Is Speedway Too Expensive Now ?

[mickthemuppet]

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.

Saying Speedway is just 15 minutes of action is stupid. Would you classify going horse racing as 10 minutes of action or Greyhound meetings as 7 minutes of action. Of course you would not. How about tennis which is roughly 12 0f minutes of play per hour. Then is you went to the British Golf Open , how much actual play would you see in 12 hours Perhaps 30 minutes.

You have to take the whole package at Speedway with Falls exclusions, Crashes, tape exclusions , riders lap of honour. That's all part of the evening entertainment

[Gemini]

You have to take the whole package at Speedway with Falls exclusions, Crashes, tape exclusions , riders lap of honour. That's all part of the evening entertainment.

 

I agree. If only riders would realise this as well instead of sodding off back to the pits after winning a race.

[Super Blue]

 

Saying Speedway is just 15 minutes of action is stupid. Would you classify going horse racing as 10 minutes of action or Greyhound meetings as 7 minutes of action. Of course you would not. How about tennis which is roughly 12 0f minutes of play per hour. Then is you went to the British Golf Open , how much actual play would you see in 12 hours Perhaps 30 minutes.

You have to take the whole package at Speedway with Falls exclusions, Crashes, tape exclusions , riders lap of honour. That's all part of the evening entertainment

 

 

Saying Speedway is just 15 minutes of action is stupid. Would you classify going horse racing as 10 minutes of action or Greyhound meetings as 7 minutes of action. Of course you would not. How about tennis which is roughly 12 0f minutes of play per hour. Then is you went to the British Golf Open , how much actual play would you see in 12 hours Perhaps 30 minutes.

You have to take the whole package at Speedway with Falls exclusions, Crashes, tape exclusions , riders lap of honour. That's all part of the evening entertainment

 

Don't get me wrong , I love my speedway and fully intend to keep going as long as I can afford it . I was at Ipswich tonight and will be at Mildenhall on Sunday for their double header against the Isle of Wight ( 2 meetings for £12 , now that is real value for money ) !

 

But , calling it stupid to say it's only 15 mins is a ridiculous statement to make because that's exactly what it is !

 

And yes I would say that your first 2 examples of horseracing and greyhounds are only 10 and 7 minutes which is why I wouldn't attend those kind of events .

 

I was asking for opinions , not to be called stupid !

 

[Bandit59]

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

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.

Berwick have done some good deals this season.Everybody has forgot the Tractor racing speedway fans get;;;;;;

[Fromafar]

Regarding whether speedway is an expensive sport Ithink you have to factor in the speedway has always been known as a family sport ,which IMO puts different perspective on it.That might be a reason that a lot of fans find it expensive. The Berwick Promotion must take great credit for recognising this fact in their reduced admission prices +u/16 getting in free when accompanied by an Adult.That is a huge reduction to a Family.

[mickthemuppet]

Don't get me wrong , I love my speedway and fully intend to keep going as long as I can afford it . I was at Ipswich tonight and will be at Mildenhall on Sunday for their double header against the Isle of Wight ( 2 meetings for £12 , now that is real value for money ) !

 

But , calling it stupid to say it's only 15 mins is a ridiculous statement to make because that's exactly what it is !

 

And yes I would say that your first 2 examples of horseracing and greyhounds are only 10 and 7 minutes which is why I wouldn't attend those kind of events .

 

I was asking for opinions , not to be called stupid !

I did not call you stupid I called your analogy of Speedway stupid. They must be going pretty fast in GP's if they can do all that in 15 minutes.

[womble53]

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 ???

 

 

You obviously don't watch football at the Emirates !!

 

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

 

Bit of a misniomer that one Phillipsr, it might have been a tenner against Coventry last night, but the cheapest adult ticket for this weekends game against Chelsea is £62.00, and with a pie and a pint that would pay for nearly 5 speedway meetings, and the top priced ticket would probably pay for 5 Grand Prix admissions....................so do you still think Speedway is expensive, don't think so !!

[Friddy75]

I personally don't think speedway is to expensive. You can't compare speedway to football, and I certainly don't think it's just 15min of racing we're paying for. With football you watch 45mins twice over with time to go to the toilet between.

Speedway for me is about the whole event of the night. Me and my old man arrive early to have a wander round the pits, listen and smell the bikes. We talk about things we've read or heard that week, we look for faces round the pits who we might know other than the riders.

