Attendances

[van wolfswinkel]

You was bloody lucky then lad. Aye....we were lucky if we 'ad food.

You should have eaten gravel like what we had to lad

[Lord Skid]

It certainly wasn't two decades ago that Gollob was riding for Ipswich, and wherever they visited the crowds were very healthy, biggest problem has been with the over reliance on Guests.

[ColinMills]

It certainly wasn't two decades ago that Gollob was riding for Ipswich, and wherever they visited the crowds were very healthy, biggest problem has been with the over reliance on Guests.

with ricko and Louis in his prime....were other track gates up though when witches weren't in town?..you picked the exceptional team here

[Tsunami]

with ricko and Louis in his prime....were other track gates up though when witches weren't in town?..you picked the exceptional team here

Quite agree. The 3 number 1's team, who did the treble, were a one off. In the early 90's numbers were continuing to fall.

[Stoke Potter]

That's just rubbish. Crowd numbers have been declining for the last two decades.

Shouldn't that be more like 3 decades?

Interesting to see a list of promoters who have been involved for those 3 decades.

The decline happened on their watch, a large portion of the blame should be put at their door...

[Guest]

Shouldn't that be more like 3 decades?

Interesting to see a list of promoters who have been involved for those 3 decades.

The decline happened on their watch, a large portion of the blame should be put at their door...

Can you be more specific in regard to your comment?

[Stoke Potter]

Can you be more specific in regard to your comment?

The more specifics you are after are those who have been involved over that time.

And no, I couldn't name them, but there are likely to be little more than a handful I would guess.

[sparkafag]

Those few who remain have accepted it and I suppose that is part of the problem. Had someone stood up and said 'no' to certain changes within the Sport years ago - we would not be where we are now.

 

Absolutely spot on, if things hadn’t changed there is every chance there wouldn’t be a sport at all.

 

Speedway is a sport that is attended by on average 700/2,000 people and it has been for the best part of 15 years, running a sport for crowds of 5/6,000 + is completely and utterly illogical.

It’s always great when people position how things might have been in a best case scenario, they rarely caveat that with a possible worst case scenario.

Edited October 29, 2015 by sparkafag

[topsoil]

Speedway hasn't moved with the times, the sport, after from mechanically, is stuck in the previous century. Very basic stadiums, very basic levels of entertainment apart from the actual races, very little, if any promotion. Look at the way promoters tried to ban updates. Every other sport embraces developments such as social media and the internet. Some promoters even wanted to ban live TV meetings.

The sport has shot itself in the foot too many times to recall, with meetings postponed, abandoned, run in terrible conditions, without any thought given to fans.

The sport isn't dying, Glasgow have proved that put on a show and fans will come. The sport will die out, however, if the status quo remains and heads are buried in the sand.

[Sings4Speedway]

Until there is decent promotion of the sport numbers will continue to dwindle. The number of people who don't know that speedway even exists is alarming. Given that almost everyone knows what Moto X is or Moto GP.

Ive spoken to people who attend greyhound racing at Kent regularly and still didn't know there was a Speedway team based there!

 

Small steps add up to big things. A TV for example showing speedway highlights at the entrance to all tracks when non speedway events are taking place there?

The world cup being shown on a domestic channel was a huge boost only for the final not to be shown due to the weather (and other idiocies).

Until the sport as a whole is promoted to a wider audience crowd numbers, admission prices and rider quality are all going to remain causes of debate / concern.

[Skid Sprocket]

I can only assume that because football enjoys such a high profile thru' the media and is a sport that most are able to participate (I remember kicking a stone around the play ground with jerseys used as goalposts!) that most younger people are more able to identify with it. Personally it's a sport that I can not patronise because of the vulgar amounts of money that 'circulates' within the game but I can understand how others are drawn towards it with all the merchandise readily available. As a teenager I used to ride cycle speedway on a roughly carved out track trying to emulate my heroes but can't imagine youngsters doing that today!

I totally agree, one big downside with attracting the younger generation is participation unlike football where a kick-about can be started at a seconds notice.

 

One way to get some younger participation and publicity would be to open tracks on Saturdays to cycle speedway and have teams from local schools competing against each other, with a couple of speedway riders to demonstrate the real thing (I assume that mountain bikes etc could cope with the track)

[Humphrey Appleby]

One way to get some younger participation and publicity would be to open tracks on Saturdays to cycle speedway and have teams from local schools competing against each other, with a couple of speedway riders to demonstrate the real thing (I assume that mountain bikes etc could cope with the track)

Do kids even go out riding bikes these days, assuming they're allowed out of the house unsupervised in the first place?

