enotian

Part of the trouble seems to be that speedway doesn't know what it's target market is. We keep hearing family sport and yes the atmosphere at most matches is acceptable to attract families even if the facilities often aren't. It certainly costs less to take a family to speedway than top level football but not other minority sports such as ice hokey or basketball, which have the advantage on facilities in general. In general there is plenty of competition for your family pound, sporting or otherwise. What about marketing the sport towards people already interested in motorsports. Sure speedway is at a disadvantage in that you can't really go out and buy the equipment or a "road version" for everyday use like say a superbike or world rally car but in it's favour:- It's far more exciting at its best than all other motorsports which seem long drawn out affairs to me. That also means it's more TV friendly with natural breaks meaning none of the action is missed. Spectator friendly. If you go to see a rally you only see one car pass at a time or if you go to Donnington you only see the action at the part of the track you are at. With speedway you can see the lot. Far more chance of winner being decided late in the meeting. I find with other motorsports it's usually done and dusted well before the finish bar the odd fall/mechanical problem. Geographically representative. They have teams in other motorsports who are roughly based at a set location but they certainly aren't marketed as representing this country or that region. Spectator facilities aren't that great at many of the motorsport events. Motorsports fans are used to roughing it i.e standing on a hill in Wales in the snow. Speedway is cheaper. Sure you get a full days "entertainment" at other motorsports but mostly that's filler with the main attraction lasting about the same time as a speedway match. But most importantly speedway runs midweek every week. I can't think of another motorsport that does, certainly on a regular basis. Most of the big motorsports championships have huge followings so the interest is there but the opportunity to attend on a regular basis isn't. It just seems to me that speedway has never been marketed (perhaps full stop) as a motorsport to a market who are essentially starved of regular accesible action. And it's an international market aswell. Asian and Central Europe even South America seem to attract large crowds albeit once or twice a season. Speedway just seems content to pander to Poland Scandanavia and Britain. There's a huge market of motorsport fans out there but to my mind those who run speedway have done nothing to attract them.

To my mind to keep TV on board and attract good sponsorship you have to have substantial viewing figures both in terms of actual attendees and those watching on the box. To do that like it or not the GP's must take presidence. It stands to reason that the GP's attract a wider viewing audience as more countries are involved. Look at the new A1 series. It's contrived specifically to attract viewers from each of the competing nations. From a sponsors point of view they want to be associated with big events watched by large crowds that meet their target demographic. With all due respect potential new sponsors or TV viewers are more likely to be attracted to an event like Cardiff's GP than seeing 1000 people watching Peterborough beat Eastbourne at the East of England Showground. Doesn't really matter if Peterborough v Eastbourne had the better speedway we're in an age of style over content. Yes, essentially if the action is not entertaining you're in trouble but equally nowadays image is all important. Speedway could learn more from MotoGP than anyone else. It seems we always tend to view speedway against football but should the real blueprint not be that of MotoGP. Big crowds massive viewing figures big sponsors. Why can't speedway have proper GP teams like the Hamill Hancock Team Excide? In MotoGP the teams work together off track but on track it's individual against individual more or less and any team riding incidents add a touch of controversy. However as a consequence of growing the stature of the GP to attract more money and viewers into the sport it does mean that seeing GP riders every week would have to be a thing of the past. I know this will be universally unpopular but that's why international GP type series are well attended. With one or two chances only a year to see the top stars riding in your country you have to attend a GP if you want to see them. It's an occassion an event! It's important for any succesful sport to have big name stars to catch the publics imagination. Rossi, Flintoff, Wilkinson (Johnny not Carl). These type of stars can only be generated on a big stage. All this doesn't mean to say I'd like to see the demise of domestic league speedway. Far from it. Indeed by excluding the top GP stars from league racing the costs of domestic speedway would reduce. Standardisation of machinery would be more feasible and the domestic scene could be used as a breeding ground for young British riders to reach the GP series.

Could never see why teams aren't allowed to practice on track pre meeting. As stated previously riders seem to always talk about the track getting better after a few heats and it must give the away team a better chance to get to grips with an unfamiliar track rather than working it out during their first couple of rides by which time a meeting could already have been lost. All other sports, including motor sports in particular, seem to allow both teams/individuals sufficient practice as clearly improves the entertainment if all the participants are fully prepared. However, Premier League promoters in particular seem desperate for home wins so anything offering the away team a greater chance of success would surely be frowned upon. How about to kerb home track advantage team strengths are decided on a riders home average? Increase the points limit to 50 but based on home averages only. This would hopefully have the long term effect of forcing promoters to abandon producing tracks to heavily favour the home team, which is encouraged by the aggregate bonus point, as it would result in them having to track a lower overall strength team. It might also inspire a growing number of riders who appear to rely on their high home scores to put more emphasis on how they perform away from home. Hopefully the end result would be closer more exciting matches throughout the league?