What Do Speedway Fans Want?

[DSC67]

Good facilities , warmer weather , decent racing and teams with at least 5 top quality British riders would be a start

[Trevor]

The end of the 'Joker' double points.

[Deano]

A decent reduction in income tax on their pension, free nappies and real home made cottage pie from the meals on wheels lady.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Deano

[Reviresco]

Judging by some people's comments on this forum and indeed on other speedway forums, I can't help but wonder just what people want/expect from a speedway match? Yes we all want to see our club win, that's only natural, but do some fans really prefer 74-16 or so home wins and circa 60-30 away ones as opposed to let's say meetings that ultimately go to last heat deciders and/or produce great racing with plenty of passing, or see their team make a comeback from being behind in a match after being behind in the early heats and seemingly heading for defeat? I'd really like to hear any comments.

 

Bryn, before this thread carries on, and as, the majority, of replies have been sensible so far, are you planning on recording the responses and taking it any further?

 

There may have been surveys done by speedway supporters in the past, which may or may not have had any affect, but it may just be the right time for this to happen, before speedway disappears into the sporting afterlife, in the guise of a former sport that we used to enjoy.

[Bryn]

 

Bryn, before this thread carries on, and as, the majority, of replies have been sensible so far, are you planning on recording the responses and taking it any further?

 

There may have been surveys done by speedway supporters in the past, which may or may not have had any affect, but it may just be the right time for this to happen, before speedway disappears into the sporting afterlife, in the guise of a former sport that we used to enjoy.

 

No I'm not macca56 as I honestly haven't got the time to do so given my current commitments within the sport and various things I've got to pursue further and sort out that have nothing to do with the sport.

Nothing though to stop yourself or anyone else doing such a thing and I'm sure all the current club promoters I know and the huge majority of those I've known in the past would / did welcome well thought constructive ideas for the future but for example, saying something like "get rid of such and such rider because he's useless" without suggesting a replacement who fits the bill, i.e.wants to ride here, is available to do so on a regular basis without other commitments be they on or off the track affecting that on many occasions, has the necessary equipment to do so etc etc is no good is it?

I'll still look at what is posted on this thread of course but right now have to hit the sack right now as am being picked up early to go to today's STR Amateur meeting at King's Lynn starting at noon - see some of you there?

[Reviresco]

 

No I'm not macca56 as I honestly haven't got the time to do so given my current commitments within the sport and various things I've got to pursue further and sort out that have nothing to do with the sport.

 

Totally understood and realise you are, heavily, involved in many aspects of the sport. Would be good if somebody did have the time and inclination to forward some positive viewpoints and criticisms. I guess I could always just e-mail Mr Chapman, no harm doing so. Would be good to have a chat sometime about the sport, if we happen to be in the same place at the same time. Hope the meeting at King's Lynn goes well. I am deciding between a trip to West Row, or to Hoddesdon to see how good these Brummies riders are.

[Woz01]

All of the above and an end to refs' obsession with "unsatisfactory starts". If a rider has better reactions than the rest and/or can get away with anticipating the start without breaking the tapes, why should he be penalised? The only starting offence should be breaking the tapes.

Fully agree with this!

[frigbo]

Integrity

Supporters to have respect from Promoters/Riders

Two teams made up of riders who give a damn and actually ride for the two teams!

Value for money

More fixture variety - a way to make a bigger league work somehow.

Edited April 24, 2016 by frigbo

[van wolfswinkel]

What we want is Watneys!.......and more rapport between riders and fans, a new stadium at Blunsdon, warm weather, some local lads riding for The Roobins, a bigger league, no blank Thursdays, better quality bog paper in the back-straight bogs along with softer lighting, hand lotion, air-blade dryers, heated-toilet seats, less slick tracks with more racing lines for passing, second-halves, value-for-money

Edited April 24, 2016 by Downsman

[A ORLOV]

What we want is Watneys!.......and more rapport between riders and fans, a new stadium at Blunsdon, warm weather, some local lads riding for The Roobins, a bigger league, no blank Thursdays, better quality bog paper in the back-straight bogs, less slick tracks with more racing lines for passing, second-halves, value-for-money

Or FREE cider supplied if they do not drink beer.

