Stoke Potter

Why was I watching a different meeting? I don't see how the dust being worse on a previous occasion makes any difference. If the dust is affecting the fans viewing, which it was, then the track should be watered, end of.

A complete joke to call that off, the track was better after the rain than before! Do Poole ever water the track during the meeting? I can't recall ever seeing them do it when I've been there. It needed more water last night as the dust was spoiling the viewing and the rain did it a favour. The most important people at a speedway meeting are the fans and they were robbed again last night. Whoever made the call last night should be held to account, completely wrong decision.

Yes, thank you very much Lisa-Colette (and Sugarray), I may well grace Wimborne Rd with my presence.

Thanks for the prompt replies.

Do any Poole fans know if there are plans for a fixture on Wednesday 8th August? I think this was originally meant to be Rye House...

I'm talking about size, shape, width, banking, surface and prep. B.V. is as close to perfect as you get in this country because of all of those factors. If any of those were lacking it would not be the great track it is. If you want the best tracks then you need all of those to be considered.

Exactly! Any Marketing of the current offering will only hasten the demise of the sport in this country... Fix the tracks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All the more reason why other tracks should be made more like BV then. Glad to see you're starting to see the light...

To be fair if they got the crowd to pee on it they'd probably get more moisture down!

Evidently the people doing Swindon don't!

Flawed tracks aren't the problem you say..? Are you watching this utter joke of a televised meeting at Swindon? Poor tracks are killing the sport in this country!

Utterly dire track. Perfect example of why the tracks need to be fixed!

Some interesting images there, thanks.

Not if the track is fundamentally flawed and pretty much impossible to pass on. The World Champ states that certain British Tracks are like that and says that is essentially the reason for the prevalence of jumping the start. Source: Doyle's interview prior to the start of the last GP. Nice bit of evidence for your lot there. Somebody says get high level sponsors in. They won't touch Speedway because nobody goes to it, it has no mass appeal. Despite the best efforts of those that run it, the sport still has national TV coverage, despite that crowds are still going down. Why is that?

Put Cardiff on every week, would you get 40K going? (Answer the question) The tracks have never been particularly good, exacerbated by the fact that modern day bikes don't go well around British circuits. The evidence you ask for is the quality of the racing, i.e. very little passing. There is so much competition for the entertainment pound these days when compared to say the 70's, that people will not turn out for something that amounts to a nothing show.

You and the others like you are so clueless it's untrue. It's evident that if you do watch the sport you do not actually see what is going on! People do not go to watch the sport. Why is that? It's because it's boring and they are not remotely interested in it. So, tell me the real problem in ONE sentence.

No they are not equal. This is an exercise in identifying the FUNDAMENTAL problems the sport faces. The biggest problem is the tracks are not fit for purpose. There is no real racing and very little to inspire and capture the imagination of a noob. it's not about team versus individual speedway, Green Helmet Colours, or 13 Heats! None of them, or any of the other pointless suggestions that come out, will make the sport appeal more to the general public.

Reality is we have one truly world class track and loads of flawed ones. They have how many truly great tracks and how many as bad as most of ours? Stadiums are not the point of the debate at the minute. A few BV type tracks in fields would be a good start.

Again, completely untrue statement, our product also differs because our tracks are completely different (and massively inferior). Keep going!

A good majority of the tracks have never been fit for purpose either! You're wrong at 90% and we're finding out what the figure might be on the other thread. You'll see the light one day Deano.

Completely untrue! Changing the tracks improves the core product. Of course you will still get poor meetings just as you get poor football matches. The problem is the vast majority of UK Speedway meetings are poor at the moment, the main reason being is the tracks are not fit for purpose!

Unfortunately the point is being missed by you, and countless others and I don't mean that to sound offensive. Apologies if it does. Twisting the argument to be about team speedway or individual speedway is irrelevant. Neither format currently pulls in crowds of sufficient numbers for a sustainable future for UK Speedway. Further, stating that the current (very small) crop of speedway fans go to watch their team is also irrelevant. You can't survive on those people. UK Promoters will tell you individual meetings pull in worse crowds than league meetings. Purely for arguments sake, say that the current average national speedway crowd is 500. It's completely pointless to try and build a sustainable national sport on those crowd levels, the national average needs to be up around (say) 2000 (I believe it should be far higher but that's a different argument again) as a minimum. How did you get an extra average 1500 people to turn out? You improve the product, make it something exciting that more people want to watch in the 21st century. That leads into the point of "well the racing is as good as it's always been". Again this is largely irrelevant even if it's true (I'm doubtful); the point is it's highly likely that crowds now are pretty much at an all time low. So, interest in the sport amongst the general public is at an all-time low. Conclusion: Joe Public does not want to watch what is sold as Speedway in this country. Marketing the current offering has been tried and people don't return. Why? Because for the most part it's rubbish. Change the product, by making the racing exciting. All is not lost however because Speedway does work in some countries so it can be made to work.

I knew it would be a laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's actually against the rules. I genuinely believe that modern-day riders do not understand the concept of team riding. They need educating.

How do you attract these people? The product is, for the most part, utterly dire! One sentence answer each from yourself, Grand Central, Fromafar and The Dean Machine. As they liked the post and seemed to think this was somehow inspired thinking... Bare in mind, that every marketing initiative attempted over at least the last 10 (probably 20) years has utterly failed to improved crowds over any sustained period. This will be a laugh...