Dodger Blue Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 We parked at the university which coincided with the open day, the 2 parking attendants hadnt got a clue what event was on in the stadium!! That's great local promoting!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flagrag Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 (edited) Well in my mind that was an ok GP track was as expected with an average crowd unsure how Benfield make it pay though with all the costs that Cardiff involves but then selling lots of £15-20 tickets to try and fill specific areas for tv . i remover in the Sky days having a long conversation with John Posselwaite where he showed me how Cardiff was the most expensive event to put on with stadium hire even down to costs of bringing equipment over as we are an island that’s even 225 miles from ferry port. So whether this is a massive tax loss for Benfield’s other ventures not really sure. To me it was obvious that WBD Speedway operations team have had their mind elsewhere at the Olympics I think it was BMX,Canoeing and Judo that they were responsible for. it appears to have been a very half hearted production with no celebrities invited along to increase wider awareness of Speedway (Ronnie O Sullivan for example got over 500,000 interactions when he attended ), Pre meeting entertainment non existent,No wire camera for TV, less camera angles available, no winners parade and a very low key fireworks compared to previous years. However the result on track with British 1 and 2 was amazing hopefully both Dan and Robert can continue this GP form going forward. As a side note did anyone go to the Monster/ Woffy afterparty at Walkabout ? I wanted to go but knew Tai’s harder side of dance/techno would not have been to my wife’s liking so instead settled for a meal and a few cocktails Edited August 18 by flagrag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDY69 Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 2 hours ago, Noodles said: Ridiculously cheap. £20 to watch the worlds best riders in a world class stadium with a roof. Plus a fanzone, plus fireworks. Yet the armchair viewers want to move it to Belle Vue, which they also won't attend because of the ticket prices/hotel prices/weather. Absolutely! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Shovlar Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 I didn’t attend Cardiff and that would have been unthinkable normally. It clashed with the football season and I was at Forest v Bournemouth. A shame as I would definitely have attended if there wasn’t a clash with the Premier season. Just caught up with it this morning. Not difficult to avoid the result. If they want more there, choose the date better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fromafar Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 1 hour ago, iainb said: Does anybody care about that anymore? No it’s just a farce nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old bob at herne bay Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 Think they are probably between a rock and a hard place for availability with the Cardiff stadium. Lets face it there arent any purpose built speedway stadia left in the UK capable of holding 50,000 people. Just wonder nowadays what the makeup of the crowd at Cardiff ? I guess there aren't more than what 5,000 diehard UK speedway supporters left .... the majority I guess are from Poland? So it makes little sense staging it in the remote far west of the UK ... remote from any international airports. Complete lack of any speedway in London and the South East so any location is going to be a long way from the near continent by road. The track at Manchester is OK , but very limited spectator capacity, although it is blessed with an international airport, but still hundreds of miles from a road route from mainland Europe. Wherever it is held in the UK you will be faced with ripoff prices from hoteliers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IainB Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 Looking at the championship standings this morning and with Zmarzlik proving that he is human after all, can Lambert do a Mark Loram this season? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatface Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 2 hours ago, iainb said: Does anybody care about that anymore? Me. I had a cheeky tenner on Keely Hodgkinson at 10-1 earlier in the summer. 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fullmax Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 Really enjoyed the meeting considering we were nonplussed about attending a venue over 5 hours from our home. Seems a lot of people weren't that impressed with the racing which surprised us. We enjoyed it Still think it's a disgrace that the majority of the hotels were half empty and still charging ridiculous overnight prices on the day. Not sure whether that's down to greed or due to a lack of staff in hospitality which is understandable. Speedway GPs are a weekend event and ideally you stay locally. Its no good having cheap family tickets if there's nowhere affordable for them to stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noodles Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 2 hours ago, R87 said: There would be a mad dash for tickets at Belle Vue. Its a brilliant track which is all you need. Nobody is interested in museums, hotels and pubs. They go to speedway for the racing. What like the mad dash for SON tickets 🤣 You may not be interested in museums, hotels and pubs but plenty are and make it a weekend. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunky Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 2 hours ago, R87 said: They go to speedway for the racing. If so, that's something new. Wembley was always packed, yet nobody went THERE for the racing... