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Odsal


Rob B

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2 hours ago, Ray Stadia said:

I've said for many years and been criticised on here for my opinion, that the only way, the activity of speedway can survive, is to be virtually amateur only and have tracks which are 'tracks in a field'. Speedway cannot continue pretending it's something it isn't. It needs to go back to it's roots and maybe it can grow from that level. The biggest thing killing speedway, is the cost. Costs for the riders, promoters, fans etc. The tracks would have to run weekends only, so the riders and the club members can earn money elsewhere during the week. There is no point starting each season on a wing and prayer. Losing Rye House, Lakeside, Stoke in recent years, in my opinion, was the final nail in the coffin for speedway. Reduce the costs for everyone, I believe it can survive.   

Precisely. If something makes money, it attracts investment. It may not be the whole answer to speedways prayers, but it is a good base to start.

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16 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

People seem scared to say why Bradford wouldn't work as a Speedway venue. I have no idea why, it's not a racist opinion, it's fact. 

Majority white area's struggle to get 1000 week in week out. Bradford would struggle to get 100

 

It's not just speedway though. How many Asians do you see competing in or watching any branch of motorsport?

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6 hours ago, tyke said:

It doesn't really matter where tracks are placed in the UK, the sport is very much on the decline.

You can count on One hand (and maybe lose a digit or two) those that get half sizeable attendances on the whole. The fact that speedway promoters don't even produce attendance figures really is all you need to know. Potentially those that actually make a profit maybe less after losing your digit's.

I live in Bradford and I'm sure in the short term it would be attended quiet well, but long term like most tracks it will struggle to survive, because in my opionon the product only service's a small miche market and that market I am afraid is very much twindling .

You can go on about 000's of reasons why patrons don't come through the door and pay an entrance fee (See what I did there !) the mere fact is Speedway is very, very much a minority sport in the UK and very losely professional these days.

Why don't speedway clubs publish their attendance figures. Even the lowest non league football clubs reveal their crowd numbers. Speedway never has, even in the good times for the sport.

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1 hour ago, Sotonian said:

It's not just speedway though. How many Asians do you see competing in or watching any branch of motorsport?

Its not just Asians though is it as far as Speedway is concerned, we struggle to get white British/Europeans to watch Speedway never mind any other ethnicity. The product and its costs are all wrong to attract potential new supporters, to many to list here but if the alleged rent of 4k per meeting is true then Speedway is a no goer at Odsal, I think the maximum rent payable to make Speedway viable at Odsal would likely be in the region of 2k per meeting.

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2 hours ago, proud panther said:

More VAT in my opinion.

It's not unheard of for an Inspector to stand outside, and estimate the crowd going in. 

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8 minutes ago, Tsunami said:

It's not unheard of for an Inspector to stand outside, and estimate the crowd going in. 

thats what one wucky promotion did when they were in charge . but not for tax reasons . prob looking for folk getting in for nowt !

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19 hours ago, Sotonian said:

It's not just speedway though. How many Asians do you see competing in or watching any branch of motorsport?

Thought the Tamil Tigers got a fair following.... :D

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17 hours ago, cityrebel said:

Why don't speedway clubs publish their attendance figures. Even the lowest non league football clubs reveal their crowd numbers. Speedway never has, even in the good times for the sport.

I think that Long Eaton and Oxford both published figures for a while in the midish 90's until 'advised' by the authorities to desist.  Wasn't it something Tony Mole's tracks did for a while (no idea how accurate the figures were of course) ?

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2 hours ago, compost said:

I think that Long Eaton and Oxford both published figures for a while in the midish 90's until 'advised' by the authorities to desist.  Wasn't it something Tony Mole's tracks did for a while (no idea how accurate the figures were of course) ?

I don't get what the big secret is. If it was for tax purposes, the authorities would be all over it. Maybe the promoters are embarrassed by the low crowds.

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2 hours ago, compost said:

I think that Long Eaton and Oxford both published figures for a while in the midish 90's until 'advised' by the authorities to desist.  Wasn't it something Tony Mole's tracks did for a while (no idea how accurate the figures were of course) ?

I think the other promoters were simply embarrassed by how low the figures that were being reported by Tony were.

BTW A previous Long Eaton promoter was subject to a prolonged tax investigation, which yielded nothing of any substance for the Inland Revenue.

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1 minute ago, arnieg said:

I think the other promoters were simply embarrassed by how low the figures that were being reported by Tony were.

BTW A previous Long Eaton promoter was subject to a prolonged tax investigation, which yielded nothing of any substance for the Inland Revenue.

Scenario:  You have a potential team sponsor for the coming season, do you really want them to know that for one meeting last season your paying crowd was only 400 of course not!  Let's all hope the current covid restrictions, once lifted MIGHT revitalise our sport with punters keen to see live action, there's certainly no positive steps that have been taken by the BSPL to address the issue.

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I remember probably back in the early 90s or even late 80s a promoter (cant remember who, it was a NL club) basically saying that announcing the attendance figure at a match like they do in Football would have been like announcing bad news...

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2 hours ago, cityrebel said:

I don't get what the big secret is. If it was for tax purposes, the authorities would be all over it. Maybe the promoters are embarrassed by the low crowds.

Crowd figures were not published even when speedway was the second most popular spectator sport, after football. 

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I seem to remember Hyde Rd having a turnstile that clicked but never registered...

Similar to a great many sporting venues at the time when it was pay at the gate... ;)

Is it a crime to over inflate your attendances?

Especially nowadays when so much is paid by card, tracks could easily show how much they take if the IR get involved, but still put out the odd 'mistake' when it comes to attendances..

If you read "3000 fans at the NSS for the Aces v Wolves match" if may get some of the many "sheep like people" to follow the week after..

Nothing wrong with a nice bit of 'economic with the truth' hype...  :D

 

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26 minutes ago, mikebv said:

I seem to remember Hyde Rd having a turnstile that clicked but never registered...

 

Definitely wouldn't be the case.

The idea of the turnstile clicks was so that the owners of the Zoological gardens could check that the turnstile operator employees weren't stealing from them.  The money handed in had to exactly match the number of turnstile clicks registered.   

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