How Well is Your Club Promoted?

[Sings4Speedway]

11 minutes ago, Dink said:

The question is.....

How can you promote something which is, quite honestly drab at best right now?

Promoters from week to week don't know who will be riding.

It's time to get back to basics...upright, reliable bikes, local riders if possible who are willing to give up an hour or so of their day to take their bike to local schools and give a talk about this wonderful sport.

It's not hard to promote this sport, it was done quite well in the 80's/90's but the powers that be seem to just expect us to turn up week after week to watch what is essentially 15 minutes of "entertainment".

So to clarify clubs should only field local riders if possible, using upright machinery that is 'reliable'?  Obviously they will have time to visit schools with the bikes as most of the riders will be of retirement age! Reliability is a joke too as most are donkeys years old running on parts that are no longer manufactured and therefore are breakdown galore.  Once speedway is dead and buried in the ground can a new sport with new machinery be brought in, until then no rider be they young and upcoming or established are going to sell their current suite of machinery in favour of 'standardised' upright gear.

The on track action has always been largely credible when its between matched riders. What sinks it is ridiculous rules. However most have said before many don't care a jot about rules, regulations or even guests but thats because they don't even know the sport is happening on their doorstep. 

[waytogo28]

24 minutes ago, Dink said:

but the powers that be seem to just expect us to turn up week after week to watch what is essentially 15 minutes of "entertainment".

It certainly stopped being 15 mins of entertainment for me about five to ten years ago - possibly 5 mins on  a good night. That is what drove me away from attending regularly ( pre-Covid ). Drab is a kind word for what it has dissolved into being nowadays. I don't think it will ever recover to be a viable sport in the UK. One or two more stadiums will be lost to housing or industrial estates and that will be it. There is no place for it in the UK  after the promoters inability to "do a Poland" became apparent.

[waytogo28]

On 8/21/2021 at 8:59 AM, iainb said:

There are a lot of people on here with some great ideas

When I was a much more enthusiastic fan I collected good ideas from a group of fans. Got no reply.

[IainB]

6 minutes ago, waytogo28 said:

When I was a much more enthusiastic fan I collected good ideas from a group of fans. Got no reply.

... watch this space

[SteveLyric2]

I assume that whatever Peterborough are doing to promote, it seems to be working if last night's delayed start due to massive queues of fans wanting to get in?!!

[Sir Sidney]

2 minutes ago, Skidder1 said:

I assume that whatever Peterborough are doing to promote, it seems to be working if last night's delayed start due to massive queues of fans wanting to get in?!!

Or perhaps, as reported elsewhere, they just had fewer entrance gates open. 

I sincerely hope it was because more people were there to watch the top two teams in the league

[SteveLyric2]

Clearly there is more interest in a successful 'Dad's Army' team of established riders than one of young up-and-coming and often struggling future stars?!

[IainB]

19 minutes ago, Skidder1 said:

I assume that whatever Peterborough are doing to promote, it seems to be working if last night's delayed start due to massive queues of fans wanting to get in?!!

A successful club always attracts the crowds, what extra initiatives Peterborough have in place to promote the sport in their area, outside of a press release on their website and socials, I don't know as I live in Leicester. There did seem to be a lot of kids in attendance though. 

The queues, imo, were due to lack of staff at the entrance. 

[IainB]

We have a free "local rag" here in Leicester called The Western Park Gazette, it's a bit like a Speedway programme, the same size, in glossy colour, a few articles but mainly page after page of adverts of local businesses. It gets delivered to houses in the local area immediately adjacent to Beaumont Park... guess what?

No mention of Speedway in it whatsoever, not even in the events diary... This is exactly the type of publication that Leicester Speedway should be advertising in, with a £2 off voucher or something.

http://www.westernparkgazette.co.uk/pdfs/Gazette-Aug-21.pdf

One wonders that with the Leicester promotion not being "local people" whether they are aware of such publications. Although the IOW promotion seem to do it pretty well from a distance.

[IainB]

On 8/23/2021 at 4:26 PM, waytogo28 said:

When I was a much more enthusiastic fan I collected good ideas from a group of fans. Got no reply.

1 month ago today, I took the time and trouble to write a very polite 860 word email to the Leicester "promotion", asking some of the questions I have asked on here and in the Leicester thread and putting forward some of the ideas I have had and voiced on this forum to help try and improve the visibility of Leicester Speedway as a club and reigning Champions.

I'm still waiting for a reply and none of the basic simple things (cost free) I suggested have been acted upon. Not even a courtesy "thank you for your email" (we've put it straight in the bin) reply! Nothing, blanked!

So there you have it Leicester fans... you're all being mugged off by a promotion that have absolutely no idea in the meaning of the word... But I'll continue to go... until the next call to arms is issued telling us all that the crowd levels aren't big enough.

Don't kid yourselves as soon as the success stops, the crowds WILL drop, but I'll still be there.

