mikebv

All are getting new suits as the logo on the ones to be used this season is no longer allowed due to copyright infringement problems encountered.... (Nothing to do with the previous promotion by the way).. The race jacket currently used covers up the old logo and the new logo will get incorporated into the new suits...

No, the point is 7000 thought Free was good VFM, less than 1000 the week after felt the usual entrance fee was VFM... As has been said before on this forum, the Craven Shield meeting after the Elite Final with Peterborough and Reading a few years ago (possibly the finest ever) was watched by around just 500.. Simply people were not prepared to pay the admission cost that Speedway felt was the 'right one' for that meeting, but they were prepared to pay the entrance fee for the Final and it delivered superb entertainment... Therefore, clearly the entrance fee does have a huge impact on whether fans attend. The price of everything on sale is THE key determinant as to the success of its customer purchases and particularly whether that price point offers VFM... Speedways consistent yearly dwindling crowd base would suggest the current admission costs don't meet VFM criteria, however get the price v VFM ratio correct and it's proved crowds will come. The skill is to get this balance right... Like anything else, a Speedway meeting will have a 'VFM v Price asked' tipping point.. Speedway just needs to find its balance point..

Didn't Lakeside geta rumoured 7000 a few years ago when everyone was let in for nothing? Don't think anyone cared about what quality of racing they were going to watch... Think it 100% was the cost of admission (or lack of it) that got them to the track... Or, at the very least, it played more than a 'little part in attracting the punters'

I currently have 100 lots of thirty pence on me, send me a hundred quid and I will send you the lot.. Even pay the postage...😁

Sky Sports have exclusive coverage of the Co-op Funeralcare International Open 2017 from some holiday camp in Blackpool... Adding bowls to its growing portfolio of sports such as netball and kabaddi.. Says everything about their attempts to fill air space for little cost.. Still. At least the bowls managed to get a sponsor.... Wonder if the atmosphere was 'dead'.. Buddum Tish...... 😂😉

Then why don't they sell £15 for two tickets every match to everyone rather than to season tickets holders only..? Seems a barmy business plan to sell a 'few' season tickets when you could use the same admission fee to try and attract thousands....

All fair comments.. Bottom line for me is simply admission costs keep the crowds away the most.. For me and my 13 year old lad it costs me £24 to stand up at BV, to sit its a minimum £30, £33 being the top figure. We get a seat each at United for £45 in total with the same £10 cost for him to sit down.! Add on the £3 parking and the programme and you are looking at £30 before any food and drink. Meaning circa £40 for a visit to Speedway to stand up for two hours and often much more.... £40 for a tiny minority sport unheard of by vast swathes of the population.. Run one match a week and that's around £160 out of your monthly disposable income.. What that has done therefore is render Speedway 'an occasional treat' for many families rather than something they can afford to do regularly. You only have to see the demographic of the average Speedway fan who attends. Male, white, middle aged and above, attending invariably by himself where he meets up with like minded mates.. Getting two thousand a week paying £15 is equal to one thousand paying £30 in admission, however much more lucrative in the bars, car parks and programme sales... And much better also in generating the type of atmosphere that not only holds onto fans but attracts them too.. A self fulfilling prophecy... Get lots of families there and it becomes 'an event' which the kids will want to be going to again and again. Have the odd lonesome family there by themselves and the kids will think they are being punished by their parents making them attend...😕

What marketing push did they do on the night to get some repeat visits? Anyone know? A few hundred people extra in a 'captured market' environment should deliver plenty of further income if a business gets it act together... Let's hope Sheffield did it well..

Only when anyone praises any other club, riders, or track and doesnt mention Poole.. Starman sees this as an 'obvious oversight' on behalf of the poster, maybe even seen by him as tantamount to a personal slur, such is the gravitas of the 'mistake' perceived to be made.. He will then always feel the need to rectify the situation by telling everyone how great Poole, and anything connected to Poole is, in relation to any random comments made, or thread topic... Be careful if you do mention Poole though and are less than complimentary (no matter how fair, accurate or constructive any criticism is) as you may find yourself embroiled in an ongoing, never ending thread of nonsense comments, one where, as it evolves, may slowly start you to almost lose the very will to live...😆 Welcome to the 'Premiership' section.... Be careful out there....😁

Spot on... This must be the new spirit of co-operation from all the teams for the greater good in operation... Not knocking Matt Ford by the way because if the event had been at Poole then other teams' top riders would no doubt have been missing... Baby sitters on a Friday night can be hard to find....😁

But apart from fantastic exposure for the sport, a great day out for 40,000 fans, a fee paid to the BSPA and the sport being showcased in an professional, modern thinking way... . What has the British Speedway GP ever done for us??? (Apologies to Monty Python)!

Is the tide in???😁

Day off today, looks like time to get the popcorn out. ... Over to you FF.... Now, Salted or Sweet..?

Having to pay for satellite time certainly focuses attention I would imagine... I remember at Hyde Rd that the complex wanted the Speedway done for 9pm so that the fans could go and spend money on the funfair and bars... Bikes went in one gate and out the other, with the bikes for the next race on track well before the riders from the previous heat had entered the pits... If it could be done over forty years ago (running 13 heats and a full second half in two hours) then surely the same could be done today for 15 races?

Not a KL fan but.. For me if I had two jobs and one paid TEN times the salary of the other I know which job I would focus on getting absolutely 100% right.. A natural response I would say, either consciously or sub-consciously..

Just have BT normal broadband, no issues with BT Sport's quality of viewing... (Apart from Michael Owen obviously)....

