How Would You Improve Presentation?

[foamfence]

Hasn't Barry Hearne (the darling of many here on BSF) turned Professional Darts into a circus? Hasn't WWF turned Wrestling into a circus? And yet, these events pull in the crowds despite being far more expensive to attend. Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere.

 

 

 

 

Good ideas

 

 

 

 

 

Might as well close some tracks down straight away then. Birmingham has air horns specifically forbidden in the Planning Permission.

 

 

 

 

 

Take a good look around you. Don't you think that the average speedway fan in Great Britain is a good 20-years past all that kind of thing?

 

 

 

 

CD's of what exactly? Rap Crap and Hip Hop? Heavy Metal? Reggae? Bangra? Every genre of music will have its fans and it's haters of other genres. You are NEVER going to please everyone, least of all the majority of speedway fans who want nothing more than a medley of Glenn Miller and the odd dash of Andy Williams and Val Doonigan.

Having seen those that make up the crowds at darts and wrestling, All I can say is "no thanks" if that's the way it's going, fair enough but I won't be there.

[oldace]

Having seen those that make up the crowds at darts and wrestling, All I can say is "no thanks" if that's the way it's going, fair enough but I won't be there.

 

Thats exactly what happened with darts. The 250 old timers who watched in the old best of order days were totally lost to the sport.

 

Luckily for Barry Hearn the 11,000 who replaced them were some consolation

Edited March 21, 2014 by Oldace

[foamfence]

Thats exactly what happened with darts. The 250 old timers who watched in the old best of order days were totally lost to the sport.

 

Luckily for Barry Hearn the 11,000 who replaced them were some consolation

I think of darts and wrestling as something of an amusement rather than sport. I wouldn't be interested. In sixty years of watching, mechanic and sponsor I've seen a wide variety of off track novelty attractions, they just turn me off. I think that the current set up could be speeded up and that seems to be most peoples complaint on here. How often do they get 11,000 at darts by the way? With the exception of the big televised events.

[The White Knight]

Prepare tracks for passing, whatever that may be - some say more dirt, some say less.

 

Allow all riders to have four laps practice to help set up their bikes for the conditions so that they're ready to race from heat 1, maybe make it a sort of early 2nd half, four pre-main event races?

 

The pit gate stays shut until after the race is finished unless medical attention is required. No more back to the pits for tape infringements.

 

I can't think of any reasons, other than track grading or a rider having two races on the trot, as to why, as soon as the riders are leaving the track from one heat, the others should be out on the way to the tapes for the next.

 

Try and ensure that the supporters are catered for, ok food and drink, clean toilets, good vantage points for watching, good tanoy system, relevant information as the meeting progresses.

 

 

Just a thought, there's a few remarks regarding the sound of speedway and the restrictions imposed by planning rules. At tracks where these restrictions aren't in force, how about running a meeting or three without the new silencers, or better still, take them off completely! I started going to Blackbird Road at a time when they rode without silencers, and the noise, together with that smell we all love but don't enough of these days, certainly made an impression on me.

It happens in the GPs and in Televised Meetings - why not in the ordinary Meetings where Supporters are sometimes standing around freezing their 'bits' off for two and a half hours or longer?

[New Science]

Not bothered about any pre-meeting entertainment, inbetween heat attractions or somebody coming round at the interval with icecreams.

 

Why don't we just get back to decent speedway, concrete rules and knowing who's racing for which team, not like it's the war years... when promoters used whoever turned up.

 

Never met a man that went to speedway just for the pre-match entertainment... or because a particular ditty was played every time a rider with a nickname that matched the record's title was played.

 

To resort to any other attraction than decent staged speedway, well, it's like trying to disguise the taste of burnt chips by a dollop of tomatoe sauce on top.

Totally agree,most often the talk between heats used to be of what we had just witnessed in the last heat and how the match was going to pan out from there on.I agree all promotions could strive to make the riders parade more interesting but as soon as the tapes go up in heat 1 the racing should take care of the entertainment.

I think of darts and wrestling as something of an amusement rather than sport. I wouldn't be interested. In sixty years of watching, mechanic and sponsor I've seen a wide variety of off track novelty attractions, they just turn me off. I think that the current set up could be speeded up and that seems to be most peoples complaint on here. How often do they get 11,000 at darts by the way? With the exception of the big televised events.

