Falcon1983

I dont do the event now, I stopped back in 2016 but it was mixed martial arts, built it up from nothing in 2012, it's now owned and run by a Cage Warrior brand, the show that launched Conor McGregor

Social media marketing is where the BSPA should be taking the sport as a whole, this is where the young kids are at, yes school visits would help locally for teams but if you're after the whole picture then Instagram, Facebook, Twitter l, YouTube etc. All need to market on such platforms. Unfortunately the BSPA and clubs think just by having accounts on these platforms that they are doing the job but you have to spend to make money. For my own events I used to pay £100 for a short 60 second promo video of an event, I'd spend about £200 on marketing that video on Facebook. For £300 I would regularly sell out a 1000 seater venue, now not all tickets were sold from that but through analytics you can see key information on who engaged with it and then use that information to then market the next one, getting better results each time The video I'm talking about had over 50,000 views, It had around 300 likes but had over 80 people comment and tag their mates saying "up for this" or "let's give this a go" The same event sold out, we even had to turn away people at the gate which was disappointing as its lost revenue, the live stream had over 100,000 people watch it worldwide even the prince of Saudis Arabia watched it. The 1000 people could have watched it for free at home without buying a ticket, but people love the experience of the live event and being there. If I can do it, surely the BSPA can do it with all their heads together

When I used to be a promoter although a different sport we would regularly fill a 1200 seater arena alongside offering a completely free live stream on the whole event. Our full ticket prices were £30 & £50, we used to offer an early bird reduction of £20 & £35 that would always end 8 weeks prior the event. I'd say maybe 10% of tickets went to the early bird buyers who were regular followers of the event. Speedway is way behind in so many areas.

I've said something similar for a long time. Averages should start the season based on the average over two seasons, so let's say Danny King for example 2017 averaged 7 2018 averaged 6 He starts 2019 with an average of 6.5 and has that average for the full season. If he ends the 2019 season with an average of 9 He starts 2020 with an average of 7.5 and keeps that average for a full season. At any point if Ipswich want to replace king during the 2019 season they'd have only 6.5 to play with irrelevant to what he is actually achieving so if he's averaging 9 then they wont replace him with a 6.5 however if he's averaging 4 then you'd replace him with a 6.5 option. This allows riders to do well and score big I.e. above their average then they are less likely to be replaced

Is there any positives left in British speedway other than an exciting crop of youngsters in the system who will have no sport to race in, in the not too distant future?

Not sure who said it but it was said (someone educate me) something about people using motocross engines I think 450cc in speedway chassis etc. Big manufacturers who have no interest in speedway right now, so perhaps speedway as it is in the UK should die a death and out of the flames something completely new but on the basis of speedway could be born and be successful. I honestly cant see any other way as people running it now have killed it, lack of riders, doubling up, fixed race nights, poor crowds, poor tracks, poor facilities

It doesn't solve it no, but if riders are not in a way willing to risk because the reward is not enough then take the reward away. Its absolutely spot on why would some riders or most risk a pass if they know they may gate and win in their other 3 heats or why risk a pass knowing that they have 4 rides at least with their other British team Riders are also part of the problem though a smaller % they can moan and say they get 7 x the amount in Poland but if the UK really was so poor in terms of what riders get out of it then they wouldn't ride here. If riders think the UK pay is so poor then I suggest they do what my father did, end of 1992 the BSPA wanted to remove the bonus points paid to riders so in essence to earn more riders would be racing their team mates. So he took a stance and said no he won't ride due to this, his team mates did the same only to fall back into teams over the latter part of the winter, my old man didn't out of principal and then just retired from the sport altogether though never officially.

Introduce a points cap across the league so every rider in every race races for the same points money. Figures just as an example Race Win - £250 2nd - £100 3rd - £50 4th - £0 Have some form of standard appearance money in case a rider hits 0,0,0 to cover costs But, riders should be getting enough personal sponsorship to cover their season costs then what is earned on track is their living. Think UK is easy money for most, well those who double up or down Everyone connected to the sport is taking the maximum from it in a negative way promoters, riders et c. It's just the fans that miss out completely

Probably not, a meeting within 60 minutes may never happen, but have had a few meetings in and around the 70ish mark though few and far between. Let me know where you sit at foxhall I'll make sure I come and give you a gentle pat on the back one Thursday

