Will British Speedway Survive ?

[MattK]

19 minutes ago, Ben91 said:

It isn’t the “scattergun” approach that is failing. It is the lack of good promotion/marketing in general. The target audience for Speedway, as a sport, can be vast in terms of age and gender. The issue is that it isn’t promoted enough and when new fans do somehow stumble across it the way the sport is run and presented doesn’t leave them wanting to come back. 

It can, but it is extremely difficult and expensive. Most business focus on a particular target market for that every reason. Not only to know who to market towards, but also to tailor their product to suit their customers needs.

I think it would be a very difficult balancing act for speedway to appeal to both its core supporters and whatever new group(s) it is trying to attract.

[HGould]

1 hour ago, MattK said:

I don't have a notion to bring back the big stars. I think that is as bad a plan as watering down the standard to only include British riders. The key is marketing. Whichever approach you take speedway needs to choose its target market and laser focus on that group. At the moment the scattergun approach is clearly failing to attract any new fans and as a result clubs are dependent on a dwindling number of diehards and the occasional appearance of fair-weather fans when the team is doing well or there is an interesting rider in town.

That's a generalisation. There is no Leadership at the top that's true.

There are some Clubs though who using their own initiatives are seeing crowd growth and are seeing newcomers coming to Speedway. A number in the Championship I saw with my own eyes at Birmingham and on travels last season.

It works locally, that may be the way to go.

[MattK]

26 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

Alot of the problems we have in the UK speedway wise,90 per cent of the time is of our  own doing.As much as it would be great to have the stars back for me it is to risky a proposition.Also we should now stop pandering to the Poles/Swedes / Gp series and get all our race nights back and run on the night's /Bank Holidays or whatever days we want to run.In our league now we only have Doyle, Iversen,Lambert who would be missed so let's start again !!!! the riders i named also how long will they keep committing to the UK.??? Speedway can still be exciting whatever level the product is , also  if you had seven available race days/nights  you could work around the kids and schooldays. That  is the market that you were talking about Matt that is the area i would aim at Kids how many parents don't go and miss meetings on a school night.? 

As I've said before, I don't believe tinkering with the format or structure will make one iota of difference when it comes to attracting new fans.

You can stop pandering to other countries, but the number of riders impacted is much greater than the three you mentioned, as I shown here.

Marketing to kids is fine, but it requires complete overhaul of how a speedway meeting is run. Everything from the music to the presentation to programmes needs to be thrown in the bin and re-designed to appeal to your target market. I think that is too much of a step change and risks alienating existing customers. A far more sensible approach is to market speedway to exactly the people who already make up the majority of your customer-base, which is the over 50s.

[MattK]

21 minutes ago, HGould said:

That's a generalisation. There is no Leadership at the top that's true.

There are some Clubs though who using their own initiatives are seeing crowd growth and are seeing newcomers coming to Speedway. A number in the Championship I saw with my own eyes at Birmingham and on travels last season.

It works locally, that may be the way to go.

Marketing has to be done locally due to the geographical spread of the clubs. I used to think advertising league speedway during the televised meetings was a potential option, but viewing figures are now so insignificant I don't think that is worth the effort.

If clubs are having local success, then that's great. Unfortunately, due to the lack of transparency around speedway we are completely reliant on anecdotes, rather than having hard evidence though.

[mikebv]

20 minutes ago, MattK said:

As I've said before, I don't believe tinkering with the format or structure will make one iota of difference when it comes to attracting new fans.

You can stop pandering to other countries, but the number of riders impacted is much greater than the three you mentioned, as I shown here.

Marketing to kids is fine, but it requires complete overhaul of how a speedway meeting is run. Everything from the music to the presentation to programmes needs to be thrown in the bin and re-designed to appeal to your target market. I think that is too much of a step change and risks alienating existing customers. A far more sensible approach is to market speedway to exactly the people who already make up the majority of your customer-base, which is the over 50s.

That would be my plan..

There are millions out there who dont know what Speedway is but to try and get them to attend regularly is probably a non starter..

So target the many, many thousands of 40 and 50 somethings who 'used to go' and know Speedway exists but (previously) must have enjoyed going for at least some of the time..

Getting them back must be easier than recruiting new customers.. 

Providing or course you dont deliver the same satisfaction levels that saw them leave the sport in the first place...

To attract the millions who dont go would always be the utopian plan, but that would take money, which those who run the sport seem loathed to spend on marketing, so try and connect with your ex customers and see if you can get them interested again.. 

