The continuing decline of Speedway

[Spl77]

This may sum it all up. I live and work in Ipswich my place of work has 66 employees. Out of that 66 one goes to Foxhall every week and one goes to more than half the meetings. Another 15 or so used to go in the time frame of early 80s to early 90s. Alot of what they remember about the riders from that era seems to have as much about their off track personality and antics than it does rider and club results. One story they all remember is cook riding his speedway bike on the public highway to his local pub. One thing they all come out with is the guys who ride these days are not committed club men they don't live locally ride for others teams and so have zero chance of building a relationship with the town. As for the so called big name riders they all know woffinden and Hancock other than that the other GP riders are met with who? 

In short the big names in speedway mean very little to those who don't attend so would not put bums on seats. There is a massive disconnect between your team and the local area mainly down to the fact they are not your team but riders on hire. 

 

 

[waytogo28]

17 hours ago, Skid Sprocket said:

A skilled letter writer to draft a letter to every promoter to put them in the picture written so as not to get their backs up?

That is one of my few skills and I am willing to draft something for that purpose SS but it seems that it is you and I at the coal face. I had hoped to pick up one or two from a wide variety of tracks who could take the survey to tracks this season ( ASAP ). If we cannot attract others to the cause ( perhaps they feel it is a lost cause? ) is there any point in continuing? A letter from two supporters is unlikely to be even read by Promoters, however well written.

[DC2]

7 hours ago, Spl77 said:

 

In short the big names in speedway mean very little to those who don't attend so would not put bums on seats. There is a massive disconnect between your team and the local area mainly down to the fact they are not your team but riders on hire. 

 

 

 

Absolutely spot on.

That’s why I’ve started a thread in the PL section, “Are Poole’s team changes fair?”, to suggest only two tactical changes be allowed each season, and why in the past I’ve said that a start of year team building average should be tempered with a right for clubs to retain riders in certain circumstances regardless of the team’s average.

Promoting fan loyalty in speedway should be the priority it is for consumer brand loyalty and supermarket loyalty.

 

[Skid Sprocket]

12 hours ago, waytogo28 said:

That is one of my few skills and I am willing to draft something for that purpose SS but it seems that it is you and I at the coal face. I had hoped to pick up one or two from a wide variety of tracks who could take the survey to tracks this season ( ASAP ). If we cannot attract others to the cause ( perhaps they feel it is a lost cause? ) is there any point in continuing? A letter from two supporters is unlikely to be even read by Promoters, however well written.

The greatest strength of a supporters group is numbers and as you say two means nothing. The greatest weakness is apathy. There are many willing take time to discuss whats wrong with the sport but no time to help find a cure.  How do you motivate supporters? or maybe you just accept that there are no problems to be fixed.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

After reading Ronnie Russell’s comments in the star it got me thinking maybe Swindon, wolves belle vue and Poole should apply to join the polish extraleague, logistically is very easy and I’m sure the fans would back it, only drawback is affording the teams to compete

[acef]

On 7/16/2018 at 11:20 AM, Fromafar said:

It's all about self interest,no co- operation.Its just a circus now.As everyone is saying the sport needs Independant people in charge,but that will never happen.

It does need a new chairman. 

The BSPA is pretty self explanatory in its wording. It's a promoters association so basically the clubs run the sport, that is what creates so much in fighting because nobody can ever agree. They all have their own investment and some have louder voices than others. 

That will make it incredibly difficult for an independent chairman to oversee an association of people who's own money is propping the sport up. They'll never be heard. 

If I had the money myself I'd pay the lot of them off and be done with it. 

[waytogo28]

11 hours ago, Skid Sprocket said:

The greatest strength of a supporters group is numbers and as you say two means nothing. The greatest weakness is apathy. There are many willing take time to discuss whats wrong with the sport but no time to help find a cure.  How do you motivate supporters? or maybe you just accept that there are no problems to be fixed.

I think motivating supporters is an almost impossible task because we have had 20 years of total submission / acceptance of continuing to pay to see what the BSPA put on.  Very few care enough to form some kind of Supporters Action Team because they realise that we have no power to put pressure on Promoters, collectively or individually. It is they who will decide on the destiny of the sport here and whether or not it reaches the Centenary in 2028. There will still be a few tracks racing amateur speedway matches and these will be staffed and organised by grassroots enthusiasts. Or, will speedway be just another lost sport...

Edited July 18, 2018 by waytogo28
additional point made

[Thornaby48]

Following a comment in the Red car programme a few weeks ago about the very poor attendance at the Julie Lewis Memorial Meeting, I sent an e-mail to the promoters making a suggestion of how they could make future individual meeting more enticing. Guess what----I am still waiting for a reply even if it was just to say it was rubbish suggestion. If I cannot get a reply from my local promotion what chance getting anything from the BSPA?

