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Programmes?


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I see in the press that Football League Clubs have now dispensed with the rule that all of them MUST produce match-day programmes and Exeter City have already announced that they will no longer have programmes on sale at their home matches. Other clubs are expected to follow suit, so I wonder whether Speedway Clubs might eventually take the same step.

In these times when so many supporters print their own score charts, is a programme really necessary these days?

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16 minutes ago, brianbuck said:

In these times when so many supporters print their own score charts, is a programme really necessary these days?

No. I have used my own for several years to save money and allow me to go to more matches overall. I don't collect programmes and so they are useless and usually the info inside is on the club's website anyway.

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If the Programmes are not revenue earners for their respective Clubs - then the answer to your question - No.

A lot of people do like them though, and there are a lot of avid Collectors out there. It would be sad for them if Programmes were to be phased out.

Up to each individual Club I suppose.

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3 minutes ago, The White Knight said:

If the Programmes are not revenue earners for their respective Clubs - then the answer to your question - No.

A lot of people do like them though, and there are a lot of avid Collectors out there. It would be sad for them if Programmes were to be phased out.

Up to each individual Club I suppose.

Agree, in my youth I was an avid collector of programmes of speedway, football and ice hockey going back to the 1920's. Still get them out occasionally to look at them. I love them from a historical point of view. The last time I went to a premier league football match it was more like a glossy magazine full of stuff that didn't interest me, for which they wanted £6. I didn't bother. Gone are  the days when programmes were a cheap and simple addition to the match day experience.

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17 minutes ago, HertsRacer said:

Agree, in my youth I was an avid collector of programmes of speedway, football and ice hockey going back to the 1920's. Still get them out occasionally to look at them. I love them from a historical point of view. The last time I went to a premier league football match it was more like a glossy magazine full of stuff that didn't interest me, for which they wanted £6. I didn't bother. Gone are  the days when programmes were a cheap and simple addition to the match day experience.

IMO the same thing is happening in Speedway with SGB Championship programmes now mainly costing between £2.50 - £3.00.

With the Speedway Star running a rating feature on each track's programme, it appears that some Promotions have entered into a vanity contest to be top dog, with the result that larger, in terms of size and number of pages, are being produced, which in turn has resulted in the prices rocketing.

If they reverted to producing a more compact & smaller sized version at about £1 - £1.50, I wonder if those who now print off a basic scoresheet to fill in, might be tempted to purchase a low cost Official programme instead?

 

 

 

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43 minutes ago, HertsRacer said:

Agree, in my youth I was an avid collector of programmes of speedway, football and ice hockey going back to the 1920's. Still get them out occasionally to look at them. I love them from a historical point of view. The last time I went to a premier league football match it was more like a glossy magazine full of stuff that didn't interest me, for which they wanted £6. I didn't bother. Gone are  the days when programmes were a cheap and simple addition to the match day experience.

...wish that I hadn't got rid of all my programmes. Constant source of reference and jogging the memory cells.

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28 minutes ago, cyclone said:

IMO the same thing is happening in Speedway with SGB Championship programmes now mainly costing between £2.50 - £3.00.

With the Speedway Star running a rating feature on each track's programme, it appears that some Promotions have entered into a vanity contest to be top dog, with the result that larger, in terms of size and number of pages, are being produced, which in turn has resulted in the prices rocketing.

If they reverted to producing a more compact & smaller sized version at about £1 - £1.50, I wonder if those who now print off a basic scoresheet to fill in, might be tempted to purchase a low cost Official programme instead?

 

 

 

Quite agree. Today programmes are printed on glossy paper with coloured photos and packed with adverts. In the past they were just cheaply produced with half a dozen  pages consisting of a scoresheet, something written by the promoter, fixtures/league tables and any  bits of latest news. That's  basically all you need.

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10 minutes ago, HertsRacer said:

Quite agree. Today programmes are printed on glossy paper with coloured photos and packed with adverts. In the past they were just cheaply produced with half a dozen  pages consisting of a scoresheet, something written by the promoter, fixtures/league tables and any  bits of latest news. That's  basically all you need.

Hated trying to fill out a programme on glossy paper.Old style programme was much easier to fill out.GP programme is basically a magazine and no idea what one costs nowadays,but probably neigh on an admission price for a meeting(at least a german one)

As an add on to the opening post,the football programme/magazine for my local club Hamburg are handed out free of charge around the stadium.Could well be at most or all Bundesliga games.I remember being p'd off when I came over to see Celtic play Dortmund back in the 80s and there were no programme sellers to be seen......

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Im a big collector of newer programmes, and I'd personally be gutted if they became un-existent at some clubs.. Scunny's programme is the type everyone would probably buy as its only £1, word from Rob, racecard, fixtures and about 4 ads (inside covers)

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Kept all my programmes of meetings attended - would never dream of ditching them even though I no longer attend. Just digging them out every now and again, you end up flicking through many, ending up taking longer than expected to try to find out what you got them out in the first place for. 

Edited by moxey63
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3 hours ago, iris123 said:

Hated trying to fill out a programme on glossy paper.Old style programme was much easier to fill out.GP programme is basically a magazine and no idea what one costs nowadays,but probably neigh on an admission price for a meeting(at least a german one)

As an add on to the opening post,the football programme/magazine for my local club Hamburg are handed out free of charge around the stadium.Could well be at most or all Bundesliga games.I remember being p'd off when I came over to see Celtic play Dortmund back in the 80s and there were no programme sellers to be seen......

When Berwick changed the programme to glossy paper a couple of seasons ago , after a few weeks nd some complaints  they changed the middle pages back to old style paper 

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1 hour ago, DSC67 said:

When Berwick changed the programme to glossy paper a couple of seasons ago , after a few weeks nd some complaints  they changed the middle pages back to old style paper 

Edinburgh were doing that in 1978, others may have done so before or since. 

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2 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

Haven't filled in a programme for 10+ years. Apart from the scorecard it's pages of adverts. Waste of a couple of quid. 

Don't really understand how you can get the full experience of a speedway meeting without filling in a programme. Still, each to his own......

But if you want to try it without any cost go onto the Speedway Plus website (http://speedwayplus.com/) where you can create your own race card and it doesn't cost you anything. (League matches only)

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The programme for Speedway is an important part of the meeting not just an informative piece of journalism.

filling in the programme adds to the enjoyment of the meeting and provides a memory jerker for the owner.

iT will be a sad day if there were no programmes

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I collect programmes (sad, I know) and have got them back to 1971. This year, I am a season ticket holder so get a free programme anyway. Promotions supply a racecard - just the centre pages of the prog - to riders; maybe it would be a good idea to offer some of these to fans to see if anyone would prefer these at less money?

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21 hours ago, cyclone said:

If they reverted to producing a more compact & smaller sized version at about £1 - £1.50, I wonder if those who now print off a basic scoresheet to fill in, might be tempted to purchase a low cost Official programme instead?

 

 

 

Not so sure i would especially on a freezing cold night and theres loads of changes or the programmes full of typos because it hasn't been proof-read before it's sent to the printers.

 I use the Speedway Programme app now amd have done for a few seasons.  It's got to be at least 5 years since I bought a programme.

 

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