[MattK]

4 minutes ago, mikebv said:

That would be my plan..There are millions out there who dont know what Speedway is but to try and get them to attend regularly is probably a non starter..

Why do you say that? If you put speedway in front of enough people, some will come back as paying customers.

For me, the problem is getting them there. Speedway is quite a hard sell, four blokes on bikes going round in circles. Therefore you need to offer free admission to tempt people. I see no reason why an "ambassador" who works for a large local company couldn't rustle up 100 newbies for every home meeting. Give them a pre-meeting tour of the pits, watch a couple of heats from the centre green etc. and even if only 10% come back and pay the following week over the course of a season you've attracted 200 new fans and generated almost £40k in additional revenue for no outgoing expense.

 

18 minutes ago, mikebv said:

So target the many, many thousands of 40 and 50 somethings who 'used to go' and know Speedway exists but (previously) must have enjoyed going for at least some of the time..

Getting them back must be easier than recruiting new customers.. 

I think a lot has to do with why they stopped going. Crowds at Swindon fell noticeably when Leigh Adams retired. I'm not sure you could easily persuade people who used to watch Adams going wheel-to-wheel with the likes of Crump, Loram to come back to speedway and pay more for what they perceive as an inferior product.

Of course, fans who simply got out of the habit might be easier to target.

[HGould]

3 minutes ago, MattK said:

Why do you say that? If you put speedway in front of enough people, some will come back as paying customers.

For me, the problem is getting them there. Speedway is quite a hard sell, four blokes on bikes going round in circles. Therefore you need to offer free admission to tempt people. I see no reason why an "ambassador" who works for a large local company couldn't rustle up 100 newbies for every home meeting. Give them a pre-meeting tour of the pits, watch a couple of heats from the centre green etc. and even if only 10% come back and pay the following week over the course of a season you've attracted 200 new fans and generated almost £40k in additional revenue for no outgoing expense.

 

I think a lot has to do with why they stopped going. Crowds at Swindon fell noticeably when Leigh Adams retired. I'm not sure you could easily persuade people who used to watch Adams going wheel-to-wheel with the likes of Crump, Loram to come back to speedway and pay more for what they perceive as an inferior product.

Of course, fans who simply got out of the habit might be easier to target.

Saw that at Birmingham last year predominantly in School Holidays, and also when Brummies were at Somerset and Redcar and at Eastbourne.

Groups invited Free being shown around and being made a fuss of.

Some of the best work is done in the Championship from what I've seen promoting wise.

[MattK]

7 minutes ago, HGould said:

Saw that at Birmingham last year predominantly in School Holidays, and also when Brummies were at Somerset and Redcar and at Eastbourne.

Groups invited Free being shown around and being made a fuss of.

Some of the best work is done in the Championship from what I've seen promoting wise.

Were they groups of children though? Schoolkids, Scouts etc.? As that falls into my pointless category.

[Sidney the robin]

36 minutes ago, MattK said:

Why do you say that? If you put speedway in front of enough people, some will come back as paying customers.

For me, the problem is getting them there. Speedway is quite a hard sell, four blokes on bikes going round in circles. Therefore you need to offer free admission to tempt people. I see no reason why an "ambassador" who works for a large local company couldn't rustle up 100 newbies for every home meeting. Give them a pre-meeting tour of the pits, watch a couple of heats from the centre green etc. and even if only 10% come back and pay the following week over the course of a season you've attracted 200 new fans and generated almost £40k in additional revenue for no outgoing expense.

 

I think a lot has to do with why they stopped going. Crowds at Swindon fell noticeably when Leigh Adams retired. I'm not sure you could easily persuade people who used to watch Adams going wheel-to-wheel with the likes of Crump, Loram to come back to speedway and pay more for what they perceive as an inferior product.

Of course, fans who simply got out of the habit might be easier to target.

When Adams rode do you think we consistently got over 2000 supporters for   every home meeting? hazard a guess.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Sidney the robin

[MattK]

20 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

When Adams rode do you think we consistently got over 2000 supporters for   every home meeting? hazard a guess.

I think 2,000 would be at the top end for a regular league meeting. Definitely crowds of 2,000 for the play-offs though. I'd say the average crowd was around 1,500 before Adams retired and today it is around half that.

[Sidney the robin]

8 minutes ago, MattK said:

I think 2,000 would be at the top end for a regular league meeting. Definitely crowds of 2,000 for the play-offs though. I'd say the average crowd was around 1,500 before Adams retired and today it is around half that.