Darts get weekly crowds of between 5 and 11 thousand for the Premier league which lasts 16 weeks.It also runs other major events in Britain and around the world which are well attended.Interesting to note that unlike speedway these attendances are not affected in the slightest by live TV coverage on SKY.There has never been more money in the sport due to it attracting mass sponsorship.I attend many darts events,don't believe it is all about the drinking and dressing up,people are regularly watching a standard of play which has never been seen before.Thats why my emphasis would be on getting the core product right first before concentrating on the presentation.

[SCB]

CD's of what exactly? Rap Crap and Hip Hop? Heavy Metal? Reggae? Bangra? Every genre of music will have its fans and it's haters of other genres. You are NEVER going to please everyone, least of all the majority of speedway fans who want nothing more than a medley of Glenn Miller and the odd dash of Andy Williams and Val Doonigan.

You're right. Tell Spielberg in his next big hit not to bother with a musical score. You'll never please everyone anyway. People are only watching it for the story anyway right?

[yellowandblack]

OK you don't want my opinion. I would go if there were only 2 other people in the stadium and the music was Hungarian marching tunes. I have been taking my teenage daughters for the last three years and they have been to a number of tracks.

 

Just asked them

 

Coventry -

Like: the grandstand. The ability to see into the pits. The announcer when he is interviewing a rider or just giving the score. The chance to observe a unique social subculture (weird one that - their words not mine). Second half midland development league races. filling in the programme

Don't like: most of the cheesey announcer's comments and attempts to be funny, the messiness and general scruffiness of the stadium (there seems to be a lot of cr*p lying around - especially on the greyhound track), the hushed crowd voices most of the time. Cheesey parade both before and after the match)

 

Leicester

Like - the nice tidy stadium (seems to be a theme here - do young people see the decepit nature of the stadia and not get all nostalgic?, you know it's a possibility)

Don't like - never get to see the riders when not racing because you can't see the pits (another theme developing here)

 

Peterborough

Like: the grandstand, better presenter but still seems like he is from another age

Don't like: a bit open on the far side. All the grass seems like a country fayre. Prefer an enclosed stadium. Really bored at the 4tt when there wasn't a race for an hour

 

I will take them along on Sunday to Cov and get them to assess in situ

 

To Summarise

 

They want tidy enclosed stadium

To be able to watch what the riders do between races

To have less cheesey comments midst the informative stuff

Quick meetings but also second half racing

 

wouldn't help

 

change to the music - it's not hugely important

no problem with the start girls at cov

[yellowandblack]

As I was writing my last post (not actually moderated yet of course) one of my daughters added that she doesn't see that Grand Prix speedway (which comes across so well) is anything like league speedway which doesn't really.. even though she has experienced the former only on the telly and the latter live!!!

 

.it could be the power of TV editing but the crowds do tend to look more excited. even though the racing isn't always any more exciting.

 

ok My daughters are a tiny sample of 2 but it does show that maybe some more focussed market research is needed on the current 'brand personality' of speedway and perhaps what aspects of that brand identity are not resonating with people - it can't just be about money..

 

A lot has been done to improve the image of speedway on the web, the GP etc but some things are still not quite right...best to do some research rather than speculate endlessly.... .

[Vince]

Darts get weekly crowds of between 5 and 11 thousand for the Premier league which lasts 16 weeks.It also runs other major events in Britain and around the world which are well attended.Interesting to note that unlike speedway these attendances are not affected in the slightest by live TV coverage on SKY.There has never been more money in the sport due to it attracting mass sponsorship.I attend many darts events,don't believe it is all about the drinking and dressing up,people are regularly watching a standard of play which has never been seen before.Thats why my emphasis would be on getting the core product right first before concentrating on the presentation.

 

That's still a lot less than the weekly attendance for Speedway! Whilst I agree that the core product has to be right the success of darts is surely as much down to changing the way it is promoted and making it a good night out as it is to the increased standard of competitors. It's not really all that long ago that the likes of Lowe and Bristow were more famous than any current dart player and darts was on terrestrial TV.

 

Of course if the racing is great the other stuff doesn't matter. However the racing can't always be great and on those nights you need people to feel that they have still had a good time and that's when the presentation, music etc could improve the atmosphere enough to still make it a worthwhile night out.

