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Peterborough V Newcastle - Tuesday 29th April


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Most matches on tv show the crowds to be pretty meagre.

The problem Peterborough has is that most of the punters are housed in the huge stand which I think someone said holds about 2000.

They prefer to sit in the half just after the start so any focus on the other half or on the rest of the ground will make it look very sparsely attended.

 

I would estimate that there were a good 1000 in the stand and a few hundred around the ground which I would think is a decent attendance for a match that is on tv/streams though entry for a fiver was a phenomenal deal.

Stand holds 2350, so must have been 1500 last night.

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No it isn't the same as football at all.

 

Football is everywhere. Everybody knows about football. It's an ingrained part of society. Football isn't relying on someone sitting at home watching a non league game and deciding to become a football fan.

 

Speedway on the other hand is. It needs to attract new fans. TV is the biggest tool it has to do that. They have to make it look like the place to be.

 

I'm not talking about the the benefits of watching a meeting on tv or at the stadium here. I'm talking about utilising the golden opportunity the sport has to promote itself via the medium of tv.

 

One of the advantages of televised speedway is that it allows the promoter to actively market the event in the way that Peterborough did yesterday.

A coupon in the local paper allowed entry for a fiver as did buying tickets through Sky Tickets.

That would have enticed a fair few newcomers to come along, as was commented on the night by Mick Horton (?).

 

I don't know how much the promoter gets from Sky for hosting the event but I'm sure it goes a long way to balancing the reduced admission charge.

 

And if you put on a show like they did last night, that's the way you are going to get newcomers coming back which is what it's all about.

 

It was a reasonably smooth run last night, with only the Rosen crash understandably causing much of a delay.

Even in the couple of unsatisfactory start races, all 4 were straight back to the tapes without revisits to the pits to check their make up!

 

The interval after heat 10 was restricted to 5 minutes as planned too.

 

Just need to cut out the gardening time now!!

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I was stood on the back straight and if there was 1500 in that stand I'd be amazed... In fact I'd be amazed at 1000

 

I think Crazyb meant 1500 in the stadium rather than just the stand.

 

I reckon the stand was about half full so 1500 overall sounds fair.

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Really good advert for PL speedway last night on a well prepared track. As for the crowd when we had sky at Berwick last season we were lucky as it was against Newcastle in a local derby so had an even bigger crowd than usual for that meeting so considering that the Diamonds were the visitors again last night still seemed to be a decent turnout. Hopefully a few more PL meetings will be televised over the course of the season.

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A great night of racing. Nice to see some home grown talent coming into the picture.

Didn't think for one minute that he was ever going to get up and walk away from that crash. One of the worst I have ever seen.

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Just glad Anton was ok was a very nasty spill indeed poor Schramm looked beside himself in the pits poor chap, all in all a ok meeting was very impressed with Lewis Blackbird real battler that one and one to definitely watch. Don't know what was up with Kerr not good enough running on crap equipment.

Blooming heck!!! You're hard to please!!!

 

That meeting is probably in my Top 10 of best meetings I've seen.

 

Concerning Lewi K. Has anyone thought that on the night they believed they had cured the problems before going out on track?? Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Indeed. That crap equipment was brand new !! Spoke to Lewi and they thought they had cured the problem each time as The Abbott said.

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I'm sorry - I think they look very anemic. I thought the Peterborough Racejackets were great though. :t::approve: :approve:

 

Come on Newcastle - get back to your famous and traditional Black Racejacket with big 'White' Diamond - THAT is how Speedway Supporters remember Newcastle. It was far more impressive than the somewhat pathetic effort we wear at present. :sad: :sad:

 

Garbage and the main reason why we cannot attract a new and -vitally more important- younger audience. When are the almost dead and buried going to realise that if this sport does not seriously modernise to the point where the teenager and co. actually WANT to come to speedway, we will live just long enough to see this sport die before our eyes. This ludicrous refusal to realise that race suits are the way forward is inane. Without a doubt The Panthers lack of gear is related to their late league entry. When we started the season looking like tramps, I was far from happy, but thankfully our management understand the power of marketing vs appeasing a dying breed. If they were still around would the thirties originals be clamouring for mucky boiler suits rather than 'leathers', an old scarf as the only face protection and the pot style racing helmet simply because 'that's how it was when I were a lad' Things move on and we MUST embrace it. As a club we are luckier than most with a fairly healthy fan base. I have travelled to many an away match where the words 'great to have you lot here' have been heard because we bring actual supporters to their grounds. Lastly to White Knight- please do not take this personally, your words were merely the catalyst for this I suppose 'rant'. I apologise now for letting my passion for furthering this sport long after we grey hairs are long gone fuelling my words.

