Programmes?

[Dodger Blue]

18 hours ago, moxey63 said:

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. 

Likewise!! Have a programme for every meeting I have attended since I first went in 1976.

Stored lovingly in boxes and looked at when the need for nostalga arises!!

Would be gutted if they stopped!!

[waytogo28]

3 hours ago, *JJ said:

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?

Worth £1 to me but I prefer 50p.

[The Cheese]

On 6/11/2018 at 1:20 PM, brianbuck said:

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?

Exeter announced last month that they were going to continue producing programmes. 

[moxey63]

21 hours ago, Dodger Blue said:

Likewise!! Have a programme for every meeting I have attended since I first went in 1976.

Stored lovingly in boxes and looked at when the need for nostalga arises!!

Would be gutted if they stopped!!

Pulling out an old programme from your collection is like hearing that old tune on the wireless, seeing an old photograph from your prime. Can’t beat that feeling… glancing down the line-up, the blank racecard and remembering your youthful anticipation, the team line-ups, riders you’d never heard of… a blank programme as we entered the unknown for the next 90 minutes. I couldn’t get rid of my collection - 40 years of my life.

Edited June 13, 2018 by moxey63

[screm]

IMO the speedway programme has become dated, a simple race card would do just as good a job.

[George Dodds]

2 hours ago, screm said:

IMO the speedway programme has become dated, a simple race card would do just as good a job.

but deprive clubs of much needed advertising revenue

[Grand Central]

14 hours ago, George Dodds said:

but deprive clubs of much needed advertising revenue

Do many clubs make a net profit on programme advertising revenue ?

Or is more likely that it helps to go cover some of the high production costs and any programme 'profit' is really just from the meagre sales ?

And even then it is minimal profit; after an army of volunteers have a put in massive efforts getting all the ad's and providing the copy pretty much FOC.

Can't help thinking all those man hours could bring in more revenue that created real profit if it were not 'wasted' on quite so many 'vanity productions'.

 

 

[HertsRacer]

1 hour ago, Grand Central said:

Do many clubs make a net profit on programme advertising revenue ?

Or is more likely that it helps to go cover some of the high production costs and any programme 'profit' is really just from the meagre sales ?

And even then it is minimal profit; after an army of volunteers have a put in massive efforts getting all the ad's and providing the copy pretty much FOC.

Can't help thinking all those man hours could bring in more revenue that created real profit if it were not 'wasted' on quite so many 'vanity productions'.

 

 

I doubt the advertising revenue makes a profit. I used to contribute to a local magazine which was printed on glossy paper with colour photos. There were a few more pages than your average programme, but the printing costs for about 500 issues was about £950. The charge for advertising was £25 for a quarter page (The most popular), £50 for half a page, and a full page was £100 (The least popular).  The revenue from this helped but didn't fully cover the printing costs. 

[Mr Snackette]

As someone who lives in Spain, football programmes are non-existent. Indeed you rarely find a football programme anywhere on the Continent. It is very much a British phenomenon! As for speedway programmes, they hail back to a bygone age.  A one-page scorecard would meet the need, given out with admission, with adverts on the reverse to pay for the printing costs.

[George Dodds]

3 hours ago, HertsRacer said:

I doubt the advertising revenue makes a profit. I used to contribute to a local magazine which was printed on glossy paper with colour photos. There were a few more pages than your average programme, but the printing costs for about 500 issues was about £950. The charge for advertising was £25 for a quarter page (The most popular), £50 for half a page, and a full page was £100 (The least popular).  The revenue from this helped but didn't fully cover the printing costs. 

Think you and Grand Central underestimate how much advertisers pay to appear in a programme but don't forget, unlike the magazine you contributed to, it's a one-off payment up front at the start of the season rather than a weekly/monthly scramble for advertising. There's also the ability to offer a programme as part of a package including banners, website ads, meeting sponsorship.

I'm sure it varies from club to club but even a small profit is better than the proposed racecards which would still have to be produced at a cost by the promotion but with no supporting advertising revenue.

[The White Knight]

3 minutes ago, George Dodds said:

Think you and Grand Central underestimate how much advertisers pay to appear in a programme but don't forget, unlike the magazine you contributed to, it's a one-off payment up front at the start of the season rather than a weekly/monthly scramble for advertising. There's also the ability to offer a programme as part of a package including banners, website ads, meeting sponsorship.

I'm sure it varies from club to club but even a small profit is better than the proposed racecards which would still have to be produced at a cost by the promotion but with no supporting advertising revenue.

You could Note Mr. Snackette's final comment in his Post GD.

[Grand Central]

49 minutes ago, George Dodds said:

Think you and Grand Central underestimate how much advertisers pay to appear in a programme but don't forget, unlike the magazine you contributed to, it's a one-off payment up front at the start of the season rather than a weekly/monthly scramble for advertising. There's also the ability to offer a programme as part of a package including banners, website ads, meeting sponsorship.

I'm sure it varies from club to club but even a small profit is better than the proposed racecards which would still have to be produced at a cost by the promotion but with no supporting advertising revenue.

I admit it was quite a few years since I was involved in any programme adverts but It was 'dirt cheap' relative to other forms of advertising or so I felt at the time.
Perhaps thingss have changed considerably since then; but with dwindling 'circulation' I would have thought that to be unlikely.

[HertsRacer]

13 minutes ago, Grand Central said:

I admit it was quite a few years since I was involved in any programme adverts but It was 'dirt cheap' relative to other forms of advertising or so I felt at the time.
Perhaps thingss have changed considerably since then; but with dwindling 'circulation' I would have thought that to be unlikely.

Agreed, with attendances now in their hundreds rather than thousands, and many not buying programmes or printing off their own race cards, it now does not appear good value in terms of return to place adverts in programmes. Most of our advertisers did so as a sense of loyalty to help keep the magazine going rather than any potential benefit to them. If we had raised the price for advertising along with the rise in printing costs, I'm sure their loyalty may well have been tested. 

As Mr. Snackette posted, no reason why a simple race card with accompanying adverts cannot be produced. I have many non league football programmes from the 1950/60's when this was the norm with just the team line ups and the rest local adverts.

[screm]

21 hours ago, George Dodds said:

but deprive clubs of much needed advertising revenue

Not necessarily as race sponsorship would still be available on any race card, anyway looking through any programme how much is actual sponsorship where companies pay for their space or how much is companies who provide a service to the speedway and get free advertising space in the programme in return. Might open up new venues for sponsorship opportunities.