More On The Decline Of British Speedway

[Guest]

I think the figures for F1 for a complete season would average a whole lot more than 69,000 and count as one competition.

 

With respect - surely only F1 attendances in the UK count? A good point though. Thank you.

[iris123]

I think Cowes sailing event claim something like 200,000 spectators for just a few days which alone without any other sailing event rates well against a season of speedway

[Humphrey Appleby]

I think the figures for F1 for a complete season would average a whole lot more than 69,000 and count as one competition.

There are some pretty sparsely attended GPs as well. The Silverstone figures are also an aggregate over 3 days, when you'd probably imagine the race day figure is closer to the number of unique spectators, so it's difficult to compare like-with-like.

 

I found an average figure of 161k for F1 in 2009, which is presumably a 3-day aggregate, so that would put the number of unique spectators closer to if not lower than the 69k figure. Silverstone pulls something like 120k on race day, which is somewhere around 40% of the aggregate.

[TwoMinuteWarning]

Football is obviously top in all categories, but I'd think rugby union would be second in term of live audiences (if you include the Six Nations which has highest average attendance of any sports competition in the world), following by rugby league and cricket. Maybe motor racing (non-speedway) might be up next, followed by horse racing, ice hockey and then perhaps speedway. Three-day eventing gets a reasonable following though, and might beat speedway.

I've long thought that the biggest paid attendance for a single sporting event is 300,000 to 450,000 at the Indianapolis 500, and that seems to b e borne out by

http://www.topendsports.com/world/lists/crowd-largest.htm

 

I believe the largest Non-paying audience is reckoned to be the 2 or 3 million who line the roads for cycling's Tour de France.

 

Biggest speedway crowd ever? According to Speedway Star, in 1959 at Prague, a 4-nation tournament attracted 200,000! http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/czsl4team.htm

Edited November 25, 2014 by TwoMinuteWarning

[lucifer sam]

 

As for a women's speedway match - is there such a thing?

 

According to Tai, there was an inter-gender clash at Edinburgh some years back.

 

All the best

Rob

[arnieg]

For a sense of the popularity of various sports go to:

 

https://yougov.co.uk/opi/profiler#/

 

and type in speedway.

 

you will find that there are 70 speedway fans in the yougov panel.

 

Compared with:

 

22761 football fans

14440 rugby union fans

13191 cricket fans

7944 golf fans

5530 rugby league fans

3597 american football fans

1847 basketball fans

122 people who like volleyball

 

and

1066 people who like aardvarks.

Edited November 25, 2014 by arnieg

[A ORLOV]

Aardvark racing is brilliant

[The White Knight]

For a sense of the popularity of various sports go to:

 

https://yougov.co.uk/opi/profiler#/

 

and type in speedway.

 

you will find that there are 70 speedway fans in the yougov panel.

 

Compared with:

 

22761 football fans

14440 rugby union fans

13191 cricket fans

7944 golf fans

5530 rugby league fans

3597 american football fans

1847 basketball fans

122 people who like volleyball

 

and

1066 people who like aardvarks.

Says it all really..................................... :sad:

[SCB]

Them figures suggest speedway promoters are doing a good job. The average Premiership football attendance is 36000 so about 150% than in the YouGov Poll. The average Aviva Premiership attendance is 12500 so about 95% of the youGov Poll, the average 2020 cricket attendance is 7000 so about 50% of the YouGov poll. The average Super League (Rugby League) is 9000 so about 190% of the YouGov poll

 

So with there being 70 speedway fans, even if you matched ti tot he best performing sport (Rugby League) there should be about 130 people at the average Elite League meeting in the UK. But promoters manage to get 10 times that (1300 is surely not an unfair average for the EL right?). So well done to the individual members of the BSPA who actually manage to geta greater % of their fan base to meetings that any of the major sports in this country!

[arnieg]

Them figures suggest speedway promoters are doing a good job. The average Premiership football attendance is 36000 so about 150% than in the YouGov Poll. The average Aviva Premiership attendance is 12500 so about 95% of the youGov Poll, the average 2020 cricket attendance is 7000 so about 50% of the YouGov poll. The average Super League (Rugby League) is 9000 so about 190% of the YouGov poll

 

So with there being 70 speedway fans, even if you matched ti tot he best performing sport (Rugby League) there should be about 130 people at the average Elite League meeting in the UK. But promoters manage to get 10 times that (1300 is surely not an unfair average for the EL right?). So well done to the individual members of the BSPA who actually manage to geta greater % of their fan base to meetings that any of the major sports in this country!

But not as good a job as the aardvarks!!

[Humphrey Appleby]

So well done to the individual members of the BSPA who actually manage to geta greater % of their fan base to meetings that any of the major sports in this country!

