How important IS the view of the paying public? (Read 3,968 times)

[Aaron Drever]

I think it comes down to the show what is on the track and fans will do their talking with their feet.......

When you look around the grounds and see people leaving 1/2 or 3/4 way through the meeting, you know that those people are not comming back.

Value for me is a quick fire show, minimal gaps between races and even if you finish early..... A Quick Show is a Good Show...

Big Feilds with household names that create the goodies and badies...... people can follow them..... i.e. Bertram or Butterworth in the early sprintcar days etc

[mike88g]

Just a question...
In a non contact class, if we are not just doing our thing and trying to win the race from wherever we started on the grid, how can we "put on a better show"??

It is a little different in a contact class. It seems that the public mostly enjoy the contact and the crashes.

Myself, I try to keep the racing clean and fast. What else CAN I do to keep the public happy??? I am certainly not going to start making contact with other cars to change this.

[Admin]

In non contact classes start the fast guys from the back , structure the prizemoney accordingly . They used to do that , it was called handicapping . I even enjoyed going to the Springs back then . I don't go to the Springs anymore .

Speedway has become soft in many aspects .

[YankeeClipper10H]

I used to enjoy stockcars because of the contact and crashes.
I don't go to stockcars any more as the races are generally a procession. The cars appear to have "like" magnets in their siderails that reppell each other.

Now I go to the speedway at Western Springs. There are more crashes and thrills than you get with stockcars these days.

Crashes, flips, rolls, sprintcars wheel standing the length of the straights, sprintcars doing 360 degree piroettes on one tyre landing on all fours and then blasting up the track and then last week one incident that had three sprintcars crash and roll on separate incidents at the same time in the first two turns of the track.

Now thats speedway entertainment.

Its fast racing, full fields, quick fire show with minimal gaps between races and its all done by 10:30pm.

Its a quick show that is a good show (thanks Aaron).

And its a show that works every time !!!!!!!

[knownotmuch]

I have made an effort to try and get the views of the more casual spectator lately. Talked to people who come fairly regularly, but would not know any of the drivers names etc, some seem to barely know one class from another. Also talked with a number of the once or twice a season crowd and those who have not been for years.
And my conclusion was no two people seem to have the same reason for going or not going to speedway. So before this process I thought I had quite a good idea of how the paying public thought therefore had a solid opinion of their importance.
Now I have realised the more I know the less I know, if that makes sense.
One thing that does make the paying public important is that the bigger the crowd the better the atmosphere. So anything to get more people along will contribute to the "show"

We go to watch racing so for a driver to be complained at for winning is just plain stupid in my opinion. Pay good stirrers money in the contact classes would be far better.

[karencarey]

OK you have hit my passionate spot so here goes. Just my opinion. Might not work for everyone.
Nelson used to do customer satisfaction surveys but I don't bother now as you can ask 100 people the same questions and get 99 different answers.
The best guage as to whether you are doing it right is the gate take. If it isn't dropping then you are doing it right, if it is going up then you are doing it great. Likewise if your competitor base is increasing then you are obviously keeping the competitors happy.
I feel the most important thing is the programming. Not everyone likes stockcars, not everyone likes saloons or sidecars etc. That is why we try to make the support promotion of the night completely contrasting to the main promotion. That way you bring in more than one type of fan every meeting. This is vitally important at championships where you have a number of occasional spectators who you want to make regular spectators.
Case in point this weekend we are running the S.I. Superstocks. Support promotions are the Mark Thorn Memorial for sidecars, the streetstock club champs and round two of the TQ Midget club champs backed up with Production Saloons and Super Saloons. (Ok that was a blatent attempt at promoting the meeting).
I also feel that speedway fans want to see speedway so we do not run things like drift cars, we don't do burnout comps etc. You do however have to have things like fireworks and derbies. I hate them but the crowd love them. We ran the Superstock Teams race between Nelson and Christchurch on fireworks night. Some would say it was a waste of one major promotion but it was in fact an investment as a huge percentage of the crowd are only there to watch the fireworks so you hook em while they are there with awesome racing. We let the fireworks off mid meeting so non speedway people could leave early if they wanted and I was very suprised when very few left.
It is important to work with the tracks in close proximity as well. Something the South Island seem to have got really good at.
Oh and please don't refer to them as Joe Average, Bums on seats or the paying public. They are our customers. They purchase three hours of entertainment from us. They choose to give us their leisure dollar so we need to treat them with respect and be thankful for their support.

