WEYMOUTH Wildcats co-promoter Martin Peters has put forward a series of suggestions to attract more fans and sponsorship into the sport to secure its future.
Peters believes the current state of the sport looks “a little bleak” but maintains it can be an easy sell to newcomers due to its short and punchy race format.
His comments come amid a turbulent present day for the sport, with new teams such as Oxford arriving but current outfits like Wolverhampton set to turn off their engines.
Wildcats themselves have not raced competitively since 2019 thanks to a ban on nomadic teams without a host track.
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Speaking to Echosport, Peters said: “It’s all about attracting big sponsorships.
“Back in the day, you’d have big write-ups in the national press, whereas now you might get a tiny column somewhere hidden away on page 32.
“People don’t see it as much as they used to. You would be able to watch it more on TV, whereas now it’s Eurosport, so you’ve got to pay for Sky.
“Or, they’ve got a streaming service which is costing more money. You’re not going to get neutrals who are going to buy something they’ve never seen before.
“It’s about attracting people to go a couple of times, they’ll get hooked and then keep going.”
Peters feels more could be done to market the sport, including radical stunts.
He said: “Overall, it’s advertising and doing little things to publicise it.
“In this country you probably couldn’t get away with it but in Poland you had four riders sliding around a roundabout.
“That’s great publicity, everyone’s going to be talking about it. What are these bikes riding around a roundabout? It got massive attention.
“You probably couldn’t go as extreme as that but just trying to think outside the box might bring more people in.
“The more of a fanbase you have, it might attract bigger sponsorship because they’ve got more people to see their brand. It works hand in hand.
“It’s got to start at the bottom and work its way up. Who knows? There’s no reason why it can’t get back to the good old days of yesteryear with attendances.”
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