How To Make Speedway More Appealing To Younger Fans?

[Blazeaway]

You will not attract young people to speedway long term by any means you try. Its to late for speedway now unfortunatly.

 

I have to disagree mate. Speedway is a marketable form of entertainment. Raw excitement. Kids should love it but unfortunately there is no one prepared to actually promote an amazing sport.

 

Forget all the bullsh1t there is no finer sight than a damn good speedway race.

[SCB]

The worst thing is you see a really great race, the crowd is exciting and then they play some easy listening music and you wait for 10 minutes while the riders prepare for the next heat. Doesn't matter how old you are, you get bored in them gaps but if you're young, 10 minutes feels like hours.

[The Know]

 

 

I have to disagree mate. Speedway is a marketable form of entertainment. Raw excitement. Kids should love it but unfortunately there is no one prepared to actually promote an amazing sport.

 

Forget all the bullsh1t there is no finer sight than a damn good speedway race.

 

indeed it is, but no one will do anything. they all talk about it but that is where it ends.

[Chewbacca]

As mentioned before, speedway needs to be promoted as an extreme sport to attract teenage boys. The downside is that marketing this way alienates the current customer base of people who travel to each meeting via a time portal from 1952 when you got a night at the speedway, 6 pints of beer, a go on the funfair and a dance at the Palais for fourpence ha'penny.

 

Everyone was lovely, there was no crime, the hoodie hadn't been invented and neither had muslims. The Empire was creaking but the new Queen was lovely.

 

The technology of the sport has moved on massively but the customer base has not.

 

Entertaining the few kids who go now is less important than gaining a new audience for the sport.

[Deano]

You need to get teenagers in by the classroom load and get them chapperoned around by a trendy geezer (not this guy). http://images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/images/archive/0/0f/20080208212814!Nerd.jpg

 

 

Keep them away from the greys and the badged up wulf jacket gangs. One look at the current crop of customers and they'll be out the door before heat one.

[kiwi]

UK Speedway Series was going to be a start

[2ndbendbeerhut]

I went to the darts a while ago and the beer was cheap so maybe the price have increased due to supply and demand? So you have to question why so many go just for the occasion then?

[Grand Central]

This topic was asking the question 'How to make Speedway more appealing to Younger fans?'

And we haven't really come up with much, have we?

 

Just restating how exciting WE think a Speedway can be is not the same as offering anything new to the youngsters, is it?

More promotion is always vaunted; as if that was the answer on it's own. Surely we are fooling ourselves to think that.

 

The truth is that standing outside watching Live Sport (with the exception of football) is not a popular activity for many teenagers.

And it is not going to increase in popularity in the future either, is it?

[Deano]

You have to think like a youngster too.

 

Why would I want to leave the warm comfort of my bedroom with my PC/game console. To spend a cold evening, stood in a Siberian wind listening to some old geezer muttering into a mic.

[mickthemuppet]

£1.50 a pint. Have you been in a time warp

[george.m]

You have to think like a youngster too.

 

Why would I want to leave the warm comfort of my bedroom with my PC/game console. To spend a cold evening, stood in a Siberian wind listening to some old geezer muttering into a mic.

 

Absolutely right. And if your mates are somewhere else you want to be with them, not the black sheep.

 

[foamfence]

You have to think like a youngster too.

 

Why would I want to leave the warm comfort of my bedroom with my PC/game console. To spend a cold evening, stood in a Siberian wind listening to some old geezer muttering into a mic.

It might help if there were more speedway games for consoles and more roll play, so you could go home and re-enact races on your console or be any rider you want in any meeting you want, the developers would probably say that the potential market was too small.

[Deano]

It might help if there were more speedway games for consoles and more roll play, so you could go home and re-enact races on your console or be any rider you want in any meeting you want, the developers would probably say that the potential market was too small.

 

I agree. Perhaps live streaming is the way... stream onto your smart television via the internet for £5 per meeting.