[Wiseowl]

Dec 16, 2008 6:41:57 GMT 12 Admin said:

In non contact classes start the fast guys from the back , structure the prizemoney accordingly . They used to do that , it was called handicapping . I even enjoyed going to the Springs back then . I don't go to the Springs anymore .

Speedway has become soft in many aspects .

You must be reading my mind Gordon

If I had anything to do with running contact classes i would adopt the following :-


Hit to pass rule
best drivers at the rear
ALOT more prizemoney for hitting
Further tyre restrictions
less prizemoney for winning ( except championships)
bring back the drums

( I even had a chat to our infamous CEO about drums as it may appear there is nothing in the rules banning them)

With these in place... all of a sudden drivers would not want to spend the big-bucks as it would create self-restrictions.............
..And the crowd would be entertained ....IMPORTANT

Cheers

Wiseowl

[Tony]

Ah yes, the drums! Let's hope that the CEO sees sense WiseOwl, or that you are eventually able to wear the young fella down. The sad thing is that many of the younger members of Macgors and the speedway community have never seen stockcars racing with drums on the pole-line, and don't have a clue what a spectacle it can be. That's a privilege reserved for those of us who are thinning on top and greying at the temples eh!

[MadMarty13B]

Good post wise owl, not sure about derums when wheels are bad enough these days dont think osh or snz will allow themk back,chain racing though should come back

[Ricoshea]

never seen drums, so have no idea of the significance of drums ?

[rebel1]

Think he means of the 44 gallon kind. There was some at WP last season, think involving the historic stock cars. Adds another dimension to racing and the crowd certainly seemed to enjoy them

[Tony]

never seen drums, so have no idea of the significance of drums ?

My point exactly!! So you have no idea what you've missed. Drums were used in the early days to mark the pole-line - 44-gallon drums, generally painted white. Naturally enough, as races progressed, the odd drum got knocked over, often into the path of an oncoming car or cars, with often spectacular results as some of the "older Macgorians" (myself included) can attest. You'd even get the occasional stirrer who, when winning wasn't everything, would cruise round inside the pole-line bunting ALL the drums out onto the track - we can probaly leave the rest to your imagination, but when you hear us oldies talking about the "good old days".....

[TimSOZ]

The way it used to be.....1973 Figure of 8 race at Wanganui
The white drums appeared to have played their part, and by the looks of it the 1p Tank has just powered through the intersection to take the chequered flag.



OK, the thread is getting off track but hopefully the pic was enlightening - taken by Wiseowl incidentally.

[steeldog]

As a "customer" "Joe Public" or what ever you want to call me, I, like everyone, think I am important therefore call me BoSS (Bum on Seat Steel)

However as already mentioned this is about balance and I understand that. As BoSS I recognise the importance of good racing which is the result of happy drivers and a well run club. This will show itself in good fields, good racing, and good entertainment.

I am a speedway fan and as such I can live with a race meet which isn't excellent or has low atmosphere in the same way other sports fans still support their team even when in a loosing streak. The problem with entertainment is people are fickel and follow fads. While this is exciting right now next month something else will be the flavour which may or may not be anything to do with what goes on on the track. Therefore tracks chasing the entertainment dollar need to put on ever increasing spectaculars to keep people coming back. Ironically some places who have done this have just created a bigger problem fo themselves falling fowl of all sectors.

Now for the "wash my mouth out analogy", Speedway needs more of the soap opera factor - Personalities that the public know. the good guys, the bad guys, the champions, the improvers, the stalwarts, the newbies and the stories behind it all. I'm not talking about manufactoring these because all these personalities already exist within each club. This gets people coming back because they will want to know what happened with the drivers they follow. Some tracks do this very well and I think it shows with how many BoSs they have.

Last season BP did a little of this with Shane McIntyre winning the all Super Saloon features in the first part of the season and they put up extra money for someone to come and beat him in the feature. It added extra interest to the meet and the race. (It could have been promoted more - Have Shane & the other Super Drivers out in the public and get the info out there about visiting drivers coming to beat him.
This season: Skinny wins the feature race and says the next meet he'lll have new engine with 70 hp more - I'll be back and want to see how his new engine goes. Another young sprintcar driver does a 12.8 (i think) second lap in the feature - Next time I'll keep my eye on him and see how he's going.
When this happens even a poor race by a driver creates interest because we want to know why and will they bounce back next week.

