Sky. A Wasted Opportunity

[oldace]

There was speedway long before sky got involved and there will be speedway after they have gone if they do pull out, hopefully British Speedway gets the overhaul it needs in winter (one big league for me) and lets hope the promoters work there arses off advertising to get new supporters!

 

Main point of this post, however nice it is to watch additional speedway on tv, we certainly can live on without sky

 

Oh yeh and bring back old tac subs also

 

And yet most, if not all, on here seem to think all speedway's problems could be solved with the right marketing, you know, creating awareness, that kind of thing. If that is so then surely getting thrust into thousands of living rooms each week should have done the trick.

 

Strangely you think that is now not really important, perhaps taking a bike to a school fete every now and again is better marketing and exposure.

 

Used properly the 15 years on SKY could, and should, have been the catalyst to propel the sport forward, instead the promoters simply stuffed any extra cash into mercenary riders back pockets and carried on as before.

 

Rest assured the loss of SKY will be a massive problem for speedway in this country

[macinter]

I don't think there is much more that can be done to improve domestic speedway attendances, which continue to decline. The plain truth is that todays youngsters nearly all want to be footballers and the training for young lads is so well organised. They have proper coaches at games who run the touchline shouting at the boys to "keep your shape" etc. And all the boys need is a pair of boots. Nor is it a dangerous sport when compared to speedway racing. Most youngsters in our sport come from a speedway background, apart from those who switch from other motor bike sports, such as Craig Cook. Suggestion after suggestion has been profferred, but nothing is changing, nor is it likely to, unless speedway suddenly becomes fashionable again. How to make it fashionable again is the key but the magic bullet has still not been found and I have yet to hear, or see, anything at all remotely encouraging enough to make me feel any confidence about the future, GP's apart. And even they are still shunned by a sizeable number of traditional fans who won't recognise a world champion unless he qualifies.

[BWitcher]

Spot on Oldace.

 

Somehow they managed to take the most powerful marketing too of all and use it adversely. Takes some doing, but they did it.

[Hawk127]

Maybe the sport as a team event is not as entertaining as the individual meetings such as the GPs and European Championship and needs to be changed to get the numbers back on the terraces and make it a bit more interesting for the viewers. Team riding is rarely seen these days and if you accept some of the professional comments about the bikes being too fast and in some hands, out of control, then maybe the answer is two fold. Look again at the bikes and attempt to standardise them to a point where greater rider skill comes into play. Next change the format of league racing so that individuals can race for themselves and as a team by making league meetings four team events. This may attract back the top riders if you can limit the number of these Elite four team event league meetings. Each team will have four riders picked from a squad plus two reserves. Ideally this is run in the period May to August with a play off in September which is held as a festival of speed weekend at a neutral track. In between you then have two leagues where the current Elite teams can also enter a team in either the PL of the NL. Each team will have six riders only and compete over twelve heats. They then have a second half which is an individual event for the UK Individual Championship with the top six scorers from the team meeting eligible to rider in the individual event. Again in September it culminates with the top 20 riders from each league in a final to be declared champion. Having repackaged the sport then try again to sell it to TV. Just some thoughts and a lot more work needs to be done but if you compare the crowds in say Poland and Russia and other countries where top riders attend individual meetings then perhaps the answer is to compromise and try something different.

[moxey63]

Team speedway doesn't really exist anymore, does it? Surely riders know each other through social networks and may be jokeyed into the same team for one season here and there or even be team mates by chance in another country. The fabic of team speedway no longer applies and riders become nomads, and are given a testimonial for 10 years in the sport instead of for one team.

 

That shows one of the problems with so called team speedway. Team pictures are taken in March and I have a feeling they will probably be out of date mid campaign.

[SGP]

FROM the conversations I've had, it would seem the Elite League is unlikely to be featured on SKY next year. On the positive, SKY would still like to keep the sport on its portfolio, so one can only imagine that they would prefer to [perhaps] show the PL with the odd EL fixture.

 

I think SKY are frustrated because they DO want keep the sport but are not prepared to spend OB fees for unpleasing crowd levels. I think if the BSPA provide a solid plan on the future sooner rather than later, then SKY may be willing to extend their contract.

 

I do know more info, but have to be careful what I write.. I imagine Mr Rising and 'Flagrag' are in the same position too.

Edited August 21, 2013 by SGP

[orion]

 

 

That shows one of the problems with so called team speedway. Team pictures are taken in March and I have a feeling they will probably be out of date mid campaign.

Always been changes with teams in a season nothing new .

[Grand Central]

FROM the conversations I've had, it would seem the Elite League is unlikely to be featured on SKY next year. On the positive, SKY would still like to keep the sport on its portfolio, so one can only imagine that they would prefer to [perhaps] show the PL with the odd EL fixture.

I think SKY are frustrated because they DO want keep the sport but are not prepared to spend OB fees for unpleasing crowd levels. I think if the BSPA provide a solid plan on the future sooner rather than later, then SKY may be willing to extend their contract.

I do know more info, but have to be careful what I write.. I imagine Mr Rising and 'Flagrag' are in the same position too.

