How Many Of Us Are Losing Interest.?

[moxey63]

To be honest I think this is just the age old generation argument. Most of us look at what went before us as being better than what it was today. Goes for pretty much any sport. "It's not like it used to be" is a much spoken about topic. I bet you can go back 10 years on this forum and see a similar thread and in another 10 years you will see another similar thread.

I bet on the whole Swindon, Belle Vue Wolves Rye House fans are enjoying their Speedway these days. Kings Lynn no so much. All comes down to how the club you support is run really.

Not to say the sport over here isnt without its problems. But as previously mentioned on here, the GPhas been outstanding this season. The UK playoffs with be epic with massive crowds. It's not all doom and gloom.

 

I think it is more to how the sport is being run, for me at least. Yes, 10 years ago we were still complaining. But since then I for one have stopped attending full stop. Where will be be in 10 years' times? It is about losing fans. The Play-Offs seem as if everything is ok, with massive crowds in speedway terms. But spread over a season, how are average gates? A few Play-Off meetings vs. a 30-odd league programme in which much of the time is foreplay. And don't forget, the season practically ends there and then, with clubs scratching the surface with filler meetings.Take Belle Vue for instance, having to fit two meetings in three days last week, just because of the cut-offs. How did that affect support - two meetings, 20-quid a throw within a few days? The GPs have been good, but that doesn't keep the bread and butter of league racing afloat here in te UK. GPs are a side-dish, like the Friday takeaway. What's happening the rest of the week is what matters.

Edited September 6, 2017 by moxey63

[waytogo28]

To be honest I think this is just the age old generation argument. Most of us look at what went before us as being better than what it was today. Goes for pretty much any sport. "It's not like it used to be" is a much spoken about topic. I bet you can go back 10 years on this forum and see a similar thread and in another 10 years you will see another similar thread.

I bet on the whole Swindon, Belle Vue Wolves Rye House fans are enjoying their Speedway these days. Kings Lynn no so much. All comes down to how the club you support is run really.

Not to say the sport over here isnt without its problems. But as previously mentioned on here, the GPhas been outstanding this season. The UK playoffs with be epic with massive crowds. It's not all doom and gloom.

 

If that were the case -that it is "just" a re-occuring generation phase speedway is going through, why are there noticeably lower crowds at many ( the majority perhaps ?) of UK tracks. There is a very small, next generation of fans and it is this failure to entice new younger fans ( 20s or 30s ) in reasonable numbers that is the real problem. Of course the play offs will attract a lot of fan fever but just like rider averages, we need to count crowds as an average over the season. The BSPA tinker with rider averages but have made little effort to pump up the crowd levels.

[RPNY]

I dont think the crowds are any lower then the 90s when I lost my track (Rye House) for almost 10 years. At that point I can remember people back then saying its not like the days of Olsen, Penhall, Carter etc...

British speedway needs major tweaking yes. How people watch live sport has changed yes. Is Speedway in general on a downward spiral? in my opnion absolutely not.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

I'm not losing interest in speedway in general it's just British speedway , I still love the GPs and attend some of them and I love polish extraleague ,I subscribe to polish tv just for that and have been there this season to see some but British speedway has just lost my interest , I still go to buxton occasionally but it's more to see friends and the fact that it's close to where we walk the dog than the speedway itself ,it's not the racing there is good and bad racing in all speedway it's just everything else ,rules these days are reactive rather than proactive and often stink of desperation and even the most dedicated fans are totally perplexed by some of the rules and how they are interpretated , there is no or very little vision and I feel the fans are a second thought , I know some like Berwick and the Isle of Wight and a couple of others are really trying but are being held back by speedway in general in Britain ,nobody seems to know what to do and to me it just feels like we are plodding along , I care deeply about speedway especially in Britain ,that's why I keep mooting any ideas or thoughts on here and Facebook etc , when I read Phillip risings post " it looks like doubling up is here to stay" I just felt like another kick in the balls for fans ,where is our voice ? We don't seem to matter and I think it's just wore me down ,at speedway ,riders are one side of the fence and fans are the other and that is becoming true off the track aswel but the fence seems to getting higher , its speedways job and purpose to make you want attend and for me British speedway isn't doing that

Edited September 6, 2017 by THE DEAN MACHINE

[waytogo28]

THE DEAN MACHINE wrote " when I read Phillip risings post " it looks like doubling up is here to stay" I just felt like another kick in the ball for fans ,where is our voice ? We don't seem to matter and I think it's just wore me down"

 

I can only agree that this " We don't run speedway for the sake of the fans" seemingly attitude from the BSPA and particularly from Buster as the Chairman. It's certainly worn me as a fan down to the point where I don't want to go to watch any more live in the stadium - in the UK. IF the BSPA do are about the fans then they need to find a much, much more positive way of interacting with and involving them.

