iris123

One of my daughters and my son support their local football teams.My daughter,quite fanatically and my son regularly and watches wrestling on youtube etc like mad I did get them in the car and didn't say I was going to speedway.They kept asking where we were going and when I told them,they made such a hoo-ha in the car that I gave up.My one and only attempt to get them to see a meeting live A friend of mine who is a trainer at one speedway club told me if I brought my son he would kit him up and let him go on one of the 50cc bikes.I thought at least having a ride on a motorbike would excite him,but he didn't want to know

I did mention it on here before,but my (at the time)10 year old son watched speedway on Eurosport last season.The only thing that interested him was the fact that in 2 or 3 heats running the rider wearing yellow crashed.he thought that was interesting,but once that didn't happen any more he just said "they are just riding round in circles!" and won't watch any more and wild horses couldn't get him or his sisters to a live meeting......

Maybe one way is to give out flyers to ticket agencies?I bought some tickets for a concert a couple of weeks back and the woman put them in an envelope.When I got home and had a look I had a couple of flyers in there.One for the Nitro Circus.You then target people who are ready to part with money for a night out......

Think both looked about the same.Maybe a few more today,but I think the main crowd is behind the camera?That is where the Xmas man and lady were always directing their singing,dancing etc

Think with Bulankin it was 5 points and 3 disqualifications for going inside the blue line!!!!!!

Thanks for that.Luckily for Steve I am not Bwitcher and won't go banging on about what a strange example he used for days or weeks to come

So what you are saying is your brother is a die hard who still goes to the pub when people in large numbers have deserted them.He is like a lot of us who still go to speedway when people in large numbers don't!!!! That doesn't really help us.Think you need a better example.Like Vince said pubs couldn't rely on the die hards,just like football and the cinema couldn't.They had to reinvent themselves to attract a new audience.That is the point of the thread

You still go to speedway then?My girlfriend doesn't like the sport that much,but the state of the toilets is a major turn off for her as well as the delays Delays are an annoying problem for the older generation I think,but this year I travelled back from London to Hamburg by train.10 hours with two of my kids.A few years back and a ten minute wait for the bus would be too long and they'd kick off.Now 10 hours went by without incident because they have their mobile phones........

And that Australia pride themselves on being very restrictive........

I don't think this is getting any where at all tbh. Your original point is more like a comparison to football in the 70s.It didn't matter how crap the stadiums were and that most people couldn't use the toilets at half time and had to pee against a wall somewhere and the food was crap and you didn't have a seat and often no cover,you were squeezed in and often had no choice about which direction you would move.It didn't matter at all back then,you were there to support your team.Nowadays it is totally different The point about cinema is rather bizarre.Attendances are up or were from the big slump in the 70s(quite similar to football)probably because of the modern cinemas etc with better seating,food,sound and picture quality and of course more choice.But you are no more certain of seeing a good film now as you were back then.... In fact you are making a good case for the opposition.Pub attendace like speedway seems to have fallen dramatically as have the amount of pubs.Crazy the amount that have closed in the past 2 decades.On the other hand football and cinema attendances have risen and that must to a large extent be down to the chance in stadium/cinemas as the basic product hasn't changed all that much

Yes,very simplistic.Doesn't cost you anything but a bit of travel time to go to a pub.When it costs just to get in to a place you tend to be more choosy.If a pub is crap you just turn around and go to the next one

It is a chicken and egg thing.It has often been said on here that the basic racing has to be good,but you also as the title said have to attract people into the stadiums.You can't regardless be 100% sure that the racing can be good for a variety of reasons,but you can be well prepared and make sure all the other things can be 100%

Yes,hope Daniil can carry on riding Agree Ht3 was fantastic And they ususally have better crazier dancing.But still preferable to Night Wolves propaganda films.Have a feeling we will be seeing more of that during the season

Can't remember who it was that ended Jan Steachmann's career,but I don't think Jan was too happy about the incident

Livestream for Togliatti day 1,starts in 35 minutes or so... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aysNGcOtStw&feature=youtu.be

As much as he was brilliant to watch at his best,Gollob did make some diabolical moves across the track to block people Think a guy called Ivor Brown was notorious back in the day and if I am right he was the only rider to make Ivan Mauger lose his cool and deliberately go out to get someone

And are attendances at Grasstrack a lot bigger than at speedway because of this?

Thanks John.I wonder why Jack Young had to miss this trip?Although it did play into the promoters hands so that they could advertise an England team.And even though they rode under protest after finding out about being duped,they still rode the next day as "England" as well......

Wish them all the success in the world.Fingers crossed it starts an upturn in the sport.I remember football back in the 70s and it was largely a male dominated sport.Now women and also important ethnic minorities are to be seen in fairly large numbers.Speedway doesn't have the problem that football did in attracting women,but why is there no talk of attracting ethnic minorities as well as youngsters?

