British GP Cardiff Saturday 2nd September

[Deano]

46 minutes ago, R87 said:

Glitz and glamour?!

It's Cardiff.  Probably the grubbiest and most boring city in the UK.  It needs binning. 

 

Grubbiest and most boring? 
 

I actually thought it would be nice for a weekend away at some point.

Lots of bars, eatery’s it had a happy vibe about it.

[SPEEDY69]

4 hours ago, Deano said:

I suppose Cardiff gives you the glam full on vibe in a city centre environment. Walking around the city you know there’s a speedway meeting on. Could Belle Vue offer the same. The racing is just part of the experience, many BSPL promotions should learn from it.

Totally agree. I wasn't bothered by the result, (apart from I didn't want madsen to do well) and went for the venue - the city is accessible, friendly, full of speedway fans & things going on, all in a small area. The world cup I went to at belle Vue was awful in comparison, dump area, not easy to get to by public transport, very limited parking and nowt to do around the stadium - plus if it rains, oh well wasted trip. 

[RBThirdbend]

11 minutes ago, Deano said:

Grubbiest and most boring? 
 

I actually thought it would be nice for a weekend away at some point.

Lots of bars, eatery’s it had a happy vibe about it.

Been plenty of times for rugby league and speedway. City is great. It's got its rough bits.

Nothing like the bright lights of Gorton or Ancoats near the NSS of course (although Ancoats has now been "gentrified") 

[Neila]

3 hours ago, geoff100 said:

I wonder if they tip off the hotels before the supporters ??

Most city centre hotels are now priced around £150 or more on a Saturday nite, with or without events on, but you would not know Geoff as you get free digs with driving the bus   by the way have you priced up the Keswick premier inn, £175-200 a night!! So Cardiff is cheaper

[bringbackHalifax]

4 hours ago, geoff100 said:

I wonder if they tip off the hotels before the supporters ??

The hotels all knew the date before we checked in on Friday and when we tried to speculatively book next years, the prices were high but they are high for all weekends in August

[Come on the Skipper]

3 minutes ago, bringbackHalifax said:

The hotels all knew the date before we checked in on Friday and when we tried to speculatively book next years, the prices were high but they are high for all weekends in August

It's also slap bang in the middle of the kids summer holidays, and we know what that does to prices.

[geoff100]

1 hour ago, Neila said:

Most city centre hotels are now priced around £150 or more on a Saturday nite, with or without events on, but you would not know Geoff as you get free digs with driving the bus   by the way have you priced up the Keswick premier inn, £175-200 a night!! So Cardiff is cheaper

Stayed at the mecure in cardiff about 5 yr ago with work  asked how much room would be if i just turned up she told me &80 , not bad so asked for date when speedway was on she looked and said " oh there is an event on that weelend so will be &240 a night ,that finished me with cardiff lol 

[geoff100]

Just now, geoff100 said:

Stayed at the mecure in cardiff about 5 yr ago with work  asked how much room would be if i just turned up she told me &80 , not bad so asked for date when speedway was on she looked and said " oh there is an event on that weelend so will be &240 a night ,that finished me with cardiff lol 

As for keswick buy a tent 

[AFCB Wildcat]

It was the Bournemouth air festival this weekend and the price of hotels was ridiculous. Probably just coincidence though

Hopefully they'll hold it in Manchester or London next year 

[OveFundinFan]

7 hours ago, iainb said:

I would suspect the hotel prices are high every weekend and not just for Speedway, it is a capital city with many attractions and I would think there's some kind of event on most weekends

Correct…. Virtually all city hotels put there prices up when a “show” is taking place in the city, be it football, pop star, an exhibition etc.      

Any city centre with attractions will have not only higher hotel prices, but bars, restaurants, car parking etc will have premium prices too. They invest a lot of money and need a return.

Check out prices for during the week with example Travel Lodge, Premier Inn etc and you will find nightly prices in the week varies. If I remember right Tuesday night was the most expensive because more reps are out on the road.

[Neila]

2 hours ago, geoff100 said:

As for keswick buy a tent 

Even better Geoff I've got a deal   £45 for a Sunday nite 

[IainB]

Having watched it back on TV, what an achievement by Jack Holder which went pretty much unnoticed in the stadium, while we were being treated to dance cam and Mexican wave cam and being asked to "make some noise" the true enormity of what Jack Holder was doing went completely under the radar. 

Kudos!

[FAST GATER]

6 hours ago, iainb said:

Having watched it back on TV, what an achievement by Jack Holder which went pretty much unnoticed in the stadium, while we were being treated to dance cam and Mexican wave cam and being asked to "make some noise" the true enormity of what Jack Holder was doing went completely under the radar. 

Kudos!

Yes I agree I take my hat off to Holder he went through the pain barrier and a bit .

[OveFundinFan]

Some of the comments on here all add to why British speedway is in the dumps. Riders can spend 10’s of thousands of pounds on equipment but the spectators say going watching is worth only £15 for 15 races.  Then it comes to the cream of British racing event, a GP with the worlds best riders giving it all, and they did once again, in a city centre (couldn’t get any more centre), meeting guaranteed no matter what the weather, seats (not standing) from £20 and a fair chunk of the crowd would be in that price range, plenty of meeting day activities including bars, eateries, parks, , rolling hills 10 miles away, sand & sea…………. and they still want hotels for £30 a night.  Get a pop star performing in the same stadium and entry could be £60-£100, the hotels in 3 figures, and the city will be rammed full,  no problem.                  
We know the prices in 2024 will be at least this years prices, so if you want to go you get saving from now.                
The show is not moving to Wembley, but Wembley costs would be similar if not more, the facilities of parks, rolling hills, sand & sea will not be there, parking probably madness and high price, don’t know about bars and eateries, hotels just as expensive etc……. you can’t guarantee a meeting cause if it rains that’s it done, it would be a temporary track with its potential problems, and as I recall the racing at Wembley was not brilliant anyway. Atmosphere was good, very good….. but what would you prefer a fantastic atmosphere or good racing. My choice would be good racing every time. Cardiff can produce good racing, it has over the years, massive hiccup last year, but lesson learnt they are not going to let that happen again.