[B.V 72]

 

If that were the case -that it is "just" a re-occuring generation phase speedway is going through, why are there noticeably lower crowds at many ( the majority perhaps ?) of UK tracks. There is a very small, next generation of fans and it is this failure to entice new younger fans ( 20s or 30s ) in reasonable numbers that is the real problem. Of course the play offs will attract a lot of fan fever but just like rider averages, we need to count crowds as an average over the season. The BSPA tinker with rider averages but have made little effort to pump up the crowd levels.

Just a point about the 20s age group I don't know if it was the same for others.But in the late 70s and 80s when I hit my later teens I discovered ladies and night clubs and was missing from the sport until I married and settled down its then I retuned to the sport and have attended ever since.

Could perhaps partly explain the missing numbers in this age group.

[waytogo28]

I dont think the crowds are any lower then the 90s when I lost my track (Rye House) for almost 10 years. At that point I can remember people back then saying its not like the days of Olsen, Penhall, Carter etc...

British speedway needs major tweaking yes. How people watch live sport has changed yes. Is Speedway in general on a downward spiral? in my opnion absolutely not.

 

It certainly is at King's Lynn where numbers have dropped by at least 25 or 30% in the last three years. I doubt if the average crowd exceeds 1,000 but as Buster doesn't agree with the purpose of them, we will never know. And compared to say 10 years ago there has been a huge decrease in attendances - perhaps 50%.

[RPNY]

 

It certainly is at King's Lynn where numbers have dropped by at least 25 or 30% in the last three years. I doubt if the average crowd exceeds 1,000 but as Buster doesn't agree with the purpose of them, we will never know. And compared to say 10 years ago there has been a huge decrease in attendances - perhaps 50%.

You could say that for numerous Football, Rugby & Cricket teams too. Im not saying there isnt a problem Im saying if ANYTHING is run badly it will struggle. On the flip side Rye have had great crowds this year. Im genuinely not trying to annoy you just showing you a different side of the argument.

[boz]

I might be one of an odd breed, but I still really enjoy my speedway.

 

It probably helps that my club Redcar have had their best season in years, with good racing and a much improved atmosphere around the club combined with a good increase in crowds.I try not to pay attention to the rules and politics that go on, and just enjoy 4 blokes riding around a track with no brakes.

 

Something definitely needs to be done around the consistency of meetings and riders though. We have been lucky to have a meeting pretty much every week but you see some clubs go 4/5 weeks without a meeting and people just get out of the habit of going. And guests/doubling up/missing riders needs to be sorted or minimized somehow, people want to see the same 7 riders turn up (injuries permitting).

[Fromafar]

I dont think the crowds are any lower then the 90s when I lost my track (Rye House) for almost 10 years. At that point I can remember people back then saying its not like the days of Olsen, Penhall, Carter etc...

British speedway needs major tweaking yes. How people watch live sport has changed yes. Is Speedway in general on a downward spiral? in my opnion absolutely not.

I think the crowds are lower at a significant number of tracks and how many tracks can say over a season that their crowds have increased( not many I fear) we don't get attendance figures for various reason IMO .While we have all got many gripes ,too me one of the the biggest failing is the fixture list,we need to have regular once a week meetings or people drift away.

[RPNY]

I think the crowds are lower at a significant number of tracks and how many tracks can say over a season that their crowds have increased( not many I fear) we don't get attendance figures for various reason IMO .While we have all got many gripes ,too me one of the the biggest failing is the fixture list,we need to have regular once a week meetings or people drift away.

Yup, we are generally creatures of habit, a set race night would certainly help the cause.

[martinmauger]

I might be one of an odd breed, but I still really enjoy my speedway.

