British GP Cardiff Saturday 2nd September

[glenantony]

I'm afraid this sums up this forum - Cardiff is usually the best chance that Speedway has for mainstream coverage and publicity. The city becomes a speedway centre for at least a day and people who attend seem to enjoy themselves.

Yet, here on the forum, we get 'speedway fans' who can only get joy out of the fact that it might be a failure!

'Only 7500 tickets sold, blue-light tickets to fill the stadium, must be the last one etc etc' - if you're not interested in Cardiff, don't go and don't sit by your keyboard and take your little pot shots, hoping for failure. Start a new forum for just slagging off the sport and congratulate each other on your success if things don't go to plan - just keep it away from here and let's enjoy some positivity.

I hope those who are moved to a more expensive area, enjoy it more. I hope that the cameras make the place look packed. I hope some free ticketholders take a new interest in the sport and I hope everyone that goes has a great day of racing and a good time in Cardiff.  The demise of the Cardiff weekend has been predicted before - but here we go again.

[Hackett]

To be honest the ticket prices aren't the issue.

The cost for 2 adults and teenage kids now is not too bad. However the cost of hotels is astronomical "weekend event" rates. Last year was an exception because of covid etc the date was moved and announced and managed to get a hotel near Cardiff Bay relatively cost effective. This year it was back to normal and the hotels had ramped the costs up as soon as the event was announced. So we will look to drive into Cardiff early park up and then drive home. 

Agreed last year was farcical and the SGP2 was worst. The event is good in that it brings speedway fans across the country together and not hiding behind keyboards however the spectacle in my opinion has diminished whether this is the because of the cost of hotels or simply it is the same old show / format for 20 years gets a little tedious especially if the racing is a non event. Last year the spectacle was that Dan Bewley won the meeting but that seems to have been forgotten. 

Personally if it wasn't for the kids wanting to go , I could easily give it a miss. The jewel in the speedway crown is now Warsaw and I would look to put the SGP at National Speedway Stadium as the racing would be far better even with a downpour. The cost of hiring the Principality and even with the ongoing deal with Tourism Wales the profit must be marginal at best. 

 

 

[IainB]

36 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

If i had paid £25 for a ticket to watch last seasons debacle I would have been looking to get a £ 24.50 refund.

And we got more pain the next day with SGP2!

[IainB]

29 minutes ago, glenantony said:

I'm afraid this sums up this forum - Cardiff is usually the best chance that Speedway has for mainstream coverage and publicity. The city becomes a speedway centre for at least a day and people who attend seem to enjoy themselves.

Yet, here on the forum, we get 'speedway fans' who can only get joy out of the fact that it might be a failure!

'Only 7500 tickets sold, blue-light tickets to fill the stadium, must be the last one etc etc' - if you're not interested in Cardiff, don't go and don't sit by your keyboard and take your little pot shots, hoping for failure. Start a new forum for just slagging off the sport and congratulate each other on your success if things don't go to plan - just keep it away from here and let's enjoy some positivity.

I hope those who are moved to a more expensive area, enjoy it more. I hope that the cameras make the place look packed. I hope some free ticketholders take a new interest in the sport and I hope everyone that goes has a great day of racing and a good time in Cardiff.  The demise of the Cardiff weekend has been predicted before - but here we go again.

While I agree with your sentiments and I will be going and will enjoy myself you can't ignore the fact that last year was very nearly a disaster and even before that the crowd was about 50% down on what it has built itself up to be. 

There are many many factors as to why people didn't attend, strikes, cost of accommodation, cost of living, brexit, warsaw gp, lack of competition for Zmarzlik, generally poor racing... take your pick. Last year was a bit of a perfect storm and I'm afraid after last year's debacle and all of those other factors still in play this year seems to be even more of a perfect storm. 

If WBD really want to preserve this once showpiece event they're somehow really going to have to come up with something innovative to tempt fans back. 

I'll be there enjoying it and cheering on the Brits!

