TotallyHonestJohn

They take 2% not 5% so on 10 grand its 200 quid... reasonable to me... Regards THJ

Ya not wrong and fingers crossed... Regards THJ

It has been confirmed that Mr Crump will be in attendance; but to be fair I would pay an extra 20 quid just to see how Bjarne goes round the place; I'm not a fan of double headers but obviously see the need; however I am really looking forward to this one just hope the weather plays ball... Oh and especially for my old pals from Wolverhampton who are coming up to cheer on Roo Boy I expect... Regards THJ

No as stated they were specifically targeted by Rob to see how effective they were and primarily at people who had been before and knew what it was about; and the bottom line is they weren't successful at all unfortunately... so its back to the drawing board I'm afraid however help is always appreciated and to give the promotion their due they are looking at anything and everything that will encourage fans both new and lapsed to come and watch a meeting but its a thankless task... hopefully we "do a Birmingham" and get 800+ through the doors and give the promotion the lift they need to take this forward... Regards THJ

Good Lad Biffa; Pay the 17 quid to watch the second match if that's all you want to see its the usual entrance cost for a meeting but the 3 pound donation would be very grateful I 'm guessing if you did want to pay the 20 as you can pay on the gate on the day... Regards THJ Honestly I despair at times but never mind; can I ask why should you assume anything; it wasn't just the quayside market where the tickets were handed out and the free tickets were targeted and why you haven’t seen or heard anything around this is probably that you do not move in the same circles as Rob Grant... if you want free tickets go and ask him for some or PM me on here and I will get you some.... The driver behind giving out free tickets was not simply to get new fans into the stadium it was more to get old lapsed fans back into the stadium as many of the people who got/took the tickets knew about the Speedway and had been before in former times. Where you state You wouldn’t look to give out free tickets to a nightclub at a local bingo I can assure you that I have had more free tickets offered; free membership offers; trial membership offers and one off passes for Nightclubs; Sports Clubs; Bingos; Casinos and even the David Lloyd Centre in Gosforth so there is nothing new in this marketing method of giving out free tickets that's for sure... Also what better way to increase the attendances in the short and medium term is there than handing out some free tickets; if 10% of those tickets had been used and those 50 people all bought a programme; a sandwich and a drink and spent a tenner that's 500 quid back into the coffers that the club would have never had and they may have returned the following week and paid the entrance fee to get in. We all know of a club who spent nearly quarter of a million quid on advertising and done some fantastic work marketing the club and it brought an extra 88 people on usual attendances to the first meeting and by the end of the season the average crowd levels had increased by 8 so all that graft; all that effort and all that expenditure to bring in 8 new fans... its not as easy as it seems believe me. Furthermore the timing of the tickets being given out only has relevance in your situation and the tickets being given out were over a period of a week and not just given on the morning of a match, and the Promotion are not only adopting a broad marketing strategy they are also using a targeted strategy as well; however if you are in marketing as when you state with the right marketing strategy then I really do feel there is a demand for speedway in Newcastle. I am sure the club would like to hear from you and take some of your points or tips on board as you do make a salient point with regard to the potential of local link ups with other sporting clubs but lets not forget that this approach has been tried in the past as Daryl Illingworth was also a promoter of Ice Hockey and Basketball while still a promoter with the Diamonds and he put some fantastic offers on which did not work... Finally you need the contacts and leads to get you into these local clubs and with the best will in the world these relationships can not be built up in a few weeks or months; it needs years to build the long term trust and stable relationships with other sporting franchises and even then they sometimes fall flat as any Workington fan will be able to tell you as the relationship between the Speedway and the Rugby at their shared venue was often very strained... Regards THJ

Negative? Ok... What's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander... the figures were on the other thread that was taken down an I can't be bothered to go through them again... It's not cost effective at this moment in time for Newcastle to provide such a service however it has been "worked on" and looked at and the conclusion was now is not the best time... So nothing negative about it... Regards THJ

