Were are the Brum Fans

[SteveLyric2]

19 minutes ago, secsy1 said:

It does appear on face value that a lot of effort has gone into promoting the Brummies this season with hand outs and advertisement.

If it is still not working and attracting fans then it could be price related?

Attracting 200 fans at £20 equates to £4000.

So as a test indicator to rule that out why not charge £10 and see how many appear.

Who knows if 400 fans attend, an increase of 50% but still the same £4000 and the answer.

Very simple indicator. 

Less VAT. (But I agree, £20+ seems to be a tipping point for some).

[Trackrat]

Having a diabetics bag taken off them at the door with their food in is not great for public relations. 5 people don’t go anymore because of this.

[Berry9]

17 minutes ago, Trackrat said:

Having a diabetics bag taken off them at the door with their food in is not great for public relations. 5 people don’t go anymore because of this.

I just had a look at the term and conditions and supporters are not allowed to take food in.  I think this is shocking, when I went there the food and drink prices were outrageous and I was told by home supporters that the food and drink outlets belonged to the stadium and the club received no income from them.   Why on earth did the Brummies agree to this clause and how on earth can they sustain themselves going  forward without this vital income stream?  Newcastle were also tennants and I was told they shared the same landlord as Brum yet during Rob Grants tenure he had his own food van on site.

[HGould]

Almost all rented venues have food and drink profits going to Owners. PB always been that way

The issues at PB though seem to have deteriorated with most recent Stadium Manager and transition of Stadium Owners, the latest occupant on behalf of Stadium Owners seems like an absolute knob. 

Certainly the policing of food and drink, essential to some like diabetics as suggested, has become something like totalitarian state. 

One occasion in heatwave last summer was draconian dangerous to health and totally OTT confiscating small plastic bottles of water even almost empty ones. When challenged the security comment was that they didn't want people topping them up from toilet sinks. 

[szkocjasid]

The fact that despite Bowtell scoring 11 points last night, Birmingham still lost. Some fans will only support a winning team (not all) so that has to hurt attendance levels. Plus admission gets more expensive each year, but the racing doesn't get any better!

[Fromafar]

10 hours ago, HGould said:

Agreed the numbers last night were as bad as I've seen at any time since we moved to CL level in 2019.

I think there are speedway reasons, lack of strength in the team, indifference to BSN Cup and KOCCup and the opposition who are a team with a notoriously bad away support.

Bigger issue though I think is Cost of Living Crisis. There are simply too many other things to do in a big City with reduced disposable social income,  many don't even have that income any more. Those Clubs where Speedway has a higher profile with less other sporting attractions will ride out the storm better than I fear Clubs like Brummies will.

Fact of life.

 

What was your estimate of Crowd Level?

[HGould]

19 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

What was your estimate of Crowd Level?

I didn't go up to the top bar restaurant area last night so not too scientific but based on outside and lower area inside I'd say ball park 500

[secsy1]

15 hours ago, HGould said:

I didn't go up to the top bar restaurant area last night so not too scientific but based on outside and lower area inside I'd say ball park 500

Once again try a new approach. For a forward thinking and fan appreciating club throw it out everywhere that it a tenner and kids accompanied by an adult free.

This will see if it is price related and give a good example to every club that a new approach could work.

Speedway always has and will be Risk Related for both Promoters and Riders, but Who Dares Wins in Both Cases.

[Sings4Speedway]

15 hours ago, HGould said:

I didn't go up to the top bar restaurant area last night so not too scientific but based on outside and lower area inside I'd say ball park 500

Ouch...feel like i recall seeing 1000 mentioned in the past as a break even figure so the two are miles apart.  Sadly im not convinced that even if the Brum team had been built as entertaining and competitive as Redcar (in fact the Bears have more Brum fan favourites) that the crowd figures would be much more, a 40% increase would still only give 700 on the gate and probably outgoings would be even higher. 

If Birmingham are to survive its going to be a long few seasons, building slowly and being honest with the problems that are faced (rather than the occasional call to arms, woe is me, use it or lose it messages). To be fair its not only Birmingham with problems just more apparent than most at the moment. My sad prediction is that 10 tracks will close over the next 5 years.

[StevePark]

56 minutes ago, secsy1 said:

Once again try a new approach. For a forward thinking and fan appreciating club throw it out everywhere that it a tenner and kids accompanied by an adult free.

This will see if it is price related and give a good example to every club that a new approach could work.

Speedway always has and will be Risk Related for both Promoters and Riders, but Who Dares Wins in Both Cases.

It wouldn't be a new approach (maybe it would but only in Birmingham's case) as Berwick tried it for a few weeks when John Anderson was promoter.  He told me that he would charge £10 a meeting "if he could" but it made very little difference to the amount of people attending and therefore lost a bucket load of ££. It might work for Birmingham as it has a larger catchment area, but the simple fact is, if you are not a speedway fan you probably won't be interested, even at a tenner and even more so if the team is a poor one.

[GiveusaB]

The only way we/bham could improve on crowd numbers is: if we had a radical change of team name and became a collaborated/amalgamation of B'ham/Coventry/Cradley... (possibly Wolverhampton next season...)

I can't see why that wouldn't work.... after all, what's in a name?

Edited May 5, 2023 by GiveusaB

[Fromafar]

The racing was decent all be it the track was slick.