Matt do you wear glasses? are you telling me Swindon only get 750 supporters no way.I would say worst scenario the average last year was between 1000/1,300.On some of the bigger meeting's Poole, Play offs, and when we had great weather up between 1,6/ 1800 and maybe  even more for  the play offs.

[MattK]

2 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

Matt do you wear glasses? are you telling me Swindon only get 750 supporters no way.I would say worst scenario the average last year was between 1000/1,300.On some of the bigger meeting's Poole, Play offs, and when we had great weather up between 1,6/ 1800 and maybe  even more for  the play offs.

I go by my own completely unscientific method of counting people, but yes, I'd say 800-ish is about average.

[HGould]

1 hour ago, MattK said:

Were they groups of children though? Schoolkids, Scouts etc.? As that falls into my pointless category.

there were children on some occasions always with as many if not more adults and at one of the tracks (can't remember which when I went away) all seemed to be adults - was announced as a major Company...

may be pointless to you with respect but not pointless to the Clubs!

[MattK]

1 minute ago, HGould said:

there were children on some occasions always with as many if not more adults and at one of the tracks (can't remember which when I went away) all seemed to be adults - was announced as a major Company...

may be pointless to you with respect but not pointless to the Clubs!

It is pointless to clubs, as children do not like AD/DC, the calming tones of Richard Crowley (he's the announcer at Swindon) and filling our pieces of paper with pens. Bring children to speedway only once the presentation has been completely overhaul and dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. Or, promote to the people who currently make up the majority of speedway's paying customers, the over 50s.

[Sidney the robin]

14 minutes ago, MattK said:

I go by my own completely unscientific method of counting people, but yes, I'd say 800-ish is about average.

There was between  250/  400 at the disastrous junior/National league  challenge fixture Matt when 500 was the figure bandied about to break even.Maybe DORIS / ORLOV can give there opinion's they are both very good at predicting attendances.I stick to an average crowd of between 1000/1,300.

[MattK]

6 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

There was between  250/  400 at the disastrous junior/National league  challenge fixture Matt when 500 was the figure bandied about to break even.Maybe DORIS / ORLOV can give there opinion's they are both very good at predicting attendances.I stick to an average crowd of between 1000/1,300.

How do you get to those numbers?

[Ben91]

3 hours ago, MattK said:

It can, but it is extremely difficult and expensive. Most business focus on a particular target market for that every reason. Not only to know who to market towards, but also to tailor their product to suit their customers needs.

I think it would be a very difficult balancing act for speedway to appeal to both its core supporters and whatever new group(s) it is trying to attract.

Businesses maybe. Sport is a different kettle of fish, although I still appreciate the business aspect. Speedway needs to be marketed as what it is, 60 seconds of action, loud, dirty and action packed (sometimes...). Presenting the product that way brings in people of all ages, genders etc. who will appreciate that kind of entertainment rather than saying “let’s target 50+ males.” For example.

Speedway’s current core supporters don’t need to be advertised to in brutal honesty. They will show up whatever dross is served up and they know where to find the information they need about events that are taking place. Floating fans also know this information too.

My issue with targeting an older audience just because that is the group that makes up the bulk of the current audience is that these people on the terraces did not come to Speedway as 50+ year-old adults. They have been fans for 20-30 years, if not longer in some cases. Their peers will probably have been exposed to the sport already in their youth when it was more popular and decided then that it wasn’t their cup of tea. It’s unlikely that that will have changed now, particularly with the state Speedway is in here. 

[topaz325]

As was said today on tv, we are only as strong as the weakest country regarding the virus. To get anything back to some sort of normality is going to take a long time when the virus is gone.

Imagine if in a few months Europe got back to "normal" but the virus was still active in other countries , we would be back to square one very soon with another surge of cases.

Speedway could come back later in the year but with any riders flying in I,m not so sure....

[Sidney the robin]

42 minutes ago, MattK said:

How do you get to those numbers?

Were you there '???? Matt barring in mind out of the average gate i gave 1000/1,300  at least 200 don't pay .Your prediction of 800 with 200 non payers how on earth could Swindon afford to operate.??

[MattK]

4 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

Were you there '???? Matt barring in mind out of the average gate i gave 1000/1,300  at least 200 don't pay .Your prediction of 800 with 200 non payers how on earth could Swindon afford to operate.??

I have no idea. As I said, I count the people I see and it comes to about 800-ish. If 200 of them are freeloaders, then that's even worse!

I think we survive off the generosity of Terry and the other guys. No wonder Terry has been trying to sell his stake for as long as I can remember.