 

One thing that could be done that I believe would improve attendances almost instantly would be to install modern, immaculately clean toilet facilities. Might not seem a big deal but I think that a lot more men would be accompanied by wives or girlfriends and therefore kids if that were to happen. Then again if you like a lads night out at the Speedway that could be the worst idea ever

Edited March 22, 2014 by Vince

[The Pedaler]

Does every genre need to be covered? I don't think so. When you look at most people, especially the older generation they generally just have a good old chin wag during breaks. For me, music is for the younger generation to enjoy. Again, keeping them interested with filling gaps. With the music, before and after races it has to be up beat high tempo stuff. Once the 2 mins is hit there should be classic tense music. At King's Lynn they've done this occasionally and it does bring people's focus back to race time.

 

At the Monster SWC meetings, they had DJ's spinning their stuff dotted around the tracks in place of the traditional tannoy-broadcast music. Maybe something similar then, with "name DJ's" from the local nightclubs, who can maybe even draw some of their fans into the speedway stadiums with them?

 

Having seen those that make up the crowds at darts and wrestling, All I can say is "no thanks" if that's the way it's going, fair enough but I won't be there.

 

Bye!

 

 

Thats exactly what happened with darts. The 250 old timers who watched in the old best of order days were totally lost to the sport.

 

Luckily for Barry Hearn the 11,000 who replaced them were some consolation

 

Exactly. Barry Hearne isn't afraid to crack some eggs in order to make an omelette. Can't keep pandering to Dads Army else there won't be any fans left once they all die out.

[westhamboy66]

At the Monster SWC meetings, they had DJ's spinning their stuff dotted around the tracks in place of the traditional tannoy-broadcast music. Maybe something similar then, with "name DJ's" from the local nightclubs, who can maybe even draw some of their fans into the speedway stadiums with them?

 

 

 

Bye!

 

 

 

Exactly. Barry Hearne isn't afraid to crack some eggs in order to make an omelette. Can't keep pandering to Dads Army else there won't be any fans left once they all die out.

I wouldn't want Barry Hearne around speedway he's just a Wannabee Terry Russell

Ageist comments make you and you're comments irrelevant but i will lower myself to address the music theme. As a fifty odd year old i hate most of the music that would be provided i.e Black music of any description , Garage and so on. The only stuff that works for me is metal a choice which wouldn't go down well which i can understand but given most attend for the racing i don't see why massive speakers an idiot with sound system blasting people against their wishes has to be tolerated.

 

Given that speedway supporters regularly introduce the younger generation to the sport i doubt you're idea of getting rid of dads army as you put it has been thought out properly

Time for a rethink young man...make sure you do your home work first though

[Ben91]

Right, what difference is there between a 50+ year old existing fan going to speedway and having to listen to music befitting of the exciting sport they are watching and myself, also an existing fan but only 22 years old having to listen something more suited to a wake when I go to watch speedway? Why is someones opinion suddenly more valid because of their age or the length of time they have been attending Speedway?

 

Times change, it isn't too much to ask for a sport that wants to attract new fans to follow the times.

 

Music that goes with the event is a bare minimum we should expect. That doesn't have to be R'n'B, Dubstep, Drum and Bass or whatever genres find favour among younger people these days. I listen to all of them myself but they sit alongside The Rolling Stones, Elvis, The Beatles, The Who, The Jam, Duran Duran, Stevie Wonder etc in my music collection. The list goes on.

 

Another bare minimum is a good presenter/announcer, preferably a duo who can bounce off of each other, one in the box to give race times etc and another on a roving mike to add comment, interview riders, fans, promoters and anyone else of interest. Get those two things right to complement the racing, fill intervals and unexpected breaks in racing due to crashes etc and it would immediately make Speedway a more polished product.

 

I'm pretty certain I could put together a list of 50 or so songs that would touch on a majority of popular genres, offer something for all fans attending a Speedway meeting and most importantly fit in with what is happening on the track.

[The Pedaler]

Ageist comments make you and you're comments irrelevant but i will lower myself to address the music theme. As a fifty odd year old i hate most of the music that would be provided i.e Black music of any description ,

 

So my "ageism" is a bad thing but your racism is a good thing is it?...get a grip will you?

Given that speedway supporters regularly introduce the younger generation to the sport i doubt you're idea of getting rid of dads army as you put it has been thought out properly

Time for a rethink young man...make sure you do your home work first though

 

Wondering if this is Alf Garnett writing? He was a West Ham Boy wasn't he?

 

Look at where young people go in their leisure time. Given a choice, do they go where old people go? Do they go to the Wheeltappers and Shunters Workinig Mens Clubs any more with their fathers and their fathers fathers? Do they go to the local Derby and Joan clubs? Or do they go to where ALL the other young people go...because that's where they are with their mates and the young totty that they can try to "pull"?

