British Speedway Crowds

[fireblade]

I remember Boston's crowds in the 70's and early 80's being very large and by the mid 80's dropping below 500 for some meetings.

 

To be honest it's amazing they can run conference now. At one meeting I went to last year I did a count of heads and struggled to get to three figures.

 

Mildenhall v Boston is supposedly one of the better crowds at West Row, but I must say the crowd for that fixture was very low in comparison to the days of National League racing when the place used to be packed.

 

The sport has supposedly hit the big time again, but in all honesty I reckon most tracks are not far off having all time low attendances.

 

The only track that I went to regularly and saw the attendance grow was Bradford. Terrible crowds to start with, but the Ham Brothers put their money where their mouths were and the crowds came back.

 

The sport could really do with having the Hams back in the sport as promoters, IMO they were the best.

 

I have nothing but admiration for those running at a loss.

[iris123]

Bristol also had great crowds,didn't they.Sadly forced to close,nothing to do with attendances

[shazzybird]

As always to raise your crowds you must be seen and be worth looking at.

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are you saying the teams in the UK are not worth watching?

[norbold]

Bristol also had great crowds,didn't they.Sadly forced to close,nothing to do with attendances

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes, exactly the same situation with Norwich, who were probably the best supported team in the country at the time of their demise. Their owners sold the land for property development.

[iris123]

Any idea what the Wembley attendances were like,when they made the brief comeback in the 70's,Norbold? Also what about White City.Was always hard to tell because it was so big.Guess they weren't that good as i remember something about them wanting to change race day to mondays to avoid clashing with football,etc,but Reading objected.In the end it wouldn't have mattered i suppose

[Ian]

Any idea what the Wembley attendances were like,when they made the brief comeback in the 70's,Norbold? Also what about White City.Was always hard to tell because it was so big.Guess they weren't that good as i remember something about them wanting to change race day to mondays to avoid clashing with football,etc,but Reading objected.In the end it wouldn't have mattered i suppose

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'll tell you what I think, Iris123, then Norbold can tell me if I'm right.

 

My recollection is that the opening night crowd in 1970 was 17,000. I believe it subsequently averaged around 10-12,000.

 

Now we await the judgment of Norbold, who is to speedway history what Lord St John of Fawsley is to constitutional affairs! Except that Norbold's a good guy, of course.

[norbold]

Norbold - Have you any pre-war crowd figures for New Cross?

I believe the pre-war crowd figures for New Cross were around the 20 - 25,000 mark. It was a small stadium so it was practically packed out most meetings

 

Any idea what the Wembley attendances were like,when they made the brief comeback in the 70's,Norbold? Also what about White City.Was always hard to tell because it was so big.Guess they weren't that good as i remember something about them wanting to change race day to mondays to avoid clashing with football,etc,but Reading objected.In the end it wouldn't have mattered i suppose

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I'll tell you what I think, Iris123, then Norbold can tell me if I'm right.

 

My recollection is that the opening night crowd in 1970 was 17,000. I believe it subsequently averaged around 10-12,000.

 

Now we await the judgment of Norbold, who is to speedway history what Lord St John of Fawsley is to constitutional affairs! Except that Norbold's a good guy, of course.

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Thank you for those few kind words Ian.

 

I have seen the opening night attendance at Wembley in 1970 put at between 17 and 20,000 spectators (one of whom was me!). And yes, they continued to average about 10 - 12,000. I believe the last night crowd was in the region of 10,000. In contrast to New Cross, of course, Wembley was a very large stadium so 10,000 seemed very small in comparison. There were often complaints about lack of atmosphere during the 70s revival. Remember that just after the War, Wembley had been attracting regular weekly gates of 40 - 50,000.

Edited March 9, 2005 by norbold

[Ian]

I have seen the opening night attendance at Wembley in 1970 put at between 17 and 20,000 spectators (one of whom was me!). And yes, they continued to average about 10 - 12,000. I believe the last night crowd was in the region of 10,000. In contrast to New Cross, of course, Wembley was a very large stadium so 10,000 seemed very small in comparison. There were often complaints about lack of atmosphere during the 70s revival. Remember that just after the War, Wembley had been attracting regular weekly gates of 40 - 50,000.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I was there too Norbold. In fact, I had a free pass for the season.

 

Another interesting question is why the crowds there were so much bigger than at any other track at that time. I remember Speedway Star taking the view that there was a certain section of the population who would attend any sporting event at Wembley for no better reason than it was Wembley. I've often wondered whether that was true. If it was, then you'd have to conclude that the current state of speedway venues is a contributory factor to the much lower crowd levels of today.