 

It probably helps that my club Redcar have had their best season in years, with good racing and a much improved atmosphere around the club combined with a good increase in crowds.I try not to pay attention to the rules and politics that go on, and just enjoy 4 blokes riding around a track with no brakes.

 

Something definitely needs to be done around the consistency of meetings and riders though. We have been lucky to have a meeting pretty much every week but you see some clubs go 4/5 weeks without a meeting and people just get out of the habit of going. And guests/doubling up/missing riders needs to be sorted or minimized somehow, people want to see the same 7 riders turn up (injuries permitting).

This ^^, + endless re-runs. Lost a tad interest if I'm being honest, but I still love speedway and remains the one sport that has caught my interest, though F1 is a distant 2nd, then IOM TT. I enjoy all motorcycling activities but can't abide MotoGP / Superbikes for some reason. But the lack of time, energy, other commitments and also money as I'm far from rich are the main factors keeping me from live speedway, though I try to visit Scunny once a month. But one somehow tends to find more time, energy and resolve when one has a team of ones own to follow....

Edited September 7, 2017 by Martin Mauger

[Fromafar]

Yup, we are generally creatures of habit, a set race night would certainly help the cause.

 

Most tracks have a set race night as things stand,it's the crazy rules and fixture list that has caused the trouble.

[B.V 72]

Just to post a yes vote I buy a season ticket every year for the Aces and the colts and I still love it.Better still now we have the NSS.

The sport still has its problems but when all said and done its still 4 guys on a bike racing hell for leather round an ovel track the same as its always been if you leave the problems at the door and just enjoy the meeting.

[The White Knight]

I no longer attend Speedway as a lone protest about a single issue (Double Points). I don't like all of this Double Up/Double Down either.

 

That said, I have not lost my interest in Speedway - I just want it to be the very best it can be. I keep myself more or less up to date with what is going on in the Sport, and it grieves me very much to see the state that British Speedway is now in.

 

There are so many things that seem to encourage people not to attend. There is the lack of Fixtures during the Summer, warm nights, and a glut of Fixtures towards the end of the Season (cold nights). Given the age of the majority of Supporters these days - the cold nights are not encouraging. Why then, can't these Fixtures be balanced out over the Season? Lack of consistency as far as Meetings goes is detrimental to continuing Support. It is very easy to find something else to do if your Team isn't riding.

 

When I first started attending back in 1964, Speedway was a weekly Sport. I used to look forward from one week to the next to my Speedway Meeting. Nowadays the weekly involvement doesn't happen at some Tracks, probably most Tracks.

 

I also am not happy at the way the Top League, when anything goes wrong, automatically starts changing things in the lower Leagues. That is discouraging for Supporters of those lower League Clubs also, and may well put some people off attending altogether.

 

I confess that I don't know what the answer is but Speedway simply has to get it's act together if it is to survive as a National, Professional Sport.

 

I look forward to the day when Double Points is no more and I can return to watching Speedway - but it should be on a weekly basis.

[keef robin]

Enjoy my speedway now as much as when I started going in 1963 at New Cross.

It helps when my local team Swindon are top of the league, better atmosphere, bigger crowds.

[Fromafar]

Just to post a yes vote I buy a season ticket every year for the Aces and the colts and I still love it.Better still now we have the NSS.The sport still has its problems but when all said and done its still 4 guys on a bike racing hell for leather round an ovel track the same as its always been if you leave the problems at the door and just enjoy the meeting.

Your correct at the end of the day it is just 4 guys racing round an oval,but the crowds are dropping off for different reasons and the powers at be don't seem to a be able to find a solution .The results as aTeam sport are meaningless nowadays.Keep enjoying that's the main thing.

[Trees]

Waheyyy, thank goodness for the club fans who love their speedway! Never, ever the same after you have lost your team, the passion dies!

[Hawk127]

It fast and furious, dangerous, exciting, average lap times of a minute or less, fifteen heats of mad men prepared to ride at super speeds with no brakes so why does it take two hours to run a meeting.

 

The image created does not match the reality and to me some of the lost interest is a result of the poor way in which meetings are run. I appreciate that you can have hold ups for falls etc. But the delays with restarts, gardening at the gate and rarely the same team riders week in week out does test the patience of many. No new fans can get their head around two hours for fifteen minutes of racing let alone the long gaps in between races. The older fans despair at the rules, close racing at league level is a thing of the past and for real cut and thrust of the sport you need to record it and forward wind.