Ben Dover seemed to manage it okay... (cough cough) Regards THJ

The promotion have paid for the additional Facebook advertising again so if you see the ad; like it; forward it; share it; do the necessary to get the thing out there ... let people know who; what and where we are and what we are about... Regards THJ

The money has been put to good use... you always see what was raised that will never go away... it can still be added to though but that pot is empty at the minute... Newcastle are on a pretty even keel all bills and riders paid up to date... the problem is there is nothing in the pot to fall back on... the loss of the season ticket money pulled that buffer out from under the club... That's why going forward they need the crowds to be as large as they possibly can... supporter power will save the club... if they get out of their chairs and get along to the stadium... Regards THJ

Been discussed previously but the streaming set up costs are expensive and then the cost of each meeting after that means the returns aren't great and you can't guarentee the numbers... However it has been looked into... Regards THJ

Honestly You are not wrong and the Redcar meeting was the highest crowd we have had this season and if we got the same numbers in for this double header I think the promotion would be quite pleased... Also what needs to be pointed out is that these meetings are Speedway utopia being 10 quid per meeting at 20 quid for the two... it's many on this forums regular quip that Speedway is only a 10 quid sport... so surely thats another barrier removed by the promotion that would potentially restrict fans from attending... Regards THJ

To be fair he didn't pay much for the pup however its upkeep is costing him an absolute fortune and if fans who are on the forum are also on Social Media and do their bit it cant do any harm to an already precarious situation. The NDL was a none starter as the Stadium and running costs make it a worse idea than running in the Championship.... The finances for running an NDL team at Newcastle just don't stack up whatsoever unfortunately and it has been considered by more than this promotion and rejected... Rob is between a rock and a hard place and his enthusiasm must be starting to wane by now as there are other issues rumbling away under the surface but he is trying to address the main problem to hand and he is promoting the hell out of the place but it all seems to be to no avail... But I agree with most of what you say and things are not looking good for next season that is for sure... maybe for me ice the franchise for a year and see what the BSPL do and possibly come back in 2023 if its viable... but there needs to be big changes and to be totally honest I think people are running out of ideas.... things should have been done before now especially with regard to Poland and Brexit.... here is a daft idea "What happens if Poland say to all the riders over there we will pay you more and you only race in this league nowhere else" where will that leave the job... Knackered I would say... Regards THJ

Honestly Its not the begging bowl as that only puts a plaster over a running sore; its crowd numbers that are the issue as who wants to run a business at a loss? (by the way the answer to that question is "no-one")! The only meetings this season that have covered there costs were the first one of the season against Edinburgh and then the Redcar match and the big difference between these two and the other meetings to date are those clubs brought fans to the fixture in numbers to swell the usual crowd, There just isn't enough local interest at the minute for whatever reason and the club need 300 more paying customers to attend to make it viable. 300 doesn't seem a lot but it is the difference between running at a loss and breaking even. Then to be fair to the promotion its not for the want of trying by them to get people to come because they are promoting the B'Jesus out of it... Local TV: Metro Radio; Facebook and Twitter and the markets at Hexham Alnwick and Morpeth and the Quayside Market on Sunday and.... Get this.... they gave out 500 free tickets to folk for the Berwick match and no one; not a single person; nadir; none; took up the offer and that was for free entry FFS!!! What else is it going to take to get people in? a free programme and a pulled pork sandwich? honestly give me a break they are already giving free parking this year... We seen this at Worky with failing crowds and we know what has happened over there and you get people saying "Oh its a pity it folded I miss it" and when you ask if they went or not; the reply is "well no I didn't use to go but I used to follow it in the local paper" Eh!!! "I mean come on!!! What Chance Have They Got". If you want to keep it you need to use it and patronize to place... People on Facebook and Twitter and other such social media platforms can really help the club and it wouldn't be an onerous task as all they need to do is re-tweet and like whatever the club are putting out there and do all the other things that get the club noticed to try and spread the word and encourage people to come... the promotion are doing their very best but its just not happening. One clown on Sunday tackled Rob Grant and said "you are ruining this spot and you should do the right thing and flog it" You have to laugh because who would take something on that doesn't have a fan base anymore and costs them four grand a meeting to run? all the place needs is 650 paying customers and accepted that there are season ticket holders whose tickets are being honoured at the minute at cost to the club; however it would take just 300 more people through the door to put the place back on an even keel. Believe me when I say this Rob Grant is the only saviour of Newcastle Speedway there is no one waiting in the wings waiting to snap it up and what he needs is fans supporting the team; even if they don't like him; if they come and support the team; their home town club; is what is needed: from a place like Newcastle with a catchment of near 300,000 people and God knows how many else in the surrounding Tyne and Wear area he needs roughly 650 paying customers: 650 that's all!! or as many have pointed out it will go... and once its gone as far as Brough Park is concerned that would be that; as the other issue is ARC the stadium owners are only giving out one year leases at a time and who can build a business plan on that? Come on Newcastle Fans never mind giving this promotion some support just get along to Brough and start attending meetings and supporting your team again and lets show this promotion that it is worth their while sticking around and promoting Speedway on Tyneside... I'm sure I am not the only one who does not want this to be the last season we see Speedway in Newcastle ever again... Get Tweeting; Re-Tweeting; Liking and Forwarding on the stuff the club are putting out on Social Media and lets get it to the widest audience possible... You can do you bit by just sitting in your chair and it wont cost you a penny... Regards THJ