My lads School pays for those with 100% attendance to go on a trip at the end of the year... Alton Towers, that kind of thing... You also can only go on other 'educational days out' if you have over 93% attendance... This system brought in by the Headmaster when he started 4 years ago has helped move the overall School attendance from 90% to over 96%... No 'everyone gets rewarded for being average' in his School. Winners are heralded as an inspiration to others... There is hope.... Anyways, back to the IOW... Barry Bishops contribution should be printed off by every track in the land and stuck on their office wall... I sincerely hope all the hard work delivers long term success to the club. One thing is for sure, if it doesnt, those in charge can look themselves in the mirror and know they have done everything they could to make it a success.. Again, (this time for British Speedway), with people like this in the Sport.. There is hope...

But isnt Doyles deal a two year one, with this being the second? If so. No Polish rule changes applied when he signed it so there shouldn't be any 'additions' to it.... British Speedway, once again, making the usual, short sighted, half arsed, not fit for purpose, make do and mend, make the best of a bad job, bodge it and scarper, lets try and please everyone except the fans, mickey mouse, make it up as we go along, tail wagging the dog, etc etc decision.... When it should simply protect its own brand and product... Why make decisions that mean more Guest riders are needed? Why make decisions that mean more meetings use Guests and thus become nothing more than 'select' affairs with zero credibility in a context of a professional sport? Just Stop Doing It BSPA!!! Lets be honest, the Sport in the UK is at rock bottom so what actually is there really left to lose by running it properly, ie with integrity and credibility. ?. Start doing that and people might start taking you and your sport seriously.. And who knows, maybe even attend more/start attending again......

If correct, then Swindon (and any other track that signs this) will need to accept people not attending if their top star and crowd puller has to miss any of their matches... You reap what you sow....

Three reasons maybe..? One, the riders you mention are all top riders so maybe their presence in the team is more vital so they do get paid up and lesser riders lose out accordingly to fund it? Or two.. Just like in many countries, they don't get paid everything they are owed but getting £400k out of a £500k contract is still considerably more than they could get over here? And three, again like in other countries, that £100k missing would often be promised to be added on to the following seasons money so maybe that also keeps them tied in? Bottom line is, Poland don't give any non Poles a career kick start but then cherry pick the ones they feel are up to the standards they want... How many Aussies would have made it to the highest level without the NL and 2nd Tier grounding and experience so many have received riding four or more times a week over here?. Some will have ridden more competitive laps in a month over here than they would do in a whole season back in Oz.. If Poland's money is so good. Let them go and ride over there from the start of their career and then their place in Britain can be taken by a young British lad..

Then ALL Aussies can start their careers in Poland... Learn the lingo... Let their Polish team sort their visas... Not get paid the full whack season in season out, its easy to offer 10 times the going rate when you have no way (or indeed inclination) of ever paying it... Oh hang on, they won't get offered the chance will they as hundreds of Polish kids will want that opportunity to progress... Well done Matt Ford...

Was... 'ex person' sadly as well as 'ex promoter'... The first School I had mentioned it to had a Head who was an ex 1970/80's Coatbridge/Glasgow fan so knew the Sport existed but had never been to his 'local track' where he currently worked.. He was very keen to make it a real 'School outing' and was willing to lay on coaches there and back for a nominal £1 per person. (I had raised over £500 for his Summer Fete in my store so he felt it was the least he could do)! He wanted to use the outing to build school spirit and reward attendance, (every kid with a 100% attendance would ride with their family on the coach for free).. With the track being a Friday night one at the time, there were no 'up for school the next day' barriers, and the majority of the kids were Secondary schools kids anyway.. Hundreds of teenage kids at a Speedway Meeting? We don't want that do we?

Seem to remember Mick Poole at Sheffield in the nineties (?) one night getting clocked at 67mph when the South Yorks Police had brought a speed gun to measure every riders speed...

A good few years ago I met with a Promoter offering to help him increase his crowds after he had put out an appeal for help with the aim to increase the atmosphere at his track by the big crowd presence..... In my work life I had made several good contacts with local School Heads and did loads of work alongside them. This helped them and obviously helped my Companies brand in the local area (not to mention the fantastic impact it had on my own Stores sales).. Therefore I requested that the four schools I dealt with (4000 pupils, 300 teachers and other staff), all recieved free family tickets.. I said I would provide people to look after the schools, my Companies name would be very prevalent, and that ideally we would try and flog them discounted tickets for the next few meetings to encourage them to get into the habit of attending, we would also take personal details of as many as possible for further contact and marketing. Names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays etc... He took out his calculator and started tapping away for what seemed an enormous amount of time, his brow often furrowed as he re tapped in again and again some numbers.. "No chance" was his response, "It will cost us about £30,000 in lost income"... I asked him how he came about that figure and he showed me 4000 tickets at '£x' times three meetings at a reduced rate, adult tickets for teachers, parents etc... I tried to explain to him that all it would cost in reality was the production of the tickets as the likelihood of anyone of these people currently attending, whilst admittedly not impossible, was definitely remote.. He may lose 'the odd few quid' but overall hardly anyone of the potential crowd would know Speedway existed never mind attend now.... The Schools were within 4 miles of the track so relatively local, and having done such 'freebies' before as part of my role the uptake is between 8 - 15% on redemption... Put simply, these people would have hardly known what Speedway was, they would probably have not known this particular club even existed, yet giving them free tickets would prevent the club from earning around £30k in the eyes of this promoter...(Amazing logic!)... He then asked me about the chances of my Company getting more formally involved. I tactfully reminded him of his crowd levels and the demographic of them and suggested probably not as there wouldnt have been anything in it for us to be associated with such a failing business... I decided then that Speedways situation is very much 'self inflicted' due to its lack of a long term vision and modern thinking, and several years later still believe very much the same...