Meeting Programmes

[admin]

A young fellow - only about 5-years-old - has recently started attending Newcastle United matches and yesterday he dropped in a copy of one of the club's match day programmes for me to have a loook at and I was astonished at the scale of difference between it and your average speedway programme.
Now, a few years ago the old Mongol was a season ticket holder at St James' Park and there was a difference between the programmes then, as you'd expect, but it is now a yawning chasm.
The Newcastle United match programme is 64 pages and costs just £3.00.
When last I visited the Bastion of Delusion, with the Bees on their way to the treble, the programme was a poorly produced 24 pages, at most, for £2.00.

[Deleted]

Speedway programmes must be the worst value in the world . Glasgow's is £2.50 this year , which amounts to 22 pages ( 6 of which have full page advertisements ) . It's just habit that keeps me buying it and not joining the increasing band that bring their own home-made scorecards .

[Genghis]

Apr 13, 2008 11:36:27 GMT admin said:

A young fellow - only about 5-years-old - has recently started attending Newcastle United matches and yesterday he dropped in a copy of one of the club's match day programmes for me to have a loook at and I was astonished at the scale of difference between it and your average speedway programme.
Now, a few years ago the old Mongol was a season ticket holder at St James' Park and there was a difference between the programmes then, as you'd expect, but it is now a yawning chasm.
The Newcastle United match programme is 64 pages and costs just £3.00.
When last I visited the Bastion of Delusion, with the Bees on their way to the treble, the programme was a poorly produced 24 pages, at most, for £2.50.

As someone who has dabbled in programme production, it's all about the size of print runs, young fellow. Yes, someone could produce a 64-page all-singing all-dancing proggie, but it would end up costing the fans a fiver.

[Deleted]

Speedway programmes do vary in value & content,i'm loathe to pay £2 plus for a programme full of adverts for eg.
Coventry's programme is 32 pages, with much more content & value than the last 3 seasons at least for £2,compare that with 28 pages at Wolves & 20 pages at Birmingham for the same figure.They are getting back on the right wavelength here, but price is something all clubs should look at carefully.

[stuartroad]

Apr 13, 2008 13:26:52 GMT @booeyboy said:

Speedway programmes do vary in value & content,i'm loathe to pay £2 plus for a programme full of adverts for eg.
Coventry's programme is 32 pages, with much more content & value than the last 3 seasons at least for £2,compare that with 28 pages at Wolves & 20 pages at Birmingham for the same figure.They are getting back on the right wavelength here, but price is something all clubs should look at carefully.

whilst all programmes are shocking value,lets not forget the clubs do all need to bring in money,and compared with other sports,the admission costs at speedway are very fair.

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2008 11:36:27 GMT admin said:

A young fellow - only about 5-years-old - has recently started attending Newcastle United matches

Poor kid! ;D

But seriously, I agree Sube. Ipswich's programme is packed full of information, and £3.00 compared to a 15 page thing you get at Speedway for £2.00 - only about 4 of which are relevant - proves that Speedway programmes are far too overpriced.

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2008 17:22:32 GMT @mildenhall07 said:

Apr 13, 2008 11:36:27 GMT admin said:

A young fellow - only about 5-years-old - has recently started attending Newcastle United matches

Poor kid! ;D

But seriously, I agree Sube. Ipswich's programme is packed full of information, and £3.00 compared to a 15 page thing you get at Speedway for £2.00 - only about 4 of which are relevant - proves that Speedway programmes are far too overpriced.

And how many programmes do you think football clubs sell at matches compared to the number speedway clubs sell at meetings? The bigger the print run the cheaper per item.

And how much do football clubs charge for adverts to help defray costs compared to speedway? I know for a fact a whole page in an EL club's programme costs £1000 a season, suspect it's slightly more at Ippo Town!

[Deleted]

Just recently I have been doing something I said I never would, printing my own.

It started off by asking on the Ippo site about having a special (loads cheaper) single sheet race card for kids but during the discussion, someone gave me a link to the race card generator and I printed a couple of copies off for the next meeting for my boys......then the next meeting it was touch and go on if I could afford to attend so to get it down to the minimum cost, printed mine and the boys race cards off.

I will still buy a programme but only on weeks when I have slightly more pennies.

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2008 18:31:40 GMT @tiddles said:

Just recently I have been doing something I said I never would, printing my own.

It started off by asking on the Ippo site about having a special (loads cheaper) single sheet race card for kids but during the discussion, someone gave me a link to the race card generator and I printed a couple of copies off for the next meeting for my boys......then the next meeting it was touch and go on if I could afford to attend so to get it down to the minimum cost, printed mine and the boys race cards off.

I will still buy a programme but only on weeks when I have slightly more pennies.

Kids are, I grant you, something of a problem when it comes to the question of programmes. Firstly, let's face it, those up to whatever age are not remotely interest in filling in a racecard. But at some stage they will be - no definite age but.... what to do eh?

Obviously clubs want to sell enough programmes to cover the production / printing costs - the more you sell and thus print, the cheaper per copy those costs become. Also printed programmes keep sponsors / advertisers happy as well as being another enticement when trying to attract new ones at the same time. Trust me NO club makes money on programme sales in fact they lose more often than not except when they sell out which isn't often! Then people will moan when they have and will complain that more should have been printed!