Mate You must be special, the most ridiculous comment ever is me saying that I would prefer a speedway meeting (15 minutes of racing) to be completed within an hour so I can go off and do other things. Then I give an example of something 85 minutes, the parade in my opinion is not part of the meeting, i mean the actual racing within an hour and back in my car so my example was more like 70 minutes much closer to 60 minutes than 85 minutes. Perhaps others prefer to stay longer in absolutely holes of what most speedway stadiums are, I respect their choice as much as I respect your choice of wanting speedway done within 2 hours but to jump on me for what I would like just because its different from yours, it just makes you extremely pathetic. I'd love to say I've been to more speedway meetings than you but I probably haven't, because potentially I may be younger than you I feel although your mentality is clearly younger than me, also I have other commitments and activities I like to do plus I probably missed 10 years of going to speedway after my father retired from racing as after 9 years of travelling all over the country to every meeting he raced in was quite alot for a young lad back then

To be fair I was trying to be smart lol I thought it was Bellego until the camera zoomed in and say no.6 with heeps on the back, I did think to myself during the race that Bellego seems determined..... BWitcher you need to get over yourself with my comment about in an ideal world speedway would be £10 and a meeting over in around 60 minutes, I do have other interests in life, If i can travel from work to foxhall, get there for the parade 7.30 and be in my car ready to turn left out of foxhall by 9pm, happy days If my comment about speedway should be 60 minutes has offended you then perhaps you shouldn't be allowed on the internet

The one he took schlein on the last bend

Cook and Przedpelski please. Boro can take Harris Bellego did ride well in one heat tonight though in all fairness

Ipswich are loyal.....

If witches removed Harris and Bellego Is there room for Cookie plus Pickering or Garrity?

13.96 to play with for Harris/Bellego Who do you get for that COOK plus.......

Amateur hour all round

Its heeeeeeps!!

Maybe 800 to 1000 in their, buster has cashed in his golden ticket that was always in his programme

You can go down your local and ask them to switch on BT Sport and spend £18 on beer. The club have known for weeks about this meeting, simply posting on social media doesn't mean it reaches millions instantly but good social media marketing would reach alot of people locally. Posting a tweet and expecting retweeted only really hit the same fans week in week out, should have invested a few hundred notes from the BT post and done a big campaign to get people in for £10 and if it attracts new fans in who knows they might come back for a few meetings later Missed opportunity

Wow :)

Will watch on the bt sport app Not worth £18 on the off chance buster has actually put a ticket in a program to win £500, it will probably be found in the secret unsold batch

Hi Chun I'm into a variety of things to be fair and alot of it comes down to a mixture of atmosphere or entertainment or indeed both. I can go and watch MMA locally for £35 or £20 if I got an early bird ticket and there are over 35 bouts, as its short rounds only 3x3 minutes someone is going to get punched in the face. British Superbike is a great day out ok you don't get to see every overtake or pass but it's a full day out. Darts is another one purely just for atmosphere. Maybe the odd one or two passes is what speedway has been about for years but I've only just noticed it. That's why I'm saying some form of radical shake up should happen maybe more heats (yes I know I said speedway within an hour) perhaps 18 heats broken in to 3 rounds of six heats Normal format Some form of chase format where say lower averages riders in the race start from normal position and the two highest 10 metres back Then the 3rd set of heats who knows, maybe it's the bikes, or quality of riders across the teams that make the racing dull perhaps the format itself is fine?

It is a great result for Ipswich last night, I have only been to two meetings so far both for entertainment value have been disappointing. Last night I spent £38/39 plus food and to be honest I don't think the entertainment value was worth it, maybe a throw away £20 programme included. If you were a new fan last night and you paid for more than one person you will probably think twice about going again, but some people think the money is value as long as their side win same as people love their team going away against a big team in football defending for 90 minutes and drawing 0-0 they see the result over what actually goes on, for me, result is secondary in a sense to seeing good speedway. Perhaps it was the opposition, I've only been the last nights and the Kings Lynn bank holiday and I thought both were awful, maybe someone else can elaborate on all the thrilling passing I have missed in other meetings? If anyone has any sense Monday if they pay for BT Sport then being their live is not value for money, although I guess you can never tell in advance if the meeting is going to be great value for money but on the overall so far for me, its not. The sport needs something radical to happen I believe to add entertainment value maybe going away from the traditional 15 heats is something or it needs something else adding, all this twitter vote race has done for me is delayed the meeting longer than it needs to waiting for the poxy results to come in, the only thing I was fairly happy with was that I was in the car by 9.15pm I like the meetings where its about 60 minutes long in duration.

I also agree that this team so far has surprised many and long may it continue. However the riders determination to bring positive results does cloud over the shortcomings of the management, you rarely in speedway get a meeting where all 7 riders are on fire, so when doesn't happen it is down to the team manager to make the most of the riders that are doing well and that falls at the feet of the manager who sometimes does make some strange decisions and has cost the witches points - and yes we all make mistakes but are changes the basic fan can see. Not sure I am a huge fan of the golf society, seems to make you a little immune from doing wrong but lets see how the season progresses.