Is Speedway Too Expensive Now ?

[Super Blue]

My personal opinion is it's an expensive sport to go and watch these days !

 

Realistically it works out about a pound a minute of racing and that puts it in the realms of being one of the most expensive sports around !

 

It's one of the reasons for falling attendances I'm sure and quite a heavily debated topic in various places on this forum .

 

Opinions ???

[Arson fire]

My personal opinion is it's an expensive sport to go and watch these days !

 

Realistically it works out about a pound a minute of racing and that puts it in the realms of being one of the most expensive sports around !

 

It's one of the reasons for falling attendances I'm sure and quite a heavily debated topic in various places on this forum .

 

Opinions ???

15-20 quid is hardly expensive....it's travel, prog, drinks, food etc that puts the cost up

[justathought]

I don't think that £15.00 is to bad in this day and age.

But, travel, programmes, drinks, food etc does obviously push up the cost. I would imagine that a family with say two children would find it a lot of money.

 

I was trying to think how much it was at Long Eaton when I first went in the 70s..........And I can't .

 

Be interesting to see how much it has actually gone up over the years.

[Arson fire]

 

 

I was trying to think how much it was at Long Eaton when I first went in the 70s..........And

Half a crown??

[iris123]

 

Be interesting to see how much it has actually gone up over the years.

Interesting to see how much investment and development has gone into the bikes since the 70s and how much facilities for the fans have changed.....Look at other sports and facilities have changed enormously.Look at speedway and it still rents run down stadia from other sports.It is unlikely that any new stadia built need to think about having income from a speedway team/track and so the only time speedway gets that 21C feeling is once a year at Cardiff.And you pay good money to get in for a GP.But all in all it is worth it.Personally don't see a bright future for the sport if it continues to run once a week meetings at most tracks.

[Travertine]

15-20 quid is hardly expensive....it's travel, prog, drinks, food etc that puts the cost up

 

Yes, but those items would be a given whatever chosen sport you followed, and I wouldn't think there would be much difference in cost between them.

 

How does it compare with, say Greyhounds, where there are something like 8 races on the card, each of them (but not all) generally much shorter?

Edited September 27, 2012 by Travertine

[scaramanga]

if you can afford it its not too expensive for a good meeting

but if your not that well off with little or no spare cash after paying the bills yes it is expensive especially if its a poor follow the leader meeting with a under strength team put together on the cheap

[dukie]

yes it is a cost if you have a family two adults 17 each plus kids then a programme and kids want a burger drink also petrol to get to the event as i work 2 until 10 i can"t get to meetings i just have to watch on sky just hope alll teams start next year fingers crossed and maybe one day a track back at bradford oh i can dream

[Paulco]

Whilst trying to sneak in 27 Big Macs and 3 dozen crates of beer , into Sheffield on Sunday , it struck me how expensive this sport had become when i was forced to bin my snacks and pay £27-50 for a pie and a cup of tea inside the stadium .

[iris123]

Whilst trying to sneak in 27 Big Macs and 3 dozen crates of beer , into Sheffield on Sunday , it struck me how expensive this sport had become when i was forced to bin my snacks and pay £27-50 for a pie and a cup of tea inside the stadium .

Your own worst enemy,you dummy.If you had have had caviar,prawn sandwiches and champagne they wouldn't know what it was in Sheffield and you would have got it in ok.But big macs,well they would have been confiscated and scoffed in no time by the security

[Craftman]

Compared to football , EL and PL speedway is generally better VFM given the dangers a rider faces compared to the modern footballing ponce .

 

£45 to watch Stoke at old Trafford or £15 at most PL and EL tracks

[phillipsr]

yes speedway is expensive its essentially £1 for every minute of action. Would you say £80 for a rugby match or £90 for football is to expensive. You also have to realize that 90% of speedway races aren't that exciting to watch and especially league racing has very little in the way of atmosphere. Cardiff and the GPS are slightly different as the atmosphere makes up for the price.

[Backless]

90 minutes of football? So that'll include when the ball is out of play, for goal kicks, corners, free kicks & throw ins then. Usually the ball is in play for about 60 minutes.

 

"90% of races aren't that exciting" - so does football cough up a discount for dour 0-0 draws? Thought not. Does all the time the ball is in play leave the crowd breathless and in awe of the ball juggling skills on show? Nope.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Backless

[phillipsr]

Arsenal charged fans £10 to go to last nights game far better value.. Fair enough if u don't like football but imo speedway is far to expensive for what you get

[Glenn]

In 2005 I paid £11+£1 programme at Rye House.

In 2012 I pay £16 +£2 programme.

2005 was cheap but 2012 is too much now.

It's no coincidence that crowds have dropped off especially as speedway likes to be a weekly sport as opposed to say Football which tends to be fortnightly with a much longer season.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Glenn

[Tsunami]

In 2005 I paid £11+£1 programme at Rye House.

In 2012 I pay £16 +£2 programme.

2005 was cheap but 2012 is too much now.

It's no coincidence that crowds have dropped off especially as speedway likes to be a weekly sport as opposed to say Football which tends to be fortnightly with a much longer season.

 

Same length in both sports, 8 months, but every fortnight rather than every week which some favour for regular weekly entertainment. People like to do something like on a Saturday on a weekly basis .

[jackson2]

Yes it is expensive but they could do some deals through the year

[Backless]

Arsenal charged fans £10 to go to last nights game far better value.. Fair enough if u don't like football but imo speedway is far to expensive for what you get

 

For what was to all intents & purposes a reserve game. Fair play to Arsenal - Man United charged on average £45 for the same thing. It was as much of a one-off as Lakeside's freebie a few years ago.

 

All I was illustrating was "15 minutes of racing" / "90 minutes of football" isn'ta direct comparison. If you're going to include walking about, waiting for something to happen, then speedway would be about 45 minutes by adding the pre-race dicking around (sorry, I meant gardening) & post race winding down.

 

It doesn't make it good value, it makes it a more accurate comparison.

[StevePark]

Whilst trying to sneak in 27 Big Macs and 3 dozen crates of beer , into Sheffield on Sunday , it struck me how expensive this sport had become when i was forced to bin my snacks and pay £27-50 for a pie and a cup of tea inside the stadium .

 

I was believing you...... but you spoilt it by claiming you bought tea!!! LOL!!

 

In answer to the question - it's all relative. £1 a race (at £15 admission obviously).

 

You have to travel (either home or away), but you don't have to buy a programme/race day magazine, food or drink, so you can keep the costs down there.

[Red Panda]

If its any consolation to you lot I got in to Poole (and other tracks) at kids rate until I was 21............It is too expensive especially for a family of 4.........I can't buy family tickets because of the nearly ten year age gap between my two............

 

It needs to be a more realistic price to encourage people to go...............and in the current economic climate it is a struggle to make ends meet let alone add social activity costs in..............

 

@ Paulco..........that was a tea over the monitor moment when I read that...........pmsl.............

 

RP