martinmauger Posted May 19, 2019 Report Share Posted May 19, 2019 (edited) So, it would have been 2018 (where does the time go) when I mentioned I picked up a leaflet advertising Santa Pod Raceway (drag racing) in a Hull Asda store. Well the other day I picked up a leaflet plugging Cadwell Park (road racing), maybe these leaflets are delivered to nationally to all Asda stores; Santa Pod is 110ish miles from Hull, Cadwell Park around 50 miles. I wonder if speedway would benefit form such a leaflet campaign, I seem to recall leaflets being produced, but maybe not widley distributed, when the 1999 Elite League was on SKY Sports with all fixtures listed. I read once that leaflet advertising realises a 2 1/2 % - 5% take up rate, if one is lucky. Though I'm not sure what the costs would be, but paraphrasing a well-known movie tagline: "Tell them and they may come, don't tell them and they won't since they won't know.".... Edited May 19, 2019 by martinmauger spelling, sigh 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronScorpion Posted May 19, 2019 Report Share Posted May 19, 2019 (edited) I have been saying this for years about leaflets left in supermarkets, clubs, pubs & even schools. Posters could be put up as when we have a fair or circus in town, they are all over. Last year we had about 3 banners around town advertising speedway on Friday nights. Edited May 19, 2019 by IronScorpion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waytogo28 Posted May 20, 2019 Report Share Posted May 20, 2019 The BSPA under the influence of Buster and his family have put their whole faith in social media as the vehicle to bring back the missing thousands and hordes more of newbies to every UK track. I read it on Twitter " Speedway GB, Great Racing, Alive and Kicking" . SO it must be true and millions of social media users are panting to join us on the terraces. Soon the queues for the burgers, chips, beer and loos will be much longer. Supporters everywhere, be ready. Your regular spot on the terraces is already under threat. Promoters are rubbing their hands with glee dreaming of when crowds DID number in the thousands and not the hundreds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattK Posted May 20, 2019 Report Share Posted May 20, 2019 I think speedway is quite a hard sell. Convincing someone to spend £18 to watch four blokes going round in circles needs more than just a leaflet. For me, you have to offer newcomers free entry and then a "guided" experience in order for them to get the most out of their first time and encourage them to return. I leaflet simply won't do that in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cityrebel Posted May 20, 2019 Report Share Posted May 20, 2019 31 minutes ago, waytogo28 said: The BSPA under the influence of Buster and his family have put their whole faith in social media as the vehicle to bring back the missing thousands and hordes more of newbies to every UK track. I read it on Twitter " Speedway GB, Great Racing, Alive and Kicking" . SO it must be true and millions of social media users are panting to join us on the terraces. Soon the queues for the burgers, chips, beer and loos will be much longer. Supporters everywhere, be ready. Your regular spot on the terraces is already under threat. Promoters are rubbing their hands with glee dreaming of when crowds DID number in the thousands and not the hundreds. Judging by the average age of the current speedway fan, i bet the vast majority of them can just about use a mobile phone, let alone access social media. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmauger Posted May 20, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2019 (edited) Never seen drag racing and it doesn't really appeal as its' almost literally 'blink and you missed the race', that said I'm told the noise of the big engines, acceleration and atmosphere are incredible. Seen road racing though, exciting but as we are aware one cannot see all of the track, a couple of corners and straight if you are lucky, confusing regs for the different classes. Literally "oh, no.2 is in front of no.3 now wonder how that happened but no.4 hasn't turned up on this lap, wonder what happened to them, etc". A mate has been to Silverstone; brilliant day out and craic with motorsport enthusiasts, but he watched from Stowe corner, 1/4 mile away from the actual circuit and so didn't see much racing. Speedway has the advantage of being able to see all of the track all of the time, mostly straight forward rules (mostly) and any less-than-thrilling race will soon be over to be followed by a new one. The sport 'just' needs acually promoting. 'Promoters' run their tracks ok, but how many actually 'promote'; seemingly only when their track is on TV.... Edited May 23, 2019 by martinmauger spelling 2x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waytogo28 Posted May 21, 2019 Report Share Posted May 21, 2019 On 5/20/2019 at 8:30 AM, MattK said: For me, you have to offer newcomers free entry and then a "guided" experience in order for them to get the most out of their first time and encourage them to return. For me too. I like the idea of a "guided" experience ( if wanted ) and free entry for genuine newbies. Who does that now? Is there a promoter who wants to get it off the ground? Or a supporters club? But I am still in favour of leaflets in supermarkets as they remind people that speedway is still there and alert newbies to the idea of trying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trees Posted May 21, 2019 Report Share Posted May 21, 2019 1 minute ago, waytogo28 said: For me too. I like the idea of a "guided" experience ( if wanted ) and free entry for genuine newbies. Who does that now? Is there a promoter who wants to get it off the ground? Or a supporters club? But I am still in favour of leaflets in supermarkets as they remind people that speedway is still there and alert newbies to the idea of trying it. I bet every promoter would do this IF people could be trusted but we can't, end of ...... