Lejon

I´ve just wonder if anyone knows how many home meetings Webley raced in 1953? Cheers Lejon

Sounds like a film for me! Available from where? Regards Lejon

I seem to remember John Berry saying that he needed an average of 3,500 paying fans just to break even, so I guess revenue-per-customer was lower and/or operating costs were higher. Certainly tracks used to have full-time employees on the payroll, whereas now everything seems to be done on a part-time or voluntary basis. There is no doubt that attending speedway has gone-up hugely in the past 30 years. Apparently Ipswich charged 5 shillings admission in 1969 which according to the Economic History Services website (http://eh.net/) represented around 0.00003% of an average person's income (GBP 855). In 2000, the average per capita income was GBP 16,207, so 0.00003% would translate to around GBP 4.86 today. Of course, this doesn't take into account the fact that wages have increased above the rate of inflation and have significantly more purchasing power today. According to EPS's RPI calculator, something costing 5 shillings in 1969 would have cost GBP 2.53 in 2002. It's therefore possible to conclude that tracks receive far more money per paying customer than they did in the past. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Interesting view of this issue and what a collection of facts !! Lejon

The report I have of their opening meeting on 7 April 1964 aginst Wimbledon (Challenge) says the crowd was 12,000 Other reported crowds were 14 April 12,000 v Swindon (Easter Cup) 21 April 12,000 v Norwich (Easter Cup) 28 April 10,000 v Coventry (Britannia Shield) 5 May 12,000 v Belle Vue (Britannia Shield) 19 May 10,000 v Wimbledon (Britannia Shield) But newspaper crowd figures for speedway are VERY unreliable! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks a lot for the information TMW! Did the stay on on that level the year after or did they drop ? Regards Lejon

West Ham also did a comeback in 1964 and stayed on in to the early seventies. Anyone who has memories frm that time and the crowdlevels? I think they opened in front of 15000 for a challengematch against Dons.

I have just come across a reference to the 1935 Test match at New Cross being held in front of a capacity audience of 30,000. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I have checked the Stenners speedway annual figures for 1946. Wembley had 1211355!! spectators in 22 meetings making a average crowd of 55062 !!. New Cross had 589120 spectators in 28 mettings making their average crowd 21040. In 1961 the year after the reopening some 7500 came to see New Cross in their south london derby against Wimbledon the 31 of March in a London Cup game. Norbold, or any other :Do you know how big crowds came for the second attemp to reopen in 1960? Any Idea? 8-10000?

in Newport's case, this is all me guessing BTW, it's something like this. Admission is about £12, £9 and £3 now (I'm not sure of them prices)lets assume 2/5 are adults, 2/5 are kids and 1/5 are concessions, thats £1920 from adults, £720 from concessions and £480 from kids, £3120 all told. Add in say one programme for every 5th person, 80 programs at say a 50p profit is £40, 100 in the car park is £100 (£3260 so far). Stand has about 150 on a day where there are only 400 fans there, so another £200 (£3460). Add in bar profits and food outlets as well (no idea, I'll not even guess) thats £460+ a week for each rider. I don't know what costs Tim Stone has or what other income he has (I guess he has a few sponsors too that bring in some cash). Mind you, it amazes me that a team like Berwick can cope on so few as they only get the cash form the turnstiles. So they're only get the £3120 - rent + progams. Not a lot at all. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Your conclusion is quite right and very interesting. My conclusions is that if we rode that many matches and with the admission prices as you do in the U.K to keep teh figures as a promotor our league crowds would drop by 50 to 70%!! Is it possible that is the reason for the crowd drops? And as Ian told us the admission prices has gone up by about 300% since the sixties. Any comments? Norbold - Have you any pre-war crowd figures for New Cross? yours in sport - Lejon

On the attendance front, I first went to speedway at Wolves in 1961. Attendances were reckoned to be about 7000 then. Well, it was open all the way round! As I know this was a opening season when they returned into leagus speedway. Did these crowds stay on for long or did they decrease fast? Do you know the crowd figures of Wolves today?

According "Speedway in London" page 43 Fred Mockford explained in the New Cross Progamme that the World Final income of £22,600 got taxated bill of £10,200!!! If sPeedway had been reconed as a sport the bill would have been at a more modest £3100. By the way I want to thank for all the information given so far and I hope there is somebody out there who knows what the crowd figures was when West Ham and Wembley came back in the mid sixties and early seventies.I know that there were 15000 for HAmmers opener against Wimbledon and 20000 at Wembley for the opening game against Hackney. And what are the crowd figures for Dons since they returned?

I thank you for your details on the clubs you mentioned. But if any have more information about other clubs in the EL/PL/CL i would be more than happy. At my "hometrack" 115 km from home the crowds for Lejonen in the Swedich "PL" gets crowds between 296 to 697 with an average of about 500 a match.

Being a Swedish speedway supporter and not finding any attendance figures is quite frustrating. As i have understand it the crowd figures were reported in the first years after the war.I´ve got a couple of the Stenners so i can find out how fantastic it must have been. Later on I´ve got information about certain clubs certain seasons or matches.But is there any records or can you give me any examples of past years crowd figures. How is it today? in the PL,EL or CL league? Is it the same trend as in Sweden with figures going up every season? I would be happy for any reply! Lejon