[mikebv]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:42 AM, StevePark said:

It wouldn't be a new approach (maybe it would but only in Birmingham's case) as Berwick tried it for a few weeks when John Anderson was promoter.  He told me that he would charge £10 a meeting "if he could" but it made very little difference to the amount of people attending and therefore lost a bucket load of ££. It might work for Birmingham as it has a larger catchment area, but the simple fact is, if you are not a speedway fan you probably won't be interested, even at a tenner and even more so if the team is a poor one.

The issue always appeaed to me that when tracks did "£10 Speedway" it was very much part of a marketing plan akin "Build it and they will come"..

And was a one off, maybe tops two, meeting venture.. 

The trick that I never saw happen was to use the night as a launch pad for further targeted offers down the line...

Names, mobile numbers, email and home addresses, birthday dates of the adults and more importantly maybe the kids, etc could all have been gleaned on the nights that the "special" was done..

And with that info you then target market ongoing..

Expecting someone to pay a tenner, or even nothing at all, for anything, and then expect instant constant repeat purchasers at circa twenty quid is utter folly..

Get someone attending four or five times over say a couple of months and you have more chance of hooking them long term..

A £10 Speedway night" should be planned both on and off the track and see clubs armed at the end of it with an incredible amount of information from which to build their business.. 

And see the fans there that night leave armed with tangibles such car stickers, pens, and other "cheap as chips" memorabilia that gets your reach out there on a base level, and also armed with contact info for those at the club, and links to club websites, fans groups etc... 

(But maybe not a link to us on here)..

[IainB]

3 hours ago, mikebv said:

The issue always appeaed to me that when tracks did "£10 Speedway" it was very much part of a marketing plan akin "Build it and they will come"..

And was a one off, maybe tops two, meeting venture.. 

The trick that I never saw happen was to use the night as a launch pad for further targeted offers down the line...

Names, mobile numbers, email and home addresses, birthday dates of the adults and more importantly maybe the kids, etc could all have been gleaned on the nights that the "special" was done..

And with that info you then target market ongoing..

Expecting someone to pay a tenner, or even nothing at all, for anything, and then expect instant constant repeat purchasers at circa twenty quid is utter folly..

Get someone attending four or five times over say a couple of months and you have more chance of hooking them long term..

A £10 Speedway night" should be planned both on and off the track and see clubs armed at the end of it with an incredible amount of information from which to build their business.. 

And see the fans there that night leave armed with tangibles such car stickers, pens, and other "cheap as chips" memorabilia that gets your reach out there on a base level, and also armed with contact info for those at the club, and links to club websites, fans groups etc... 

(But maybe not a link to us on here)..

Exactly how I started going to Speedway, the freebie 2nd half and it wasn't 1 second half and I was in, like you said it was 4 or 5 and then the odd paid full match and then got hooked from there

Edited May 6, 2023 by iainb

[Nickinho]

On 5/4/2023 at 8:12 AM, stevehone said:

Nothing to do with BSN Cup or KOC, it’s just too expensive for people

And the football isn't?

[LisaColette]

12 minutes ago, Nickinho said:

And the football isn't?

It is all about VFM. People don't mind paying more (as long as finances allow) as long as they think they are getting their money's worth. 

[Fozzie4388]

48 minutes ago, Nickinho said:

And the football isn't?

I worked it out recently it costs me £30 a month to go watch my local football team in the championship whether it's 1, 2, 3 or 4 home games in that month 

Where as if I want to Cross the Humber to go to Scunthorpe speedway for 1 meeting it costs me over £30 with £20 enterance, £1 programme, £3 bridge toll then 70+ miles worth of petrol

So football isn't always as expensive as speedway. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Fozzie4388

[steve roberts]

2 hours ago, Fozzie4388 said:

I worked it out recently it costs me £30 a month to go watch my local football team in the championship whether it's 1, 2, 3 or 4 home games in that month 

Where as if I want to Cross the Humber to go to Scunthorpe speedway for 1 meeting it costs me over £30 with £20 enterance, £1 programme, £3 bridge toll then 70+ miles worth of petrol

So football isn't always as expensive as speedway. 

...the price of fuel is what largely dictates my not travelling and to be fair I did limit my trips to other tracks during my last years attending speedway keeping very much to my local track at Cowley where I lived within walking distance.

[Deano]

On 5/4/2023 at 9:18 AM, DiveBomb said:

Don't think the price is that bad. I just think it's a number of things that aren't helping the situation

1. The team isn't great this year

2. The location puts people off 

3. Birmingham speedway has been slowly declining for a while now

4. The cost of living 

5. Away fans don't want to travel there as much due to location and cost of living

6. Poor advertising around the area

7. The younger generation aren't interested or have never even heard of speedway 

8. Lack of local derbies

9. The viewing experience is only good in a few areas of the stadium.

 

 

No9 has been a problem since 2007. Speedway fans are a fickle bunch on so many levels. Tell them to stand in a place they don’t like standing to get a view doesn’t help. Then the stadium owners build a bus shelter blocking one of the few viewing positions. The opening years people would stand 10 rows thick in front the starting gate unable to see through the tall geezers at the front as the ground is flat. The stadium just isn’t designed for speedway and it erodes away the enjoyment of those first experiences for new fans. I’ve introduced four regulars 14 year olds they do love it. They go to Arthur Terry Four Oaks Sutton Coldfield. There are glimmers of hope. Get some bikes in the school, they must talk about it. 

[Deano]

Additionally there’s an engineering college (Make U.K.), just across the road up Holford Drive. The place is full of well paid young apprentices from big local companies (Jag, Land Rover, Sertec), check out their website. BMW and West Midlands trains apprentices are based at James Watt campus Great Barr again well paid. Worth investigating surely as these kids have no commitments like adults with families.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Deano