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How Do We Attract A New Young Audience?


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Has anyone ever tried linking up with (where they have them) the local basketball and ice hockey teams?

 

Only been very rarely to either but the demographic of the crowd at both sports are almost 100% opposite of a speedway crowd..

 

i.e. exactly the crowd demographic speedway would love to see in its stadiums..

 

None of the sports seem to make any progress in increasing their crowds to sustainable levels so maybe they should work closer?

 

I am sure an extra 200 - 300 teenagers to twenty somethings at a speedway meeting wouldn't go amiss and likewise a similar amount of extra thirty to 'whatevers' attending a basketball or ice hockey match would be more than appreciated...

 

Joint season tickets? Discount vouchers for the others when you attend any? A joined up local marketing campaign to reduce costs and provide a wider reach?

 

Worth a try or been done and failed?

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Has anyone ever tried linking up with (where they have them) the local basketball and ice hockey teams?

 

Only been very rarely to either but the demographic of the crowd at both sports are almost 100% opposite of a speedway crowd..

 

i.e. exactly the crowd demographic speedway would love to see in its stadiums..

 

None of the sports seem to make any progress in increasing their crowds to sustainable levels so maybe they should work closer?

 

I am sure an extra 200 - 300 teenagers to twenty somethings at a speedway meeting wouldn't go amiss and likewise a similar amount of extra thirty to 'whatevers' attending a basketball or ice hockey match would be more than appreciated...

 

Joint season tickets? Discount vouchers for the others when you attend any? A joined up local marketing campaign to reduce costs and provide a wider reach?

 

Worth a try or been done and failed?

Yes, tried it regularly. The beauty of the connection is that both are Winter sports as opposed to Speedway being a Summer sport. There is a crossover with Ice Hockey as could be seen by the IH fans wearing their jackets to Speedway meetings. Basketball does not have the same affinity with Speedway, but there is some crossover. We also used to have a crossover with Newcastle United and both sports were advertised over the tannoys due to our race announcer Barry Wallace, also being the man on the mike at the TOON. Not too sure of the formal arrangement of it, but Barry never got any stick for it. We also liase with Newcastle Falcons and now Durham Cricket with joint ventures, these arrangements are usually initiated and set up whilst attending the same shows and with some success.

 

Joint Season tickets idea is fraught with probs, mainly about who gets what %age of the dual ticket price. Discount vouchers are possible but the difficulty with free or discounted tickets is where they end up. I do all the presentations, shows and visits to schools, shows, demo's with my show bike with reaction machine attached, on behalf of Newcastle Speedway. We hand out flyers but we know that they find there way to existing fans who strangely think that is is OK to get in for nothing, "as we never get anything free" as if it was a right for going to Asda, Tesco, local cinema or the Ice Hockey. Last year at a show, a guy came up and he knew I had 'intro' tickets and he tried to take some without asking, and he said he had a mate who goes and he would give them to him. Needless to say he didn't get one.

 

With all these activities, there is no way, except for the IH jackets, to evaluate and establish a successful rate. You can gauge how many tickets appear at the pass gate on race night, but you never fully recognise the new people in the crowd, unless you are the one that talked to them and gave them the ticket in the first place.

 

What I/WE do at Newcastle is nothing unusual, as most clubs do it when they can, but other fans don't know about it and criticise there promotions for not 'promoting' the sport. Of course they do, it's just not publicised. At my shows, I always take a photo of the stand, with a rider or a member of the public, and post it on Facebook so existing fans can pop along if they are in the area. Readers of Facebook know when we do the shows, due to the Photo, and then ask if we can attend their school, show or fayre. Got to be done, even though you never know it's success rate.

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2001 so 15 years old this year. People have been saying the same thing about Milkmen but they're still around delivering milk....just to less people these days.

I haven't seen a milkman for at least 2 years , and I don't know anyione who still has milk delivered

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What I/WE do at Newcastle is nothing unusual, as most clubs do it when they can, but other fans don't know about it and criticise there promotions for not 'promoting' the sport. Of course they do, it's just not publicised.

With all due respect, if existing fans don't know about it, can it be classed as a successful promotion? :) What you said is going on for your club all sounds very positive, and fair play to Newcastle, but the BSPA are the group responsible for the promotion of the sport overall. People living within a certain radius of the tracks will generally have heard there's a speedway stadium, but it's the wider audience that need to be reached, and that means branching out beyond local speedway areas.

 

The British GP advert is a prime example (I know this falls under a different jurisdiction, but the principle remains). It's great to see, but wouldn't it be better shown during another programme? Perhaps another motor sport, to attract fresh interest? After all, if you want new supporters it's not much use advertising to those who already go.