I'm sure the above remark is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the thinking is somewhat flawed. I'm sure the percentage of croquet participants is very high in comparison to the fan base (possibly nearly 100%), but it doesn't mean the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is promoting it well.

 

The more minority the sport, I'm sure the more hardcore supporters remain, but you really want to have a large casual following to be successful as that's what attracts sponsors.

 

I think Rugby League remains the biggest disappointment though, in terms of how much money and promotion has been thrown at the sport in the past 20 years. It seems most people still prefer to see the version where ex-public schoolboys roll on top of each other around in the mud. The legacy of Eddie Waring will never die...

Edited November 26, 2014 by Humphrey Appleby

[The White Knight]

I'm sure the above remark is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the thinking is somewhat flawed. I'm sure the percentage of croquet participants is very high in comparison to the fan base (possibly nearly 100%), but it doesn't mean the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is promoting it well.

 

The more minority the sport, I'm sure the more hardcore supporters remain, but you really want to have a large casual following to be successful as that's what attracts sponsors.

 

I think Rugby League remains the biggest disappointment though, in terms of how much money and promotion has been thrown at the sport in the past 20 years. It seems most people still prefer to see the version where ex-public schoolboys roll on top of each other around in the mud. The legacy of Eddie Waring will never die...

Eddie Waring - all time great.

[stratton]

Eddie Waring - all time great.

Waring,Carpenter,Coleman(1) all great sports people legends.

[The White Knight]

Waring,Carpenter,Coleman(1) all great sports people legends.

Raymond Glendenning, W. Barrington-Dalby, Eamonn Andrews, John Arlott, Brian Johnson etc.. - as you say sidney - legends.

 

Even Peter ('Twickers') West.

 

Nothing around of this sort of quality and class these days.

[pugwash]

I think Rugby League remains the biggest disappointment though, in terms of how much money and promotion has been thrown at the sport in the past 20 years. It seems most people still prefer to see the version where ex-public schoolboys roll on top of each other around in the mud. The legacy of Eddie Waring will never die...

 

You don't know how right you are Humph, the legacy of The Talking Trilby has set RL back 20 years in the UK. His style of commentary led to a depiction of flat caps, woodbines and ferrets which the game is finding hard to shake off.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2014 by pugwash

[Deano]

I think speedway continually either struggling to break even financially or ultimately losing money is one major factor.

 

If the BSPA sat down and worked out a profitable model for both rider and businessman, then things may change.

 

It may attract new investment and may encourage more chancers moving into stadiums away from dumpy dog tracks.

 

Edited November 26, 2014 by Deano

[ch958]

I think speedway continually either struggling to break even financially or ultimately losing money is one major factor.

 

If the BSPA sat down and worked out a profitable model for both rider and businessman, then things may change.

 

It may attract new investment and may encourage more chancers moving into stadiums away from dumpy dog tracks.

 

 

i couldn't agree more with you but finding a profitable model would require the exclusion of some big names from the bigger clubs and without an independent body providing the impetus and direction required you fear it might not happen.

and you are quite right if promoters started to make a profit no one would begrudge them the money

and of course not relying on greyhound landlords and their lousy low terracing would be great

[Deano]

 

i couldn't agree more with you but finding a profitable model would require the exclusion of some big names from the bigger clubs and without an independent body providing the impetus and direction required you fear it might not happen.

and you are quite right if promoters started to make a profit no one would begrudge them the money

and of course not relying on greyhound landlords and their lousy low terracing would be great

 

I could be wrong, but I believe the most decent run companies have a cost base of around 25% of the selling price, giving 75% clear profit before tax. This helps balance out the poor sales months with the better sales months. If speedway used the same theory it's cost need to be around the £4 to £5 bracket per ticket sale if it wants to start re-investing in itself.

 

That I think is going to require some radical change.

[ch958]

 

I could be wrong, but I believe the most decent run companies have a cost base of around 25% of the selling price, giving 75% clear profit before tax. This helps balance out the poor sales months with the better sales months. If speedway used the same theory it's cost need to be around the £4 to £5 bracket per ticket sale if it wants to start re-investing in itself.

 

That I think is going to require some radical change.

 

 

you can say that again

[Humphrey Appleby]

 

I could be wrong, but I believe the most decent run companies have a cost base of around 25% of the selling price, giving 75% clear profit before tax. This helps balance out the poor sales months with the better sales months. If speedway used the same theory it's cost need to be around the £4 to £5 bracket per ticket sale if it wants to start re-investing in itself.

 

I'd have thought it the other way around - work on a 25% profit margin unless you're in some sort of niche market.

 

I'd think very few sports teams work on this basis though, not least because a losing team is almost certainly to lose patronage. And unlike the average competitive market, you can't have everyone doing well at the same time in the sport.