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregularisback Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 7 minutes ago, chunky said: If so, that's something new. Wembley was always packed, yet nobody went THERE for the racing... Good point Chunks… The atmosphere, the noise and the fact it was a one-off event made it a must visit. I can’t remember one single race but remember every meeting. I loved Wembley and don’t forget, they held many major meetings apart from World Finals pre-1982. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ovalman Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 Brilliant Bewley. Some good racing, great effort by Swindonian Tom Brennan. First ever English 1-2 in GPs. Shame the crowds are so low now. Wouldnt have thought most fans stay overnight? Cardiff is a superb venue. Its not over yet, a rare Zmarzlik off-day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ovalman Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 2 hours ago, Steve Shovlar said: I didn’t attend Cardiff and that would have been unthinkable normally. It clashed with the football season and I was at Forest v Bournemouth. A shame as I would definitely have attended if there wasn’t a clash with the Premier season. Just caught up with it this morning. Not difficult to avoid the result. If they want more there, choose the date better! You should have gone to Swindon Down😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc131 Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 3 hours ago, Joseq7 said: I do have a chuckle when the camera goes tighter on the riders in their pit, the Monster sponsored ones, easing "Monster Joe" out of shot, despite his vain attempts to hog the limelight. Serious question..... who actually is he? Does he own Monster? Marketing specialist, speedway and I think Dakar rally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob B Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 3 hours ago, flagrag said: Well in my mind that was an ok GP track was as expected with an average crowd unsure how Benfield make it pay though with all the costs that Cardiff involves but then selling lots of £15-20 tickets to try and fill specific areas for tv . i remover in the Sky days having a long conversation with John Posselwaite where he showed me how Cardiff was the most expensive event to put on with stadium hire even down to costs of bringing equipment over as we are an island that’s even 225 miles from ferry port. So whether this is a massive tax loss for Benfield’s other ventures not really sure. To me it was obvious that WBD Speedway operations team have had their mind elsewhere at the Olympics I think it was BMX,Canoeing and Judo that they were responsible for. it appears to have been a very half hearted production with no celebrities invited along to increase wider awareness of Speedway (Ronnie O Sullivan for example got over 500,000 interactions when he attended ), Pre meeting entertainment non existent,No wire camera for TV, less camera angles available, no winners parade and a very low key fireworks compared to previous years. However the result on track with British 1 and 2 was amazing hopefully both Dan and Robert can continue this GP form going forward. As a side note did anyone go to the Monster/ Woffy afterparty at Walkabout ? I wanted to go but knew Tai’s harder side of dance/techno would not have been to my wife’s liking so instead settled for a meal and a few cocktails What the insistence about constantly using drone, at the outdoor tracks it’s not bad but who want to looks at a closed roof on stadium. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric i Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 Decent racing, excellent result. crowd looked similar to last year. Some cost saving measures on event promotion, parade and fireworks, but ticket prices are cheaper 🙂 Felt for Janowski, I don't like it coming down to ranking, I would prefer if it came down to qualifying time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pauldoveyspeedway Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 1 hour ago, Fullmax said: Really enjoyed the meeting considering we were nonplussed about attending a venue over 5 hours from our home. Seems a lot of people weren't that impressed with the racing which surprised us. We enjoyed it Still think it's a disgrace that the majority of the hotels were half empty and still charging ridiculous overnight prices on the day. Not sure whether that's down to greed or due to a lack of staff in hospitality which is understandable. Speedway GPs are a weekend event and ideally you stay locally. Its no good having cheap family tickets if there's nowhere affordable for them to stay. Good meeting but not alot of passing.Lambert should have taken gate 1 in final. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IainB Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 (edited) 39 minutes ago, Pauldoveyspeedway said: Good meeting but not alot of passing.Lambert should have taken gate 1 in final. I was watching Bewley preparing his gate 1 in the final, the first couple of grooves he tried were far too deep by the final, it looked like he dug his own in the end while banging front wheels with Lambert, then pulled back with about 6 seconds to go! I was absolutely astonished when he made the start in the final! Edited August 18 by iainb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReturn Posted August 18 Report Share Posted August 18 4 hours ago, Steve Shovlar said: I didn’t attend Cardiff and that would have been unthinkable normally. It clashed with the football season and I was at Forest v Bournemouth. A shame as I would definitely have attended if there wasn’t a clash with the Premier season. Just caught up with it this morning. Not difficult to avoid the result. If they want more there, choose the date better! So was I. Didn’t even know Bournemouth fans were there until the 86th minute 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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