[RobMcCaffery]

The sport's problem is actually quite simple. Not enough people believe that it represents good value for money - probably because it hasn't been for years, hence the slump.

 

You either repackage the product and hope that the public like the 'shiny shiny', or you actually do the hard work and actually make it good value for money.

[Halifaxtiger]

No it isn't. The fact is most races at most tracks are boring and processional.

The reason is that the vast majority of tracks are too small and narrow and not conducive to passing/close racing. Fix the size of the tracks, minimum 300m, with plenty of width.

 

Next thing, track preparation. Why does it take 5-6 races for the dirt to move and create a racing line, utter crap, prepare it properly in the first place. And if you still can't prepare it to give decent racing from heat 1 then run a 5 heat pre-meeting first. rocket science it ain't but it is for speedway promoters!

 

Track preparation, spot on. In my opinion, there's nowhere near enough effort put in to ensuring that a track is good for racing across the sport and far too much complacency and arrogance about fans expectations. Track preparation is a skilled job yet it seems to me that some believe that anyone on a tractor can do it.

 

I have said before that it is all very well going on about promoting the sport but if the product isn't as good as it could be that's a total waste of time.

 

If Scunthorpe can produce a superb racing track almost every week, why can't everyone else ?

 

I'll disagree on size, though. In my experience, Plymouth is one of the best race tracks in the country yet its also the smallest.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Halifaxtiger

[E I Addio]

Track preparation, spot on. In my opinion, there's nowhere near enough effort put in to ensuring that a track is good for racing across the sport and far too much complacency and arrogance about fans expectations. Track preparation is a skilled job yet it seems to me that some believe that anyone on a tractor can do it.

 

I have said before that it is all very well going on about promoting the sport but if the product isn't as good as it could be that's a total waste of time.

 

If Scunthorpe can produce a superb racing track almost every week, why can't everyone else ?

 

I'll disagree on size, though. In my experience, Plymouth is one of the best race tracks in the country yet its also the smallest.

You are right about track prep, but there is no easy answer, even though Stoke Potter seems to think there is. The first problem is that there are less and less track curators with the adequate training and experience to prepare a decent track. It is a bit of a dying art and I use the word art because it is more art

than science, in the sense that there is no hard and fast rule of how to prepare a track. Some men have a natural ability to do the job and some don't. So one thing the sport needs to address is the diminishing number of decent track men .

 

The next problem is why should anyone want to be a track curator ? There is no money in it and it's not a job that can be done in 5 minutes before the start of the meeting. It means the track man ideally has to be someone who can spare a fair amount of time for not much financial reward.

N ext is the lack of volunteer track staff at some tracks . Some venues appear to have done away with track rakers. For track to be done properly you need track rakers who work in conjunction with the tractor and understand what the curator on the tractor is doing . There is more to the job than simply dragging a rake across.

 

The final problem lies with some of the fans themselves. I have found that many of the most vociferous complainers are those who choose not to understand not to understand or learn anything about track prep because it's easier to complain if you ignore the difficulties. The reality is that British weather mean you can rarely prepare a track the same way every week.if for example there is a threat of rain or if it has been raining the track will need to be prepared differently to a warm dry evening, and sometimes preparing a track to track in difficult weather mean a compromise between less than ideal racing or not having a meeting at all.

 

Speedwáy certainly has problems that need to be addressed , there is no doubt about that, but the fact remains that British weather has always played an integral part in the product the fans see, and it is very difficult to do anything about that.

Edited October 30, 2015 by E I Addio

[Gemini]

Next thing, track preparation. Why does it take 5-6 races for the dirt to move and create a racing line, utter crap, prepare it properly in the first place. And if you still can't prepare it to give decent racing from heat 1 then run a 5 heat pre-meeting first. rocket science it ain't but it is for speedway promoters!

If it takes 5-6 races to create a racing line why do we get tractors coming round after 4 races.....or even 2 in some cases.....to move it all around again? What would happen if the track was prepared before the meeting and that was it? Apart from pleasing people like me who get cheesed off with delays and interruption to the flow of the match would it really produce worse racing if there was no grading?