Think it shows how hard it is in the situation speedway finds itself in,that even two very experienced enthusiasts like Kelvin + Phil can't really come up with a solution.I do think an awful lot is down to the stadia.If speedway was always held in modern stadiums with great sound and lighting and viewing and good covering,then I am sure it would all be a lot easier to attract people

This is one rider http://www.technischesmuseum.at/motorsport-in-oesterreich/objekt/article_entity_id/109_1954/order/0/mediaid/317342?returnurl=http://www.technischesmuseum.at/motorsport-in-oesterreich/veranstaltung/articleid/2189 rider with glasses http://www.technischesmuseum.at/motorsport-in-oesterreich/objekt/article_entity_id/109_1954/order/0/mediaid/317346?returnurl=http://www.technischesmuseum.at/motorsport-in-oesterreich/veranstaltung/articleid/2189

Like I said,it is unlikely anyone would absolutely dominate a decade,but if anyone could have,of the riders I have seen then that is Ivan funny font and I can't be bothered to change it!!!!

I thought Ivan himself said he had a great season in 76,but PC won the title and although PC had a great 77 season Ivan won.I think it is quite possible Ivan could have dominated a decade rather than 5 years as sid say's.Not likely,but possible Wasn't PC injured when he won?Injury would obviously play more a part in a GP series than a one-off title meeting

Not sure sindey.Thought Mauger had a great season in 1976 and won in 1977 and also 1979.So he could of won from 1968 through to 1979.Probably wouldn't have,but could possibly

Put a link to the Austrian site on here a little while ago in the Hofmeister thread and still going through them.Found some great photos of this meeting.Couple of riders unmarked in the pics.The guy with the glasses for instance.Wonder if anyone can put some names to these riders. http://www.technischesmuseum.at/motorsport-in-oesterreich/veranstaltung/articleid/2189 Taken from internationalspeedway.co.uk 1st Match at Vienna England Continent Wally Green 3 3 3 1' 2' 12+2 Fritz Dirtl (Aut) 2 3 3 3 3 3 17 Bert Roger 1 2 2' 2 3 3 13+1 Hans Sidlo (Aut) 0 0 1 0 0 1 Gerry Hussey 3 3 3 3 0 12 Pfefferer 1' 0 0 1 1 3+1 Howdy Byford 1' 2' 1 1 0 5+2 Franz Aigner (Aut) 2 1 1 0 2' 1 7+1 Alan Smith 2 2' 3 2 2' 11+2 Albin Siegl (Ger) 1 1 0 3 3 8 Pat Clarke 0 1' 1' 0 1 3+2 Josef Seidl (Ger) 3 0 2 1 2' 8+1 Bill Kitchen 0 2' 2 2' 2 8+2 Erich Sidlo (Aut) 0 0 0 0 0 1: Green, Dirtl, Roger, H Sidlo 4-2 2: Hussey, Aigner, Pfefferer, Kitchen 3-3 7-5 3: Seidl, Smith, Siegl, Clarke 2-4 9-9 4: Dirtl, Roger, Byford, Pfefferer 3-3 12-12 5: Green, Kitchen, Siegl, E Sidlo 5-1 17-13 6: Hussey, Smith, Aigner, H Sidlo 5-1 22-14 7: Dirtl, Kitchen, Clarke, Seidl 3-3 25-17 8: Smith, Roger, H Sidlo, E Sidlo 5-1 30-18 9: Green, Byford, Aigner, Siegl 5-1 35-19 10: Hussey, Seidl, Byford, H Sidlo 4-2 39-21 11: Dirtl, Smith, Green, Aigner 3-3 42-24 12: Siegl, Roger, Clarke, E Sidlo 3-3 45-27 13: Hussey, Green, Seidl, Pfefferer 5-1 50-28 14: Dirtl, Aigner, Byford, Clarke 1-5 51-33 15: Roger, Smith, Pfefferer, H Sidlo 5-1 56-34 16: Siegl, Seidl, Clarke, Hussey 1-5 57-39 17: Roger, Kitchen, Pfefferer, E Sidlo 5-1 62-40 18: Dirtl, Kitchen, Aigner, Byford 2-4 64-44 The interesting thing about the meeting as stated on Brian Collins super site Note : The "England" team was actually club side West Ham, with Bill Kitchen replacing Jack Young. Not until they arrived at Vienna were the team aware that they were advertised as "England", and would be wearing England race jackets. Captain Wally Green complained that this was wrong and that the UK Control Board would not be pleased. But with a stadium full of fans waiting, he and his team eventually rode the match under protest. Can also find photos of Briggo,Fundin,Moore,Nygren etc in the 1957-1961 sections(Australasia + Sweden)