Another Saturday night

[Grachan]

1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Yes I agree that it was an over reaction that Simmo was greatly to blame and one of "Biggest Reasons" for the demise of speedway in this country. The  so-called 'Scandal' was obviously one factor but as Martin Rogers' quoted crowds were not immediately affected during that period and it was an accumulation of events that has proved destructive over time. Personally I believe that the demise of "World of Sport" on ITV started the decline as speedway was no longer shown on mainstream TV although regional networks and the BBC dipped in and out over the next few years.

I do recall a two page feature of the all-conquering "Cheetahs" team of 1986 (including Wiggy) appearing in a mainstream newspaper but generally speedway within the media was already declining (and it was never that good even during the 'glory years') and some would argue that was due to the emergence and later domination of the Danes and the fall of England's dominance during the seventies that proved a factor.

It's a complex issue and one in which there is not one specific reason for the sport's decline but where there are many which have been well documented over the years and no doubt will continue to do so.

There was quite a long period when there was no speedway on television at all. I remember a campaign going in Speedway Star to get it shown. To see Hans Nielsen win the World Final in Poland I had to buy a video of it.

The coverage we get now on BT (and on Sky previously) is excellent, but it is also very specialised. People aren't going to just put the tv on and stumble across some speedway these days.

 

[racers and royals]

2 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

We even used to pop down to Arlington on a Sunday occasionally. During the seventies it was White City on the Wednesday, Oxford Thursdays and Saturdays a visit to Swindon. Certainly couldn't entertain that regime now what with admissions and petrol costs.

Not from York anyway 

[steve roberts]

5 minutes ago, Grachan said:

There was quite a long period when there was no speedway on television at all. I remember a campaign going in Speedway Star to get it shown. To see Hans Nielsen win the World Final in Poland I had to buy a video of it.

The coverage we get now on BT (and on Sky previously) is excellent, but it is also very specialised. People aren't going to just put the tv on and stumble across some speedway these days.

 

Central TV (and Anglia TV apparently) used to be pretty good during the eighties showing domestic meetings around the Midlands but nationally it was pretty dire although when cable TV came on board we were fortunate where I lived to be able to watch highlights of National League meetings and later Internationals and British League.

Edited May 29, 2019 by steve roberts

[iris123]

2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

Yes I agree that it was an over reaction that Simmo was greatly to blame and one of "Biggest Reasons" for the demise of speedway in this country. The  so-called 'Scandal' was obviously one factor 

As I said Mr Rising, who is more of a media expert than either you, me or even Martin Rogers dare I say puts that scandal up there as the main reason the media interest dropped off. And in general unless you are Stock Cars, media interest plays a major factor in the success or failure of a sport. Ask any decent sports promoter or retail boss

Darts and Snooker flourished at a time speedway was failing. Cycling for instance had a lot of problems because of their scandal. It isn’t just down to immediate falls in attendances, but lack of sponsorship etc from large companies or medium and speedway is left with local hairdressers and builders

Edited May 29, 2019 by iris123

[orion]

7 hours ago, Midland Red said:

Problem is - very few, if any, of the "modern initiatives" seem to have succeeded (most have failed), therefore those that recall better times often feel that a return to what worked then would be worth a try

But those have still  been in place. teams, have still been racing on sat and sun  and crowds have still been going down with clubs closeing .People used to play local football at a weekend but now it's nearly dead as there is far more things to do.In the 70' s what could do on a Sunday bar go the church .Times have moved on .

Edited May 29, 2019 by orion

[Gemini]

5 hours ago, waytogo28 said:

As for improving the show - laughable attempts at for example stopping gardening and tactical delays decided by team managers which extend the grading and tractor racing joys. Oddly suddenly great racing returned to the Peterborough track with hardly any between races grading. Hmmm.

Strange isn't it?  Something so simple that could be done at all tracks ~ well perhaps with the exception of Poole ~ to keep the flow of the meeting going and stop us being bored stiff watching tractors go round. 

[steve roberts]

23 hours ago, iris123 said:

As I said Mr Rising, who is more of a media expert than either you, me or even Martin Rogers dare I say puts that scandal up there as the main reason the media interest dropped off. And in general unless you are Stock Cars, media interest plays a major factor in the success or failure of a sport. Ask any decent sports promoter or retail boss

Darts and Snooker flourished at a time speedway was failing. Cycling for instance had a lot of problems because of their scandal. It isn’t just down to immediate falls in attendances, but lack of sponsorship etc from large companies or medium and speedway is left with local hairdressers and builders

To be fair speedway has rarely enjoyed continual sustainable sponsorship...although during it's last 'Golden Era' Gulf Oil, Marlboro, Durex and Volkswagon were branded sponsors and I recall that during the middle/late eighties Sunbrite came on board. The Mirror Newspaper group were high profile sponsors (which included The Sunday People) but they withdrew their interest before the 'scandals' claim if I recall but I am open to correction? It's a sport that traditionally relied/relies upon small to medium size businesses to back either teams or individuals however many riders have achieved considerable success with personal high profile sponsorship over the years. I remember that Peter York was apppointed by the BSPA to become Commercial Manager but I don't recall how sucessful that post was and whether he was able to attract any big time sponsors? Unfortunately the sport appearing regularly on SKY for many years failed to initiate much in the way of sponsorship at domestic level to the best of my knowledge (?).

