GP Attendances

The 2007 German GP at Gelsenkirchen was the 100th GP since 28,000 people attended the first GP at the Olympic Stadium Wroclaw on 20th May 1995.

Now that the GP series has reached this milestone maybe its time to look at how successful it has been in attending fans and if any trends have developed and how it may develop in the future.

Each January the FIM magazine, www.fim.ch , publishes the attendance figures for all FIM sanctioned world championship events held in the previous year. Using this information and information from FIM HQ in Geneva I have obtained official attendance figures for 97 of the GP’s held with estimated attendances for the missing three.

The average attendance in 2007, at 16,628, was nearly 1000 up from the figure in 2006 but was still short of the high point of 20,100 in 2002 but it was the 4th best in the history of the series. Looking at the individual venues.

Cardiff is the jewel in the SGP crown. Of the top 8 attendance figures 7 of them have been at Cardiff only Sydney in 2002 with a figure of 32,000 equals Cardiff.

The 2007 attendance of 41,267 was the second best ever, beaten by the 2002 figure of 42,000; whist the average for the 7 Cardiff stagings is 38,645. Benfield Sports/IMG must hope that speedway fans never end their love affair with Cardiff.

Copenhagen. The attendance of 30,406 at the 2007 Danish GP was a record for Parken and the 9th best attendance in GP history. The average for the 5 stagings at the Parken is 25,709. Was the fact that Nicki Pedersen was in the championship lead the main recent behind the increase from the 24,892 who saw the 2006 Danish GP or is it a sign that Parken is slowly starting to catch up with the Millennium Stadium in the attendance stakes.

Prague. This is the venue with the longest history of GP’s having hosted a round every year since 1997. Whilst the 2007 figure of 9,800 was an increase of 800 from 2006 it was the 3rd worse attendance at the Marketa over 4,000 down on the highpoint of 2001 and the average for the 11 stagings in Prague is 10,987. The organisers must be hoping that the increase in 2007 continues in 2008 after all it should be one of the highlights of the series. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, it is very near to Poland, the hotbed of European speedway, and is within easy reach of Britain via the various low cost airlines that fly to the city from all over Britain. In fact I believe that many people will be able to stay in Prague for little more than the cost of a weekend in Cardiff due to the “rip off” cost of rooms in Cardiff during the GP weekend.

Bydgozcz. Is the 2nd longest serving venue staging a round every year since 1998. The 2007 attendance of 15,000 continued the downward spiral in attendances over the last few years being 2,000 lower than in 2006 which itself was 1,000 lower than in 2005. The average for the 10 stagings is 16,000. Hopefully in 2008 the attendance will head back towards the glory days of 1998 and 1999 when the attendance was 20,000.

Wroclaw. Another long established venue having staged 9 GP’s. In 2007 the attendance was 25,000, which was an increase of 500 from 2006, but it should be borne in mind that this was its worse ever attendance the average being 26,500. The Olympic Stadium will not host a GP in 2008 as the second Polish GP moves to Leszno. It will be interesting to see if this move results in increased attendances or do the organisers hope that even if the attendance does not increase it makes better TV to see a packed crowd in a smaller stadium rather than the gaps that result from a similar sized crowd in the larger Olympic Stadium which after all has the second highest average attendance of the regular GP venues.

For 8 years Poland has hosted 2 GPs. The combined total for Bydgozcz and Wroclaw was the 2nd worse beating 2004 by 1,000 and the move to the smaller Leszno stadium in 2008 is hardly likely to improve matters which is rather worrying considering that Poland is often referred to as the leading speedway country in the world.

Eskilstuna has staged 3 GPs. The attendance of 6,500 in 2007 was down by 1,500 from 2006 and 2,500 lower than in 2005 the average being 7,833. The 2007 figure was the 90th lowest attendance for a GP and it is little wonder that Eskilstuna has lost its GP to Gothenburg.

Malilla has like Eskuilstuna staged 3 GPs. The 2007 attendance of 10,640 was nearly 2000 down on the 2006 and 2005 figures the average being 11,880. The organisers will be hoping that the drop in 2007 was a one off and that in 2008 it returns to normal.

Sweden has staged the GP at the most venues, 6 in total, and it has on 6 occasions like Poland hosted 2 GPs. The combined total in 2007 was the worse total and even more worrying for organisers must be the fact that every year bar 1 the combined total has been lower than the previous year. It must be hoped that the return to Gothenburg reverses this trend and that at least the average attendance at the Ullevi Stadium of 16,766 is matched otherwise they must be question marks about Sweden continuing to host 2 GPs a year especially when crowds for league racing in Sweden are in decline.

Krsko has hosted a GP on 6 occasions and the 2007 attendance of 8,000 was up by 1,000 from the 2005 and 2006 figures but down from the highpoint of its first GP in 2002 which attended a crowd of 12,000. The average attendance is 8,166 and the organisers will hope that this upward trend continues in 2008 because apart from 2002 and 2007 the attendances at the Slovenian track all appear in the bottom fifth of GP attendances.

Daugavpils was added to the rota in 2006 when 9,000 attended the first Latvian GP and this figure dropped by 2,000 in 2007. If this downward trend continues in 2008 there must be question marks about the Latvian GP continuing or alternately the organisers could consider lowering the admission prices so that more locals can afford to attend.

Lonigo is the sick man of the SGP. The 2007 crowd of 4,300 was the worse GP crowd since Pocking 1996 which “attracted” a crowd of 4,000. In fact of the five worse crowds in GP history Lonigo has “attracted” 3 of them and one must question how long it can continue to host a GP. Hamar in Norway lost its place on the rota after 3 GPs when its average crowd was 6,700 the 4 stagings of the Italian GP have attracted an average crowd of 5,050.

There are strong rumours that the new owners of SGP, IMG, will the series into Australia and the Middle and Far East in 2009. This expansion will be funded by various major sponsors they have lined up, believed to be some of the major tobacco companies that are not prevented from sponsoring sports in the expanding markets of the Far East as they are in Europe. This may be true and I wish them well with their plans, I fancy another trip down under in 2009, but reading some of the attendance figures for FIM sanctioned world championship (a total of 25 different championships) for meetings held in the Middle and Far East in the January 2009 issue of their online magazine does not make good reading. In Road Racing GP the attendance over 3 days in Qatar was 6,744 and whilst Malaysia looks better at 44,801, against Donington at 132,435 or the Czech Republic at 245,039, it looks less impressive.

S. Bear