Edited by June01
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With all due respect, if existing fans don't know about it, can it be classed as a successful promotion? :) What you said is going on for your club all sounds very positive, and fair play to Newcastle, but the BSPA are the group responsible for the promotion of the sport overall. People living within a certain radius of the tracks will generally have heard there's a speedway stadium, but it's the majority that need to be reached, and that means branching out beyond local speedway areas.

 

The British GP advert is a prime example (I know this falls under a different jurisdiction, but the principle remains). It's great to see, but wouldn't it be better shown during another programme? Perhaps another motor sport, to attract fresh interest? After all, if you want new supporters it's not much use advertising to those who already go.

Agree with last para, the Cardiff GP clips and adverts need to be shown during non speedway motor sport progs. Most speedway fans already know about it.

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Another avenue to attract a younger customer base could be by sponsoring local kids football leagues?

 

My lad plays in one of four divisions at his U13 age group. Each with ten teams. Each team has a minimum 15 players is their squads..

 

That's 600 kids in his U13 league alone, but the league has 4 divisions in every age group from U8 to U18 meaning literally thousands of kids playing the game.

 

My lad plays in the Stockport League. My team, Belle Vue, (as an example) have Stockport, Oldham, Tameside, Salford, and Manchester Leagues all on their 'doorstep', meaning tens of thousands of lads (and girls)..

 

It wouldn't I suggest cost the earth to sponsor the League trophies and be involved in the 'prize giving' itself?

 

Getting your teams name on all League literature, registration forms, websites etc just may get people curious as to what this 'insignia' represents as they will see it every time they have any contact with their lads' team..

 

 

 

Getting your name out there has never been more important and there are many cost effective ways of doing so without costing a fortune..

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Another avenue to attract a younger customer base could be by sponsoring local kids football leagues?

 

My lad plays in one of four divisions at his U13 age group. Each with ten teams. Each team has a minimum 15 players is their squads..

 

That's 600 kids in his U13 league alone, but the league has 4 divisions in every age group from U8 to U18 meaning literally thousands of kids playing the game.

 

My lad plays in the Stockport League. My team, Belle Vue, (as an example) have Stockport, Oldham, Tameside, Salford, and Manchester Leagues all on their 'doorstep', meaning tens of thousands of lads (and girls)..

 

It wouldn't I suggest cost the earth to sponsor the League trophies and be involved in the 'prize giving' itself?

 

Getting your teams name on all League literature, registration forms, websites etc just may get people curious as to what this 'insignia' represents as they will see it every time they have any contact with their lads' team..

 

 

 

Getting your name out there has never been more important and there are many cost effective ways of doing so without costing a fortune..

I persoanlly can't see the benefit whatsoever of giving a red cent to football , the children and parents are already involved in their sport of choice , and even if speedway was rammed down their throats as much nas football is rammed down everybodies , I cant see any of them parents or kids .being open mided enough to give something other than football a second look

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I haven't seen a milkman for at least 2 years , and I don't know anyione who still has milk delivered

Still delivering in our avenue and quite a few people have their milk delivered. He's usually around with his flashing yellow light about 4am as it sometimes wakes me up. :lol:

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Agree with last para, the Cardiff GP clips and adverts need to be shown during non speedway motor sport progs. Most speedway fans already know about it.

Remember the days of 'World of Sport' when speedway was shown on a prime slot on a Saturday afternoon around other sports...if you call wrestling a sport?

Still delivering in our avenue and quite a few people have their milk delivered. He's usually around with his flashing yellow light about 4am as it sometimes wakes me up. :lol:

Totally irrelevant but I used to be a milk man for co-op dairies!

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I persoanlly can't see the benefit whatsoever of giving a red cent to football , the children and parents are already involved in their sport of choice , and even if speedway was rammed down their throats as much nas football is rammed down everybodies , I cant see any of them parents or kids .being open mided enough to give something other than football a second look

Sadly the world we live in is beholding to the all conquering game...

 

You only have to look at the national media to see how many pages are dedicated on paper, magazines, TV and websites to see the influence Football has and how all other sports fight for publicity..

 

Maybe 'if you cant beat 'em, join 'em'?

 

Thousands of kids and parents in the local area knowing who you are and what you do cannot be a bad thing?

 

At my lads presentation days (usually late May BH weekend) there are over 10 hours of presentations to the kids over two days...

 

Thousands of kids and parents in one place..

 

Sponsor the occasion, take along a 'roadshow' with dvd's merchandise, bikes, riders, stickers to give away, discounted tickets, take email/mobile details etc etc and who knows?