Edited April 24, 2016 by A ORLOV

[Crump99]

 

Bryn, before this thread carries on, and as, the majority, of replies have been sensible so far, are you planning on recording the responses and taking it any further?

 

There may have been surveys done by speedway supporters in the past, which may or may not have had any affect, but it may just be the right time for this to happen, before speedway disappears into the sporting afterlife, in the guise of a former sport that we used to enjoy.

 

Worth reading Mick Bratley's final blog - nothing much changes, the decline in general speedway terms just continues:

 

Bratters' final Panthers blog on "Lovespeedway24"

 

Panthers, Witches, Eagles . . . too much in common

 

And so….the final curtain….

 

The revelation by current Peterborough owner, Rick Frost, that the club lost money during the 2009 season, does not come as any surprise to me. Losses, helped by shrinking attendances and spiralling costs, year on year, had brought me personally to the crossroads where I felt that I no longer wished to bang my head against this particular brick wall and led me contemplating a fresh challenge or simply just walking away from a sport that I have always had a great deal of passion for. It was not a decision I took lightly, but in truth, was a decision I was contemplating from June of this year onwards.

 

In a slightly perverse way, I have felt a degree of responsibility watching successive owners “burn” their money and sometimes, well mostly actually, when I looked at the attendances for the majority of our home meetings, it was a source of personal embarrassment and you begin to ask the question, do the Peterborough public want this anymore? I certainly hope for the owner’s sake, that the people of Peterborough do, and that they show much better support for him and the club in 2010 and beyond.

 

During my time at Peterborough, I have done everything humanly possible to attract newcomers to our sport and all I might add on little or no budget. I have presented to over 2500 kids in various schools road show initiatives, I have invited and hosted whole organisations along for free and whole streets along for free. I have put up banners and posters, I have given away 1000’s of (sponsored) car stickers and more kids goodie bags than you can shake a stick at. I have offered free admission to members of the thriving local Polish club (one person came – once), 2 for 1 offers, Kids for a quid and Kids for free. We have on occasions been overrun by hundreds of Scout groups and I have undertaken umpteen radio interviews and quite a few local TV vox pops. I have put leaflets in newspapers, I have put leaflets through letterboxes, I have handed leaflets out in shopping malls and I have put 1000’s of leaflets on cars (with apologies to the owner of the Blue Vauxhall Astra in the Peterborough Railway Station Car Park in September 2007, honestly, it really did come off in my hand, so it must have already been broken). You name it and I’ve pretty much done it and all the time, our attendances have remained constant. Constantly poor. A successful team will bring you big crowds, but this is only a short term fix and as all Speedway aficionados’ know, and only to well, success in Speedway will never happen, year on year, it can’t, for the sport would simply die.

 

People 'in the know' within the entertainment industry suggest that all Speedway clubs will lose 8% of their core support every year, through a variety of differing reasons. That in itself is quite alarming. And, I do believe this stacks up, in so much as, whilst I may have contributed to overall increasing our attendance by 5% or more each year, I was actually seeing shrinkage of 3%. Two things however, will always stick in my mind about whether Peterborough as a city will support Speedway in the 21st Century. 1) It has always concerned me that an inordinately high percentage of season ticket holders never had a Peterborough post code, this frankly, is shocking. 2) I will never forget that the 2006 Grand Final, arguably the greatest modern day meeting ever, watched live by over 6000 people and by thousands more at home, was followed by a Craven Shield fixture attended by less than 700 people. If that Grand Final won’t pull people in, then what will?!?!

