Survival of The Premiership?

[Speedtiger]

Sadly I feel that the sport of speedway, not just the PL, is well beyond resuscitation. The sport has reached rock bottom, or maybe not, driven there by poor promotion and mismanagement and now the amount of serious investment that would be need to reverse things would not make business sense. There is no silver bullet, The sport is effectively bankrupt.

KL are in financial difficulties along with Peterborough and Wolves Poole and Edinburgh are possibly in peril of not running and that’s only what we know…other clubs are clearly under financial pressure.

According to submitted accounts even Belle Vue with its fantastic stadium and track and a winning team are losing eye watering sums each season. Like most clubs the attendance levels have gone significantly down and you only need to look on the terraces to see it’s basically hardcore supporters. 
 

Frustratingly it’s hard to see a way out of the downward spiral there’s no quick easy fix. 

[Toady]

14 hours ago, truthsayer said:

Whataboutery isn't really going to help the situation (even though the answer is 'much higher than speedway').

It's not just standing around. It's standing around in a dilapidated stadium, among an octogenarian audience, listening to bad dad music over a poor quality PA. It's hard to imagine many people coming to a speedway meeting for the first time and thinking 'hey, this is my tribe'. 

Was at Oxford last night no dad music, large mixed age audience quality stadium and excellent racing what’s the secret ?

[ch958]

Just now, Toady said:

Was at Oxford last night no dad music, large mixed age audience quality stadium and excellent racing what’s the secret ?

novelty, and a strong team, crowds will fall off in time.

Team speedway can survive but its back to basics for me. 

[Bojangles]

7 minutes ago, ch958 said:

novelty, and a strong team, crowds will fall off in time.

Team speedway can survive but its back to basics for me. 

For once I agree with the Toad. Not sure why crowds should fall off. The novelty factor of Oxford's return has surely already worn off 18 months later. If anything, the crowds are getting bigger, more diverse and the stadium is still improving.

Probably helps that there's limited other professional sports (bar a mediocre Oxford United and an improving Oxford City) to offer entertainment in the city, mind.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Bojangles

[Roger Jacobs]

6 hours ago, steve roberts said:

Granted but that's the reality and the situation is unlikely to change unfortunately hence the current plight. When Hackney was upgraded and became a state of the art stadium it still didn't attract the punters in any great numbers and soon went into receivership and was eventually demolished like other well appointed stadiums like Wimbledon and Coventry for example for differing reasons.

Whoever did the business case for upgrading Hackney got it completely wrong.  Waterden Road was originally part of a thriving East End, but was gradually surrounded by industry, and the remaining local population changed in just a few years from traditional working class greyhound and speedway loving cockneys to new generations and descendants of West Indians, Asians, etc.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Roger Jacobs

[tellboy]

2 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

 

Point being missed here with comparison. 

Around 60mins of actual playing time but even with throw in's, goal kicks, free kicks, substitutions there's still something for the fans to see. Even when the ball is 'out of play' the tactical game continues. You still get to see 90-100mins of something, all the players. 

With Speedway, after every heat, to the fans the meeting is totally dead. 

But most people just say 15 minutes of action at speedway.On your view of football then in turn we could add watching the bikes start,practice starts watching spanners being thrown in the pits etc.Watching mechanics changing set ups etc.Not the most exciting but just the same as a throw in,substitutions etc.And boy I have been to 100s of football matches.

[FromBendThree]

Returning to getting feedback from customer, NHS clinic has just asked me to rate my visit this week and comment.

[Arthur73]

I listened to Lee Colemans views on the situation and I think his idea to remove intervals, have more lap of honours and more entertainment in grading breaks is a good start.

Possible structure:

Before meeting: Junior riders doing some warm up or even a few races

Heat 4-5 break: Interview with some crowd members, possibly some planned

Heat 7-8 break: Some sort of game on centre green, if possible speedway related. E.g. get a few guys from crowd and some tired speedway tires, see who can get the most tires from one place to the other in one minute. Winner gets a rider shirt/hat 

Heat 11-12 break: Rider/team manager interviews 

After meeting: Winning team go round the track together and possibly some more practice rides from juniors 

In all other heats I think a general speedier turn around between heats would help.

[IainB]

33 minutes ago, Arthur73 said:

After meeting: Winning team go round the track together and possibly some more practice rides from juniors 

After the meeting at Leicester the whole team and manager come out on the track and gather in front of the crowd on the home straight for interviews, photo's, chat's with the crowd etc.

I know they've done this for a while, I've never really stayed behind before as it was a Saturday night and I had other things to get to, but I have stayed behind and listened to the rider/manager interviews this season and I must say it's something that's done excellently at Leicester and they bring the team out immediately after the last race so there's no real hanging around for it either 

[Toady]

52 minutes ago, Arthur73 said:

I listened to Lee Colemans views on the situation and I think his idea to remove intervals, have more lap of honours and more entertainment in grading breaks is a good start.