[Moonfish]

9 hours ago, Hackett said:

"Last year the spectacle was that Dan Bewley won the meeting but that seems to have been forgotten."

 

 

I think Bewley winning last year may actually have had an adverse effect on this year's ticket sales.

I know that sounds odd, but I reckon for many people one of the reasons for coming back year after year is the fear of missing out, but having seen a British winner last year perhaps that fear has been somewhat diminished? 

Don't get me wrong, many other factors at play will be more significant, but I do wonder if Bewley winning has had a net positive or negative effect?

[IainB]

9 minutes ago, Moonfish said:

I think Bewley winning last year may actually have had an adverse effect on this year's ticket sales.

I know that sounds odd, but I reckon for many people one of the reasons for coming back year after year is the fear of missing out, but having seen a British winner last year perhaps that fear has been somewhat diminished? 

Don't get me wrong, many other factors at play will be more significant, but I do wonder if Bewley winning has had a net positive or negative effect?

Last years attendance looked to be about 50% down on 2019's, I think the ridiculous track conditions will have had more of an effect on this year's attendance than anything Bewley did last year. 

And instead of doing anything to try and improve the crowd WBD's answer is to change the camera angles... you couldn't make it up!

[AFCB Wildcat]

I know it might not have been by choice, but I still think that moving the date away from the traditional June/July fixture to competing with the football season will have had an impact on the attendance.

I know the die hards will probably disagree, but many people have lost their local Speedway team while still following the sport, but support their local football team too.

The combined support of all the tracks left in the UK isn't going to fill a large stadium these days, so the event relies on the casual fan that might make Cardiff their only meeting of the year.

There are circa 850000 sports fans that will be attending football matches on the day of the GP. If only 1% of those would have attended Cardiff if it hadn't clashed with following their football team, it would be a significant amount. 

It's certainly stopped me and 4 others attending in recent years anyway. 

 

 

 

 

 

[SPEEDY69]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:55 PM, Ace no.5 said:

Statement from Connor Bailey in response to Vatcher. I feel he's been really hard done to here...! A very mature and classy statement. Shouldn't be treating our young future stars like this.

 

Having recently become U21 British Champion and riding as well as I ever have, it’s very disappointing that I haven’t been offered a reserve spot at the upcoming Cardiff SGP. 

Furthermore, I feel I need to directly address the statement made by British Youth boss Neil Vatcher on the official British Speedway website earlier today, where it quoted Mr Vatcher as saying the following:

“British Under-21 Champion Connor Bailey was also amongst the riders considered; however, after he turned down opportunities to represent Great Britain in the recent FIM Speedway of Nations 2, and to ride in the British Final, the decision was taken to select Anders and Jason.

For clarity, I was asked to be the reserve at SoN 2 behind Dan Gilkes and Anders Rowe, both of whom I had beaten to the U21 title a couple of weeks earlier. Aside from the logistical and commercial challenges of getting to Latvia, riding at reserve would not have guaranteed that I saw much action. 

Regarding my invite to participate in the British Final, this invite was received at 9PM the night before the event, when I was away celebrating my 21st Birthday. Up until this point no one had mentioned to me that I might be considered for a spot in main lineup of the final. Had I had more notice of this, I would have jumped at the chance!

It saddens me greatly that these two instances appear to have brought into question my commitment to speedway and have impacted my chances of taking one of the reserve spots at the Cardiff SGP in what would have been an incredible experience. 

Meanwhile, I would like to wish Anders and Jason the best of luck at the event.

9pm the day before seems ample time to get ready to me, when the meeting wasn't on until the evening - unless he has a full-time regular job which he couldn't get out of?

[NeilWatson]

11 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said:

9pm the day before seems ample time to get ready to me, when the meeting wasn't on until the evening - unless he has a full-time regular job which he couldn't get out of?

Or you are ‘away’ as the rider states.

