FREE entry is a Super surprise!
By John Dickinson on 3rd May 07
Making a pleasant change from ever-rising costs, MotoGB announces free spectator entry to its British Championship Supermoto. Here's hoping for a bumper crowd!
INTERESTING this week to note that for the secondround of the MotoGB promoted British Supermoto Championships takingplace at Lydd International Raceway at Ashford, Kent, Saturday/ Sunday,May 5/6, admission for spectators is absolutely FREE! The onlystipulation is that any children under the age of 16 MUST beaccompanied by an adult.
If you live within reasonable distance of thetrack then surely this is an opportunity not to be missed. Let's faceit, Supermoto is very likely a sport that Mr and Mrs Joe Public andtheir 2 point 4 children know absolutely nothing about. And, in thesecash-strapped times, I would suggest that they are not going to shellout their hard-earned money to take a look at something they may or maynot like. But if they are offered the chance of a FREE day out at a topclass sports meeting there's surely a great chance that they will giveit a go. What have they got to lose?
It's a brave and praiseworthy move by MotoGB. Thetemptation is always to go for the highest price that you think yourevent will stand. And there's ample evidence that you can soon hit avery resistant wall with such tactics.
Even professional football, that great golden godthat could previously do no wrong, is discovering that there is a limitthat even the most fanatical of fans will not cross. Clubs the lengthand bredth of the country - even the mega-clubs - are currentlyre-assessing their future pricing structure in oder to fill theirexpensive stadiums.
I have always maintained that it is better to have5000 people at £10 a head at your event than 2,500 at £20. Back in the‘good-old-days' if you were running a ‘scramble' the chances are itwould be the only event worth visiting within 50 miles. These days amotocross, supermoto or whatever is competing with possibly hundreds oflive events within a 50-mile radius. Just as important, half yourpotential audience is more likely to go shopping down the local mall(I'd rather eat worms) or spend five hours on a PlayStation than makethe effort to try something different.
So more power to the elbow of MotoGB for having the bottle to take a chance on free admission with the hope of jam-tomorrow rather than sticking to the old solution of stinging the faithful few.
THE most frustrating communications we receive inthe T+MX office, whether by phone, e-mail or letter begin with thewords, ''Why don't you...?'' Occasionally, the correspondent willindeed have a valid point, to which we will enthusiastically respond.Sadly, the vast majority of such calls are made by people, many of whomwon't even identify themselves fully, who simply want T+MX to do theirdirty work!
To be more precise, they usually want us to ripinto a club (often their own ‘home' club) for what the club is doing -or more often - what they claim it is not doing. They will inform usthat the ‘club' doesn't grade its track, doesn't have sufficientmarshals, doesn't water the track, that officials are abusive, etc,etc, etc.
Come on guys, get a grip. It is ‘your' sport asmuch as it is ‘ours' and if you have a problem with the clubs that yourun with then sort them out! Asking T+MX to tell a Clerk of the Coursethat his track is unsafe - one probably several hundred miles from theoffice and which we have no experience of whatsoever - is a totalcop-out!
Firstly, we are lucky in this country that weactually have plenty of choice. There are a lot of clubs out therelooking for your custom and there is even a healthy choice oforganisational bodies that they run under. So if you are not happy witha particular club you do have a choice. Do something about the problem- or ride somewhere else!
Particularly worrying are parents who write inclaiming that this track or that track is dangerous. For heaven's sake,if you feel that the condition of a track makes it too dangerous foryour kids to ride on then don't let them ride! End of.
It is very probably a symptom of our ever morepathetic ‘nanny' state that people simply won't take responsibilityanymore. Whatever the problem, it is always ''their'' fault - whoever''they'' are - and that ''someone'' needs to do ''something'' about it!You are actually dead right. Somebody does need to do something aboutit - and that ''somebody'' is YOU...