Grand Prix Ticket Sales

[mikebv]

58 minutes ago, IainB said:

You've just described @mikebv 😂

I watch them on the telly though....

That must count....

 

 

[PotteringAround]

1 hour ago, AFCB Wildcat said:

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be sell her the idea of being exposed to the elements in a temporary stand

So now the events are selling out, the whinging has got down to the level of moaning about the cost of a cap, some sunglasses and a blob of AmbreSolaire?   

There's some sad case about 

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, AFCB Wildcat said:

Yes, I'm aware of that, but I did say 'fan base' and not people who regularly attend.

I was including the fans that will turn up for big events like play offs but not regular fixtures, so I don't think my estimate is unreasonable for a GP. 

Probably a lot of fans couldn't afford to go on Monday after paying for their GP tickets? 😁

 

The cost of paying for SON tickets did adversely impact the Aces crowds last season so it wasn't a surprise to see the crowd impacted on Monday..

BSN also covered Mondays meeting so it would be interesting to see if it was well watched..

It was though the KO Cup too which isn't always a crowd puller until the final...

The good news was that the Aces at least reached the quarters....

[AFCB Wildcat]

28 minutes ago, PotteringAround said:

So now the events are selling out, the whinging has got down to the level of moaning about the cost of a cap, some sunglasses and a blob of AmbreSolaire?   

There's some sad case about 

Cap & sunglasses???

In Manchester??? 🤣

[IainB]

42 minutes ago, PotteringAround said:

So now the events are selling out, the whinging has got down to the level of moaning about the cost of a cap, some sunglasses and a blob of AmbreSolaire?   

There's some sad case about 

It's a fair point @AFCB Wildcat makes, there were no end of floaters that went to Cardiff, just for the experience. I've taken friends in the past and I was going to meet up with a couple from Cardiff this year and we were all going in. My mum's hairdresser's husband and his mates used to go down from Leicester... even though they don't normally go to Speedway! And that's just me Billy no mates!

How anybody can paint a reduction in crowd from 20,000 minimum to 6,500 as a positive is completely beyond me smh.

Edited Thursday at 03:32 PM by IainB

[stevehone]

17 hours ago, Fullmax said:

Will the winning rider from the British Final ( or runner up if Bewley wins) be the Wildcard for both nights  GPs ?

probably Tai

[Neila]

9 hours ago, IainB said:

Did you see the crowd on Monday night? I think half is a bit ambitious... maybe a third at the absolute best. 

They had no money left after buying GP tickets😅

[AceBelle]

On 3/27/2025 at 3:18 PM, AFCB Wildcat said:

Cap & sunglasses???

In Manchester??? 🤣

Very droll grow up ffs 🙄 

[AceBelle]

23 hours ago, stevehone said:

probably Tai

Make him earn it 😡

[AFCB Wildcat]

2 hours ago, AceBelle said:

Very droll grow up ffs 🙄 

Oh sorry, I forgot you get so precious.

I just found it amusing that it was assumed my concern was the beating sun, when I was more concerned about needing a sou'wester & oil skins than AmbreSolaire. 😘

Edited Friday at 05:31 PM by AFCB Wildcat

[ouch]

On 3/27/2025 at 3:30 PM, IainB said:

How anybody can paint a reduction in crowd from 20,000 minimum to 6,500 as a positive is completely beyond me smh.

I thought the crowd has gone up from nothing to 6-7k or did the English GP force Cardiff to end?

[IainB]

12 minutes ago, ouch said:

I thought the crowd has gone up from nothing to 6-7k or did the English GP force Cardiff to end?

Not sure what your point is?

[AceBelle]

the fact that warner/discovery don't have to pay a six figure sum to hire the cardiff staduim and staff to lay a track is a major factor in moving to NSS only other staduim they hire is warsaw and i have read this year is the last year there this season so no more hiring large staduims seems to be the way sadly !!

[AFCB Wildcat]

4 hours ago, AceBelle said:

the fact that warner/discovery don't have to pay a six figure sum to hire the cardiff staduim and staff to lay a track is a major factor in moving to NSS only other staduim they hire is warsaw and i have read this year is the last year there this season so no more hiring large staduims seems to be the way sadly !!

 I don't think that there is a single poster on here that doesn't understand, or would dispute any of that. If the event was financially unviable at Cardiff, then it had to go. I've no problem with that, I don't expect anyone to suffer financial loss for my convenience.

It has to be said though, that Belle Vue has a similar problem to Cardiff, in that it has to hire a substantial amount of temporary seating, which has made ticket prices significantly higher than Cardiff.

After hearing lots of "good riddance to rip off Cardiff" comments, the alternative that these people wanted has been proved to be more expensive, in both accommodation & ticketing costs. 

Imagine the meltdown on here if Cardiff had raised ticket prices to £120 in order to make it work with 20k people. Yet, because Belle Vue have managed to sell out a 1800 seat grandstand at that price, we've got people on here saying that it proves that they've got the pricing right.

The original intention when putting the GP's in big stadiums was to raise the profile of the events and bring it to a bigger audience. Initially, It was successful but ultimately it has failed.  

For me that's sad, and the question has to be asked, why? Is the product that bad?

"Fans just want to see close racing on properly prepared track" we're told.

If that was the case, Belle Vue would be packed every week, but unfortunately it's not, and can't justify a permanent increase in capacity.

Something is obviously badly wrong when the Principality gets 40k people to watch some pickup trucks with big wheels, driving over obstacles, but a world championship Speedway event is relegated to an audience of 6400.