 

Maybe some would start to attend?

 

Being seen as a 'force for good' in the local community is vital these days for national businesses never mind 'local ones'..

 

When your stock starts to rise within the local community and you are seen as a positive influence on the lives of local people, your customer base can significantly grow on the back of it..

 

In my business, we have added 1200 customers a week over the past twelve months with independent customer research giving me a 72% rating when asked whether I was a force for good in the community (500 customers asked)..

 

That is a 40% increase on the year..

 

However I still have 28% of my customers to work on..!

 

Working with local schools, sports teams, mosques, churches, charity shops, homeless charities, foodbanks etc etc allowing them to raise funds in my store costs me very little yet delivers lots...

 

Maybe Speedway teams should focus on being at the 'hub' of their own communities and grow their business that way?

Edited by mikebv
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Sadly the world we live in is beholding to the all conquering game...

 

You only have to look at the national media to see how many pages are dedicated on paper, magazines, TV and websites to see the influence Football has and how all other sports fight for publicity..

 

Maybe 'if you cant beat 'em, join 'em'?

 

Thousands of kids and parents in the local area knowing who you are and what you do cannot be a bad thing?

 

At my lads presentation days (usually late May BH weekend) there are over 10 hours of presentations to the kids over two days...

 

Thousands of kids and parents in one place..

 

Sponsor the occasion, take along a 'roadshow' with dvd's merchandise, bikes, riders, stickers to give away, discounted tickets, take email/mobile details etc etc and who knows?

 

Maybe some would start to attend?

 

Being seen as a 'force for good' in the local community is vital these days for national businesses never mind 'local ones'..

 

When your stock starts to rise within the local community and you are seen as a positive influence on the lives of local people, your customer base can significantly grow on the back of it..

 

In my business, we have added 1200 customers a week over the past twelve months with independent customer research giving me a 72% rating when asked whether I was a force for good in the community (500 customers asked)..

 

That is a 40% increase on the year..

 

However I still have 28% of my customers to work on..!

 

Working with local schools, sports teams, mosques, churches, charity shops, homeless charities, foodbanks etc etc allowing them to raise funds in my store costs me very little yet delivers lots...

 

Maybe Speedway teams should focus on being at the 'hub' of their own communities and grow their business that way?

That is essential. We go to Footie tournaments to be seen, and attend all the main Sportsmen's Dinners taking a table at the North East Sports presentations which has all big sports represented and is televised. A lot of networking goes on and past friendships/relationships are revisited.

Edited by Tsunami
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.....steve roberts.....Totally irrelevant but I used to be a milk man for co-op dairies!

 

Who cares if it's totally irrelevant 'cos I'm going to carry on anyway ~ it's Winter so not much going on in the Speedway world. :lol: Yes, so was my other half for around 35 years and I helped him from 1991 to 1994 when he had to go franchaise and had another 150 calls added to his round. You can't beat the alarm going off at 3am. :shock: I'm surprised there are still doorstep deliveries and don't know how they've lasted so long. Crates of milk sitting in the sunshine for hours then if not delivered put back in fridges until the following day. I used to drive my husband mad actually because I used to cover all the crates up with a big sheet so the bottles were kept a bit cooler. Ha Ha...happy days. Not. :P

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Who cares if it's totally irrelevant 'cos I'm going to carry on anyway ~ it's Winter so not much going on in the Speedway world. :lol: Yes, so was my other half for around 35 years and I helped him from 1991 to 1994 when he had to go franchaise and had another 150 calls added to his round. You can't beat the alarm going off at 3am. :shock: I'm surprised there are still doorstep deliveries and don't know how they've lasted so long. Crates of milk sitting in the sunshine for hours then if not delivered put back in fridges until the following day. I used to drive my husband mad actually because I used to cover all the crates up with a big sheet so the bottles were kept a bit cooler. Ha Ha...happy days. Not. :P

Gemini...sorry but what I meant was that me saying that I was once a milkman was 'totally irrelevant' to your thread. I agree with what you say!

Edited by steve roberts
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Gemini...sorry but what I meant was that me saying that I was once a milkman was 'totally irrelevant' to your thread. I agree with what you say!

I used to be Milk Monitor prefect at high school, but as you say "totally irrelevant to this thread". :D:P

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I used to be Milk Monitor prefect at high school, but as you say "totally irrelevant to this thread". :D:P

Blimey! A milk monitor! I never reached those heights in my somewhat patchy school career. I spent a lot of time in the highest office, but always on the wrong end of a piece of bamboo or a gym shoe. Happy days.

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