Has Speedway A Future

[mickthemuppet]

Has Speedway a future.

The events of this week concerning Peterborough and Coventry has surely taken it to a new low. Nobody in any other sport could understand what is going on ,in fact most people who follow Speedway do not know what is happening.

Crowds are down overall in Great Britain so how many will be turned off by this latest farce. Grand Prix crowds are certainly lower. Ullevi crouds have dropped from 16,000 two years ago to probably under 10,000. I would think there has been bigger crowds at some EL matches than there were at Prague on Saturday.Looked about 3,000

[racers and royals]

Mick,i was there on Saturday,the GP website gives the capacity as 10000. I would guess there were about 7000 in attendance.

[J_D]

Yeah there was 6000 at Prague last year and this year it was more full. 7000 sounds about right. Looking at Ullevi i would say around 12000 this year, giving the issues with predicted rainfall and past problems i would expect it prevented a couple of thousand locals from attending.

 

GP is in good health but i fear for the long term EL.

[Mateusz]

Has Speedway a future.

The events of this week concerning Peterborough and Coventry has surely taken it to a new low. Nobody in any other sport could understand what is going on ,in fact most people who follow Speedway do not know what is happening.

Crowds are down overall in Great Britain so how many will be turned off by this latest farce. Grand Prix crowds are certainly lower. Ullevi crouds have dropped from 16,000 two years ago to probably under 10,000. I would think there has been bigger crowds at some EL matches than there were at Prague on Saturday.Looked about 3,000

What events concerning Pboro and Coventry? Sorry, I usually don't have enough time to follow Elite League threads on this forum, could someone describe in a few sentences what was going on there, please?

 

Today I read in "Tygodnik Zuzlowy" there were exactly 7800 fans at the Czech GP, which is more than in last 3 years.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Mateusz

[Steve Turner]

What events concerning Pboro and Coventry?

Could someone describe in a few sentences what was going on there, please?

Nothing important Mat, honestly

 

 

[Humphrey Appleby]

GP is in good health but i fear for the long term EL.

 

Attracting 12,000 fans (let along 7,000) for the sport's premier event is considered good health...? Ullevi used to draw 25-30,000.

[AndyM]

I've long been saying that unless radical action were taken, British league speedway is destined to be uneconomic, unattractive to crowds and unviable, though sadly we lack the visionary strategist to take us forward. You would have thought the GP circus had at least some of those skills, but it too appears to be heading for the doldrums. It comes down to a simple question of whether the sport believes sustainable recovery is possible and whether anyone actually gives a toss to try turning the sport around. If not, it could quite easily be dead within 20 years if costs continue to rise, long-term attendance trends continue on a downward spiral, and media/commercial interest is not aroused. Brutal but true.

[iris123]

Think it is down to lack of talent that captures the public imagination to a large extent.If there was one ideally two or three top class riders from Britain that could excite the general public and media then i think things would look far different.Same on the GP scene i think an exciting young Brit and really an exciting young Pole(maybe Swede?) would help the GPs.Sadly i can't really see anything on the horizon from any of the 3 countries to get the public flocking to speedway.Emil and Holder and even Darcy Ward might be the future World Champs,but they are really from the wrong countries to attract much attention.Even if Jepsen Jensen etc reach the top Denmark isn't going to pump that much money into the sport through crowds or sponsors.If only Gollob was 21 again or we had a Peter Collins or Michael Lee.......

[AndyM]

We do have young talent but we don't develop or market that talent to maximum effect and don't honestly seem very bothered that we can't get riders into the top 3-4 in GP circles. Given a young lad who can deliver genuine results through the world rankings AND be a pin-up for the papers, you may have a case... so where does all the top motorcyling talent go?

[iris123]

I'd have to admit to ignorance on that one.My interest in other motorcycle sports started and ended with Barry Sheene really.Do we have any British motorcyclist that gets plenty of media coverage and gets fans flocking to meetings like Sheene did?Has motorcycle sport as a whole dropped off the radar?If so it/they have passed me by

[Fromafar]

I'd have to admit to ignorance on that one.My interest in other motorcycle sports started and ended with Barry Sheene really.Do we have any British motorcyclist that gets plenty of media coverage and gets fans flocking to meetings like Sheene did?Has motorcycle sport as a whole dropped off the radar?If so it/they have passed me by

We are doing well in WSB with Haslem , Rea ,Crutchlow ect.

[emerald tyke]

Hope it ha a future But think the sport needs to have a rethink...re:- constant rule changes etc

 

need to get publicity...could be via superbikes TT race etc by getting those racers into coming to speedway as it would benefit ALL motorcycle sports.

 

Just look at mark webber!! all the plugs JC gets on tv when he's talking!!

[Trees]

The BSPA wouldn't do bad if they found out about and maybe got involved and helped to market the virtual speedway racing that youngsters take part in on the net HERE ................. there seems to be a gaggle of guys at Lynn who are well into this, it's current and could be bigger. It could easily encourage youngsters to go to "live" speedway and possibly take the sport up??

 

Interesting to read the follow on from Neil Machin saying how costs have gone up for the riders in PL speedway, in the Star today. That is Stuart Douglas suggesting that EL costs are probably even higher than the PL. He's suggesting, which has been suggested on here many times before of course, that the EL needs to go for teams meeting each other only once home and away in a season and then only on Weds/Thurs nights to encourage more of the top men back to the league. He's also suggesting that the EL teams could then field a team in the PL or NL as well. With many of the teams now racing on Weds/Thurs nights is this what the long term plan is then I wonder? I could see it working although these new strong teams need then to attract loads more punters or would the SKY dosh be enough to cover costs ............ watch this space eh!

Edited May 27, 2010 by Trees

[bazaar3]

It would have a better future if fans admission and basic speedway machinery and equipment costs were lowered....

[pandorum]

Make it worth while people going to live speedway ie lower admission, maybe arrange with away track to allow thier fans in for half price as a reward for travelling? it's radical but might encourage a lot more to attend, have a proper programme of races including perhaps a second half of somekind, reintroduce something along the lines of the golden and silver helmet match races that might attract attention, radical changes to rules to make them simple but effective such as get rid of that imbecelic double point nonsense, have a national strategy to attract sponsors and promote and develop the sport, encourage young Brit talent by perhaps limiting reserves in both EL and PL to Brit only, have test matches at PL/NL level here and in europe to allow talent to grow and more importantly learn, make a proper concerted attempt at national level to provide decent racing circuits encouraging tracks to provide proper entertainmenet and proffesional running of meetings,encourage schools to get involved by going into the places with riders and bikes and giving concessions to local schools, have a national strategy that provides help for areas wishing to develop the sport.

Work together to build the sport up instead of against each other to drag it down.

Hell its not astro physics after all.

A troop of chimps could run the sport better than the current lot