 

On the other hand, it must be remembered that Wembley presented a complete show, with celebrity announcers (I think they were called Ed Stewart and David Hamilton). Maybe that's what made the difference.

[norbold]

I forgot to answer iris's question about White City.

 

Apparently gates rarely got any higher than 1500 and most of the time hovered around the 1000 mark. If 10,000 at Wembley lacked atmosphere you can imagine what 1000 was like at White City!

[spin king]

I think attendences depend upon who you home team are racing a local team can attract a big crowd, as also if you or the opposition are having a good season.

[iris123]

Another interesting question is why the crowds there were so much bigger than at any other track at that time. I remember Speedway Star taking the view that there was a certain section of the population who would attend any sporting event at Wembley for no better reason than it was Wembley. I've often wondered whether that was true. If it was, then you'd have to conclude that the current state of speedway venues is a contributory factor to the much lower crowd levels of today.

 

On the other hand, it must be remembered that Wembley presented a complete show, with celebrity announcers (I think they were called Ed Stewart and David Hamilton). Maybe that's what made the difference.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

An amazing figure,10,000.What your saying must have some truth.I remember in the 70's after Wembley closed the supporters club used to run a coach to Wimbledon.I wonder how many extra that put on the gate?.Don't in all honesty remember seeing too many with Wembley programme boards ,etc.Guess they were pretty much all lost to speedway,though from 10,000 supporters you might expect 1 or 2 thousand to keep going.

Quite interesting to find out how long supporters coaches keep going after a track has closed.Crayford also used to run a bus to Hackney,anyone know how many years that went on for.?Bryn?

[norbold]

Norbold - Have you any pre-war crowd figures for New Cross?

I believe the pre-war crowd figures for New Cross were around the 20 - 25,000 mark. It was a small stadium so it was practically packed out most meetings

 

 

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.

[Lejon]

 

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?

[Guest speedwaybabe]

Hey All

 

I need your help related to Speedway History. I am doing an investigation for an assignment on whether speedway is more popular now that say 40 maybe 50 years ago. I will be looking at things like the amount of clubs in different leagues and whether the fans and crowds are bigger now of then. Also the amount of promotion speedway got. Things in general which will help me answer the question Is speedway more popular now or then?

 

If you could help me with things like photos or statistics from newspaper reports or maybe a list of clubs in an old program I would be so grateful.

 

I am also going to be creating a questionnaire for peoples views on speedway now and then. Which I will post as soon as its done.

 

 

If anyone does have any information you can message me here or e-mail me on speedwaybabe986@aol.com

[Lejon]

Hey All

 

I need your help related to Speedway History. I am doing an investigation for an assignment on whether speedway is more popular now that say 40 maybe 50 years ago. I will be looking at things like the amount of clubs in different leagues and whether the fans and crowds are bigger now of then. Also the amount of promotion speedway got. Things in general which will help me answer the question Is speedway more popular now or then?

 

Sounds like very good project !

The first boomyears after the war was just incredible but you must remember tha the National league is a kind of a "London league" and the interest at the other tracks were generally poorer.

[norbold]

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?

Sorry, lejon, I don't really know how many were at New Cross's re-opening. Actually they re-opened in 1959 with 6 "open" meetings; four team matches and two individual trophies.

 

I guess if 7500 were at the New Cross v. Wimbledon London Cup match, crowds would generally have been lower than that as the South London derby was a big event attracting large numbers of Wimbledon supporters as well.

[Guest Jim Blanchard]

Norman, was there not 8 meetings in the return year of 1959 at New Cross? I have 8 programmes. Have I been had?

 

August 19th V. Wimbledon.

August 26th V. Southampton

September 2nd. V. Belle Vue,

September 9th. V. World Stars,

September 16th V. Poole

September 23rd Tom Farndon memorial Trophy

Septemer 30th V. All Stars

October the 7th. Supporters Speedway Trophy.

 

What I can remember after all this time the crowds at any of them was not huge.

[norbold]

Yes, sorry, you're absolutely right Jim. It was six team matches I was thinking of.

[keepturningleft]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the biggest crowd ever for a single speedway meeting was for the 1976 world final in Katowice, Poland with an an attendance of some 130,000.

[tarabanko]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the biggest crowd ever for a single speedway meeting was for the 1976 world final in Katowice, Poland with an an attendance of some 130,000.

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Has read it too that it was 130.000 persons at the 1976 World Final.

 

 

Talking of big crowds so has I read that in Pardubice there the Golden Helmet are staged. Crowds over 100.000, peoples was turned away as the stadium was full.

 

Maybe someone can confirm it?

Edited March 11, 2005 by tarabanko