 

 

To be honest, you have to really want to go speedway to go. It's too easy being a cash sport to say "not tonight" at the last minute.

 

There's no "buy tickets in advance" for the big team coming to town in two months in the local newspapers.

 

Promotion is all done the freebie way, send in a report and just hope the newspaper has some spare room next to the local tiddely winks.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Deano

[remembertheracers]

People are less willing to put up with endless delays in the modern era as the staia get more and more out f date.

 

If I go to football, which I don't anymore, I get 90 minutes with the ball in play for about 6 of them - and a fifteen minute half time.If I go to ice hockey I get three twenty minute periods and the clock stops when play does - and two 15 minute breaks. At football and ice hockey I get a seat, the latter is indoors.

 

At speedway I get 15/16 minutes of racing with about one hundred and fifteen minutes of delays, gardening at the tapes etc ' When we had second halves in two 20 races in 2 hours generally. Therein lies one of the sport's biggest problem. Even Kelvin Tatum was getting grumpy about delays on Sky last year and he was paid to be there!

Edited March 11, 2013 by remembertheracers

[keef robin]

People are less willing to put up with endless delays in the modern era as the staia get more and more out f date.

 

If I go to football, which I don't anymore, I get 90 minutes with the ball in play for about 6 of them - and a fifteen minute half time.If I go to ice hockey I get three twenty minute periods and the clock stops when play does - and two 15 minute breaks. At football and ice hockey I get a seat, the latter is indoors.

 

At speedway I get 15/16 minutes of racing with about one hundred and fifteen minutes of delays, gardening at the tapes etc ' When we had second halves in two 20 races in 2 hours generally. Therein lies one of the sport's biggest problem. Even Kelvin Tatum was getting grumpy about delays on Sky last year and he was paid to be there!

 

84 minutes of the ball being out of play!Are you a Stoke fan! I read the ball is on average out of play for about for about a third of the game. I also think speedway meetings are too long winded. Dont think its that expensive compared to football and rugby.

Cardiff GP is very good VFM at 29 quid.

Edited March 11, 2013 by beefy keefy

[george.m]

It's very hard for any of us to be impartial on the subject of speedway. We might think we are, but we're not. We're all emotionally involved in one way or another - positive, negative, whatever.

 

We're all well intentioned, despite our differences on the BSF, and want the same end result - speedway to be successful.

 

So what does success look like?

 

Many on here look back to the good old days - sorry I've got bad news for you. But you knew that already.

Some talk of encouraging the young to attend. The lifeblood for the future. Spot on!

 

The only true way to measure the potential for speedway is to undertake professional market research, followed by a business plan.

 

But what are you researching? Do you research in its current state or what we all think it should be?

Well you can't research the latter. This is where we come to the crux of the matter.

 

VIEWER WARNING

If you don't want to hear it as it is .... stop reading.

 

Speedway in its current state has a niche appeal.

Yes we all love our speedway. We are all part of that niche. Have you ever stood at a railway station and thought ... "why is that grown man in the anorak filming a train going through"? Yes, we are all that man! We love our hobby. But we are in a minority.

 

It's an outdoor sport. Held mainly at night time. So it can be cold. There's a lot of standing around for 15 minutes entertainment. It can be boring. Kids have school next day. So why bother?

 

There's competition. Yes, speedway has competition!

A night in front of the TV. A night down the pub. A take away with the husband/wife. Playing the latest computer game with your mates. Etc, etc, etc.

 

So what can speedway be like?

 

Entertaining races can be few and far between - those dreaded three words ..... gate and go!

 

Then there's the rules. I've been going to speedway for 36 years and I still don't know them all!

 

A family goes for the first time. Its Heat Two - everyone around them is cheering and they don't have a clue what's going on.

"Dad who won?"

"Err I don't know"

"Dad, why not?"

"Err I don't know"

"Dad, in that first race ... I thought you said we'd have a good view standing at the fence on the first turn. We got covered in dirt!"