 

How intriguing.

It is the crowd levels AT meetings that makes Sky unhappy.

I fully understand that meetings like Monday at Peterborough look sad with such small crowd levels but the OB fees are paid by the subscribers ... And they were at home watching Sky!

 

The Premier League matches featured so far have been just a two or three a year.

It is their novelty value combined with local promotion that has kept the attendance up at each.

All of which would have been true of he EL clubs if they had featured as sparingly.

Why would the attendance at PL meetings, probably on 'off nights', hold up better when they become the staple fare?

 

What a topsy-turvy sport we follow when the TV company WANT the 'second' division NOT the Elite.

We really did waste all that extra Sky money giving it to the top riders for all those years, didn't we?

 

.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Grand Central

[SCB]

If this is the case the EL promoters need to act now. Charge £5 entry to Sky meetings and plug it on facebook, twitter and any other social media. Show Sky they can get crowds in. They may in the short term lose a few £££ but will it add up to whats being lost by the loss of the Sky contract?

[SGP]

How intriguing.

It is the crowd levels AT meetings that makes Sky unhappy.

I fully understand that meetings like Monday at Peterborough look sad with such small crowd levels but the OB fees are paid by the subscribers ... And they were at home watching Sky!

 

The Premier League matches featured so far have been just a two or three a year.

It is their novelty value combined with local promotion that has kept the attendance up at each.

All of which would have been true of he EL clubs if they had featured as sparingly.

Why would the attendance at PL meetings, probably on 'off nights', hold up better when they become the staple fare?

 

What a topsy-turvy sport we follow when the TV company WANT the 'second' division NOT the Elite.

We really did waste all that extra Sky money giving it to the top riders for all those years, didn't we?

 

.

 

THE comment I made was just my opinion. I don't think SKY would want to show anything but the best league; however, they were quite happy to drop the SGP/SWC which featured the World's best riders - apparently.

 

I think they are - like many of us - fed up with the Sport which should promise so much and provide a great product to the viewer / fan.

 

My view - and it is only that - is that if the BSPA can provide a plan for next year then it would go a long way in making SKY's mind up.

 

As for crowd levels; SKY are aware that more fans would watch the match from home, but they are perhaps dissapointed that promoters don't make it cheaper - as others have suggested - to make it look more attractive on the TV.

 

I have to applaud what Birmingham did recently, with £10 entry on SKY nights...

[BWitcher]

All this just beggars belief.

 

It's just so simple, yet 14 years in they haven't grasped it.

 

TV meetings should be at vastly reduced prices, even give away hundreds of free tickets. Pack the terraces. Make tv matches the ones to be AT not the ones to stay at home for.

 

Very quickly you would find it a lot easier to attract sponsorship for tv meetings. A guaranteed big crowd in the stadium, a vibrant looking product being shown on tv.

 

The sheep mentality would soon kick in, some of those sat watching at home will think they are missing out and look to go themselves... NOBODY is going to be attracted when they see one man and his dog watching the current meetings.

Edited August 21, 2013 by BWitcher

[macinter]

Trying to be positive perhaps it would be better to make all meetings some sort of semi-individual event with riders just representing their clubs, as half the time they don't appear to know what the score is in team events anyway, as has been shown several times in televised meetings. This could mean teams fielding more than one rider at their own home events, with the rest made up of riders from several other clubs. Would take some dedicated organising but it might attract more away fans if they all had their own rider to support. This could also be run on broadly similiar lines to the GP's.

[arthur cross]

THE comment I made was just my opinion. I don't think SKY would want to show anything but the best league; however, they were quite happy to drop the SGP/SWC which featured the World's best riders - apparently.

 

My view - and it is only that - is that if the BSPA can provide a plan for next year then it would go a long way in making SKY's mind up.

 

You must understand that Grand Prix meetings presented Sky with different circumstances to weigh up compared with their coverage of British domestic speedway.

 

The reason Sky didn't mind losing their Grand Prix coverage was because they had no chance of changing the Saturday-evening scheduling of those meetings and so they couldn't guarantee being able to show all of those meetings because their 4 sports channels could easily be filled up with football (live or highlights from the Premier League plus live Spanish football), live US golf, cricket highlights and tennis (especially at this time of year with their rights to the American build-up tournaments and then the US Open itself).

 

The deals for those sports each involve much more money than Sky have ever put into speedway so the speedway was always going to be the easiest to let go (particularly as this time last year I doubt anyone expected Tai Woffinden to be in the top-8 of the world title standings, never mind still having a great chance of becoming world champion) ... Sky loved the world's top riders being in those meetings but found that too often they had to shove them behind a red button that's not an option for some of their customers and also makes it harder for viewers to channel-hop between the speedway and anything else they might like watching.

 

The good news for British domestic speedway is that clearly Sky can influence when the meetings take place to make sure they've room in their schedules (you could even argue the next-day repeats help fill up their schedules) ... therefore, how the sport comes across on tv as well as the production costs for a very weather-dependent sport become the key factors for Sky's management.