All of this needs to be communicated better than just the track announcer who can only be heard for short periods above the engine noise (No do NOT reduce engine noise!). It is about educating the BoSes so they are more connected with who and what is going on and what that means. Lack of understanding means people don't show up to watch - Look at rugby: I understand the rules less now and they change from game to game anyway & look what is happening to the crowds.

As stated many times I, BoSS, want to add my voice to the support of Macgors where much of this information is shared.

Enough of my ramblings...

[Ricoshea]

steeldog
you and others are painting an ideal picture, good comments.

i suspect that with changes or more enforcement of rules, this can have a negative impact on the " spectacle ", as i am focused arround stockcars, my comment is directed in that area.
something you rarely see these days is a bit of argey bargey after the race when the winner is doing his flag run, a bit of theatrics and humour, turning the car round, not serious but adds to the " spectacle ".
mostly because the intiating driver is likely to called out by the referee and possibly fined.

[drew]

What a fantastic thread!

The questions and theories being raised here are really digging into the strata of our speedway world, trying to quantify its existatnce and define its physical make up.... makes for a bloody good read!

To answer the question posed by Barry:

I believe that Speedway is made up of three core components...

A: Paying public

B: Administration (track, staff, officials, volunteers SNZ etc)

C: Competitors.

.. and that speedway cannot function with one of these components missing, each being intrinsically linked to the other.

Imagine the Teams Champs at Palmy with only track staff, pit crew and family members present - that stadium would be mighty empty! I offer the view that the opinion of the paying public is vitally important to the overall well-being of Speedway.

Yes, we also require the drivers to compete, and we need people to do the organising, as in my eyes, each is as vitally important as each other, but if no-one came to watch, the sport would not enjoy the support it does from the outside world, and would not grow.

Happy public = good feedback = benifiting speedway in many ways.

Sponsers are willing to invest in speedway with prize money and advertising because they are getting their brand names out in the face of the oncoming public, with the hopes that their brands / services will be chosen first above others because they back speedway.
Positive public reviews of a speedway meeting will ecourage more people to attend, but at a far lesser rate than a bad review disuades people from coming.
No money from public and sponsers would turn Speedway into a very expensive hobby.

I personally dont agree that drivers are told to "put on a show" for the publics benifit, but I dont think that the public should be treated as "baggage" that has no involvement or guidance of the sport.
If a public scribe puts pen to paper (so to speak) and denounces the ability of a club or promoter as a result of that persons recently less-than-ideal speedway experience, then those comments should perhaps be analised in an effort to extract clues on what the club/track/promoter/drivers might be able to improve on in the future.
Without peers from outside of the speedway circle, I think the scope of this sport would be very narrow, and think there are many at the top who become a bit too precious when critisized.

To me, good comunication is the key during a meeting!
By and large, the paying public are more accpting if told about delays, ommisions or changes rather than having to guess, or wait for long periods without anything happening.

Yes, I think the paying public are very important and should be factored into many of the descicions at Speedway events.

Drew

[Tony]

And if I'm not mistaken Tim, that's Charlie heading away from the intersection in Brew22 - just to the left of the marshall in the white coat. So you're not going off-topic at all, as Charlie was the King of entertainment!

[rebel1]

Figure of eight racing, now you are talking. How cool would that be ? Streetstocks or stockcars, that would have the paying public on the edge of their seats ! What an opportunity ! Would it be allowed in 2008/ 2009 or is it too hard in todays PC/ OSH world ?
44 Gallon drums, fantastic.

Some great ideas and food for thought

[Racerman]

Dec 16, 2008 10:41:47 GMT 12 TimSOZ said:

The way it used to be.....1973 Figure of 8 race at Wanganui
The white drums appeared to have played their part, and by the looks of it the 1p Tank has just powered through the intersection to take the chequered flag.



OK, the thread is getting off track but hopefully the pic was enlightening - taken by Wiseowl incidentally.

in this pik I can identify some of the brave men of yesteryear running that figure 8 stuff, Brew 22 C Bernsten, 10HB Terry Lay, 1P Bruce Robertson, can any others identify the remainder

[YankeeClipper10H]

karencarey has mentioned the operative word "CUSTOMERS"