Barry Hearn....

[chris4gillian]

There is a mighty difference between turning one club around and taking on an entire sport at national level!

 

Err....snooker and darts...both at international level. I rest my case m'lud.

[SteveLyric2]

As has been said before, the Boxing, Darts Snooker and even Angling on TV that Hearn got involved with are all sports for individuals over which Barry Hearn exerted complete promotional and organisational control. Even with his involvement there are still other Darts, Boxing and Snooker Promoters, organisations and competitions that still exist - whether they are seen as real competition is open to debate!

 

As for taking over his local football club and attempting to transform it - well done. There are many other similar stories in football and other team sports

, but they don't compare with taking on a whole league or association - be it for speedway or anything else.

 

Where someone like Hearn could be useful is by taking on events such as the British Final and any other big individual events (even the SGP series, if you really want to see the rest of speedway struggle?!).

The equivalent to Barry Hearn is the likes of One Sport in Poland and the new (UK=based) promotions company behind the World Speedway League!!

[damosuzuki]

An independent EXECUTIVE chairman of the BSPA who arbitrates and has business experience. Has never been anywhere near Wimbourne rd.

 

Thing is even a part time post is going to cost at least 20K which is a lot for Speedway.

[Humphrey Appleby]

Where someone like Hearn could be useful is by taking on events such as the British Final and any other big individual events (even the SGP series, if you really want to see the rest of speedway struggle?!).

 

I think the problem with the SGP as it stands is that it's never made the transition into a full-time circuit. If it did and offered full-time employment for the top echelon of riders, then it would solve a lot of the problems of riders picking-and-choosing their meetings as happens now.

 

I've no personal love of individual racing which I think gets quite tedious if there's too much of it, but if the SGP was genuinely able to rejuvenate the sport then it might be beneficial to the lower levels as well. However, speedway is a small market and a tough sell to sponsors and unless Barry Hearn was prepared to run black, the FIM would be expecting its cut too. Just don't think it's worth the hassle and the risk for the relatively limited returns on offer.

An independent EXECUTIVE chairman of the BSPA who arbitrates and has business experience. Has never been anywhere near Wimbourne rd.

Thing is even a part time post is going to cost at least 20K which is a lot for Speedway.

 

Unlikely to find anyone decent willing to do it for that sort of money, and if they did and were any good, they wouldn't hang around for very long. I have seen CEO jobs for sports organisations advertised around 45K, but that's very much the bottom end of the market.

 

You'd usually expect to pay 80K and probably much more for that sort of level position.

 

Err....snooker and darts...both at international level. I rest my case m'lud.

 

Neither of those sports, whilst played internationally, were really organised internationally or even had much in the way of an established competition structure. Both sports also have very low overheads in terms of what's needed to play them, and what professionals did exist were paid a pittance in prize money.

 

Speedway has none of those advantages. It can't be staged in small or medium sized theatres, track preparation is a black art and takes a lot of effort, you need multiple cameras for television coverage, and there are pre-existing professional competitions in a number of countries. It's also a niche sport played out in a relative handful of venues by specialist competitors, unlike darts and snooker which you can find just about anywhere and which many people have probably played.

[The Voice Of Reason]

Fair enough.

 

Let's all ponder a myriad of reasons why something can't be done; rather than looking at how it can.

 

Meanwhile, we can all drudge wearily along, shoulder to shoulder, into the abyss.

Edited February 18, 2016 by The Voice Of Reason

[BWitcher]

 

Let's all ponder a myriad of reasons why something can't be done; rather than looking it how it can.

 

 

 

This is precisely why speedway finds itself in the mess it is.

[orion]

There is a mighty difference between turning one club around and taking on an entire sport at national level!

Darts ,Snooker .he done it got the t shirt .

 

 

I think the problem with the SGP as it stands is that it's never made the transition into a full-time circuit. If it did and offered full-time employment for the top echelon of riders, then it would solve a lot of the problems of riders picking-and-choosing their meetings as happens now.