Edited by HadrianDog
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Our entry wasn't that late though was it? Interesting point made though, never looked at it like that, thought that it was just another cost cutting exercise. However, after initially thinking that it was a retrograde step not to have team suits, I now couldn't give a stuff. We've had teamsuits for years but crowds dropped, sponsors departed, successive promotors lost money and we've somehow ended up in the PL on the back of all that (amongst other things). I couldn't tell who was who in the Newcastle white fog on Monday but Panthers were individualy easy to pick out.

Edited by Crump99
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Yet there are less people watching Football today now than there has been in the last 60 years

 

With the advent of multi -channel sports coverage its prob. fair to say that all sports have reduced crowds when a few cameras, a few cans , a few mates and your own sofa add up to a good night in.

Our entry wasn't that late though was it? Interesting point made though, never looked at it like that, thought that it was just another cost cutting exercise. However, after initially thinking that it was a retrograde step not to have team suits, I now couldn't give a stuff. We've had teamsuits for years but crowds dropped, sponsors departed, successive promotors lost money and we've somehow ended up in the PL on the back of all that (amongst other things). I couldn't tell who was who in the Newcastle white fog on Monday but Panthers were individualy easy to pick out.

 

A fair comment but if the individuality of the riders is so obvious then tell me why helmet colours were introduced.

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With the advent of multi -channel sports coverage its prob. fair to say that all sports have reduced crowds when a few cameras, a few cans , a few mates and your own sofa add up to a good night in.

 

A fair comment but if the individuality of the riders is so obvious then tell me why helmet colours were introduced.

 

I'd guess that it was because everyone wore black or dark gear years ago and riders were hard to pick out individually as both teams at that time looked like the satanic version of Newcastle's white fog? What season were helmet colours introduced? That's a good quiz question"

Edited by Crump99
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But then again, I couldn't tell who the Peterborough riders where as I'm not familiar with their individual kevlars .... But I knew who was in what helmet colour, their number and gate they were off....

most home fans must struggle to identify away riders if that's the case?? No matter what they wear??

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But then again, I couldn't tell who the Peterborough riders where as I'm not familiar with their individual kevlars .... But I knew who was in what helmet colour, their number and gate they were off....

most home fans must struggle to identify away riders if that's the case?? No matter what they wear??

 

Bjerre is in green (not the helmet colour, wasn't that the way forward?), he's easy to spot for home and away alike. We can argue the toss on the minutiae but the point was that team suits are some sort of magic bullet for speedway whereas where Panthers are and where British speedway is in 2014 suggests that what the riders wear makes little difference? A couple of months without and you'd soon know who is who, was never a problem before team suits and most of us could name every rider.

Edited by Crump99
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Maybe Cookie has the right idea with his bright coloured front wheel, he is always easy to pick out in a bunch, but then again if they all done that we would be back to square one, sorry i will go back to sleep now :oops:

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Garbage and the main reason why we cannot attract a new and -vitally more important- younger audience. When are the almost dead and buried going to realise that if this sport does not seriously modernise to the point where the teenager and co. actually WANT to come to speedway, we will live just long enough to see this sport die before our eyes. This ludicrous refusal to realise that race suits are the way forward is inane. Without a doubt The Panthers lack of gear is related to their late league entry. When we started the season looking like tramps, I was far from happy, but thankfully our management understand the power of marketing vs appeasing a dying breed. If they were still around would the thirties originals be clamouring for mucky boiler suits rather than 'leathers', an old scarf as the only face protection and the pot style racing helmet simply because 'that's how it was when I were a lad' Things move on and we MUST embrace it. As a club we are luckier than most with a fairly healthy fan base. I have travelled to many an away match where the words 'great to have you lot here' have been heard because we bring actual supporters to their grounds. Lastly to White Knight- please do not take this personally, your words were merely the catalyst for this I suppose 'rant'. I apologise now for letting my passion for furthering this sport long after we grey hairs are long gone fuelling my words.

but they were good for baking your hedgehogs in :-)

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