 

In all fairness, it has been a pretty turbulent time at Alwalton since the departure of the Lynch, Jarvis and Wing promotion in 2002. There have been many, far too many, dark days and I think those guys made their wisest ever decision to quit, after a phenomenally successful period and at a point in time where costs spiralled in the sport, whilst income remained pretty constant. It also comes as no surprise to me that the clubs who continue to bemoan their particular struggle in the EL along with Peterborough, are Eastbourne and Ipswich. These three clubs geographically are similarly insular. By that, I mean they are pretty much on their own, not massively populated and with no connecting cities or populous to attract, close by. Coventry, for example, can call on a much wider populous to support them, with not only the large Coventry population, but also nearby Rugby, Nuneaton and Leicester. Wolverhampton, Poole and to a lesser extent, Lakeside find themselves in a similar position. Swindon, however, do buck this trend, but the reasons I feel they do is down to some pretty aggressive and successful marketing and additionally they have been able to tap in to the misfortunes of their close rivals Reading and Oxford, who are of course, sadly, no longer with us.

 

I think EL Speedway can these days only survive in geographical areas where large conurbations can be easily and readily tapped into. Obviously Birmingham, my new club, meet this criteria and I certainly hope that the BSPA can see sense at their forthcoming AGM and realise the potential that Birmingham has to offer the EL rather than what the EL has to offer Birmingham, which is, to be honest, a subject for debate.

 

It has been good fun writing this blog for my old mate, Mike (Chris P) Bacon. I hope you have enjoyed reading this and my other inane ramblings and I give thanks to those of you who took the time to write to me about them. Actually, none of you did that, but it kind of sounds impressive.

 

Whatever team you support, I wish you well for 2010, but more than that I wish for Speedway to survive and thrive through the next decade, so that the next generations can witness what a great sport and product this is; that we all have been so fortunate to have found.

 

taken from Lovespeedway.com

[van wolfswinkel]

Good post Crumpie, I wish Swindon did buck the trend, with a new stadium and Darcy Ward in the team they would have, but Thursday night's crowd was one of the smallest I've seen at The Abbey. Not much sign of aggressive and successful marketing in these parts, shot themselves in the feet with both barrels after the Farewell Meeting that wasn't, and lost a few fans since.

[The Third Man]

Not bothered about the score can be 60 - 30 or 46 - 44 as longh as there is good racing

 

Some consistancy with the same rules for all would be good, but all in all can forget the politics and all the all the other rubbish if i can see good racing

[Reviresco]

 

 

Worth reading Mick Bratley's final blog - nothing much changes, the decline in general speedway terms just continues:

 

Bratters' final Panthers blog on "Lovespeedway24"

 

Panthers, Witches, Eagles . . . too much in common

 

And so….the final curtain….

 

taken from Lovespeedway.com

 

Yes thanks, 99. I do remember seeing this some time ago, maybe because I live in the orbit of the paper that Mike Bacon works for, or simply on the 'Love Speedway' web-site. Some of the figures - the 8% annual loss, the drop in attendance from 6,000 to 700, and the correlation between post code and season ticket sales are very interesting. I think he argues against himself a bit with his comparison of 'insular' tracks and the need for speedway tracks to be located in urban conurbations, I think. Speedway has survived in a number of areas over my speedway following lifetime, in 'insular' locations. (I will dig out my list of defunct tracks visited versus current tracks again to refresh my memory.)

 

My first visit to a speedway track was to Romford. At that time there were a handful of speedway tracks in London. Ten years later they had virtually all gone. It took one lone dissenting local resident, the infamous Mr Stretch, to deprive 5,000 their weekly fix of speedway at Brooklands. As we all know, speedway and urban conurbations are not easy bedfellows.

 

I was watching the excellent Updates site last night and from the comments on there and the subsequent feedback on here, there doesn't seem too much wrong with the core product. What else is it that speedway fans want from speedway? Maybe the answer will be found on this thread.

Edited April 24, 2016 by macca56

[SteveLyric2]

Reading Mick Bratley's comments - most of his promotional actions (which are to be applauded) were involved in attempting to attract newcomers and lapsed fans by offering some sort of incentive to attend by way of special offers of some sort.

