Melbourne 2016

[mothorsen]

He had nothing to loose, since he already had won the wc, pulled a move, got caught and penalized. However, pulling out from the rest of the meeting is no good. He is a professional and should act like one.

[Undercover Elephant]

The drop in attendance from last year is disappointing & although Jason Doyle's injury must have been a big blow to the promoters, the reported lack of local media awareness & marketing is sadly press release which was pure & utter BS makes it even worse.

This brings up the lack of advertising, marketing and all that jazz which for the second year running was evident.

 

I was pretty shocked to discover this morning through a contact in Radio Advertising here that BSI/Monster Energy had no advertising taken out on ANY radio station in Melbourne. That included SEN 1116 (Sports Station), Triple M or Gold which are key markets for any event in town who promote 99.9% of events staged whether sports or concerts. Even Monster Trucks once a year pays for advertising on their visit. His quote was they should have done!

 

Talking to fans in the hotel, and general public (non race fans) who didn't even know such an event was being staged at the Etihad where the advertising for the Speedway was. Even though a niche sport, there seemed no effort was made. The only TV media I saw was Hancock doing a brief chat on Channel 9 Breakfast, but when Crump was flying around the track in the background, they cut back to the studio shortly after without any information given out by the Presenters on start times and ticket info for viewers.

 

The lack of promotion to a wider audience feels restricted, so in turn you won't attract new customers, just Speedway fans, and the cost cutting becomes more apparent in their attempt to get bums on seats or lack there of. Makes no sense. Sure, they took out advertising on Fox Sports but again that's only a small percentage in households on Pay TV.

 

Regarding Doyle, and not drawing a bigger crowd. That told me either a chunk of fans were not being enticed to pre book tickets in advance or organisers were probably hoping for a better walk up on the day despite the poor weather travelling.

 

But on a side note about the actual experience of the day for race fans, I stood amongst dozens of children with their parents waiting in line to get an autograph or a picture around the 5pm mark. As per the 'advertised' run sheet, an allotted 20 minutes (only 20) was scheduled, and when the time actually elapsed, the eight designated riders who were Tai, Niels, Zagar, Holder, Jonsson, Freddie, Pawlicki (awesome bloke) and Brady all got up to return back in the stadium. A 3pm slot most probably would have been Einstein's choice to run with as a suitable option for the riders, and in return they get two full hours to do what they bloody wanted to prepair.

 

Nobody was angry when it was cut short by a ridiculous timeframe which did surprise me to be honest. The genuine looks on these people's faces was priceless. Legitimate real disappointment. The line was not massively long whatsoever. I do often wonder who's in charge of organising an experience like this for supporters. In fact two of the security persons overlooking proceedings made their feelings known to parents that it should have been done earlier in the day and apologised for signings being cut short. Leaves a bad taste in people's mouths, and something so small in the organisers mind's which might not bring these families back next year.

 

It only takes something like this with no real care or concern for the customer, kids especially, that potentially has a lasting effect moving forward. Hardly surprising when you cut your rider signings in half compared to last year, and the small line of folks didn't get their wish unfortunately.

[Trees]

Hmmmm what about the above Phil Rising? Hard to excuse?

[gbrussell]

It's a fairly common pattern for speedway GPs. The public are initially curious and make an effort to see it, then the novelty wears off. That combined with little or no local promotion, which is a common observation, and before you know it Phillippe will be on here blaming competition from a monster truck rally in Western Australia, the wrong shape of the stadium, or possibly rising tram fares in the Melbourne metropolitan area.

 

Good points Humphrey. While Etihad is a good stadium, very close to a major train station, and trams not far away, the major problem I see is that Melbourne is not a city that runs regular Motorcycle Speedway. Adelaide now seems to be the only Australian State Capital city that has a proper speedway track close by (Gillman). Not much where I live in sydney either, but the hotbed in nsw at Kurri is about 200 k's or so north. When Sydney's Olympic Stadium is converted to a rectangular and covered stadium holding 75,000 similar to the Millenium in Cardiff, around 2019, it could turn out to be a better venue for the Oz GP.

