UK speedway slowly dying

[old bob at herne bay]

Not been on here for many months - lost all interest to be honest, but thought I would take a quick look to see what clubs were still in business.

 

See Newcastle have gone, Armadale going next year, and Kent clinging on at Iwade training track.

Nothing seen about Eastbourne , Rye House , Swindon or Coventry. Assume dead and buried.

Seems Poole are still wining everything and aside from a few odd "pairs" meetings the "premiership" lurches along with a few teams and everyone riding as double uppers in all the leagues.

Maybe I will come back in a few years time to see what is happening .....

 

 

[customhouseregular]

56 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Not been on here for many months - lost all interest to be honest, but thought I would take a quick look to see what clubs were still in business.

 

See Newcastle have gone, Armadale going next year, and Kent clinging on at Iwade training track.

Nothing seen about Eastbourne , Rye House , Swindon or Coventry. Assume dead and buried.

Seems Poole are still wining everything and aside from a few odd "pairs" meetings the "premiership" lurches along with a few teams and everyone riding as double uppers in all the leagues.

Maybe I will come back in a few years time to see what is happening .....

 

 

Spot on, sorry to say. This is British speedway 2022.

[arnieg]

A bit selective. Oxford's return has been a roaring sucess and Workington looking positive for next year.

 But yes, we all know the general direction of travel.

 

[IainB]

Not another "the end is nigh" thread!

[IainB]

35 minutes ago, arnieg said:

A bit selective. Oxford's return has been a roaring sucess and Workington looking positive for next year.

 But yes, we all know the general direction of travel.

 

Edinburgh look like they may survive and Poole are far from winning everything

[old bob at herne bay]

Ah yes - I see Oxford have replaced Kent in the "championship" taken half their team with 'em too ! Last meeting I attended was back last season was at Sittingbourne think Eastbourne were the visitors. Seemed a good time to pack up speedway. 

Don't think the " end is nigh"  iain b , sure it will linger on for a good few seasons.  We haven't even got down to one league yet.

Lots of clubs are  "maybe's"  for 2023 which seem to occur every season ....just commenting on the here and now.

 

 

 

 

 

[IainB]

8 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Ah yes - I see Oxford have replaced Kent in the "championship" taken half their team with 'em too ! Last meeting I attended was back last season was at Sittingbourne think Eastbourne were the visitors. Seemed a good time to pack up speedway. 

Don't think the " end is nigh"  iain b , sure it will linger on for a good few seasons.  We haven't even got down to one league yet.

Lots of clubs are  "maybe's"  for 2023 which seem to occur every season ....just commenting on the here and now.

 

 

 

 

 

My point was there are already loads of threads about what's wrong with British Speedway... do we really need another one?

[speed29]

Yeah we haven't heard from Reading Racers news and Bradford Dukes, please they coming back

[topsoil]

12 hours ago, iainb said:

Not another "the end is nigh" thread!

Quote from Alex Harkess, the Edinburgh director in the Speedway Star two weeks ago. "If you ever read the Speedway Forum, you would easily start to get depressed. Fortunately the reality of speedway is nothing like that".

 

[enotian]

44 minutes ago, topsoil said:

Quote from Alex Harkess, the Edinburgh director in the Speedway Star two weeks ago. "If you ever read the Speedway Forum, you would easily start to get depressed. Fortunately the reality of speedway is nothing like that".

 

Which is probably why it's in the state it is in. Lack of awareness or denial.  This is a senior experienced official denying that the reality of British speedway isn't *depressing, despite (seemingly) falling attendances and as a result fewer tracks.

I worked a bit with promoters of music event's, club night's and the like. They can never comprehend why their ticket sales for the next event were poor when they had such a great time putting the last event on.  It was a brilliant night they'd say.  Maybe it was for them as there's a lot going on when you're organising an event but did the paying guests enjoy it as much?  They didn't get to hang out with the superstar DJ or didn't have to queue for the bar etc etc.

You have to remember that the vast majority of customers don't have access to the pits/backstage or superstar performers/riders. Any lulls in the entertainment aren't filled by dealing with running the event or catching up with old friends.  And the backstage facilities aren't always the same as those the paying public have to endure.

It is hard for promoters to distance themselves from the experience of the event being at the epicentre of it to what the experience is like for the paying public. Sometimes they're vastly different.  You see it with TV series like Question of Sport or Celebrity Juice. Those involved in making the shows must be having a great time doing so but they're basically unwatchable.

Therein lies the problem. If you don't even think there's anything wrong with the product why would you try to fix it?