[steve roberts]

In my view the life of speedway racing in its present form is limited because the product does not attract youngsters, apart from the riders. We have a sport which is rooted in the past, as most oldies are really and I should know because I am one of them. And as you get older it becomes more and more difficult to accept anything new. Things such as pop music, for instance, sounds like total crap, perhaps because most of it is anyway, but it proves a point. And I have yet to read or hear of anything which is likely to improve this situation, as even Tai winning his second world title failed to attract the majority of the UK press or TV stations. A glimmer of hope may be the introduction of the new track at Belle Vue but it is hard to comprehend how this could make a huge difference outside of Manchester. On this forum most of the conversations appear to be conducted mainly between men over sixty which is OK on the bowling green but not on the speedway track and the stark truth is that unless speedway gets a foothold with the younger generation it is not going anywhere, even with Tai striving mightily. I thing that first of all speedway should set a date when two riders racing against two riders is transformed into four riders racing against each other. Which means the end of speedway as we know it and the introduction of a new format. We can then get rid of daft gimmicks such as Jokers or tactical riders as they are sometimes called. Individual meetings, in my opinion anyway, almost always provide better racing and if speedway is going to survive every view must be taken into account. And I still believe this to be true even on top of some top class racing in the play offs. Comments appreciated, even if they are critical. We need to have a proper civilized debate about where we go from what is just about nowhere at the present. In the face of some fierce opposition the GP's have begun to transform world championship racing, it is now time for the domestic version to take along hard look at where it is going.

Interesting point about music. Personally I take the view of the late, great, Benny Green (Broadcaster) who used to say that music is more often about evoking memories from the past whether the music be good or bad. What annoys me intensely whilst doing my supermarket shop is having to be subjected to banal music which drives me to distraction! Music is a very personal experience and it can be a double edge sensory in that it can drive people away as well as attract others. There is always a danger alienating certain people hence why there needs to be a broad spectrum to hopefully please the majority...easier said that done!

[Tsunami]

If it takes 5-6 races to create a racing line why do we get tractors coming round after 4 races.....or even 2 in some cases.....to move it all around again? What would happen if the track was prepared before the meeting and that was it? Apart from pleasing people like me who get cheesed off with delays and interruption to the flow of the match would it really produce worse racing if there was no grading?

Tracks are usually prepped all day and have a decent racing line from heat 1, despite what Stoke Potter says. After that the racing naturally throws the dirt toward the fence, the inside then becomes bald with no grip and. unfortunately, the dirt on the outside next to the fence becomes too deep and dangerous to ride in. As with the GP's, to overcome this it is necessary to bring the dirt back in to the inside to try to maintain the same grip all over the track. As others have said, track rakers used to help with this by raking the dirt away from the fence for the tractors to collect and distribute. A meeting with no grading would be dangerous and have boring racing. As least if the dirt is brought back to the inside, it gives different racing lines which should make for varied racing lines.

 

The best track prep during a meeting that I have seen was at at Rye House in the early 00's. After every one/two races, two small tractors came out and did about two laps, both bringing the dirt back and also putting a very fine mist of water on, which gave the most consistent track possible throughout the meeting. That would not be possible these days with minimal interruption to the meeting, as the tractors would not now be allowed on the track till all the riders have cleared the track from the previous race. H & S.

[Stoke Potter]

Tracks are usually prepped all day and have a decent racing line from heat 1, despite what Stoke Potter says.

They might well be prepped all day but you don't get decent racing in heat 1, or usually for the first 5,6,7+++, pick whichever number it is at your particular track .

How many times does Tatum (and plenty of others) say about the dirt moving out after a few heats to create more/better lines?

Heat 1 everywhere is pop out the start and hug the kerb. To say anything else is just wrong.

I never said I had any issue with track grading during the meeting, that is definitely required.

Of course the reason is that tracks can't be prepared consistently is because the laws of physics and chemistry don't apply to speedway tracks..!

Or that is what the "experts" would have you believe.

[Alan_Jones]

They might well be prepped all day but you don't get decent racing in heat 1, or usually for the first 5,6,7+++, pick whichever number it is at your particular track .

How many times does Tatum (and plenty of others) say about the dirt moving out after a few heats to create more/better lines?

Heat 1 everywhere is pop out the start and hug the kerb. To say anything else is just wrong.

I never said I had any issue with track grading during the meeting, that is definitely required.

Of course the reason is that tracks can't be prepared consistently is because the laws of physics and chemistry don't apply to speedway tracks..!

Or that is what the "experts" would have you believe.

 

Ridiculous statements. Tatum doesn't comment on my, or many others', particular track. The 5 heat bedding in situation occurs usually when a track is, for whatever reason, over watered. Your "Heat 1 everywhere" statement is just a lie. As you so humorously imply, the laws of physics and chemistry do apply to speedway tracks in the form of wind, rain, temperature and so on which, amazingly, aren't exactly the same for every meeting.