Edited August 21, 2023 by NeilWatson

[Marksman]

9 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said:

9pm the day before seems ample time to get ready to me, when the meeting wasn't on until the evening - unless he has a full-time regular job which he couldn't get out of?

The 9pm call came on the exact night of his 21st Birthday, no previous inclination that he might be invited to ride. Can't sit around waiting for what if's

[Marksman]

Having the British GP in Manchester would be ideal, Cardiff has run it's course in my opinion. 10,000 tickets would get snapped up straightaway, nothing you can do about the capacity unless it's hosted at a temporary track, Cardiff will never see big numbers of 40+ thousand again anyways.

SGP2 could be hosted on the Friday night, with a Sunday 12pm start reserved in case of a rain off. A large fanzone could still operate at the Etihad Campus (good transport links to Manchester city centre) for people wanting to make a weekend or day of it. With ample space for Park and Ride to the NSS, just like they had for the SWC in 2016

[LagutaRacingFan]

The BSI are finding out that going woke leads to going broke.

The GP series is a coronation for Zmarzlik without Emil & Artem.

 

[SPEEDY69]

52 minutes ago, NeilWatson said:

Or you are ‘away’ as the rider states.

Thanks, missed that bit.  He should have been notified he was on 'standby' in advance (or worked it out as us fans did once all the dropouts started )

[IainB]

1 hour ago, SPEEDY69 said:

Thanks, missed that bit.  He should have been notified he was on 'standby' in advance (or worked it out as us fans did once all the dropouts started )

The whole British Final was a bit of a shambles really with rider drop outs and confusion over qualification etc. What I find more of an issue is his refusal to ride for his country

[CB252]

3 hours ago, BassoRacingFan said:

The GP series is a coronation for Zmarzlik without Emil & Artem.

 

It was a coronation for him when they were involved. 

In all the years they have ridden together in the GP series, Emil has finished ahead of Zmarzlik in the final standings a grand total of 0 times.

Art managed it once on a dodgy bike, with no tricky tracks on the calendar. Let's be honest, if he'd had to ride a round at Teterow or last year's Cardiff track he'd have been all at sea like he was at Leicester and Ippo.

Edited August 21, 2023 by CB252

[eric i]

22 minutes ago, CB252 said:

It was a coronation for him when they were involved. 

In all the years they have ridden together in the GP series, Emil has finished ahead of Zmarzlik in the final standings a grand total of 0 times.

Art managed it once on a dodgy bike, with no tricky tracks on the calendar. Let's be honest, if he'd had to ride a round at Teterow or last year's Cardiff track he'd have been all at sea like he was at Leicester and Ippo.

Dodgy bike?

[Neila]

8 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

9pm the day before seems ample time to get ready to me, when the meeting wasn't on until the evening - unless he has a full-time regular job which he couldn't get out of?

In conners statement he was having a 21st birthday celebration, also a full time apprentice with allied vehicles/Ford,  and lives in Glasgow,  as British U21 champion maybe he should have been 1st replacement when the seeded riders started to drop like flies 

[The Dog]

Anybody else think the low sales and poor event last year is the reason that Tai and Lambert have been coaxed back to British Speedway?  To try and gain interest and enthusiasm amongst the British fans and get them to turn up? 

Let's face it, Lambert returning to KL makes zero sense in respect of reaching the play offs or financially. 

[therefused]

11 hours ago, The Dog said:

Anybody else think the low sales and poor event last year is the reason that Tai and Lambert have been coaxed back to British Speedway?  To try and gain interest and enthusiasm amongst the British fans and get them to turn up? 

Let's face it, Lambert returning to KL makes zero sense in respect of reaching the play offs or financially. 

why would lambert/woffinden care about the attendance at Cardiff? 

[Grachan]

It's pretty obvious why crowds are falling at Cardiff. The way speedway is now, Cardiff is becoming too big for it.

The event would be as big and special as it always was if the sport here could sustain support.

How many tracks are there now in the UK? On a quick count I make it 19.

Even if each track sent 1000 supporters it doesn't fill half the stadium.