Newspaper Coverage

[TonyMac]

When Wimbledon reopened in 2002 we tried everything we could to get coverage in the London press; the Evening Standard (then still a paper people used to buy) and the freebie, Metro (run then by the same people who ran the Standard)

The Metro Sports Editor flatly refused to cover Speedway even having the cheek to say "it wasn't something that would appeal to his readers"

Quite how he knew what his 'readers' thought considering they're just punters picking it up on train seats or at station entrances I really couldn't say!

The Standard equally blanked us.

There were some days when there was no football on and the crowd at Plough Lane would certainly be the biggest paying crowd attending a sporting event in London that day/night and yet still the London local paper wasn't even giving the meetimg a one line mention as a fixture..

Around this same time the Standard stopped covering Dog Racing too so I suspect some 'politics' were at play..

 

The thing is, although the Standard claims to represent and serve London and is distributed free there, it is effectively a national paper in terms of its sports content - and this was probably the case back in 2002. They are much more likely to cover the England football, cricket and rugby teams and give very little coverage to local lower division football clubs such as Leyton Orient - certainly not on a daily basis.

 

From what I saw of the DVD from the reopening meeting at Wimbledon, if you were a first-timer to the sport I can't imagine why you would want to go again. The racing, on a difficult, slippery track, was truly awful. Inexperienced juniors crawling round, barely able to turn the bike, let alone get it broadsiding.

 

You had to feel sorry for all associated with the Dons, because of all the effort and cost that went in to reviving them. Luck deserted them on the night they could least afford for it to happen.

Edited May 15, 2015 by tmc

[norbold]

 

From what I saw of the DVD from the reopening meeting at Wimbledon, if you were a first-timer to the sport I can't imagine why you would want to go again. The racing, on a difficult, slippery track, was truly awful. Inexperienced juniors crawling round, barely able to turn the bike, let alone get it broadsiding.

You're right there. I and a work colleague, who was an Eastbourne supporter and regular, used to talk about speedway a lot in the canteen boring all our other colleagues to death. When Wimbledon opened we persuaded about five of them to come along to the opening with us so they could see how good speedway was for themselves. Big mistake!!! They all said they couldn't understand what we found so good about it and vowed never to go again - and they never did.

 

If I remember right I believe there were also big hold ups before and during the racing while they tried to dry out the track and consulted the riders about whether they wanted to continue given the conditions. That didn't help.

Edited May 24, 2015 by norbold