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Tai Woffinden Misses Next Years El


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Tens of thousands of people pay £30 or £40 to watch a football match over a much longer season than speedway. Personally I wouldn't pay 5p to see a football match but the fact that so many people do shows that people will pay the money if they like what they see.

If people went to 10 home matches at an outlay of say £25 per match that's £250 spread over a season. Not a lot of money to spend on a hobby. Plenty of people spend more than that on beer and fags.

Yes but Football is a different ball game,alot of people i know like football and speedway but Football will always comes first most cant afford both that's where the pick your meeting's come in.Twenty five pounds is alot of money for someone who has kids,for some that might be there only night out in the week.
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  • 3 weeks later...

Tens of thousands of people pay £30 or £40 to watch a football match over a much longer season than speedway. Personally I wouldn't pay 5p to see a football match but the fact that so many people do shows that people will pay the money if they like what they see.

If people went to 10 home matches at an outlay of say £25 per match that's £250 spread over a season. Not a lot of money to spend on a hobby. Plenty of people spend more than that on beer and fags.

What people don't understand is that unlike Football there are many fans like myself that not only love their club but love the sport. I generally attend 60 to 80 meetings a year and there are many of us that do that. In entry and programme fees I spend upwards of £1200 a season before I look at fuel costs. I do it because I love it but it makes my £750 contribution to watching premier league football look like peanuts. What always makes me laugh is the suggestion that speedway has fewer meetings per week and that that will magically make attendances increase, nonsense when will people learn the speedway has few fans and that the figures are massaged by multiple meeting attendees like myself.

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Tens of thousands of people pay £30 or £40 to watch a football match over a much longer season than speedway. Personally I wouldn't pay 5p to see a football match but the fact that so many people do shows that people will pay the money if they like what they see.

 

If people went to 10 home matches at an outlay of say £25 per match that's £250 spread over a season. Not a lot of money to spend on a hobby. Plenty of people spend more than that on beer and fags.

That £30 to £40 is fortnightly so compares favourably to £17 per week for speedway. Even more so when the stadium and facilities are considered.

Like you, it still wouldn't interest me either.

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Tai is not the tip of the iceburg, but its not good that none of the past or current world champions still riding will not be there will not be with a EL club in 2015 (Chris H may hopefully prove me wrong) most prob we will be lucky to have 50% of GP riders at best?

 

I still think the big question is what has british spedway got to do so that it attracts the best speedway riders to ride every week in the El so that the sport can attract more supporters, more media coverage and more sponsorship etc etc..in other words make it a more appealing product.

 

Meanwhile I just do not understand why folk are having a go at Tai over his decision not to ride in the UK. Putting the fact that he is a Brit then clearly in orde to make best use of his time to earn a (decent) living and have some time to enjoy it he neds to have some time off during the week and the UK is the least best option when taking into account time involved in travel and earnings...Bit like we all do when agreeing on where we we work and who for.

 

I dont think we can expect UK speedway to organise itself around one rider, (though hats off to TW for the amount of work and effort he put in promoting UK speedway whilst being World Champ) but we should expect promoters (BSPA) to work towards developing top flight speedway so that the top rideers do see the benefit (as they use to do) of commiting to riding in the UK on a regular basis.

Very good post

How long til he moans at the GP's saying he ain't had enough meetings & is rusty!!!!!

 

Bet u any money that's one of his quotes in 2015!!

 

Aussie prat!!!!!!

Your post disgust me, I take it you are foreign, he has done every thing he can to promote speedway and youcome out with a comment like that - SHAME ON YOU!!

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What people don't understand is that unlike Football there are many fans like myself that not only love their club but love the sport. I generally attend 60 to 80 meetings a year and there are many of us that do that. In entry and programme fees I spend upwards of £1200 a season before I look at fuel costs. I do it because I love it but it makes my £750 contribution to watching premier league football look like peanuts. What always makes me laugh is the suggestion that speedway has fewer meetings per week and that that will magically make attendances increase, nonsense when will people learn the speedway has few fans and that the figures are massaged by multiple meeting attendees like myself.

No there aren't many of you at all.

 

There aren't many speedway fans attending period.

 

The mere notion of catering to the miniscule amount of people who attend multiple meetings is laughable. But, this is speedway and it's one of the ridiculous reasons dredged up to prevent the changes required.

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I have felt many times that the fans are not that important and treated with such contempt .

 

It would be interesting to have a census of the remaining fans and see what category they fall into.

 

eg. Supporter for upto 50yrs; Supporter for upto 30yrs; Supporter for upto 10yrs or supporter for less than 5yrs.

 

This would highlight to the BSPA where their main source of support comes from...

 

My personal feelings is that, when the OLD ones call it a day, there are not enough of the younger generation to make up the dwindling numbers........ but the results would be interesting reading........

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I have felt many times that the fans are not that important and treated with such contempt .

 

It would be interesting to have a census of the remaining fans and see what category they fall into.

 

eg. Supporter for upto 50yrs; Supporter for upto 30yrs; Supporter for upto 10yrs or supporter for less than 5yrs.

 

This would highlight to the BSPA where their main source of support comes from...

 

My personal feelings is that, when the OLD ones call it a day, there are not enough of the younger generation to make up the dwindling numbers........ but the results would be interesting reading........

 

The results are irrelevant. Completely and utterly.

 

The sport HAS to make changes to attract new fans and those that have left.

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One might have expected the advent of televised league meetings and the GP/SWC/SEC events would have stimulated a new breed of fans to attend regular meetings, but it seems not.

In the 60's and 70's speedway had a fan base from the cities and large towns...think how many teams in London alone.Today's speedway seems more provincial meaning fans have more costs in attending.

What is the average gate at City teams such as Sheffield and how do these compare with tracks not centrally placed, such as Somerset?.

Also how do average EL gates compare with PL?.

Once upon a time I could go to West Ham, Wimbledon and Hackney in the same week without the need for a personal loan. It must be very difficult and expensive today to attend 3 different tracks in the same week.

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The results are irrelevant. Completely and utterly.

 

The sport HAS to make changes to attract new fans and those that have left.

 

OF cause the sport HAS to change, But you cant score a goal if you don't know where the goalposts are !!!!

 

Any additional information, would not be irrelevant, completely or otherwise..........

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The sport since the early 80's with the advent of more tv channels and then computer and gameing concols have seen a change in the way the public nowadays spend their time, gone is the weeks rest day Sunday, now folks go to football, go shopping and like speedway the church has seen vast drops in the amount of people who attend.

I think the sport has got a bit of an image of a flat cap, and overcoat sport. When times changed speedway didn't do anything to help keep or draw in new fans. They have just carried on in this frame of mind now for the past, 30 odd years, until the SCB/BPSA start to take an interest in what is happening to the sport, it will just fall futher and further into decline.

The stadiums have been left as they where with nothing being done to them, as if held in some sort of time capsual, it is no wonder folks don't want to go, one look at what is in front of them on arriving or passing by is enough to make most folk turn around and go home.

Things need to be done and not over a 10 year time period it needs to be done now, but no one who runs the show seems to think that anything is wrong, we have had this sport around for so long now, but at the moment we are looking at something that is not slowly dying we are looking at something that has a terminal illness.

It will need some drastic or miricle cure to put things in ord.

I would like to think that it will be around for my 10 year old grandson who is a tremendous follower of the sport, so he can still enjoy it in years to come. But without a drastic shake up I don't somehow think he will.

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