Cardiff Attendance

[regwilsontacticalgenius]

not sure about that figure- the crowd was much bigger than I can remember in all the previous years, especially on the 3rd tier- they were high up the seats on 3 sides, albeit the BT sign was visable on the 4th side. strangely, the least problems with traffic and crowding in all 5 years though!

[Steve Shovlar]

I think we can all safely say that this GP had by far the biggest crowd, whatever the official attendances in the past say.

 

Benfield do give a lot of tickets away in competitions through local papers the week before a GP. It seems that everyone who enters automatically gets a pair of tickets, whether or not the competition says there are only 20 pairs to win.

 

And not a bad thing either. Those freebees could easily turn into ticket sales the following year, and cost Benfield nothing.

 

I would imagine the 38,400 attendance is for purchased tickets, with a good few thousand getting freebees. All the folks around me in the middle tier had got in for nothing, as they work for Fial Vans, the sponsor. Most had never been to speedway before so I spent a while explaining the rules and who the riders were. They absolutely loved it.

[Steve Shovlar]

the largest section of the crowd were in the £45 seats so i think the profits will be a lot more than that

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

38,460 x £35=1,346,100

 

Less stadium rental=£350,000

Less expense of putting in track=£100,000

Less prize money=£6000, (what a joke)

 

Less advertising, Abba tribute, commisions on ticket sales, Sky adverts, admin etc= £150,000??

 

=roughly £750,000 gross profit.

 

Not bad wage for Mr Possellwaite! ( Of course its probably less than this but not bad even so)

 

So when the stadium is full in a couple of years, (and I am sure it will continue to grow) the profits will be very nice indeed!

 

60,000 capacity= around £2.5 million gross+ merchandise!

[iris123]

Was 6,000 quid all that was paid out to the riders?I bet even a tribute band get somewhere near that alone

[Old Saint]

Mr. Shovlar, you failed to take into account the revenue from merchandising and broadcasting fees.

 

Must have all added up to considerably more than your estimate of £750,000 gross profit.

[2ndBender]

I think the attendance has levelled out at around the current figure. I can't see it increasing unless two things happen - 1) they produce a decent track so that we finally see some REAL speedway, and 2) we produce a British rider capable of winning the damn thing! That would put 10,000 on the gate. I can even see the attendance falling as people gradually get p***** off with the lousy track.

[arthur cross]

I wasn't at the original Cardiff GP in 2001 but I've been to all four since then ... without a doubt, Saturday's crowd was scattered better around the stadium than in previous years to make it look really busy for TV viewers (notably the far greater use of the upper deck of the back straight).

 

A friend watching at home (but who's been to Cardiff at least twice) texted me just before the opening heat to wonder how much the crowd had increased on past years ... my own hunch at that stage was maybe the crowd was slightly lower than in previous years judging by the pubs & city centre in the afternoon (as well as some gaps at the back of the lower deck and throughout the middle deck cancelling out the extra use of the upper back straight).

 

One tip for BSI or the stadium authorities for Cardiff 2006 ... judging by how neatly the dark safety-tarpualins over the front dozen rows of the lower deck make that space look smaller, how about some big adverts, SGP banners or more dark tarpaulins to cover some other empty banks of seats (eg, the upper deck's 3rd/4th bends) ? ... again, it would make it look on TV that the crowd were filling up a bigger percentage of the available capacity.

 

From what I've read in the past, those lower deck safety tarpaulins reduce speedway's Cardiff capacity to around 65,000 (instead of football/rugby's 77,000) so we're roughly 60% full at the moment ... imagine how packed it could look if there's another crowd increase next year fitted into only say 55,000 available seats with the empty upper 3rd/4th bend seats hidden.

 

My overall impression of Saturday's meeting was that it was the 3rd best of the four I've seen at Cardiff ... last year's remains way clear at the top, followed by the incident-packed 2002 version (helped by having backed Ryan Sullivan and then getting a close-up view on the lower deck 3rd/4th bends of his wonderful winning blast in the final) ... Saturday's opening 10 heats were either dull or terribly refereed but at least the rest of the action put 2005 well ahead of 2003's processional snooze (when the next day's West Wales Open at Carmarthen salvaged an up-till-then expensively-wasted weekend).

[keepturningleft]

Odsal 1985 seems to have become a forgotten statistic.

I have clear recollections from seeing it in print that the attendance for that world final was 42,000. I was there that day, the place was heaving and the 42,000 figure doesn't seem exaggerated.

If it is true, then the Cardiff claims about the biggest attendance since time began are false.

[Blue Groove]

Looks to me like the attendance has reached a plateau, maybe down to the fact that there are only a finite number of hotel rooms/guest houses in Cardiff and the surrounding area. Many speedway fans travelling to Cardiff face very long journeys and those with families especially like to make a weekend of it rather than face 2 long trips in the same day. Most people will know by now that if you leave booking a room for next year longer than a few months you will struggle to find one.