 

Local promotion is also a good point. My wife and I have been to Cardiff 2013, Parken and Torun 2014, and Melbourne 2015 and 2016. It was only Cardiff and Torun where we saw banners and signs advertsing the GP, scattered around both cities. We saw Chris Holder and Jason Crump on Channel 9's morning show on Friday, but saw nothing in the Melbourne papers when we arrived. I suspect there was very little local promotion. As far as cricket and AFL football are concerned Melbourne draw bigger crowds than anywhere else in the country. However when it comes to speedway bike racing, there would be a very small fans base. Doyle's unfortunate injury probably made a difference, but this was not the total cause of the small crowd. Some new thinking is necessary for 2017.

[keepturningleft]

Just finished watching the Melbourne GP and I am dumbfounded by the actions of Greg Hancock.

 

Throwing a race is one thing, but the big, big issue here is walking out of the meeting.

We might expect a petulant youngster to do such a thing but a man like Hancock with his reputation, age and experience??

What an insult to the paying public, especially Aussie fans who only get to see these people once a blue moon.

His snubbing of fans at Belle Vue shouldn't be forgotten either.

 

Watch that race closely and you will see that Hancock has at least 5 quick look rounds, but he's a mile in front initially and easily looking likely to win, so exactly who is he looking for?

This is not team racing so he can't be looking for a team mate...oh, hang on, sorry, he was looking for a team mate.

 

It is now becoming cringe worthy to here commentators describing Hancock as this great ambassador.

It is clear that Hancock is only a great ambassador to himself and the green monster.

 

Acting like a 6 year old child and cheating people who pay hard earned money to come and watch you is an action taken by Hancock which should be punishable.

[Guest GiveusaB]

Cheating/gamesmanship in speedway happens nearly every week, when a rider falls off and clearly does'nt get up in order to force a re-run ???

 

I'm not saying that i condone Hancock's actions, but I put it down to human nature as opposed to cheating?

Surely Jepsen Jensen let Iversen pass also ?

Nothing been said about that ?

 

Congratulations to Hancock....46 and whipping everyone's ass !

 

He should've carried on the meeting and beat Holder in the Semis/Final, imo.....that's where he was out of order!!!

[Undercover Elephant]

If the FIM eventually decide to not take any action towards Greg in bringing the Sport into Disrepute, then I will finally concede that this series is rigged 100% as there's no other way of looking at it.

 

A precedent has been set by Hancock, and if any rider from now on in the GP's is unfairly excluded or disqualified in the rider's mind, then what's stopping them from doing the same in the future and making a complete mockery of the whole sport. It could, and will most probably happen again and again.

 

What was the protocol once the protest from the Zmarzlik camp was put forward. Was it immediately after Heat 9? Did Phil Morris secure the bike in question after Heat 9 with no contact to the bike from anybody, or was the protest after this slot? Was there potential time in between to tamper the clutch lever which may or may not have been planned to cover his tracks if questioned? Did Phil Morris and Hancock communicate to the FIM jury/Referee to come down to the pit area and see for themselves? If not, why not, to prove your innocence? Surely he'd be going to the extreme lengths to get the matter sorted as soon as possible. I'd much rather the jury spent ten minutes in between a race or block segment to get the correct outcome, instead of basing their decision from the other side of the track with no vision itself

 

A complete jumbled mess that should not be brushed under the carpet and casually dismissed for the integrity of the sport. Clearly one man and a series sponsor actually think they are bigger than the sport because in their minds they are.....

[BWitcher]

 

 

Congratulations to Hancock....46 and whipping everyone's ass !

 

 

Yep congratulations to a cheat who has no regard for the paying public and MOST importantly by the rules of the sport should not now be World Champion.

If the FIM eventually decide to not take any action towards Greg in bringing the Sport into Disrepute, then I will finally concede that this series is rigged 100% as there's no other way of looking at it.

 

A precedent has been set by Hancock, and if any rider from now on in the GP's is unfairly excluded or disqualified in the rider's mind, then what's stopping them from doing the same in the future and making a complete mockery of the whole sport. It could, and will most probably happen again and again.