 

I've no personal love of individual racing which I think gets quite tedious if there's too much of it, but if the SGP was genuinely able to rejuvenate the sport then it might be beneficial to the lower levels as well. However, speedway is a small market and a tough sell to sponsors and unless Barry Hearn was prepared to run black, the FIM would be expecting its cut too. Just don't think it's worth the hassle and the risk for the relatively limited returns on offer.

 

Unlikely to find anyone decent willing to do it for that sort of money, and if they did and were any good, they wouldn't hang around for very long. I have seen CEO jobs for sports organisations advertised around 45K, but that's very much the bottom end of the market.

 

You'd usually expect to pay 80K and probably much more for that sort of level position.

 

Neither of those sports, whilst played internationally, were really organised internationally or even had much in the way of an established competition structure. Both sports also have very low overheads in terms of what's needed to play them, and what professionals did exist were paid a pittance in prize money.

 

Speedway has none of those advantages. It can't be staged in small or medium sized theatres, track preparation is a black art and takes a lot of effort, you need multiple cameras for television coverage, and there are pre-existing professional competitions in a number of countries. It's also a niche sport played out in a relative handful of venues by specialist competitors, unlike darts and snooker which you can find just about anywhere and which many people have probably played.

Thou I take your points in, the fact is that Hearn took these Sports that were dead and has made them great ...sure these sports were low cost but the fact is they were never doing very well ...I am sure if Hearn had control of speedway thou it be hard he would make it 100 % better ..he has a knack of keeping things simple and giving the public what they want .

Edited February 17, 2016 by orion

[BANANAMAN]

The Voice Of Reason, on 17 Feb 2016 - 6:36 PM, said:

Fair enough.

 

Let's all ponder a myriad of reasons why something can't be done; rather than looking it how it can.

 

Meanwhile, we can all drudge wearily along, shoulder to shoulder, into the abyss.

Your right us Mug Punters will still turn up ... Not a hope in hell of a Barry Hearn or an outsider ever having the chance to stop this terminal decline .. Lets just look forward to next month & the start of the season of the sport we love & make the most of it .

[weatherwatcher]

No one person would be able to take control of all the clubs and the infastructure ie the tracks as very few teams actually own thier own stadiums, but really on other landlords to supply them with somewhere to race, that is until they get a better offer for the land and sell it off for development, As has happened so many times before.

The only way they would want to do something like that is if they owned the clubs and all the tracks outright, but that will never happen, plus as stated above the promoters would never in a million years give over the power they now have to anyone else and take orders from them. They are the rulers of thier own little kingdoms, only listening to themselves and each other. Not taking the slightest interest of anything the fans have to say.

Until that say comes when they do sit up and take note, then nothing is going to change, fans will keep drifting away until clubs can no longer afford to run and end up with another few clubs lost, because that is the way it is going now.

They have got to re-write the script,, somehow, make it more attractive, I don't know the answer, but the have to do something, to get people interested in the sport again, I have said it before on here, there must be thousands of people out there who have no idea, that there is even a speedway club in thier own towns, there is no sponsership, since they lost Sky's money, even far less in the way of any advertisement about the clubs.

I can remember years ago going by Long Eaton's stadium, with posters letting people know when the next meeting was, for half a mile or so around the club, When did you last see one of those anywhere, I can't remember seeing one in years.

They need to pull up thier socks fast, before the whole speedway scene of what is the EL, becomes nothing more tahan back into the days of a rider who rode because he loved the sport.

Spending best part of his spare time in the shed down his garden getting his bike ready for the next meeting, then strapping it on the back of his car to get to the meeting. They will not be able to run around in custom vans because there will be only peanits in payment for a win, just the love of racing.