[arthur cross]

Depends if you want to stay in Cardiff itself for booking up many months in advance ... our group prefer to see a bit of the rest of Wales while we're there so after staying 5 minutes walk from the Millennium Stadium in 2002, we've gone to Porthcawl 2003, Brecon 2004 and Chepstow 2005 (all about 40 minutes drive from Cardiff).

 

We don't worry about booking accomodation until mid-May and I've always found a really good place within two or three phone calls.

 

On GP day, we know where to find plenty of street parking within 15 minutes walk of the stadium that only needs one of those Cardiff city-parking vouchers to cover us from 1.30pm onwards so even the driver has time to enjoy some drinks before we go into the stadium without worrying about being "over-the-limit" for the late-night drive back to our base.

 

And if you think I'm giving away our handy parking location, think again

[Kylmo]

Cathedral Road always has free parking all day( opposite Sophia Gardens) and its always has plenty of spaces.

Went and stayed at Travelodge at Leigh Delaware services on M4 ,£26 a night ,£6.50 each for 4 sharing .

[Steve Shovlar]

I just don't agree with some of these posts.

The attendance was thousands up on last year. As for families and hotel rooms, again no way. Most make the trip for the day, then drive home. Cardiff is not the backside of nowhere. Most people can get there quickly. There's a motorway to within 3 miles of the stadium!

 

The attendance will continue to grow till it reaches a full house. Three years from now you will have to get your tickets in advance or miss out.

 

As for Odsal, I thought the attendance then was 28,000.

[keepturningleft]

That was the official attendance for the 1990 staging at Odsal.

Local newspapers at the time gave the attendance for '85 as 42,000.

[HenryW]

Was 6,000 quid all that was paid out to the riders?

No.

Not sure where Steve came up with that figure. He possibly got a little carried away with Tony's victory and forgot that the other riders get paid as well.

On current exchange rates, Tony will have received slightly more than £6,000 for winning the meeting.

The actual total prize fund is US$84,500.

 

Edit: Meant to mention that, if my memory serves me right, the prizes are paid by the FIM, so don't actually come out of BSI's takings for the day.

Edited June 13, 2005 by HenryW

[f-s-p]

The actual total prize fund is US$84,500.

 

Edit: Meant to mention that, if my memory serves me right, the prizes are paid by the FIM, so don't actually come out of BSI's takings for the day.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Maybe he meant the trophies...

 

I think the organizer pays the prize money, at least in other FIM events. Maybe BSI have a special deal?

 

It was nice to meet you HenryW, after Bydgoszh I had no idea I'd seen or talked to you! LOL !!

[Jay]

Where is the motorway that runs to within 3 miles of the stadium then Steve? I always thought the M4 was the closest motorway to the stadium and then it's the A48 (or something like that) into the city centre.

 

The thing about people staying over is mainly because it's easier. Look at the people from the north. The meeting finishes at 10pm, by the time they have got out, back to their cars or coaches it's 10.30/11. Then with the M50 being closed on Saturday that would have meant extra time on their journey, meaning they might not have got home til 4 or 5am. This way, you don't have to worry about rushing back, you can have a good night after the meeting. Get your head down for a good sleep and leave Cardiff for your journey north either late morning or early afternoon, arriving home at a more reasonable time.

[full-throttle]

My overall impression of Saturday's meeting was that it was the 3rd best of the four I've seen at Cardiff ... last year's remains way clear at the top

 

 

 

Saturday's opening 10 heats were either dull or terribly refereed

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

At last.....

 

someone who went to the same meeting as I did Saturday night.....

[arthur cross]

I wonder if full-throttle (or anyone else) noticed what Henka Gustafsson said when he was interviewed about Saturday's GP while riding for Oxford on Sky last night.

 

Henka was the expert commentator for Swedish TV at Cardiff and pointed out that the GP picked up from heat 11 onwards.

 

So that makes three of us who saw the same thing on Saturday

[arthur cross]

And thank you to jay for pointing out to Mr Shovlar the benefits of treating the British GP as an overnight trip.

 

Actually, if our group lived as close to Cardiff as Steve does, we'd make a single day of it and wouldn't mind getting home between midnight and 2am.

 

It's very useful that the motorway/dual carriageway takes you within 3 miles of the city centre ... only problem for us is that we have to use over 300 miles each way of that motorway/dual carriageway to get within sight of Cardiff.

 

We've only one driver so a routine away meeting at Newport is possible "there and back" in one day (set off 9am, back home 11pm) ... but doing justice to the whole Cardiff experience would mean setting off around 7am and getting home at 4am with matchsticks propping up the driver's eyes.

 

So now you know why we treat it as a proper weekend away

[crazysue]

I am already working on Hubby to persuade him to let me stay over next year in Cardiff...it may be a long journey for those living in the north, but it is just as long for some of us in the south!!

 

We left straight after the fireworks, got back to the coach and finally reached our home in Suffolk at 5.45am and this was after leaving our house the previous morning at 8.45 to go to the coach pick up point....a very tiring weekend.