 

What was the protocol once the protest from the Zmarzlik camp was put forward. Was it immediately after Heat 9? Did Phil Morris secure the bike in question after Heat 9 with no contact to the bike from anybody, or was the protest after this slot? Was there potential time in between to tamper the clutch lever which may or may not have been planned to cover his tracks if questioned? Did Phil Morris and Hancock communicate to the FIM jury/Referee to come down to the pit area and see for themselves? If not, why not, to prove your innocence? Surely he'd be going to the extreme lengths to get the matter sorted as soon as possible. I'd much rather the jury spent ten minutes in between a race or block segment to get the correct outcome, instead of basing their decision from the other side of the track with no vision itself

 

A complete jumbled mess that should not be brushed under the carpet and casually dismissed for the integrity of the sport. Clearly one man and a series sponsor actually think they are bigger than the sport because in their minds they are.....

 

The actual incident itself is fairly irrelevant now. Hancock walked out of the meeting, no investigation is required to discover that and as such he ruled himself ineligible for the World Championship.

[Grachan]

Desite my enthusiasm having flown out the window due to Jason Doyle's injury I still enjoyed watching the meeting in the end.

 

Big talking point, of course, was the Hancock thing. The exclusion felt harsh mainly due to the fact that it doesn't normally happen. If it was a result of the Poles protesting, you can hardly blame them though.

 

Having been busted, I can understand Hancock's frustration at his exclusion, but we didn't, for example, see Chris Harris walk out the meeting last time out when he was wrongly excluded for Doyle's accident. Hancock should have taken it on the chin and moved on. He was, after all, trying to manouvre Holder to getting a point closer to Zmarzlik so the exclusion was fair to bring the points balance back.

 

Walking out the meeting was pathetic really, but it was even more odd to then see him with his normal beaming smile and whooping while Chris Holder was being interviewed as if nothing had happened at all. You can almost imagine he was still grinning under his helmet when dive-bombing Nicki Pedersen recently!

[Humphrey Appleby]

As far as cricket and AFL football are concerned Melbourne draw bigger crowds than anywhere else in the country.

It's a difficult one. If things are promoted right than potentially Melbourne might work, as after all, Cardiff isn't the most convenient location for the British speedway fanbase either. Admittedly it's no more than a couple of hundred miles for most, unlike Australia, but internal flights are cheap enough nowadays.

 

I suspect though, there really aren't more than a few thousand speedway fans in the whole of Australia these days, so you really have to appeal to the casual spectator and that isn't going to happen if they just don't know about it.

 

Of course, the Ethiad Stadium also isn't the most popular amongst Melbournites for various reasons, and there was some talk of the AFL moving away once its contract finishes.

 

20,000 isn't bad for a GP per se, but I imagine it's not enough to justify running a GP in a stadium like that, especially with all the costs of getting the riders to Australia. It'll be interesting to see if this one runs for the full 5 years.

[TheReturn]

What an insult to the paying public, especially Aussie fans who only get to see these people once a blue moon.

Agreed. See my post on the previous page made overnight. He claims he pulled out for the safety of everyone, because he could not focus. Seems the sycophantic gullible on Twitter are buying that load of hogwash.

[PHILIPRISING]

Hmmmm what about the above Phil Rising? Hard to excuse?

BEAR in I mind I wasn't there but the allotted time for the autograph session has always been the same.

 

With regard to advertising, promotion, etc ... couldn't argue with anything that has been said but this is an event promoted by the Etihad themselves and not BSI.

 

Personally I think that one has to be realistic about the attraction of any speedway event these days and outside of Warsaw and Cardiff a crowd in excess of 25,000 is hard to achieve. In such big stadiums as the Etihad and the Friends Arena in Stockholm the attendance can look pitifully small however much the TV cameras try and mask it.

 

I know all the riders love racing at these big stadiums in major cities but we should all be realistic these days about the appeal of speedway. It is waning rapidly in the UK, where virtually nothing is being done to attract a younger audience.