Possible structure:

Before meeting: Junior riders doing some warm up or even a few races

Heat 4-5 break: Interview with some crowd members, possibly some planned

Heat 7-8 break: Some sort of game on centre green, if possible speedway related. E.g. get a few guys from crowd and some tired speedway tires, see who can get the most tires from one place to the other in one minute. Winner gets a rider shirt/hat 

Heat 11-12 break: Rider/team manager interviews 

After meeting: Winning team go round the track together and possibly some more practice rides from juniors 

In all other heats I think a general speedier turn around between heats would help.

They do that at Oxford already tractor and water bowser come out do several laps then driver jumps out of bowser and tractor driver jumps in then proceeds to do a few more laps. Very entertaining 

[Baldyman]

They need to do some stuff that keeps the crowd interested whilst there are breaks,,, I suggest pole dancing, mud wrestling and a wet t shirt competition. 

[Toady]

9 minutes ago, Baldyman said:

They need to do some stuff that keeps the crowd interested whilst there are breaks,,, I suggest pole dancing, mud wrestling and a wet t shirt competition. 

Try to be serious

[bruno]

17 minutes ago, Toady said:

Try to be serious

I think he is

[Baldyman]

29 minutes ago, Toady said:

Try to be serious

Okay okay,,,, swap the mud for baked beans in tomato sauce,,,, or strawberry jelly

[barrybishop]

On 7/4/2023 at 5:05 PM, SJA said:

I went to a recent IOW Event against the Rockets as its one of the teams I have supported over the last 40 years. Now, I appear I am the only one who thinks this but I found it a well run event but poor racing and I don't need all the other stuff they do. If I wanted that sort of event I would attend the Scout or Village Fete. I am aware that this will make me Public Enemy Number 1 with the Barry Bishop Happy Clappers. As for know how to operate within their budget I wouldn't be so sure of this having had a quick look at Companies House.

hey, firstly thanks for attending.... and you are right, how we run speedway it's not for everyone. We aim for mainstream fans of speedway and motorcycling, and of course tourists. I dont agree with your comment of poor racing, we all have different expectations for that I guess but the overwhelming feedback, despite all the challenges we face external to Nora and what we want to do, is that the racing was great, entertainment was brilliant and its was non stop action. If you come down for the second leg be sure to introduce yourself to me and lets discuss it further. All the best and i really hope that we've kickstarted more interest in RH returning where no other club would even consider helping.

[Falcon1983]

How about someone goes around the crowd with a cattle prod and shock some life back into the spectators, if done around heats 9-10 it should see them through to the end of the meeting

[steve roberts]

6 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

 

Point being missed here with comparison. 

Around 60mins of actual playing time but even with throw in's, goal kicks, free kicks, substitutions there's still something for the fans to see. Even when the ball is 'out of play' the tactical game continues. You still get to see 90-100mins of something, all the players. 

With Speedway, after every heat, to the fans the meeting is totally dead. 

An interesting analogy. I went to two Wembley Bowls (American Football) and there were so many stoppages (Televised live back in the States so adverts were a priority) and although the players remained on the pitch and there was a continual "circus" being acted out on the off-field I grew tired of it all. Prefered to watch the edited highlights of a game.

[steve roberts]

3 hours ago, tellboy said:

But most people just say 15 minutes of action at speedway.On your view of football then in turn we could add watching the bikes start,practice starts watching spanners being thrown in the pits etc.Watching mechanics changing set ups etc.Not the most exciting but just the same as a throw in,substitutions etc.And boy I have been to 100s of football matches.

I used to peer over the fence of the third bend at Cowley to view the pits which sometimes proved interesting. Perhaps more should be made of the pits? I Know that the late Peter Seaton suggesed that speedway should make the pits more visible (think he mentioned centre green?) so that fans if they wished could share the experience. Personally I had no problem with breaks between races as I used to chat to my mates pre-empting the next tactical move or what we had just witnesssed on track. I never got hung up over the adage of "15 minutes of racing" only that there should be more than just the 15 heats.

[mikebv]

2 hours ago, Baldyman said:

They need to do some stuff that keeps the crowd interested whilst there are breaks,,, I suggest pole dancing, mud wrestling and a wet t shirt competition. 

Have you seen the size of some of those old blokes who go to Speedway?

They can keep their overcoats on for me...

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, barrybishop said:

hey, firstly thanks for attending.... and you are right, how we run speedway it's not for everyone. We aim for mainstream fans of speedway and motorcycling, and of course tourists. I dont agree with your comment of poor racing, we all have different expectations for that I guess but the overwhelming feedback, despite all the challenges we face external to Nora and what we want to do, is that the racing was great, entertainment was brilliant and its was non stop action. If you come down for the second leg be sure to introduce yourself to me and lets discuss it further. All the best and i really hope that we've kickstarted more interest in RH returning where no other club would even consider helping.

Now that is a professional at work....

Always see an opportunity...

Never openly criticise your punters...

A "growth mindset" can aptly describe those of a similar disposition...

Be positively constructive in any criticism you give, accept all feedvack as useful, take calculated risks, make mistakes, learn from them...

Imagine if all promoters had such a mindset?