 

I like a number of two wheeled sports but speedway takes some beating if you look at it in its simplest form. I use to regularly go to tracks in Essex and around London in the 70's to get a fix, was a regular at Rye House when the rockets first moved in in 73 and again at Arena Essex when that first started. Moved slightly North and Ipswich and Mildenhall were the local teams with the occasional visit to Kings Lynn and Peterborough and attended one of the tracks most weeks up until a couple of years back. Now just the odd meeting. Not lost to the sport but certainly not the avid attendee that I use to be. One day the interest might return but until,then I will just be selective about the live meetings.

[stewmac]

I'm 50 years old and first went to Berwick in 1976 as a 9 year old with my dad. Then on 15th April 1977, I was at the opening of Edinburgh's Powderhall Stadium, and continued weekly with my dad until I was a bit older and able to get the bus to Edinburgh, then drive a motorbike and car to the stadium. Gradually later in my teens I began travelling around the UK and soon I had visited every stadium in Britain that was operating. I took weekly or fortnightly speedway trips with mates in my early 20s, driving ridiculous amounts of miles to see speedway the length and breadth of the UK nightly. That in addition to never missing meetings at Edinburgh, as well as travelling to Glasgow, Berwick, Newcastle, and even Middlesborough most weeks too. My weeks in summer revolved around speedway. My weekends were ruined if my team lost at home. I knew every rule in the book, every rider in every team, every average every week of the top 30 riders in each league.

When Powderhall closed at the end of 1995, I travelled to Shawfield to watch the Scottish Monarchs, missing only one match there. Then Armadale opened in 1997 and I attended there every week for years, still doing lots of away meetings too. Going back to the introduction of dirt deflectors, I remember Dick Barrie asking Paul Bentley after a rain sodden first heat at Shawfield in the first ever match there with them what he thought of them. Bentley said he thought there would never be another rained off meeting - they were so good!

But gradually, over the past 10 years or so, things have changed. The rule book became more and more ridiculous, the guests increased. The rain off became more regular. The 100 mile round trip became more of a chore. Edinburgh promoter John Campbell stated only a short number of years ago (maybe 5?) in his programme notes one week that as long as it was dry at start time, a meeting should almost always go ahead. My God, how that has changed! Even a shower now will cause an abandonment. The rules have become too difficult for me, a university honours degree graduate, to follow. I still attend weekly home matches. Away trips to the likes of Newcastle or Berwick happen once a year now. If at all. Glasgow has been dropped totally. Ashfield was a place I went to weekly in the late 90s, just to see fantastic racing. Now, it's one-line follow the leader.

Am I losing interest then? BIG TIME! But, only in UK speedway. Others before in this thread have mentioned subscriptions to Polish TV. I have one too. Ten years ago, I went to a GP in Bydgozszcz for the 1st time. It was awesome, but I didn't think about it too much afterwards. Then I went back the following year, then again and again. Poland now features annually for speedway trips with some mates. But I've seen speedway in Czech Rep, Denmark and Sweden as well as in Finland this summer.

I now want to visit all the Polish tracks I can. I've already been to around 10 of them, and am eagerly awaiting next year's fixtures to plan more trips. Yes, it's far away and means weekends away from the family. But it has so many plusses, in addition to the quality of the racing and the amazing stadiums. It's a genuinely beautiful country, with genuinely warm and lovely people, gorgeous towns and cities, and above all, it's affordable.

In 2018, I doubt I will go to any speedway in Scotland or Britain. Our sport here is run by complete idiots. Numpties, self-centred fools who have only their own self interest at heart. Fans are deserting the sport here left, right and centre, yet they simply introduce even crazier rules. I've very, very nearly had enough. I don't know even who races in each team now, it's got so silly with guests.

So, yes, I've had enough. Of UK speedway. But I still look forward hugely to GPs on TV, and to Sunday speedway from the Polish channels through my wizja.tv subscription.

 

Next season, even if I only take 3 or 4 trips to Poland, I am 100% certain I will see racing that eclipses many times the quality of what I'd see in a whole season of UK speedway. Sorry to be negative about the sport here. But what we have here in 2017 simply is not the same sport I fell in love with in the 70s.