* I wouldn't have used that word. The declining state of speedway wouldn't depress me, there's a million and one other things to do. It's just a shame that such a potentially exhilarating sport is producing such a weak product.

[HGould]

4 minutes ago, enotian said:

Which is probably why it's in the state it is in. Lack of awareness or denial.  This is a senior experienced official denying that the reality of British speedway isn't *depressing, despite (seemingly) falling attendances and as a result fewer tracks.

I worked a bit with promoters of music event's, club night's and the like. They can never comprehend why their ticket sales for the next event were poor when they had such a great time putting the last event on.  It was a brilliant night they'd say.  Maybe it was for them as there's a lot going on when you're organising an event but did the paying guests enjoy it as much?  They didn't get to hang out with the superstar DJ or didn't have to queue for the bar etc etc.

You have to remember that the vast majority of customers don't have access to the pits/backstage or superstar performers/riders. Any lulls in the entertainment aren't filled by dealing with running the event or catching up with old friends.  And the backstage facilities aren't always the same as those the paying public have to endure.

It is hard for promoters to distance themselves from the experience of the event being at the epicentre of it to what the experience is like for the paying public. Sometimes they're vastly different.  You see it with TV series like Question of Sport or Celebrity Juice. Those involved in making the shows must be having a great time doing so but they're basically unwatchable.

Therein lies the problem. If you don't even think there's anything wrong with the product why would you try to fix it?

* I wouldn't have used that word. The declining state of speedway wouldn't depress me, there's a million and one other things to do. It's just a shame that such a potentially exhilarating sport is producing such a weak product.

Alex Harkness has done a great job at Edinburgh with John Campbell and possibly the best Supporters Club set up out there in terms of support and fund raising. Alex is entitled to say that as at Edinburgh there is so much right being done and included in that are imaginitive and hopefully successful plans when the bulldozers do move in to Armadale (which is not the fault of the Speedway).

No one is kidding themselves the Sport is in deep decline but there are green-shoots

None more so than Oxford and Workington, hopefully Eastbourne and Swindon can come back in 2023 or before too long and the losses will be minimal and more linked to land value / developments (like at Peterborough) than losses like at Newcastle.

Whether the glass is half full or half empty was probably about 25 years ago, but while a few slops appear in the bottom of the glass we can live in hope.

 

[Bagpuss]

2 hours ago, topsoil said:

Quote from Alex Harkess, the Edinburgh director in the Speedway Star two weeks ago. "If you ever read the Speedway Forum, you would easily start to get depressed. Fortunately the reality of speedway is nothing like that".

Another promoter not interested in listening to the concerns of the sports customers. 

[enotian]

29 minutes ago, HGould said:

Alex Harkness has done a great job at Edinburgh with John Campbell and possibly the best Supporters Club set up out there in terms of support and fund raising. Alex is entitled to say that as at Edinburgh there is so much right being done and included in that are imaginitive and hopefully successful plans when the bulldozers do move in to Armadale (which is not the fault of the Speedway).

No one is kidding themselves the Sport is in deep decline but there are green-shoots

None more so than Oxford and Workington, hopefully Eastbourne and Swindon can come back in 2023 or before too long and the losses will be minimal and more linked to land value / developments (like at Peterborough) than losses like at Newcastle.

Whether the glass is half full or half empty was probably about 25 years ago, but while a few slops appear in the bottom of the glass we can live in hope.

 

depends on how you define a great job. If that's keeping the sport running in difficult times then certainly, great job done.

if it's making speedway the best possible product it can be, then no. because it's not.

again you can't view this in isolation. even if Edinburgh is great and can't be faulted the holistic piece is not in great shape. what's the point in Workington, Eastbourne, Swindon or whoever returning in 2023 when they (or some of the other teams) won't be able to track competitive teams because there are not enough riders to go around even if they are riding for more than one team, which in itself is a divisive issue.

How long will those clubs last starting off at the current NDL level? Could they even contemplate it?

These are all things which could be addressed but never seem to be.

On the point of tracks being lost to development if speedway was a vibrant important part of the local communities there'd be more chance of those developments being denied. You don't often get successful sports clubs kicked out of their home venues as they should boost the economy of the local area. Maybe that's a little unfair on my part but the weakest always get picked off first.

Edited July 24, 2022 by enotian

[bluejam]

17 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

Another promoter not interested in listening to the concerns of the sports customers. 