[FAST GATER]

33 minutes ago, OveFundinFan said:

Some of the comments on here all add to why British speedway is in the dumps. Riders can spend 10’s of thousands of pounds on equipment but the spectators say going watching is worth only £15 for 15 races.  Then it comes to the cream of British racing event, a GP with the worlds best riders giving it all, and they did once again, in a city centre (couldn’t get any more centre), meeting guaranteed no matter what the weather, seats (not standing) from £20 and a fair chunk of the crowd would be in that price range, plenty of meeting day activities including bars, eateries, parks, , rolling hills 10 miles away, sand & sea…………. and they still want hotels for £30 a night.  Get a pop star performing in the same stadium and entry could be £60-£100, the hotels in 3 figures, and the city will be rammed full,  no problem.                  
We know the prices in 2024 will be at least this years prices, so if you want to go you get saving from now.                
The show is not moving to Wembley, but Wembley costs would be similar if not more, the facilities of parks, rolling hills, sand & sea will not be there, parking probably madness and high price, don’t know about bars and eateries, hotels just as expensive etc……. you can’t guarantee a meeting cause if it rains that’s it done, it would be a temporary track with its potential problems, and as I recall the racing at Wembley was not brilliant anyway. Atmosphere was good, very good….. but what would you prefer a fantastic atmosphere or good racing. My choice would be good racing every time. Cardiff can produce good racing, it has over the years, massive hiccup last year, but lesson learnt they are not going to let that happen again.

A very good post some sound reasoning for Cardiff all of which are valid and true but the main overwhelming factor is the roof "guaranteed to be on .Except for the first time I have always done it there and back in the day and had a great time .

As a former hotel owner I can tell you they have to "make  hay while  the sun shines ",  the overheads on going costs are just  the same full as half  empty in many cases ..

Edited September 4, 2023 by FAST GATER

[DJC]

Thoroughly enjoyed it again this year. 

Managed to catch up with some old faces from all over the world that we've not seen in years.

The buzz around the city centre was fantastic with a few friends from work commenting that they didn't realise speedway was so popular as I'm the only one they know who likes it. Imagine if all you moaning on your keyboard from a far had turned up, the impression of a thriving sport worth watching can never be a bad thing.

The meeting its self was very enjoyable, Tai early on looked like the Tai of 2018. As has been pointed out many times you don't need 10 passes in each race for it to be a good race, only a handful of riders actually managed to get out in front and pull away. It was a much better meeting than the majority of GPs this year 

If you want to take it away from Cardiff and up to Belle Vue, go for it. But you'll all be moaning about how poor the 'fan zone' is or the parking or the hotel prices there too! And Wembley talk is quite frankly ludicrous! If you cant fill a 75k seater because its a 'temp track and they never work' how empty is Wembley going to look and what makes you think they'll get that right first time? Give your heads a wobble. 

[Spidvej]

16 hours ago, RBThirdbend said:

Been plenty of times for rugby league and speedway. City is great. It's got its rough bits.

Nothing like the bright lights of Gorton or Ancoats near the NSS of course (although Ancoats has now been "gentrified") 

Don’t forget Moss Side, which isn’t that far away either. 

I think with Belle Vue, too many people get caught up in the stadium being named the “National Speedway Stadium”….It’s a stadium, it’s OK, but the location, lack of public transport. etc detract from it for me. 

[OveFundinFan]

23 hours ago, iainb said:

Personally I thought it was all a bit meh, with a meh winner, especially after Woffy crashed out, I genuinely thought he was going to win it! It was only a glorious success when measured against last year's fiasco. 

The presentation is so poor compared to how it used to be, club anthems pumping out over the PA (WBD clearly don't know their audience) and some self indulgent announcer who clearly loves the sound of his own voice prattling on during the grading breaks.

No apologies here for being critical but..... more then a few on here in last couple years been criticising the fuddy duddy music churned out at speedway meetings.... like it not going to attract the young spectators the sport desperately needs, So WBD, Knowing the audience it  wants to attract, plays modern music and gets criticised. They can't win it seems.

[IainB]

16 minutes ago, OveFundinFan said:

No apologies here for being critical but..... more then a few on here in last couple years been criticising the fuddy duddy music churned out at speedway meetings.... like it not going to attract the young spectators the sport desperately needs, So WBD, Knowing the audience it  wants to attract, plays modern music and gets criticised. They can't win it seems.

I love heavy metal music... but I wouldn't dream of subjecting a stadium full of kids to pensioners to it. You play the classics that everybody loves, proven to work, they're classics for a reason... If I wanted to listen to club anthems I'd go to a Swedish House Mafia concert. Have you heard the music they play in between overs at a T20 match? Not one "drop" to be heard... and packed stadiums.

I can't think that anybody would say I'm not going because they played Sweet Caroline... but I can think of many that would be put off by the incessant thumping of the "music" they play out at such a high volume

Edited September 4, 2023 by iainb

[IainB]

As strange as it may sound, Speedway & Cricket have many similarities and should probably be fighting for the same audience... they're both heavily effected by the weather, the participants play for many teams around the world and locally in the UK have to work around the giants of the IPL, they're both sold as "family" sports, especially the 100 & T20's.

Speedway really should be looking to replicate the Cricket model