 

You make the terraces of the speedway stadium look like the Old People's Home's day out, and you will put youngsters off wanting to be there. It just won't be a "cool" place for them to "hang out".

 

There's no point in looking up your own backside for the answers... if you want a new generation of fans you have to go out and ask THEM what THEY want, and to tailor the show accordingly. Else they won't come, you and I will die out and the support for the sport will die out with us. If that means the sport changes into something that old people won't like, then, that's what's called evolution, You are left with the choice then of evolution or extinction. Take your pick.

[ruffdiamond]

 

So my "ageism" is a bad thing but your racism is a good thing is it?...get a grip will you?

 

Wondering if this is Alf Garnett writing? He was a West Ham Boy wasn't he?

 

Look at where young people go in their leisure time. Given a choice, do they go where old people go? Do they go to the Wheeltappers and Shunters Workinig Mens Clubs any more with their fathers and their fathers fathers? Do they go to the local Derby and Joan clubs? Or do they go to where ALL the other young people go...because that's where they are with their mates and the young totty that they can try to "pull"?

 

You make the terraces of the speedway stadium look like the Old People's Home's day out, and you will put youngsters off wanting to be there. It just won't be a "cool" place for them to "hang out".

 

There's no point in looking up your own backside for the answers... if you want a new generation of fans you have to go out and ask THEM what THEY want, and to tailor the show accordingly. Else they won't come, you and I will die out and the support for the sport will die out with us. If that means the sport changes into something that old people won't like, then, that's what's called evolution, You are left with the choice then of evolution or extinction. Take your pick.

quickly delete this before TWK see's it, lol

[The White Knight]

quickly delete this before TWK see's it, lol

It's alright mate - I'm speechless. :sad:

 

I agree some things need to change - but for me - far too many things have changed already, and I don't see the Supporters flooding back or that many new Supporters attending in response to those changes.

 

THAT makes me wonder if the changes have been for the best - or - have they just driven away the 'core' Support in order to attract newcomers who aren't interested?

 

It MAY be unpalatable - BUT - it could be the case.

Edited March 22, 2014 by The White Knight

[Trees]

No way could you play extreme music like drum and base at speedway, you can only enjoy that if you're either drugged up or drunk But no way could you play slow ballads either!

 

100% a good mic man is imperative and some clubs ought to weedle out some new ones who are clever,individual speedway fans who would do wonders for their clubs imo

[Grachan]

Why the talk of people in the 50+ bracket wanting old fashioned presentation?

 

I'm over 50. If asked I'd probably say that my favourite band of all time is Rush. I remember at school I had a period when I was in to Emerson Lake and Palmer.

 

So do I think they should play ELP and Rush at speedway meetings? Hell no! The music needs to be current. Dj mixes or even just current chart music. Not rock or heavy metal. It's too intrusive.

 

When I attended in the 70s the music was current. Now, 40 years on, sometimes it feels like they play the same stuff, but it's now 40 years old.

 

If that includes, say, black music that some folk don't like, that's too bad. Who knows. You might get some more black people in if the music suits them.

 

Just keep it modern. It's so important. Even if it's only subconciously, it has an effect.

Edited March 22, 2014 by grachan

[The White Knight]

Actually - some of the arguments regarding music is irrelevant. Speaker Systems at some Tracks are rubbish - and you can't hear it anyway. :rolleyes: :sad:

[Grachan]

Actually - some of the arguments regarding music is irrelevant. Speaker Systems at some Tracks are rubbish - and you can't hear it anyway. :rolleyes: :sad:

 

Very true. Another issue that needs sorting out.

[SCB]

So the old people are telling us they only go for the racing. But are getting upset when we say to stop playing rubbish music (and some of that rubbish music BTW, is modern.)

 

As I posted above, its not about playing modern music. It's playing the right music. Someone said they don't like "black music" (and it can hardly be called racists when the black people have there own music awards - the MOBOs) and I agree, neither do I and I don't think most of that is suitable for a speedway meeting either.

 

As an example, this song is currently number 2 in the charts, people like it clearly. It's a terrible song to play at speedway. Where as this song was written in 1977 but it's a good speedway song IMO.

 

MODERN MUSIC IS NOT THE ANSWER, THE RIGHT MUSIC IS.