Aye you would hope but ave been to some real drawn out double ups but saying that after our previous brief foray into Championship & NDL fixtures against Edinburgh that was rattled through quite quickly to be fair... obviously depends on any injuries and the referee... Regards THJ

Poole will be up first at 16:00 hours then Plymouth and with the best will in the world it won't finish before 8 I wouldn't of thought Regards THJ

The other thing is ARC who own the stadium now prefer the earlier starts and want to retain them to give their staff an earlier finish... Regards THJ

Well that was a quite evenly matched event however it might have been a different story if Berwick had there usual team out as Kye done okay but Theo was a bit of a let down... Why does Jim Mac feel he needs to have an impact on a meeting... Piper lay on the track too long and could have cleared and to be fair should have been censured for it... however it should have been all 3 back in the same heat as Thomson didn't do much wrong in heat 10 when Adam went down on the rerun as far as I coukd see... even if it had ended a 5- 1 Berwick still would not have got a point however a 5 - 1 wasn't guarenteed but the 5 - 0 was a bit of a joke to be fair... All in all very enjoyable from a home perspective and Wells was a good guest for the Diamonds and we got the right result in the end... Double header next week and it will be another hard shift for the Diamonds but if Max and Connor put the same graft in and James does the business at 2 maybe and possibly Adam steps up to the plate at reserve it could be interesting... Oh and will the real Ben Barker please stand up... please stand up... please stand up... Regards THJ

Jury is out gaz... let's see what the next 4 to 6 weeks brings... Regards THJ

Aye Bradley Wilson Linus Sundstrom Batchellor signs for Kent... you will see a different Batch now and Sheffield should definitely see the benefit... Regards THJ

Think this will be a close meeting and a lot will depand on which Danny Gapp turns up... It will be closer than a lot of people are suggesting anyway as the teams seem evenly matched Regards THJ

Lol no that little fella I picked up is a Scunny rider as it happens... Regards THJ

It looked good at Brough last week with a considerable number of the away fans who were in club colours (nice weather might have had something to do with that; but those short sleeved numbers like football tops did look smart) and its the same when Glasgow and Edinburgh fans turn up anywhere there are lots of them resplendent in club colours... always shows a bit of pride and passion in your club to me... Regards THJ

We are not getting Lasse as far as I am aware and I know the promotion have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to try and bring in a new face however things are proving difficult on this matter... Unfortunately there isn't a shelf out there with riders sitting on who are waiting for a team slot at a Sunday venue... So the last I heard was we were using a guest for Matty on Sunday... Regards THJ

As suspected early Scunny call off... Regards THJ

So av been told