 

Very little was based upon the actual product that fans were being asked to experience. However good the 2006 final was, or indeed any other individual meeting for that matter, there seemed little in the overall 'value for money/ entertainment' offer that might keep punters coming back, on the basis that they were unlikely to witness such a meeting every week!!.

 

The racing - for the purist - is often enough to keep people attending at least semi-regularly but in this day and age people want to be consistently entertained in facilities that they can get elsewhere and which is provided at a sensible price.

 

For me, you can and should get great team racing with 4 reasonably equal standard riders on cheaper standardised machines - ideally some of those riders are locally-based and media accessible. Good publicity and promotion can make stars of local riders in their local media if done properly. Personalities and 'grudges' between rival riders of whatever standard can be worked up?! What the clubs save by not paying out huge rider salaries to the GP-level riders can then be spent on better marketing and additional attractions to give greater added value.

 

There is also a clear demand from many to see the 'top' riders and there is nothing to stop a domestic 'GP-style- competition, paying bigger bucks to those riders and charging more - say once a month - for fans to attend. If there is not enough fan interest then knock it on the head and try something else.

[ColinMills]

i believe there was a grand prix style competition in late 70s? early 80s?

[John Leslie]

What do we want?

A cure for Tourettes

When do we want it?

Nice t1ts

Edited April 24, 2016 by John Leslie

[Crump99]

Reading Mick Bratley's comments - most of his promotional actions (which are to be applauded) were involved in attempting to attract newcomers and lapsed fans by offering some sort of incentive to attend by way of special offers of some sort.

 

Very little was based upon the actual product that fans were being asked to experience. However good the 2006 final was, or indeed any other individual meeting for that matter, there seemed little in the overall 'value for money/ entertainment' offer that might keep punters coming back, on the basis that they were unlikely to witness such a meeting every week!!.

 

The racing - for the purist - is often enough to keep people attending at least semi-regularly but in this day and age people want to be consistently entertained in facilities that they can get elsewhere and which is provided at a sensible price.

 

 

He acted on what was in his control and couldn't do much in the world of shark infested custard (BSPA/SCB etc as we know it). Since those in charge have presided over a worsening product year on year and wasted a decade of Sky interest, Bratters would say, and he usually does, that we can't afford an EL (as it was, not the crap it now is) and the affordable product he would probably go with is a PL/NL combo of some sort.

 

I think your last point is a good one. Peterborough have the facilities but don't do the consistent entertainment part. Frost and Mahoney put on a decent show but forgot about the team (until 2013 part two) and wondered why people didn't turn up.

Edited April 24, 2016 by Crump99

[E I Addio]

I have read that before but thanks Crump 99 for posting it again to refresh our memory. I have long held Mick Bratley in high regard for a variety of reasons, and nobody could have worked harder or put more effort in than he did. It absolutely galls me when idiots post on here with their quick fix solutions because there aren't any.

 

The core product is good for those who like this sort of entertainment, but in the geeky Internet age it seems less and less people are interested in mechanical thingsf or motor sport, and that is the first problem thst has to be faced up to. Apart from that the broad feedback that we see on here is for slick presentation. To improve the presentation would cost very little and would go a long way towards keeping fans once they are through the turnstiles but the big problem is getting them to come in the first place and on Mick Bratleys experience that is the major problem.

 

No easy answers. Long term planning is needed for a sport that is basically run on a year to year basis.

Edited April 24, 2016 by E I Addio

[Trees]

Racing, passing, celebrating, cheering, good music, interviews, shown passion (by everyone involved, no good keeping it to yourself, let it show), interesting programmes with off the wall pics, loads of advertising (pretty good on twitter now, just need everyone sharing not just liking), buses\minibuses to away meetings, fairness in team building, consistent refereeing, well prepared tracks (promoters to review the shape and surface of their tracks), positivity of PR (this balloons) ..... etc, etc