 

Peterborough's a nightmare to make it look busy on tv unless it's hosting a World Cup meeting that will enable them to attract a crowd 6-deep along the back straight as well as packing the long grandstand ... the wide-open spaces of the rest of the showground beyond the speedway arena are always going to give an empty atmosphere but there are ways to reduce the emptiness, notably covering some blocks of the seating with sponsored tarpaulins ... I reckon if you put a crowd of 1,500 into both Wolves and Peterborough, you'd be amazed how busier Monmore looked with its crowd hemmed in alongside a shorter home straight.

 

There's one extra factor to consider about how either a change in Sky's coverage or its complete exit could affect British speedway ... I suspect at least 2 clubs in the Elite League have got in the habit for several years of using a new season's Sky money to settle up the last of their debts from the previous season while hoping unsuccessfully that they won't still be in the same vicious circle 12 months later.

 

That's awkward enough in the middle of an existing Sky contract, relying on next year's money from that deal to cover this season's loose ends ... but how do such clubs cope if there's less "next year's money" or none at all to cover 2013's loose ends ?

[E I Addio]

 

Peterborough's a nightmare to make it look busy on tv unless it's hosting a World Cup meeting that will enable them to attract a crowd 6-deep along the back straight as well as packing the long grandstand ... the wide-open spaces of the rest of the showground beyond the speedway arena are always going to give an empty atmosphere but there are ways to reduce the emptiness, notably covering some blocks of the seating with sponsored tarpaulins ... I reckon if you put a crowd of 1,500 into both Wolves and Peterborough, you'd be amazed how busier Monmore looked with its crowd hemmed in alongside a shorter home straight.

 

That is a very good point. You also have to consider the camera angles. At most TV meetings the cameras are situated mainly at the start and first two bens and are thus facing the parts of the track where least people go. As you say it is easy to make Wolves look busy because you can get a camera shot on an area where most people stand and even a few hundred at that point would probably seem reasonably well-filled, but I have been to stock-car meeting at Arena Essex where there were over 4000 people, with most of them standing on what would be the home straight and first two bends of the speedway track and if TV camera's were in their usual position it would still seem that there were not many people on bend 3 and 4 where the cameras were pointing.

[moxey63]

Always been changes with teams in a season nothing new .

 

 

Perhaps so, but it seem more regular with so few teams.

 

While I'm here, any danger of you changing mid-season?

[orion]

 

 

 

Perhaps so, but it seem more regular with so few teams.

 

 

It would to you .

[moxey63]

It would to you .

 

I agree. Then again, I did mention it.

[New Science]

That is a very good point. You also have to consider the camera angles. At most TV meetings the cameras are situated mainly at the start and first two bens and are thus facing the parts of the track where least people go. As you say it is easy to make Wolves look busy because you can get a camera shot on an area where most people stand and even a few hundred at that point would probably seem reasonably well-filled, but I have been to stock-car meeting at Arena Essex where there were over 4000 people, with most of them standing on what would be the home straight and first two bends of the speedway track and if TV camera's were in their usual position it would still seem that there were not many people on bend 3 and 4 where the cameras were pointing.

The reason it didn't look busy at Peterborough was because there was nobody there ! nothing to do with camera angles.When we have to shove people together to make it look artificially better its a poor show.Maybe the BSPA could supply a truck load of mannequins to be rolled out at every Sky meeting just to create the desired illusion.

[Starman2006]

All this just beggars belief.

 

It's just so simple, yet 14 years in they haven't grasped it.

 

TV meetings should be at vastly reduced prices, even give away hundreds of free tickets. Pack the terraces. Make tv matches the ones to be AT not the ones to stay at home for.

 

Very quickly you would find it a lot easier to attract sponsorship for tv meetings. A guaranteed big crowd in the stadium, a vibrant looking product being shown on tv.

 

The sheep mentality would soon kick in, some of those sat watching at home will think they are missing out and look to go themselves... NOBODY is going to be attracted when they see one man and his dog watching the current meetings.

 

I think your on the right lines, but i wouldn't be just GIVING Tickets away, but reduced admission is not a bad idea to be honest for a sky meeting.

I mean, look at the crowd or lack of it at Peterbourgh this week, A club like that couldn't do any worse than offer kids for a quid and reduced admission all round.

[E I Addio]

The reason it didn't look busy at Peterborough was because there was nobody there ! nothing to do with camera angles.When we have to shove people together to make it look artificially better its a poor show.Maybe the BSPA could supply a truck load of mannequins to be rolled out at every Sky meeting just to create the desired illusion.

 

Look at the opening line of Arthur Cross' post that I was replying to. It says "Peterborough is a nightmare to make it look busy when its on tv". He goes on to say that 1500 people in Wolves makes it look a lot busier than the same number in EAOS. I was not saying its just camera positions, its a combination of things including non-regular race night, type of stadium camera positions coupled with the fact that a certain number of people are always going to stay at home when its on TV. Also Peterborough according to its owner gets poor crowds most of the time anyway.

Edited August 21, 2013 by E I Addio