He doesn't like purchasing tickets before he gets on trains either

[mikebv]

2 hours ago, enotian said:

depends on how you define a great job. If that's keeping the sport running in difficult times then certainly, great job done.

if it's making speedway the best possible product it can be, then no. because it's not.

again you can't view this in isolation. even if Edinburgh is great and can't be faulted the holistic piece is not in great shape. what's the point in Workington, Eastbourne, Swindon or whoever returning in 2023 when they (or some of the other teams) won't be able to track competitive teams because there are not enough riders to go around even if they are riding for more than one team, which in itself is a divisive issue.

How long will those clubs last starting off at the current NDL level? Could they even contemplate it?

These are all things which could be addressed but never seem to be.

On the point of tracks being lost to development if speedway was a vibrant important part of the local communities there'd be more chance of those developments being denied. You don't often get successful sports clubs kicked out of their home venues as they should boost the economy of the local area. Maybe that's a little unfair on my part but the weakest always get picked off first.

Can't remember which Chariman it was a few years sgo who said that getting all the teams through a season meant "success"...

But that probably summed up the level of ambition they have for the sport i would suggest..

Hence so many work in SILO and do "the best they can" (with varying levels of capability and success), to keep their part of the sport going..

We take the pee on here about "five year plans" that they try and follow given they seem to have a new one every other year, but the reality is that given there isn't any mutually agreed clear direction of travel, due to having no vision of where they want to end up, (or even what they actually want to be, ie an "actual team sport" or an "entertainment"), then it cannot be anything other than living "hand to mouth" and "making things up" adhoc as they go along...

It will be interesting to see what they do when Poland do relax their rules, and if tracks do come back, as it will mean more expensive riders in every top team, and even more places for "mid level" riders to be spread out across the leagues..

I would suggest that any thoughts of ever getting "mainstream cut through", or "big name sponsors" are very distant ones, given the operating model they follow can never allow for either, therefore, it is what it is and the sport will "amble on" at best, with some clubs doing better than others, but with the collective entity as a whole never meeting its obvious huge potential...

[uk_martin]

3 hours ago, Bagpuss said:

Another promoter not interested in listening to the concerns of the sports customers. 

Not to mention paying train fares 

Edited July 24, 2022 by uk_martin

[Dnorthstar1970]

I find it laughable the way they tart up the British gp anybody who didn’t follow British speedway would think all was Fine but to be honest British speedway is dead 

[IainB]

8 hours ago, topsoil said:

Quote from Alex Harkess, the Edinburgh director in the Speedway Star two weeks ago. "If you ever read the Speedway Forum, you would easily start to get depressed. Fortunately the reality of speedway is nothing like that".

 

Well it is a bit like that... i was just questioning whether we needed another thread when there's already several already discussing the same topic

[IainB]

6 hours ago, enotian said:

Which is probably why it's in the state it is in. Lack of awareness or denial.  This is a senior experienced official denying that the reality of British speedway isn't *depressing, despite (seemingly) falling attendances and as a result fewer tracks.

I worked a bit with promoters of music event's, club night's and the like. They can never comprehend why their ticket sales for the next event were poor when they had such a great time putting the last event on.  It was a brilliant night they'd say.  Maybe it was for them as there's a lot going on when you're organising an event but did the paying guests enjoy it as much?  They didn't get to hang out with the superstar DJ or didn't have to queue for the bar etc etc.

You have to remember that the vast majority of customers don't have access to the pits/backstage or superstar performers/riders. Any lulls in the entertainment aren't filled by dealing with running the event or catching up with old friends.  And the backstage facilities aren't always the same as those the paying public have to endure.

It is hard for promoters to distance themselves from the experience of the event being at the epicentre of it to what the experience is like for the paying public. Sometimes they're vastly different.  You see it with TV series like Question of Sport or Celebrity Juice. Those involved in making the shows must be having a great time doing so but they're basically unwatchable.

Therein lies the problem. If you don't even think there's anything wrong with the product why would you try to fix it?

* I wouldn't have used that word. The declining state of speedway wouldn't depress me, there's a million and one other things to do. It's just a shame that such a potentially exhilarating sport is producing such a weak product.

Nail hit absolutely on the head for me. Although Speedway has been on the decline for years, imo it took a major down turn during the Harkess years, squandering all that great TV coverage we had and failing to invest in the future. 

[steve roberts]

31 minutes ago, iainb said:

Nail hit absolutely on the head for me. Although Speedway has been on the decline for years, imo it took a major down turn during the Harkess years, squandering all that great TV coverage we had and failing to invest in the future. 

...which also didn't attract any major sponsorship which I have questioned many times over the years?