There were more people at Dean Court last week to watch Bournemouth's women's football team. 

Moving the event to Belle Vue may be a necessity, but I'm with IainB on this one, it's beyond me how it can be seen as a positive.

Edited yesterday at 06:55 PM by AFCB Wildcat

[AceBelle]

50 minutes ago, AFCB Wildcat said:

 I don't think that there is a single poster on here that doesn't understand, or would dispute any of that. If the event was financially unviable at Cardiff, then it had to go. I've no problem with that, I don't expect anyone to suffer financial loss for my convenience.

It has to be said though, that Belle Vue has a similar problem to Cardiff, in that it has to hire a substantial amount of temporary seating, which has made ticket prices significantly higher than Cardiff.

After hearing lots of "good riddance to rip off Cardiff" comments, the alternative that these people wanted has been proved to be more expensive, in both accommodation & ticketing costs. 

Imagine the meltdown on here if Cardiff had raised ticket prices to £120 in order to make it work with 20k people. Yet, because Belle Vue have managed to sell out a 1800 seat grandstand at that price, we've got people on here saying that it proves that they've got the pricing right.

The original intention when putting the GP's in big stadiums was to raise the profile of the events and bring it to a bigger audience. Initially, It was successful but ultimately it has failed.  

For me that's sad, and the question has to be asked, why? Is the product that bad?

"Fans just want to see close racing on properly prepared track" we're told.

If that was the case, Belle Vue would be packed every week, but unfortunately it's not, and can't justify a permanent increase in capacity.

Something is obviously badly wrong when the Principality gets 40k people to watch some pickup trucks with big wheels, driving over obstacles, but a world championship Speedway event is relegated to an audience of 6400.

There were more people at Dean Court last week to watch Bournemouth's women's football team. 

Moving the event to Belle Vue may be a necessity, but I'm with IainB on this one, it's beyond me how it can be seen as a positive.

answers on a postcard for the answer ????

[IainB]

1 hour ago, AFCB Wildcat said:

 I don't think that there is a single poster on here that doesn't understand, or would dispute any of that. If the event was financially unviable at Cardiff, then it had to go. I've no problem with that, I don't expect anyone to suffer financial loss for my convenience.

It has to be said though, that Belle Vue has a similar problem to Cardiff, in that it has to hire a substantial amount of temporary seating, which has made ticket prices significantly higher than Cardiff.

After hearing lots of "good riddance to rip off Cardiff" comments, the alternative that these people wanted has been proved to be more expensive, in both accommodation & ticketing costs. 

Imagine the meltdown on here if Cardiff had raised ticket prices to £120 in order to make it work with 20k people. Yet, because Belle Vue have managed to sell out a 1800 seat grandstand at that price, we've got people on here saying that it proves that they've got the pricing right.

The original intention when putting the GP's in big stadiums was to raise the profile of the events and bring it to a bigger audience. Initially, It was successful but ultimately it has failed.  

For me that's sad, and the question has to be asked, why? Is the product that bad?

"Fans just want to see close racing on properly prepared track" we're told.

If that was the case, Belle Vue would be packed every week, but unfortunately it's not, and can't justify a permanent increase in capacity.

Something is obviously badly wrong when the Principality gets 40k people to watch some pickup trucks with big wheels, driving over obstacles, but a world championship Speedway event is relegated to an audience of 6400.

There were more people at Dean Court last week to watch Bournemouth's women's football team. 

Moving the event to Belle Vue may be a necessity, but I'm with IainB on this one, it's beyond me how it can be seen as a positive.

SGP needs a radical overhaul (much like the rest of the sport), The last radical overhaul was to end the knock out race system, which I always preferred and since then they've just tinkered around at the edges (as usual), I mentioned in an earlier post what UEFA had done with the Champions League doing away with the part time clog makers from Holland vs Real Madrid group matches in favour of the best teams meeting each other more often and by all accounts it's been seen as quite a success (despite nobody really understanding how it worked initially)... unfortunately I'm not sure there's anybody within Speedway with the vision to do this. The people from WBD clearly do not understand our sport, when they did their first unveiling, if I remember correctly the head honcho was French and the top dog in the FIM, who to be fair to him, has been seen at quite a few GP's, is Spanish I believe, hardly countries with a great Speedway pedigree. 

Edited yesterday at 07:50 PM by IainB

[Pinny]

15 hours ago, IainB said:

SGP needs a radical overhaul (much like the rest of the sport), The last radical overhaul was to end the knock out race system, which I always preferred and since then they've just tinkered around at the edges (as usual), I mentioned in an earlier post what UEFA had done with the Champions League doing away with the part time clog makers from Holland vs Real Madrid group matches in favour of the best teams meeting each other more often and by all accounts it's been seen as quite a success (despite nobody really understanding how it worked initially)... unfortunately I'm not sure there's anybody within Speedway with the vision to do this. The people from WBD clearly do not understand our sport, when they did their first unveiling, if I remember correctly the head honcho was French and the top dog in the FIM, who to be fair to him, has been seen at quite a few GP's, is Spanish I believe, hardly countries with a great Speedway pedigree. 

I have posted a few times that the GP's could do with with the knock out system being brought back. They were genuinely exciting GP's back then.

[stevehone]

but favouring the 'top' riders with inside gates

[IainB]

5 minutes ago, stevehone said:

but favouring the 'top' riders with inside gates

Yeah, don't bring that back

[The Third Man]

Who is going to prepare the track at Belle Vue?