How other sports have attracted sponsorship and/or media attention despite some having their own 'issues' with drugs and match fixing etc I have no idea as I have no personal interest in other sports and gave up buying newspapers years ago but no doubt there are lots of theories and/or reasons out there.

Edited May 30, 2019 by steve roberts

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

To be fair speedway has rarely enjoyed continual sustainable sponsorship...although during it's last 'Golden Era' Gulf Oil, Marlboro, Durex and Volkswagon were branded sponsors and I recall that during the middle/late eighties Sunbrite came on board. The Mirror Newspaper group were high profile sponsors (which included The Sunday People) but they withdrew their interest before the 'scandals' claim if I recall but I am open to correction? It's a sport that traditionally relied/relies upon small to medium size businesses to back either teams or individuals however many riders have achieved considerable success with personal high profile sponsorship over the years. I remember that Peter York was apppointed by the BSPA to become Commercial Manager but I don't recall how sucessful that post was and whether he was able to attract any big time sponsors? Unfortunately the sport appearing regularly on SKY for many years failed to initiate much in the way of sponsorship at domestic level.

How other sports have attracted sponsorship and/or media attention despite some having their own 'issues' with drugs and match fixing etc I have no idea as I have no personal interest in other sports and gave up buying newspapers years ago but no doubt there are lots of theories and/or reasons out there.

The main issue the sport has is that it simply doesn't promote itself as a collective entity so the vast majority of the country don't know it exists..

The potential though is huge....

Over 60,000,000 people live within an hour or so of a speedway track..

And the club they live not too far away from have a virtual monopoly in that area...

However, standing in a supermarket foyer with a bike and a wallpaper pasting table full of car stickers and photos, advertising just one club is a compete waste of time..

Tracks will pay tens of thousands out this week alone to riders who will barely put one extra person through the turnstiles..

Yet nothing to a marketing company who could..

Clubs will spend hours trying to put one over their rivals by using some convaluted method of team equalisation, manipulating ambiguous rules to their own ends and gain, and all to try and win a competition that their own nonsense rules and behaviours renders completely worthless..

Yet will spend hardly one second working together as a collective to get themselves noticed both locally and nationally...

Buster seems to have spotted the opportunity by taking over three reasonably geopraphically close clubs, meaning he can advertise all of them together...

Getting them all kitted out similarly/professionally too will also help raise Speedway's  'brand awareness' amongst those who live in and around East Anglia..

Millions must be paid out amongst all three Leagues each season to riders..

Obviously not privy to actual figures but, at a guess, Premiership teams alone must have a wage bill of around circa 250-300k for 30 matches or so..

And Championship teams 150k to 200k each for 30 matches maybe?

A huge pot of money exists in Speedway to potentially invest in selling itself if used right..

[steve roberts]

1 hour ago, mikebv said:

The main issue the sport has is that it simply doesn't promote itself as a collective entity so the vast majority of the country don't know it exists..

The potential though is huge....

Over 60,000,000 people live within an hour or so of a speedway track..

And the club they live not too far away from have a virtual monopoly in that area...

However, standing in a supermarket foyer with a bike and a wallpaper pasting table full of car stickers and photos, advertising just one club is a compete waste of time..

Tracks will pay tens of thousands out this week alone to riders who will barely put one extra person through the turnstiles..

Yet nothing to a marketing company who could..

Clubs will spend hours trying to put one over their rivals by using some convaluted method of team equalisation, manipulating ambiguous rules to their own ends and gain, and all to try and win a competition that their own nonsense rules and behaviours renders completely worthless..

Yet will spend hardly one second working together as a collective to get themselves noticed both locally and nationally...

Buster seems to have spotted the opportunity by taking over three reasonably geopraphically close clubs, meaning he can advertise all of them together...

Getting them all kitted out similarly/professionally too will also help raise Speedway's  'brand awareness' amongst those who live in and around East Anglia..

Millions must be paid out amongst all three Leagues each season to riders..

Obviously not privy to actual figures but, at a guess, Premiership teams alone must have a wage bill of around circa 250-300k for 30 matches or so..

And Championship teams 150k to 200k each for 30 matches maybe?

A huge pot of money exists in Speedway to potentially invest in selling itself if used right..

