselves that has a tiny impact on their overall business.. As Kelvin said, one of the best three tracks in the world. So use it to advertise Speedway as a whole.. And do it in a full stadium, which is full of noise from both sets of fans, creating a great brand image of a successful, well followed sport to the watching TV audience.. Bottom line is that there is no point having a great race track and running in front of crowds below break even... As so many other tracks are doing too if you read comments from promoters.. Because there usually is only one outcome of that..

No... Because I haven't set myself up as a Speedway Promoter... If I did though, my marketing budget would be a considerable 'fixed cost' that I would plan for and invest in... And see it as a fundamental priority of my business plan... Not something done as an 'after thought' ran by well meaning amateurs... Because that simply doesn't work...

Speedway gets many, many hours of advertising out of the BT deal.. That they choose not to highlight themselves as a 'popular place to visit' isn't BT's fault... Last night they should have ran with cheap tickets, filled the Grandstand, and had huge banners advertising various sponsors and the club website, twitter, fb page etc covering the empty back straight.. Or at the very least move all the Grandstand people together and covered the vacant seating with advertising banners like champions league football does with the first few rows.. When the SWC was at BV a few years ago we got 'upgraded' free of charge to the seating erected on bends three/four Why? Because this was the area that was going to get most covered on TV as it was directly in line with the camera covering the starts.. Unpurchased, empty seating would have made the event look 'unpopular'.. So much of advertising and marketing is about hype.. If it looks successful many 'sheep' will follow it and grow it's success.. And vice versa, the same is also true.. It it looks unpopular, it will stay unpopular unless something changes.. And 'build it and they will come' simply doesn't cut it anymore... The Aces have a huge asset in that circuit. They now need to get a marketing plan that actually does it justice..

I know, sadly.. Would be great to watch around the NSS... So many on good money in Poland that dissuades them coming over.. Cannot blame them to be fair given the standing of the sport over there, the crowds, the atmosphere and the racetrack standards that are maintained.. Britain has none of the first three with maybe only the NSS meeting the racetrack standards..

Pawel Miesiac... Seen him ride lots so far this year.. 34 years old but flying in Polands top division.. Four point average too I would think. (?).. A proper entertainer too... Would love the NSS.. I'd stand well back at Wolves though...

Great racing... Makes it doubly disappointing so little effort is made to promote it... No point having a great product and no semblance of capability in the marketing of it.. A full Grandstand with plenty of Ippo fans in attendance and it would be one of those meetings lasting long in the memory of all who were there.. When will the penny drop do you think? In fact. Maybe every meeting should have 50 tickets given away to the away team? They are not there now so won't cost much in real terms.. Who knows, maybe the clubs could pay for the coach? As if...

Promoters know best...

Been watching a lot of Polish Speedway this season.. The racing tonight has been more than resonable so far.. If this was Poland there would be a great atmosphere given some of the close racing... Sadly, even good close racing hardly raises more than a polite round of applause when your sat on your own.. If 1700 Aces fans had been in the Grandstand having been charged a tenner to get in.. And Ippo had brought a coach load who had either been let in for free or charged a fiver to sit in their own part of the stand.. You would have atmosphere and 'proper celebrations'... And a great advert for the sport.. And who knows maybe some watching might think it worth visiting?

Fair play to the camera man... Keeps zooming in far enough to show 20 fans together... Edit: He's just done it again. .. Maybe they will all swap seats for the next time to make it look like it's a different section?

A couple of hours of 'advertising' your business on live TV? Great news... Obviously, do exactly jack rubbish to make yourself look successful though... That would be a daft idea wouldn't it?

Promoters know best...

What time can you get there?