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Newcastle Diamonds 2021


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19 minutes ago, leander said:

Yet the 2nd and 3rd biggest crowd pullers (after Redcar) this season are probably Poole ( with Steve Worrall and Danny King) and Plymouth ( with Bjarne Pedersen and [hopefully] Jason Crump) are here as a double header on the same day. Where you are never going to get close to getting the revenue you would from two individual fixtures. Yes you probably save on rent, but all the other costs are the same as two separate meetings. It's not as if we were short of Sundays. Madness!!

What you have to remember is the first hundred through the door every meeting don’t count as the season ticket money was seized. So if there are 500 through the turnstiles then there’s only 400 paying customers. Maybe he’s thinking if he keeps the cost down( which he has) he’ll attract fans from other teams( Glasgow,Edinburgh Berwick Redcar etc) as well entice old fans back. A lot of people are telling him what he should be doing when basically it’s him who’s losing money every week. Maybe this is his last through of the dice. The press release before was very ominous 

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23 minutes ago, MrP said:

What you have to remember is the first hundred through the door every meeting don’t count as the season ticket money was seized. So if there are 500 through the turnstiles then there’s only 400 paying customers. Maybe he’s thinking if he keeps the cost down( which he has) he’ll attract fans from other teams( Glasgow,Edinburgh Berwick Redcar etc) as well entice old fans back. A lot of people are telling him what he should be doing when basically it’s him who’s losing money every week. Maybe this is his last through of the dice. The press release before was very ominous 

Hope some fans from other clubs do turn up but for an away fan I would say Poole are a bigger attraction than Plymouth but they are at Edinburgh on Friday and Berwick on Saturday so would their fans want to see the same team again in less than 24/48 hours ?

Just read that Jason Crump is back for Plymouth tomorrow so that could be good news for Sunday 

Edited by KEITH M
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Can remember a few years ago arena Essex had a sky match and charged £10 and got a crowd of around 5000, but Workington tried a similar thing, the crowd did increase but not in enough numbers to make a profit !!!  hope the fans of Newcastle respond in great numbers

Edited by Neila
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I hope Newcastle survive but this kind of statement doesn't sit well with me. There was a crowd funding appeal asking for donations before the start of the season and I could see people putting in substantial amounts of money. I think over £10,000 was raised. This was when the promotion had staged one meeting. 

After a handful of home meetings they are threatening to close down.

Edited by CountArthur
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In the statement it says the crowdfunding was used up over two covid restricted meetings so even with increased attendances the promotion are losing four figures each meeting, that's clearly unsustainable. I wonder how much the 4.00pm start time has affected attenances but it's not looking good.

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Unless UK speedway changes its operating model these call to arms will become ever more frequent. I know the rent and operating costs hurt Newcastle but its likely to be a side built at the lower end of the wage scale (throw in that not all that many points are being paid out) and its still not sustainable. Many clubs are struggling to attract 400-500 paying fans but if thats what the limit is then the whole product needs to be marketed to work with those numbers and not the hope that another 300 fans might appear out of the woodwork. If UK speedway as a whole gained 300 fans combined across every track in a season it would be a miracle.

I feel for Rob Grant i really do. He's taken on some bad advice, made some brave decisions (like getting involved in the first place) and faces going from hero to villain. Sadly though a bad business is a bad business and short term cash injections are clearly shown not to be working.

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How many times can a promoter use the ‘use it or lose it’ plea in a season.?  
 

If it’s not sustainable and a promoter is not prepared to fund it out of his own pocket then it leaves only one course of action.   
 

Would it work if it was fan owned ( either full or part) ?

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24 minutes ago, semion said:

How many times can a promoter use the ‘use it or lose it’ plea in a season.?  
 

If it’s not sustainable and a promoter is not prepared to fund it out of his own pocket then it leaves only one course of action.   
 

Would it work if it was fan owned ( either full or part) ?

You don't want 'fan involvement'...

Imagine how long  the AGM's would take because the 'fan owned teams' kept saying "Really? Are you mad?" to every agenda point raised by the clubs ran by sole promoters... :D

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Let’s hope the fans turn out in force.. 

As someone mentioned above he mentions this meeting but what if get a fantastic crowd for this meeting and then a shocking crowd before the end of the season? We need a higher figure and for them to keep coming.

Why not keep plugging the go fund me and people may keep contributing or open something where fans can contribute by paying say £5-100 a month or whatever they can afford? 500 people at even just £5 is £2500 a month and that would surely help massively.

The go fund me showed fans are willing to help keep the speedway going and just thinking of other options to hopefully keep it alive.

Maybe if big crowd against Glasgow at 6.30pm start is a decent crowd could try keeping it at that time til end of season as I know one or two people who can’t attend 2 out of 4 sundays as work until 5. 

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8 minutes ago, Bear_Bottom said:

Can anyone tell me the date the Powers That Be in Speedway are holding the Crisis Meeting to discuss the situation at Newcastle and Birmingham ( and ...) ;)

Probably after it's too late, if at all.

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35 minutes ago, Bear_Bottom said:

Can anyone tell me the date the Powers That Be in Speedway are holding the Crisis Meeting to discuss the situation at Newcastle and Birmingham ( and ...) ;)

They will be more likely working out which riders they can get in to replace their own to improve their teams..

With the top league teams then realising that they already have them.. :D 

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2 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

Unless UK speedway changes its operating model these call to arms will become ever more frequent. I know the rent and operating costs hurt Newcastle but its likely to be a side built at the lower end of the wage scale (throw in that not all that many points are being paid out) and its still not sustainable. Many clubs are struggling to attract 400-500 paying fans but if thats what the limit is then the whole product needs to be marketed to work with those numbers and not the hope that another 300 fans might appear out of the woodwork. If UK speedway as a whole gained 300 fans combined across every track in a season it would be a miracle.

I feel for Rob Grant i really do. He's taken on some bad advice, made some brave decisions (like getting involved in the first place) and faces going from hero to villain. Sadly though a bad business is a bad business and short term cash injections are clearly shown not to be working.

absolutely this - there is no other way

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