We then make our way to where we stand, turning our attention to our race card. We predict the R/R, the reserve changes etc, then we watch the parade and the warm up all building the anticipation. We try to guess any tactical rides and between races we discuss what's been going on. Around heat ten we predict the final score. If there's any second half, development or practise we watch that. For us this could be up to 3 hours for £14+£2 parking.

You don't do this at football, you go to your seat, watch the match then you go home, and you don't get involved like you do with speedway.

If you don't want to see tractors or gardening then don't go! It's part of speedway.

I agree their needs to be changes to better the sport and keep it going

I don't think you can add the price of petrol and the cost of food on to the price as it would cost petrol money to go to any sport. And you can always eat before and after. Their are also ways to save money on race cards by making your own.

 

 

[cityrebel]

You obviously don't watch football at the Emirates !!

 

 

 

Bit of a misniomer that one Phillipsr, it might have been a tenner against Coventry last night, but the cheapest adult ticket for this weekends game against Chelsea is £62.00, and with a pie and a pint that would pay for nearly 5 speedway meetings, and the top priced ticket would probably pay for 5 Grand Prix admissions....................so do you still think Speedway is expensive, don't think so !!

i went to the emirates on wednesday with my daughter and it was only £15 for the two of us, which is the standard price in the lower tier for league cup matches. the lowest price for grade 'b' and 'c' premier league games at arsenal is £25 and £35, which is cheap by london football standards. regarding tomorrows chelsea match, £62 is way too steep for me. as a member i can still get a seat today on the arsenal ticket exchange scheme at face value. when i checked on the website yesterday they still had plenty left, at those prices i'm not suprised!. i'm going to the RICO meeting at arena tonight and i might go to the NLRC at rye house tomorrow, but at £16 plus prog, i'm not sure it's worth it.

[spanner47]

I'd gladly pay £20 to watch Nicki, Emil etc, but they diluted the Elite League, and now there's talk of doing the same with the Premier League. If they do bring 2 National Legaue riders per team in, then they should at least switch to the Swedish system and let them ride each other twice. But the fans wont come back while they can get their fix on Sky. Sky is killing Speedway as a spectator Sport, why stand in crap stadia when you can watch it on the box. Then you see meetings from poorly prepared tracks, and this just makes sure these fans wont fork out to go. I feel i get value for money at Ipswich, i've been every week since the track changes, before that, i went 4/5 times a season, it was crap then, but now it's good.

[Chewbacca]

It is expensive for its consitiuency

[Backless]

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.

 

Since when has football been fortnightly?

Whether its European competition, FA Cup, League Cup, Johnstones Paint Tin, and whatever other competitions there might be, most teams play twice a week and half of those games will be at home.

 

Again it doesn't make Soeedway "right" to run every week, but its not like football fans spend 13 days sat at home before going to a home game.

[Lewis]

For me its not so much the cost but the frustation of travelling 100's of miles to watch my team away & be subjected to endless laps of tractor racing or dragging out the meeting for 2 1/2 hours.

 

15 laps of speedway should be done in 1 1/2 hours, I can then keep interested throughout & more importantly stop the kids from asking every 2 mins "how many races to go".

[Lord Skid]

Unfortunately i just can't see a future for Speedway as we like to remember it . Ipswich yesterday, had everything on paper, 13 decent riders, one of the best prepared race tracks in the country, clean tidy stadium, good presentation, but just a few people watching, no atmosphere, anyone still remember the Gollob days at Ippo will be really sad.

And yes, people are right in saying that it's not about 15 minutes entertainment, last night was probably 10 at best. But look at all the good bits, dirt deflectors/ £200 didn't really help, oil catchers/ £50, fancy rear guards/£60, fancy cut outs/£50, none have done anything apart from line a few pockets, and push up costs.

As far as atmosphere goes, the sport has zero, nothing beats handbags at dawn to get the pulse rate rising, but it's been stopped by a £250 fine etc. nearest thing to a punch up is a post on Twitter or Facebook, but even that has been moderated by the BSPA.

Anyone wanting some real entertainment, go and watch an Ice Hockey match, compare the two, and see which one you enjoy the most, it'll cost around £10, guaranteed to be on, 60 minutes action, as they stop the clock, when play stops, you'll see more action in one game than a whole season at Leicester, try it, you won't be dissapointed.

[Robinh88]

£10 is about right in my opinion.