[waytogo28]

42 minutes ago, Thornaby48 said:

Following a comment in the Red car programme a few weeks ago about the very poor attendance at the Julie Lewis Memorial Meeting, I sent an e-mail to the promoters making a suggestion of how they could make future individual meeting more enticing. Guess what----I am still waiting for a reply even if it was just to say it was rubbish suggestion. If I cannot get a reply from my local promotion what chance getting anything from the BSPA?

Do you think that it is now a collective policy by the BSPA NOT to respond, even to constructive feedback, from supporters? That is how our small group became so disillusioned when the local promotion failed to even say "Ta, thanks" to our joint constructive points, put forward three years ago. And that was in response to a request in the programme for fans to do just that - come up with ideas!

[Bryce]

Regarding surveying fans at meetings, I am almost certain that permission for such a thing would not be given at Lakeside. Jon Cook's attitude has always been that fans with an opinion are a pain in the behind. The club has been better than many at tweeting and updating the website, but hardly earth shatteringly impressive. These mediums are of course for telling us what they want us to know. They are not for us mere paying customers to express an opinion. The club did have a quite lively official fans forum, until Mr Cook got annoyed at the notion of it being used to criticize the club and closed it down. The bottom line is that the members of the BSPA do not want to hear from us the fans. Their attitude is we should be quiet and be grateful for whatever they serve up to us.

[Crump99]

11 minutes ago, Bryce said:

Regarding surveying fans at meetings, I am almost certain that permission for such a thing would not be given at Lakeside. Jon Cook's attitude has always been that fans with an opinion are a pain in the behind. The club has been better than many at tweeting and updating the website, but hardly earth shatteringly impressive. These mediums are of course for telling us what they want us to know. They are not for us mere paying customers to express an opinion. The club did have a quite lively official fans forum, until Mr Cook got annoyed at the notion of it being used to criticize the club and closed it down. The bottom line is that the members of the BSPA do not want to hear from us the fans. Their attitude is we should be quiet and be grateful for whatever they serve up to us.

That rings a bell although Bratters was just getting a grip of ours when Frost did the same (well decoupled it from the website rather than closed it down but he may as well have done so).

Edited July 18, 2018 by Crump99

[moxey63]

Just thinking, though... I hate being told that I'm not doing something right. I go all uppity and still carry on how I was doing it and don't listen to advice. An ideal candidate for running a speedway club?    

[TonyGlos]

16 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

After reading Ronnie Russell’s comments in the star it got me thinking maybe Swindon, wolves belle vue and Poole should apply to join the polish extraleague, logistically is very easy and I’m sure the fans would back it, only drawback is affording the teams to compete

Just an idea

Why not get back to a couple of leagues of teams with UK based riders where we have racing every week. Promotion/relegation. Exclude "International GP level riders". Regular racing will happen if we have league, cups and British championship meets. Cut costs but give us regular racing. Remember when it was Saturday and speedway or Thursday and speedway ...or whatever. Meetings every week, a continuity and ongoing interest. Really look at it as national / junior level racing (which lets be honest, the UK has sort of become by default and team down gradings)

 

Many of us really enjoy elite racing (Team GP Racing in effect) and I believe there is a big demand...but it has to be good....a quality product

In Poland that elite league racing regular season only amounts to 7 meetings a year at home! 14 nights in a season. About 1 a fortnight, or once every four weeks from a home standpoint. That's it.  (Plus a further 1 or 2 for play-offs and final for the top 4 as in the UK) .

Run this separately in the UK. Find 8 locations in the UK that could host this in addition to UK racing.  You state the obvious 4, but I'm sure 4 others could be found. Then do a deal and WORK WITH the Polish Clubs. Use the same teams (but use up and coming UK riders at Reserve in place of the Polish Reserves) and choose another day (other than Sunday) which minimises clashes with the regular UK. It pays in Poland with crowds around 10,000 and sponsorship. 3,000 to 4,000 in the UK should generate the same sort of revenue. I have a feeling fans from an area would support this elite level, not just fans normally attending a tracks regular team meets.

An International fanbase and shared support.  Sparta Wroclaw are also  Swindon Elite, Unia Leszno are Belle Vue United, Unia Tarnow are Wolverhampton International for example. Think we could even see fans travelling around to see "their" team in Poland or in the UK

 I'm being silly. Too radical! We can't get promoters to work together in the UK so across border, no chance

But could it be done? Simplifies many things. Got a feeling the tables could look very different in Poland to UK given the much wider variance of tracks in UK.