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattK Posted May 21, 2019 Report Share Posted May 21, 2019 35 minutes ago, Trees said: I bet every promoter would do this IF people could be trusted but we can't, end of ...... I don't think that is an insurmountable challenge. When I worked for a large local employer I knew most of the people there who attended speedway. Therefore, let's say I was a Robins Ambassador, I could "invite" 20 people from my work to attend speedway for free each week and escort them through a meeting. If clubs were really invested in this the it could also include a pre-meeting pit walk, meet and greet with a rider and even watching a heat from the centre green, all things that cost nothing for a club to put on. If there were 10 ambassadors, each bringing 20 new fans per week and if only 10% of them returned as paying customers, over the course of a 20 meeting season it would generate 200 new fans and increase income by over £30,000. All for little more than a bit of effort. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted May 22, 2019 Report Share Posted May 22, 2019 (edited) 12 hours ago, MattK said: I don't think that is an insurmountable challenge. When I worked for a large local employer I knew most of the people there who attended speedway. Therefore, let's say I was a Robins Ambassador, I could "invite" 20 people from my work to attend speedway for free each week and escort them through a meeting. If clubs were really invested in this the it could also include a pre-meeting pit walk, meet and greet with a rider and even watching a heat from the centre green, all things that cost nothing for a club to put on. If there were 10 ambassadors, each bringing 20 new fans per week and if only 10% of them returned as paying customers, over the course of a 20 meeting season it would generate 200 new fans and increase income by over £30,000. All for little more than a bit of effort. Spot on... The margins for big % success are so huge given the poor levels of attendance at most tracks, that just a small increase every week will generate significantly more money.. I suggested something similar to a Promoter several years ago... Get 100 regulars together (who are interested in helping) and give them 10 tickets to bring 10 friends/colleagues. That alone would swell the crowd by 1000 if all turn up so would have made the sport look popular in itself.. Then over the next few weeks do discounted tickets gradually moving up to full price in the fifth meeting for the newbie, ie 75% discount, 50% discount, 25% discount then full price.. Hopefully by then, after five meetings, the newbie would start to follow the team and sport... He was worried about the fans using tickets as freebies for friends and family but I told him there are far more than 100 fans who would be happy to pay full price themselves and see their team prosper and use the tickets with integrity.. He said the tickets would cost the club 8 grand (£8 a ticket at the time) so he wasnt sure of its viability.. The reality of course was the only cost was for 1000 tickets being printed and that would have cost him about £30 back then, with the chances of any regulars getting a freebie being minimal, and even if they did it would have meant hardly any 'real' loss, given it would have been such a very low number... The mindset of a promoter... Edited May 22, 2019 by mikebv 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Bratley Posted May 25, 2019 Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 On 5/20/2019 at 8:30 AM, MattK said: I think speedway is quite a hard sell. Convincing someone to spend £18 to watch four blokes going round in circles needs more than just a leaflet. For me, you have to offer newcomers free entry and then a "guided" experience in order for them to get the most out of their first time and encourage them to return. I leaflet simply won't do that in my opinion. You are absolutely right. If only someone had thought of doing this before . . . . http://www.birmingham-speedway.com/page.php?182 I did this with good success when I was at Birmingham in my last season with them and I know some of these people still go. But to make a real success of it then it has to be done season on season. It takes a lot of time, effort, organisation and attention to detail. For example everyone who came on this scheme had their photograph taken on arrival and that photo was on the official web site before the end of the meeting, so when they got home and checked the official web site out, they saw themselves and understood that their visit was valued. It definitely works, but you need a dedicated team of people to implement and run it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmauger Posted June 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 And back to the start, yesterday (Monday) I picked up a Santa Pod 2019 events leaflet.