[scaramanga]

£10 is about right in my opinion.

it seams a comon thought that £10 is about the right price for prem league speedway

[aljack]

Compared to other sport (football, tennis etc) speedway is fairly cheap in price to watch. So I dont think its the money that is putting people off going. Take last night at Ipswich foxhall stadium, the meeting was rushed through at a great rate due to the poor weather and when the weather had improved at just after 9pm what happens? The riders come round to celebrate their win then NOTHING!!! Go on you fans just s*d off weve had your money so now go home as they are taking the fence down thats it!!! In my opinion speedway fans are treated abysmally and I feel many attend just once and never go again and no wonder when paying £15.50 for just over an hours entertainment. I remember when there used to be a champion of the evening with all the riders taking part and a big final at the end of season with all the top 16 riders taking part with a cup. Now NOTHING!!!

[oldtimer]

I agree with those who have said speedway is more than 15 minutes of racing. I go to Somerset on a Friday because there is bugger all on the TV Friday night, I like there pasty and mash and it's a social event where I can have a joke and discuss speedway and have a moan, with like minded anorachs, who I only see on a Friday night. It could however be more value for money if the presentation was better, you can't reproduce the Millenium Stadium atmosphere, and I fear air horns will never return in popularity to League racing, but, it should be 2 hours or more of entertainment, not just tractor racing that drowns out the rider interviews. There is too much standing around with nothing happening, and I am certain this puts off new people. You have to attend for some time before you get to know the riders and get some knowledge of the sport and get hooked, and there is not enough "raz a ma taz" to make new people think, that was a good evening with a good atmosphere even if the racing was processional.

Edited September 28, 2012 by oldtimer

[spanner47]

Compared to other sport (football, tennis etc) speedway is fairly cheap in price to watch. So I dont think its the money that is putting people off going. Take last night at Ipswich foxhall stadium, the meeting was rushed through at a great rate due to the poor weather and when the weather had improved at just after 9pm what happens? The riders come round to celebrate their win then NOTHING!!! Go on you fans just s*d off weve had your money so now go home as they are taking the fence down thats it!!! In my opinion speedway fans are treated abysmally and I feel many attend just once and never go again and no wonder when paying £15.50 for just over an hours entertainment. I remember when there used to be a champion of the evening with all the riders taking part and a big final at the end of season with all the top 16 riders taking part with a cup. Now NOTHING!!!

But if you asked, i reckon the majority of fans want it over asap as this time of year.I dont want to stand around in the cold for over 2 hours, i dont mind in the summer, but in March/April and late Sept/Oct, i just want see 15 heats and get home. But some want to make a night of it, you'll never please everyone. Like most fans of the 70's, i loved the Champion of the evening, it sometimes produced the best racing of the night, but where's the money going to come from to pay the riders? Luckily Chris listens to people, and he knows in cold weather most of us want a quick interval, then get home!!

[cowboy cookie returns?]

The short answer is yes.

As a speedway fan i don't agree that you are paying a pound a minute as for most who go these days it is a full evening out walking around the pits watching the warm up etc. But that is the hard core support who do that & nothing is being done to bring in new supporters & for anyone coming for the first time then to them £15 is far too much to watch league speedway in the uk.

So yes the cost of admission needs to be cut but too do that you need to reduce costs. Its no good reducing the standard of the leagues anymore as that will just drive more support away & as most if not all the stadia is rented then that is a cost of which the clubs have little control. I think the only way of reducing costs is to bring in some form of standard equipment that would deduce costs for the riders & would also make i think for closer racing which in turn would be good news.

However the cost of admission is only part of the problem when trying to attract new support. Speedway needs to have a massive shake up otherwise i fear the sport in the uk will die out maybe not in 5 or 10 years but it will.

The league set up needs sorting out aswell the two leagues need to work closer together. The Elite league is a joke but it should be a place that every club & rider wants to be part of.

Having seen the old 13 Heat format & second half for the first time the other week at Ipswich for the John Berry meeting I have to say i found it so much better than the 15 heat's of today & no double points jokers it seemed like proper speedway.

If i was in charge i would bring back the 13 heat format with second half & allow the the team managers freedom with gate selection for the riders the old tac sub rule no double point rides. The two riders with the lowest aveages would ride at 6 & 7 & the top 5 could ride in any postion as the team manager saw fit.

So 13 heats a second half do away with the micky mouse rules standard equipment going back to the 70's/80's? Yes maybe but lets not forget the 1980's are trendy again rightnow & does the sport have anything to lose i don't think so as nothing that has been done in the last 20/30 years seems to have made it any better.

My first meeting was in 1989 so I am not looking at the old days with rose tinted specs the sport can still be a great night out but i fear if nothing is done it won't be around for too much longer & sorry for going off topic.