Programme

[benbulben]

The prog has come in 6th in the Star's annual review. This is a drop from second in 2023 but I am surprised it hasnt dropped further as Phil seems to do the whole thing himself (well, he is a journo). If you read the interviews in the programme then they get repeated in the Star and vice versa. Personally, I bemoan articles which have nothing to do with Glasgow , there is no historical input (as in my day) and the pen pictures of our opponents are over blown.
On the other hand Aroprint are about a mile away from Ashfield so costs will be cheaper but my New Year wish is for a revamp of both cover and layout. Aye, dream on, boy.

[clavius]

It has been too similar for the last few years and yet again Edinburgh takes the honours and rightly so as it is outstanding.. mind you I would rather have on track success as a priority. Come on, Phil, its up to you.

[citytiger]

Happy New year to everyone on the Forum.

I have to say that I stopped bothering with a programme last year and didn't really miss it.

[coombes]

Happy New Year to one and all.

Can understand the general apathy towards programmes and ours in particular. The recycling of articles between newspaper, the Speedway Star and our website is a real turn off and a bit of a rip off.  Support Benbulben that articles unconnected with the Tigers, the News at Den page,  should be discontinued Since the Facenna era there has been no meaningful editorial from the promotion and a ghost written piece with Cami Browns name on it is light on info and heavy on hype. The Lee Complin saga is a case in point.

Perhaps programmes in their present form are becoming a thing of the past and a slimmed down version centring on a race card might be worth a try though advertising revenue would take a hit. However if fewer programmes are now being bought, it becomes a less attractive medium for advertisers anyway.

[dirtywhensecond]

Am I remembering correctly that we used to get a free programme at the Tigers, at the start of the Ashfield era?

Wasn't it discounted for "tax reasons"?

Am I making this up.....?

[benbulben]

OMG ! I hope you are hallucinating, dws. I always paid up front but was there not a programme included in the s/t price for the stand ? Or am I hallucinating.? I do remember getting a free scarf on entry when Colin Hamilton was involved which would be 2013 or 14.

[dirtywhensecond]

Jan 1, 2025 17:57:30 GMT 1 benbulben said:

OMG ! I hope you are hallucinating, dws. I always paid up front but was there not a programme included in the s/t price for the stand ? Or am I hallucinating.? I do remember getting a free scarf on entry when Colin Hamilton was involved which would be 2013 or 14.

Ah now I did have an ST back then, that must be it bbb.

[coombes]

You might be right DWS. I have a vague notion about the programme somehow acting as a readmission ticket in the event of a rain off. There again I  might be hallucinating.
However I have a clear memory of not getting a free scarf! A bus load of Berwick fans arrived before me and they got the last ones. Not so sure that the track staff didn't snap up a few too.

[Flying Tiger]

Jan 1, 2025 17:09:39 GMT 1 coombes said:

Can understand the general apathy towards programmes and ours in particular. The recycling of articles between newspaper, the Speedway Star and our website is a real turn off and a bit of a rip off.  Support Benbulben that articles unconnected with the Tigers, the News at Den page,  should be discontinued Since the Facenna era there has been no meaningful editorial from the promotion and a ghost written piece with Cami Browns name on it is light on info and heavy on hype. The Lee Complin saga is a case in point.

The programme's been poor since 2014 onwards IMO. Yes, it was big & glossy once the Facennas took over but that just disproved the theory that turds can't be polished

Since it became a one man band under the control of Lanno the hack, it's gone from bad to worse. I understand opinions are subjective but do the reviewers in the Star not notice the frequent mistakes?

[coombes]

Jan 1, 2025 15:34:58 GMT 1 clavius said:

It has been too similar for the last few years and yet again Edinburgh takes the honours and rightly so as it is outstanding.. mind you I would rather have on track success as a priority. Come on, Phil, its up to you.

Don't think on track success and a better programme are mutually exclusive. Indeed perhaps the opposite, if we drop a couple of Lanning pages and replace them by a promotion editorial and a history page (by Benbulben perhaps) the money saved could be diverted to on track endeavours..... Or go the whole hog and get David Walker back as programme editor.

[ragdoll64]

Many moons ago I would read the programme from cover to cover…….now, I’m afraid it’s just a race card to me. Content is guff and hype. I keep buying it as I feel it might benefit the club………..does it?

[ragdoll64]

Jan 3, 2025 13:12:52 GMT 1 ragdoll64 said:

Many moons ago I would read the programme from cover to cover…….now, I’m afraid it’s just a race card to me. Content is guff and hype. I keep buying it though as I feel it might benefit the club………..does it?

[coombes]

Jan 3, 2025 13:12:52 GMT 1 ragdoll64 said:

Many moons ago I would read the programme from cover to cover…….now, I’m afraid it’s just a race card to me. Content is guff and hype. I keep buying it as I feel it might benefit the club………..does it?

It's worrying that a lot of us think the same. Indeed 100% of the comments so far, and while it's a limited sample size and a narrow segment (long standing supporters} may be the promotion should take heed of these views. At £3.50 it's an expensive racecard and old habits won't always die hard. I hope these views are taken in the spirit they are given. When the new style programme was first introduced, I posted on FB that the Colouring Page for kids wasn't a goer and pointed out the quiz of only 5 lines spread over a whole page was wasteful. Didn't go down well with some and I expected to be burnt at the stake for heresy!. Both were remedied soon after.

As to helping the club - selling even 400 or so programmes each week would generate  £1400 and presumably  would turn a small profit though it's the adverts that are the main cash cows. The books of account are now filleted to such an extent they are little more than a skeleton Balance Sheet. This is in accordance with current disclosure requirements and the extent of Allied Vehicles support is no longer required to be shown. In the past it was well into six figures and is likely to still be of that order. While the owners are always courteously grateful for supporters club donations, it's hard to see that they make any material difference in the wider scale of things, so it's up to you whether you consider buying a programme is the way to go. 
Having said that I probably will!

[benbulben]

If you give one person (Lanning) free rein to do the whole thing he will just do it as he pleases and never mind what the fans want. In the past there were a few contributors like Robin Goodall and Jack Hastie who knew their stuff while I did columns for Ian Steel and a few for Jeff Holmes. When David Walker was editor I sent him stuff which we both felt was of interest but he said it was rejected at a higher level. Just because PL is a hack doesn't mean he is a good writer.

[coombes]

Jan 4, 2025 11:02:35 GMT 1 benbulben said:

If you give one person (Lanning) free rein to do the whole thing he will just do it as he pleases and never mind what the fans want. In the past there were a few contributors like Robin Goodall and Jack Hastie who knew their stuff while I did columns for Ian Steel and a few for Jeff Holmes. When David Walker was editor I sent him stuff which we both felt was of interest but he said it was rejected at a higher level. Just because PL is a hack doesn't mean he is a good writer.

How much of a free hand does Lanning get. Are his pieces in the programme and the website subject to any kind of editorial scrutiny? They should be as some if the recent hype is just nonsense.