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trees Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Kings Lynn Speedway leaflets in my place of work today, have stood them in a prominent place!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marko Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 My local football club works tirelessly with local schools and is always giving away free tickets, it doesn’t cost anything because these people would not likely have come anyway, so if you can get them to come again as a paying customer, even for just a few times, you will make money. If the product you are showing them is so bad that the next week or month they do not come back, that’s on you, not on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincent Blachshadow Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 2 hours ago, marko said: My local football club works tirelessly with local schools and is always giving away free tickets, it doesn’t cost anything because these people would not likely have come anyway, so if you can get them to come again as a paying customer, even for just a few times, you will make money. If the product you are showing them is so bad that the next week or month they do not come back, that’s on you, not on them. One of the problems with giving away free tickets in schools, according to a promoter friend a few years back, is that it's a midweek sport. Out straight after tea and not back till after ten isn't conducive with getting homework done and going to bed at 'a suitable time' (his words) for many schoolchildren. Then there's the holidays, of course. A football-attending friend of mine tells me that the free tickets for matches are invariably for weekend games (at his club, anyway). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marko Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 True but with my club the age of the school children they aim at is junior, maybe primary, not a level where I suspect homework is a thing but then I haven’t done the school thing for 30 years so it could be very different now. Point taken about it being a late night though, again, if the promoters had their act together they could get meetings done quicker if they really wanted to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve roberts Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 3 hours ago, Vincent Blachshadow said: One of the problems with giving away free tickets in schools, according to a promoter friend a few years back, is that it's a midweek sport. Out straight after tea and not back till after ten isn't conducive with getting homework done and going to bed at 'a suitable time' (his words) for many schoolchildren. Then there's the holidays, of course. A football-attending friend of mine tells me that the free tickets for matches are invariably for weekend games (at his club, anyway). Different world I guess but I used to go to Oxford on Thursdays and White City (Tuesdays or Wednesdays during my exam years) and somehow managed to get my homework done around those visits. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca Posted June 6, 2019 Report Share Posted June 6, 2019 I’m a fairly regular attendee of Santa Pod despite living in Newcastle. The promotion of Santa Pod is very much around events. They have no expectations of the same people turning up every week (and it does run every week through the summer). There are so many classes and types of meeting that each week sees different cars and different crowds. It is geared towards making itself a ‘once a year’ event for most people who go. It has a full funfair and lots of other events such as stunt shows and fly pasts. For speedway to go down a similar route would involve promoting other styles of racing (fours, pairs, individual, sidecars) and occasionally a highlight event. I remember all of this in my lifetime following Newcastle and also remember how well it was promoted by Ian Thomas back in the Seventies. One other point is value for money Santa Pod costs around £30 for an adult and all kids U16 are free. The racing is from 09.00 until dark and all stunt shots etc are included in the price and your ticket includes full pits access. I know speedway pooh poohs this on H&S grounds however they have no issues letting you get to within 6 feet of 10000bhp dragsters whilst they are warming up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmauger Posted June 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2019 (edited) Says prices start at £22 for Top Fuel Funny Cars (cars with bodies, look a bit like regular cars but bigger) for adults, up to 3 children under 16 go free with each paying adult. Varying race events, seem to be every 2 weeks.... Edited June 7, 2019 by martinmauger corrected info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trees Posted June 7, 2019 Report Share Posted June 7, 2019 On 6/5/2019 at 12:13 PM, marko said: True but with my club the age of the school children they aim at is junior, maybe primary, not a level where I suspect homework is a thing but then I haven’t done the school thing for 30 years so it could be very different now. Point taken about it being a late night though, again, if the promoters had their act together they could get meetings done quicker if they really wanted to. What quicker than hour and half!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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