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Lakeside and the BSPA


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27 minutes ago, liam said:

None at all. We all know that’s it for speedway in Essex.

Probably for the London area of Essex, but maybe if a promoter is prepared to look more at the rural area of Essex, it may have a chance. After all, Essex used to be a real hot bed for grass track, not so many years ago. All around Maldon, Chelmsford, Braintree, Colchester. The Marks Tey showground regularly hosts pre 1965 moto cross and right next to the A12, around there could be possible?

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2 hours ago, liam said:

Maybe one day but why would anyone want to get involved in speedway now you might aswell throw your money down the drain. 

Speedway needs far more special offers on discounted admission to tempt newbies to give the sport a try. The cost in taking a family is prohibitive for most people. Until the promoters grasp this, speedway will continue to decline.

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The is that it the newbies don't come the promoters lose even more money when discounted admission is available. Just how do you differentiate between a newcomer and a die-hard regular. The Hammers tried it a few seasons back and quickly had to drop it.

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Since Essex is the spiritual home of British speedway (the very first speedway meeting in Britain took place at High Beech in February 1928) local speedway fans ought to be lobbying Essex County Council to identify an alternative venue in the county. Having driven out the Lakeside team in order to make way for "redevelopment," Essex is at risk of becoming a sporting backwater. The County Council could be encouraged to put in a bid for funding from Sport England to restore the county's speedway heritage by building a new stadium in honour of Essex's founding contribution to 90 years of British motor sport, restoring their long tradition of speedway racing in the county.

Come on all you former Lakeside fans, get to work! We in the wider speedway fraternity will be delighted to give you our support.

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3 hours ago, TonyE said:

The is that it the newbies don't come the promoters lose even more money when discounted admission is available. Just how do you differentiate between a newcomer and a die-hard regular. The Hammers tried it a few seasons back and quickly had to drop it.

How are you going to tempt new fans to come. You can't just sit there and do nothing. Once the oldies die off, there will be no one left.

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2 hours ago, 4thbender said:

Since Essex is the spiritual home of British speedway (the very first speedway meeting in Britain took place at High Beech in February 1928) local speedway fans ought to be lobbying Essex County Council to identify an alternative venue in the county. Having driven out the Lakeside team in order to make way for "redevelopment," Essex is at risk of becoming a sporting backwater. The County Council could be encouraged to put in a bid for funding from Sport England to restore the county's speedway heritage by building a new stadium in honour of Essex's founding contribution to 90 years of British motor sport, restoring their long tradition of speedway racing in the county.

Come on all you former Lakeside fans, get to work! We in the wider speedway fraternity will be delighted to give you our support.

Plenty of Spawt in Basildon and Harlow town centres on a Friday or Saturday night, Sarfend on Sundays

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5 hours ago, cityrebel said:

Speedway needs far more special offers on discounted admission to tempt newbies to give the sport a try. The cost in taking a family is prohibitive for most people. Until the promoters grasp this, speedway will continue to decline.

No good having discounted admission if the product is no good. Ironically Lakeside had an attractive and successful team in 2018 but we still had the usual clowns running the sport, with great gaps in the fixture list even before Godfrey started tampering  with it and making it worse,  and that's without all the other cheating and manipulation that goes on. I loved it at Arena but when it moved to Rye House  it was like watching paint dry.  

Now that I don't have a team to support , I find the sport has very little to commend itself to me as a neutral .

 

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6 hours ago, Daytripper said:

No good having discounted admission if the product is no good. Ironically Lakeside had an attractive and successful team in 2018 but we still had the usual clowns running the sport, with great gaps in the fixture list even before Godfrey started tampering  with it and making it worse,  and that's without all the other cheating and manipulation that goes on. I loved it at Arena but when it moved to Rye House  it was like watching paint dry.  

Now that I don't have a team to support , I find the sport has very little to commend itself to me as a neutral .

 

Sometimes it's good to be neutral. My team Wimbledon shut in 1991. Apart from a short spell in the CL in the early 2000's, I've had no emotional attachment to the sport at all. The closure of Lakeside and Rye is another step closer to speedway retirement for me.

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16 hours ago, cityrebel said:

How are you going to tempt new fans to come. You can't just sit there and do nothing. Once the oldies die off, there will be no one left.

No one seems to know the answer unfortunately. Plenty of 'internet warriors' come up with suggestions but it isn't their money at risk. I certainly do not know the solution - Lakeside had Mark sexton as a community officer and I know he specifically tried to get the younger element interested in the sport (school liaison etc) .

The one time Arena Essex as then was, offered free entry (in a meeting against Belle Vue and sponsored by a company), it certainly produced a good crowd. There were certainly first timers there but whether or not they were hooked is another issue.

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