[Trees]

On 8/27/2021 at 10:12 AM, iainb said:

1 month ago today, I took the time and trouble to write a very polite 860 word email to the Leicester "promotion", asking some of the questions I have asked on here and in the Leicester thread and putting forward some of the ideas I have had and voiced on this forum to help try and improve the visibility of Leicester Speedway as a club and reigning Champions.

I'm still waiting for a reply and none of the basic simple things (cost free) I suggested have been acted upon. Not even a courtesy "thank you for your email" (we've put it straight in the bin) reply! Nothing, blanked!

So there you have it Leicester fans... you're all being mugged off by a promotion that have absolutely no idea in the meaning of the word... But I'll continue to go... until the next call to arms is issued telling us all that the crowd levels aren't big enough.

Don't kid yourselves as soon as the success stops, the crowds WILL drop, but I'll still be there.

You ought to ask the promotion to see if they received it. It's a shame promotions don't have the decency to reply if only to say thanks for the email

[steve roberts]

16 minutes ago, Trees said:

You ought to ask the promotion to see if they received it. It's a shame promotions don't have the decency to reply if only to say thanks for the email

Steve Purchase was one promoter who frequented the old Oxford Forum and even invited me along to a pre-season discussion with others to pass comments and ideas on the forthcoming season. He would also walk amongst the crowd at Cowley and make himself available to the fans.

[IainB]

2 hours ago, Trees said:

You ought to ask the promotion to see if they received it.

I'm almost past caring tbh.

[Trees]

31 minutes ago, iainb said:

I'm almost past caring tbh.

But you're not or you wouldn't have posted on here.  I thought everything was so hunky dory at Leicester!!!

[IainB]

2 minutes ago, Trees said:

But you're not or you wouldn't have posted on here.  I thought everything was so hunky dory at Leicester!!!

Well, on the face of it, it is. But even we had the we're not getting enough people through the turnstiles call to arms earlier in the season. This particularly incensed me as the visibility of the Speedway product in Leicester is almost non-existent, If you're not already in the know. I made a few comments/suggestions on the Leicester 2021 thread to which a few people took exception to. A couple of posters suggested that if I were that concerned why don't I put my suggestions to the promotion... so I did... No reply, so if I can still be bothered I will continue to "consistently moan" on here about some of the easy wins that Leicester could do with little or no cost. I don't know if you remember but we won the last Championship league title in 2019, the club's first league win EVER! Never gets mentioned at Beaumont Park the club have made zero capital on what they spend all year trying to win.

[Skodaman]

1 hour ago, iainb said:

Well, on the face of it, it is. But even we had the we're not getting enough people through the turnstiles call to arms earlier in the season. This particularly incensed me as the visibility of the Speedway product in Leicester is almost non-existent, If you're not already in the know. I made a few comments/suggestions on the Leicester 2021 thread to which a few people took exception to. A couple of posters suggested that if I were that concerned why don't I put my suggestions to the promotion... so I did... No reply, so if I can still be bothered I will continue to "consistently moan" on here about some of the easy wins that Leicester could do with little or no cost. I don't know if you remember but we won the last Championship league title in 2019, the club's first league win EVER! Never gets mentioned at Beaumont Park the club have made zero capital on what they spend all year trying to win.

This refered to the cubs meetings!

[IainB]

36 minutes ago, Skodaman said:

This refered to the cubs meetings!

No, they also referred to the upcoming Championship meeting!

And they've not ridden at home in the NDL since

Edited August 31, 2021 by iainb

[old bob at herne bay]

Dont for one second think that promoters are remotely interested in their supporters' views.   I have written / emailed to promoters several times, and only once had a reply  (from Ronnie Greene at Wimbledon) 

All this talk of  so and so being very approachable and willing to listen etc. etc. load of old tosh . It's their train set and they will do what they like with it.  If you dont like it ...... tough.  Its their money and they will do what they like .... except when the wheels come off and its the supporters fault for not turning up.

All this talk of promoting the sport .... maybe a good start would be to look at the standard of presentation at the actual stadia.

For example ... how many fans did Eastbourne lose after subjecting them to a broken starting gate, and then a fence demolition by the tractor ?

how many fans                               did Poole lose after watching an exhibition of track repairs during the meeting?

ditto                                                      Kent last week (dust bowl)

ditto                                                      Birmingham first meeting of season  (abandoned) and again a few weeks ago dust bowl.

The pre meeting parades at tracks also leave a lot to be desired and are very variable. Most riders seem totally uninterested in seeing the crowd, and would rather not bother, the PA systems at some tracks are inaudible and you have no idea who's riding from the "on track " announcer.  Som eride around huddled on the back of a tractor, some on thier bikes on the "outfield" so you can actually see them.

I would find it very hard to successfully market a product that regularly failed to deliver so spectacularly,  and takes place on random days spaced randomly throughout a season.

Edited August 31, 2021 by old bob at herne bay