 

Many years ago the Sports Editor of the Daily Express told me that they would cover any event at Wembley even if it was tiddlywinks. I think there is an assumption in Melbourne, the sporting capital of Australia, that any event held at the Etihad would draw a crowd from the local public but that may not be the case.

[racers and royals]

Some posters have been saying why didn`t BSI do more to promote this GP- I think that the promoter of this GP is the Etihad stadium itself.

I also believe that the FIM jury consisted of

Armando Castagna Jury president

Brendon Gledhill Jury member from Motorcycling Australia

Krister Gardell referee

[Fromafar]

At least it proves that Hancocks "mr nice guy" image is false and his "love of all you guys out there" is bullsh#t just like his Press Conferance .Slowing for Holder is one thing but pulling out of the meeting deserves to be punished.Imo

Edited October 24, 2016 by Fromafar

[Humphrey Appleby]

Some posters have been saying why didn`t BSI do more to promote this GP- I think that the promoter of this GP is the Etihad stadium itself.

That always the excuse.

 

Do BSI not think that constantly engaging promoters who little to actually promote the GPs, is actually good for the sport in the long term? All that happens is those promoters end-up 'doing a wedge', get their fingers burned, and then that venue is lost to the sport for good. Plus of course, the paying punters get a poor experience and never return (e.g. Finland).

 

We're told that IMG is this successful global sports marketing agency, yet they can't swing some contacts in the local media to big up the event a bit? Just what are local promoters getting in return for the fees they pay?

[Bear_Bottom]

Cheating/gamesmanship in speedway happens nearly every week, when a rider falls off and clearly does'nt get up in order to force a re-run ???

 

I'm not saying that i condone Hancock's actions, but I put it down to human nature as opposed to cheating?

Surely Jepsen Jensen let Iversen pass also ?

Nothing been said about that ?

 

Congratulations to Hancock....46 and whipping everyone's ass !

 

He should've carried on the meeting and beat Holder in the Semis/Final, imo.....that's where he was out of order!!!

Breaking news...World Speedway Championship Final race rigged ...Oh hang on this was 1936

[Odds On]

Hancock has made a joke out of the sport, Melbourne was half empty on Saturday as it is how many will return and just as importantly how many new faces will Saturday have deterred?

 

Hancock walking out has put the GP Series in a situation that could have massive knock on effects, some obvious and some not so, but him walking out opens the door to any rider who deems the track slightly unfit now has a get out of jail card, or for that matter any small reason not to ride in a GP, then the financial implications will hit the both the organisers and the sport.

 

Poor show from which ever way one wants to look at it.

[RPNY]

An 'Official' 21k plus all the other freebies that were there means that there means there was probably close to 22/23k in the stadium. Not awful and the atmosphere was good although nothing like Cardiff (neither was a packed Warsaw though) If they had put everyone from the top tear into the middle it would have looked a lot better.

With Doyle still in the mix I think it would have been closer to 25k tickets sold but still nowhere a sell out. But what I can say after doing the MCG tour while there,is that outside Aussie rules not many sports sell that greatly in the Aussie 'capital of sport' We were told that outside of the Ashes cricket rarely if ever sells out, rugby ditto. So its a tough one to sell at the best of times let alone for a minority sport.

It was on Good Morning Australia (tv show) and the usual social media links but to the older generation there really wasn't much done to sell it. No leaflets in hotels or anything like that. Not in advertising myself so don't know the answer. What I would say is that anyone who was there Saturday would want to go back. Even Greg the Villain won his opening ride in fine style. The racing was superb and for that I commend everyone involved

Edited October 24, 2016 by RPNYC

[waiheke1]

Let's not exaggerate things. The chances if a line rider walking out are slim, unless he has a top 8 spot locked in and no chance of a medal .

Fwiw I think a rider should be amble to pull out without repercussion if the track is unsafe

[Humphrey Appleby]

We were told that outside of the Ashes cricket rarely if ever sells out, rugby ditto.

The MCG has a capacity of over 100,000, so it would be doing well to sell out. A T20 match managed to draw 80,000+ last year, and the State of Origin drew more than 91,000 despite Victoria not being a rugby playing state, so I don't think it's really the case that other sports don't sell well.