We've all done it ... because we didn't know better.

 

Do we really expect a newbie to understand what is going on? What do we really do to help them?

 

(I digress here, but how many promotions have a simple explanation sheet they can hand out at the turnstiles to newbies - it would cost next to nothing. Imagine attending a speedway meeting for the first time and Gladys at the turnstile asks you if you'd like a little something to help you enjoy the night more - made to feel welcome or what?)

 

The food and drink can be awful. "We'll have a chippy on the way home".

 

Oh and then there's the cost. How much for a family of four? Or even a parent and kid?

 

Going to a speedway meeting can be pretty dire!

 

So which part of that do you sell to the non-believers?

 

 

Of course I've painted an exaggeratedly poor picture. I do so intentionally, because speedway is our kid, and like real kids we don't see our own like others do.

 

So getting back on track. If you research that lot, we all know what the results will be. And more importantly .... a total waste of money!

 

Hurry up George, I'm losing the will to live here! Tell us something we don't know.

 

OK. First and foremost, speedway needs to get its act together now!

It needs to focus first and foremost on putting on an entertaining product, in an acceptable environment at an acceptable price.

Tell us something we don't know!

 

We'll it's quite simple. We all already know it. But what do you do about it? Do you tell the promoters? Do supporters clubs tell them?

You're sport needs you!

 

Get this sorted, then you can do the research to see what will make speedway more appealing to youngsters.

Aye right George, that costs money and there isn't any in speedway.

 

Yes and no.

 

Yes it costs money, but it's an investment.

No, there is the money to do it.

How?

One of two ways, or both.

 

1. A £1 levy at the British GP on every ticket bought - £30K+

2. A £1 levy on everyone attending an Elite, Premier and National League meeting in one particular week - £25K+.

 

This will buy you a lot of research and a NATIONAL marketing plan from a good research company.

 

Then we need a BSPA committed to the greater good ... otherwise it's all been a waste of money!

 

 

Your sport needs you!

 

 

 

PS - Have a look at what the new Glasgow promotion are doing. Some bloody good stuff, from the outside there appears to be a business plan created from consultation with the playing public.

Edited March 11, 2013 by george.m

[stratton]

Great post George, time now for bed!! no in all honesty i didn't realise when you are a lover of a sport it's hard to be impartial.I think unless the sport really takes things by the scruff of the neck and goes for real change will it get better.?I am a oldie but i wouldn't object to new ideas to be honest if someone had said 30 years ago Darts would be in the shape it is now i would of laughed.But look what they have made possible, amazing really.Only 3 things i can think of that maybe would help to improve things 1.more modern music. 2.young kids maybe aloud to get nearer to the riders to see the bikes ( swindon good for this half hour before meeting aloud to see bikes and riders). 3.maybe 10 pound is to low to expect to pay, but say if you went to 10 meetings the regular supporter get a little discount for the odd meeting you are if like me more and likely to spend it there anyway.

[OGT]

Speedway is an extreme sport.

Kids like extreme sports.

So market it as such.

[Topcat]

I agree with George's overview,and hope that Glasgows new promotion do get more new fans through the gate. The weather has not been kind to the sport in recent years,but our 3.00pm start may just help pull in more interested fans.

We also know from the promotions point of view that more attendees are required full stop. Our new improved facilities should also help money wise.

Roll on sunday 31/03/13 3.00pm and the start on track of the new Red Revolution.

[piston197]

I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I digress here, but how many promotions have a simple explanation sheet they can hand out at the turnstiles to newbies - it would cost next to nothing. Imagine attending a speedway meeting for the first time and Gladys at the turnstile asks you if you'd like a little something to help you enjoy the night more - made to feel welcome or what?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes it costs money, but it's an investment.

No, there is the money to do it.

How?

One of two ways, or both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can't help thinking poor old "Gladys" might get a lot more buisness than she was expecting,but yes it may bring the punters in,maybe even wayne Rooney would become a regular ?