Yes I was once initiated to stand at the entrance of Tesco's handing out leaflets and I completely agree with your analysis. I did a few talks at schools but they were totally underwhelming and not particularly inspiring as I had little to show the kids in which to grab their attention or stretch their imaginations.

Edited May 29, 2019 by steve roberts

[adonis]

Somebody change the name of the title please . every time is see it I'm singign the song in my head all day .

[Gemini]

How about Monday Monday by the Mamas and Papas. That seems more appropriate for a Speedway race night these days. 

[adonis]

9 hours ago, Gemini said:

How about Monday Monday by the Mamas and Papas. That seems more appropriate for a Speedway race night these days. 

Sometimes it just turns out that way !!

[RS50]

10 hours ago, Gemini said:

How about Monday Monday by the Mamas and Papas. That seems more appropriate for a Speedway race night these days. 

Sadly the Boomtown Rats "I don't like Mondays" may be more appropriate.

[PHILIPRISING]

20 hours ago, Gemini said:

Strange isn't it?  Something so simple that could be done at all tracks ~ well perhaps with the exception of Poole ~ to keep the flow of the meeting going and stop us being bored stiff watching tractors go round. 

APPARENTLY Rob Godfrey has stopped grading the Scunthorpe track during the meeting and racing has been terrific

[arnieg]

10 hours ago, Gemini said:

How about Monday Monday by the Mamas and Papas. That seems more appropriate for a Speedway race night these days. 

"But whenever Monday comes you find me cryin' all of the time"

[Halifaxtiger]

6 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

APPARENTLY Rob Godfrey has stopped grading the Scunthorpe track during the meeting and racing has been terrific

Definitely stopped grading the track but the racing I have seen has been slightly below par for Scunthorpe (still better than most, that is).

[mikebv]

Seem to remember in the 'olden days' at Hyde Rd there used to be rakers who would take back the dirt from the bottom of the fence..

Pulling it back to half/two thirds track...

The tractor would then run over this area...

Leaving the inside half untouched..

It does appear nowadays that every inch of the track gets a full covering with the tractors doing several laps, which brings the dirt back down to the inside again, thus creating plenty of grip on the line..

Not conducive usually to good racing I would suggest..

Edited May 30, 2019 by mikebv

[George Dodds]

59 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Seem to remember in the 'olden days' at Hyde Rd there used to be rakers who would take back the dirt from the bottom of the fence..

Pulling it back to half/two thirds track...

The tractor would then run over this area...

Leaving the inside half untouched..

It does appear nowadays that every inch of the track gets a full covering with the tractors doing several laps, which brings the dirt back down to the inside again, thus creating plenty of grip on the line..

Not conducive usually to good racing I would suggest..

and the tractors came out at the end of every heat, instead of every four which meant it often took over two hours to run a 13 heat meeting - which apparently would be too long for some. The biggest reason for delays is medical attention after crashes. Thankfully riders are no longer manhandled onto a stretcher, covered with a blanket and carried through the crowd to a medical room and the rerun called immediately - but proper treatment takes time and sometimes causes delays ... but meetings are rattled through compared to the "golden" era.

[Tsunami]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

Seem to remember in the 'olden days' at Hyde Rd there used to be rakers who would take back the dirt from the bottom of the fence..

Pulling it back to half/two thirds track...

The tractor would then run over this area...

Leaving the inside half untouched..

It does appear nowadays that every inch of the track gets a full covering with the tractors doing several laps, which brings the dirt back down to the inside again, thus creating plenty of grip on the line..

Not conducive usually to good racing I would suggest..

You must be joking. 

Another one of your Theories, like it's no good going to schools and shows and handling out flyers as nobody uses them.

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, Tsunami said:

You must be joking. 

Another one of your Theories, like it's no good going to schools and shows and handling out flyers as nobody uses them.

Not sure where you think I don't view visiting schools as a good idea.

Going to schools is a great idea from a business perspective.

In fact getting them onside is a huge plus for any business...

Hence I am a governor of one locally and raise thousands in funds for another two adjacent to my shop..

And guess what?

Most of the parents and guardians of the kids shop with me...

I also do the same with one church, two mosques and three local food banks.

Who would have thought forming a professional relationship with thousands of kids, parents and guardians and other professional organisations would be so successful..?

I don't though hand flyers out in supermarket foyers...

As that doesn't work...

I know because those who do it in my supermarket end up picking them all up from my car parks floor after giving them out....

There is though no point in visiting a school, charity, religious body, community project etc etc without a long term plan of action to mutually build a lasting relationship which benefits both parties...

Thats when businesses gain from being a 'key player' in the local community..

And the local community benefits from their support..

And I still think there is too much tractor racing which puts back the quality of racing just when the dirt has moved out enough to improve the spectacle..

Just a theory...

As is another one I have..

And that's the sports marketing (in this country) must often be devised by some people who still think it's 1979...

Edited May 30, 2019 by mikebv