They can't just say we'll do no programme for those reasons alone and because not everybody has a computer believe it or not even nowadays and many who do wouldn't have a clue how to produce a racecard! And those who like a programme will want one and will moan like hell if there isn't one available

It's one of those "whatever you do will be wrong" situations!

[Deleted]

Don't get me wrong Bryn, I was not complaining about the price or quality at all, well apart from the fact my kids have started to take an interest this season and want to fill in a race card - plus has the added bonus that they are so much better behaved but could not jusitfy paying out £6 (£8 when eldest decides he wants to spend time with his mother) in programmes each week, hence my suggestion on the Ippo site about producing a child race sheet (which could be sold to them on entry when they pay to enter so no silly business with kids going to teh programme seller and buying one supposedly for a child) and selling for maybe 50p. Children are afterall, not interested in sponsors or the like and just want to copy what the adults are doing and filling in the race scores.

I have always been a supporter of purchasing a programme and it is only this season when pennies have been tighter that I have resorted on a couple of occasions to printing one out for me too.

And believe it or not.... I was one of those who didn't have a clue about doing my own either until someone gave me an idiots guide on how to do it!

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2008 11:36:27 GMT admin said:

When last I visited the Bastion of Delusion, with the Bees on their way to the treble, the programme was a poorly produced 24 pages, at most, for £2.00.

Bit of a cheek calling Brandon the 'Bastion of Delusion'. If any stadium anywhere on earth truly deserved that title it must be St James' Park.

And as for that poor child, he must already have been mentally scarred for life.

[Deleted]

I just think most of the content in em crap.

There are normally 6 articles - at least 3 written by the Speedway media clique, 2 written by the staff of the club and one of the geniune interest.

What's it take for a few pics and a meeting report of the meetings that week previous. Most of it could be done voluntary (and no doubt there is some tracks where this is done).

But they are defo not worth the price. I don't care about price and print runs - what's it take for someone to write substance in the bloody things.

[Genghis]

Apr 13, 2008 19:51:51 GMT @harry said:

I just think most of the content in em crap.

There are normally 6 articles - at least 3 written by the Speedway media clique, 2 written by the staff of the club and one of the geniune interest.

What's it take for a few pics and a meeting report of the meetings that week previous. Most of it could be done voluntary (and no doubt there is some tracks where this is done).

But they are defo not worth the price. I don't care about price and print runs - what's it take for someone to write substance in the bloody things.

Harry - I can assure you an awful lot of work goes into writing the content of speedway programmes and all of it is voluntary.

I used to spend a large chunk of my spare time writing bits for the Oxford programme - as well as trying to think of something slightly different each week, to keep things fresh. I used to quite often be up until 3.00am on a deadline day - and still have to get up for work at 6.30am.

And to dismiss the content as crap, well I strongly take exception to that.

Just be thankful I've calmed down in the last few hours - my reply to a similar post on the BSF wasn't quite so calm.

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2008 20:13:58 GMT Genghis said:

Apr 13, 2008 19:51:51 GMT @harry said:

I just think most of the content in em crap.

There are normally 6 articles - at least 3 written by the Speedway media clique, 2 written by the staff of the club and one of the geniune interest.

What's it take for a few pics and a meeting report of the meetings that week previous. Most of it could be done voluntary (and no doubt there is some tracks where this is done).

But they are defo not worth the price. I don't care about price and print runs - what's it take for someone to write substance in the bloody things.

Harry - I can assure you an awful lot of work goes into writing the content of speedway programmes and all of it is voluntary.

I used to spend a large chunk of my spare time writing bits for the Oxford programme - as well as trying to think of something slightly different each week, to keep things fresh. I used to quite often be up until 3.00am on a deadline day - and still have to get up for work at 6.30am.

And to dismiss the content as crap, well I strongly take exception to that.

Just be thankful I've calmed down in the last few hours - my reply to a similar post on the BSF wasn't quite so calm.

I am not particularly commented on yourself and your work. I am commenting on the most recent programmes I have clapped my eyes . Brum, Coventry and P'boro, Wolves too. If I rememberly correctly from my Good Friday-Lanney production, Oxford was the best effort of the lot.

That's compared also to something more reasonable - non-league football programmes seem ok for what they are - they are volunteers work. The one I reguarly buy is just a few Word documents stapled together.

[marron]

Apr 13, 2008 11:36:27 GMT admin said:

A young fellow - only about 5-years-old - has recently started attending Newcastle United matches and yesterday he dropped in a copy of one of the club's match day programmes for me to have a loook at and I was astonished at the scale of difference between it and your average speedway programme.
Now, a few years ago the old Mongol was a season ticket holder at St James' Park and there was a difference between the programmes then, as you'd expect, but it is now a yawning chasm.
The Newcastle United match programme is 64 pages and costs just £3.00.
When last I visited the Bastion of Delusion, with the Bees on their way to the treble, the programme was a poorly produced 24 pages, at most, for £2.00.

You forget that footie clubs get paid a load by big companies (jewellers, estate agents, breweries etc.) to print their advertisements in the programmes so they can afford to print glossy programmes

Speedway gets plumbing, double glazing, painting and decorating etc so therefore cant afford to print bumper programmes every week.