Hey, even a Table collating results in the UK and Poland.

 

In effect, GP style/level Team Competition.

     

 

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2018 by TonyGlos

[Pieman72]

Rather than making predictions about the future of British Speedway there has to be a reality check and a pragmatic approach to the current problems has to be achieved. The commercial model of speedway is virtually defunct and looking very tired. Have a look at how much it costs and what you are getting for what are astronomical admission prices. There are other factors but who possesses the disposable income to afford this entertainment luxury. Accepting that may ensure the continuity of British Speedway.

[Skid Sprocket]

2 hours ago, Thornaby48 said:

Following a comment in the Red car programme a few weeks ago about the very poor attendance at the Julie Lewis Memorial Meeting, I sent an e-mail to the promoters making a suggestion of how they could make future individual meeting more enticing. Guess what----I am still waiting for a reply even if it was just to say it was rubbish suggestion. If I cannot get a reply from my local promotion what chance getting anything from the BSPA?

Redcars new promoter is one ray of sunshine in this whole mess, he is very approachable but the workload he  has taken on is horrendous.  I am sure your email must have slipped through the net, what were your suggestions? (pm me if you would prefer)  

[Thornaby48]

2 hours ago, Skid Sprocket said:

Redcars new promoter is one ray of sunshine in this whole mess, he is very approachable but the workload he  has taken on is horrendous.  I am sure your email must have slipped through the net, what were your suggestions? (pm me if you would prefer)  

I agree with you about Kevin Keay, he certainly keeps the Red car fans informed and puts on a very good show. I consider the speed way at Red car far better than at the old Cleveland Park.Basically I suggested that people prefer team racing rather than individual meeting ,so have 6 pairs representing local towns. ____Stockton, Middlesbrough, Red car with Berwick, Newcastle and Workington.This way supporters have a local team to follow rather than just a favourite rider.

[Skid Sprocket]

2 hours ago, Thornaby48 said:

I agree with you about Kevin Keay, he certainly keeps the Red car fans informed and puts on a very good show. I consider the speed way at Red car far better than at the old Cleveland Park.Basically I suggested that people prefer team racing rather than individual meeting ,so have 6 pairs representing local towns. ____Stockton, Middlesbrough, Red car with Berwick, Newcastle and Workington.This way supporters have a local team to follow rather than just a favourite rider.

Not sure what you mean, Stockton team etc. Do you mean a made up team name for the night for supporters who live in those towns? If thats the case then should it be all local towns instead of real team names eg. Whitby, Guisbrough etc. so that you would have say Aaron Summers riding for Guisbrough.

[Thornaby48]

36 minutes ago, Skid Sprocket said:

Not sure what you mean, Stockton team etc. Do you mean a made up team name for the night for supporters who live in those towns? If thats the case then should it be all local towns instead of real team names eg. Whitby, Guisbrough etc. so that you would have say Aaron Summers riding for Guisbrough.

The 3 local teams I mentioned would be made up of Red car riders just for that night, so Stockton could be the Anderson bros., Red car could be Ben Barker and sayTobias Busch and Middlesbrough could be Dimitri Bergen and say Thomas Jorgansen, just throwing names about there. Then pairs could be invited from Berwick, Newcastle and Workington.I know that this is a pairs meeting with pairs meeting each other once  but I think that this might be more attractive than an individual meeting.

[Thornaby48]

21 minutes ago, Thornaby48 said:

The 3 local teams I mentioned would be made up of Red car riders just for that night, so Stockton could be the Anderson bros., Red car could be Ben Barker and sayTobias Busch and Middlesbrough could be Dimitri Bergen and say Thomas Jorgansen, just throwing names about there. Then pairs could be invited from Berwick, Newcastle and Workington.I know that this is a pairs meeting with pairs meeting each other once  but I think that this might be more attractive than an individual meeting.

Oops forget to mention ,the top 4 scorers could then race off for the title.The idea of using 6 local town names with guest riders sounds attractive

[Skid Sprocket]

38 minutes ago, Thornaby48 said:

The 3 local teams I mentioned would be made up of Red car riders just for that night, so Stockton could be the Anderson bros., Red car could be Ben Barker and sayTobias Busch and Middlesbrough could be Dimitri Bergen and say Thomas Jorgansen, just throwing names about there. Then pairs could be invited from Berwick, Newcastle and Workington.I know that this is a pairs meeting with pairs meeting each other once  but I think that this might be more attractive than an individual meeting.

Certainly a new approach. Can I ask why you write Redcar with a space (Red car)?