[heathen chemistry]

snooker and darts were totally diffwrent to speedway in the fact that they had much bigger fan bases and tv audiences in the past. so in a way they were sleeping giants just waiting to be reawakened . speedway is different the fan base has gone it will need to be started from the beginning basically and built up frm scratch compared to snooker/darts

[chris4gillian]

snooker and darts were totally diffwrent to speedway in the fact that they had much bigger fan bases and tv audiences in the past. so in a way they were sleeping giants just waiting to be reawakened . speedway is different the fan base has gone it will need to be started from the beginning basically and built up frm scratch compared to snooker/darts

 

Not true, speedway is exactly the same...huge crowds and followings in the 70's and early 80's so can be reawakened just like those sports were. I was born in the early 70's and watched speedway on Saturday's with my father on World of Sport (or was it Grandstand?) when growing up. A lot of my classmates did the same, but a very high percentage of todays children have never heard of speedway. In those days a lot of folk knew a lot more about speedway than folk do today but that can change.

 

I have been going to Poole speedway for as long as I can remember and have always stood in exactly the same spot with my father as it's the same spot he used to stand with his father - and that's something I'm immensely proud of. Crowds at Poole have significantly fluctuated all the years I have been attending and there doesn't appear to be a stand out reason why.

 

There is absolutely no reason why speedway cannot return to being what it once was as (in my opinion) it's the most exciting motor spot in the world. It just needs the right person or persons with the right vision who are prepared to play the long game. It won't happen overnight or even in a few years, but it certainly can! Why can't Barry Hearn (with his proven track record) be that person?

[heathen chemistry]

you proved me right...the reason why speedway is not the same as snooker and darts is cuz a lot of kids have never heard of speedway so therefore it needs a brand new type of structure put in pkace to start from scratch... to get these youngsters aware of whst there missin...also before anything is even thought about or discussed the track prep for quality racing needs to be addressed.you aint gonna get any new fans with crap tracks infact you will always lose fans cuz those new ones will not return. i have so many matches where the track should of been so much better.

[beckettlion]

I think a big problem speedway has that other sports dont, is the lack of people participating. People are interested in watching something that they do themselves... If you go down to a football stadium on a saturday afternoon, a large percentage of the crowd either plays for their own football team or has done at some point. If you go down to a speedway stadium, only a small percentage (of an already small number) will have even sat on a speedway bike, let alone raced one competitively.

 

I wonder if a grass roots scheme made more accessible to the public, especially the younger population, might make people have a go and appreciate just how good our sport is

[topsoil]

Could cycle speedway be the grass roots for youngsters to get involved? And do you think Barry Hearn (or anybody similar) would touch speedway with a bargepole considering some of the stadiums teams currently race in? And what about track facilities? You think he would put up with meeting being highly promoted then rained off because of a lack of covering of the tracks? The sport needs to sort out a hell of a lot before any top flight promoter would be attracted to it.

[weatherwatcher]

Teams are still racing in tired old 1960's dog tracks, people will not bother turning up to watch speeday in stadiums that should have been brought up to the 21 st century instead of being stuck in a time walp. There is not one stadium that can even come close to the ones that the Poles have built and never will. The promoters are just scrappin by. And until someone comes along and builds 8 new stadiums around the country and give the sport a good sponser, plus loads of advertising. Then it will carry on the way it is going, until the race with no one watching. The sport is now dead on it's legs and going no where very fast. I saw the glory years of the sport all we have now is nothing but a second rate sport, in a country that lies at the bottom of the pile, that riders from overseas, want to come to race. The promoters have niether will will or the money to get the worlds top riders back over here.

[The Voice Of Reason]

Poor stadiums,that should be condemned, don't stop thousands turning up at Kenilworth Road (Luton Town FC) and Roots Hall (Southend United FC) every other Saturday though.

 

In the case of Luton, the away supporters bogs actually have green slime running down the walls at the urinals. It's the only time I've ever been for a p!!s and wanted a tetanus jab afterwards.

 

Whilst I don't disagree that many speedway stadium facilities need improving, it isn't going to happen. Take Lakeside - we haven't even got any seating; yet attendances are relatively healthy compared to some others in the league.

 

I truly believe that cost of admission is still the major factor that turns newcomers off - at all levels of our sport.