UkPigeonRacing

Murray wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2026 9:08 am And this is were I will be attacked for my views. I think the often repeated view that pigeon racing is in decline is wrong.

Pigeon racing is undergoing some big upheavals. It is like the racing stables when I was an apprentice in the 70's. Many yards had 20 or 40 , the big ones maybe 60 horses. These days the big stables have hundreds in training all the time and as many again on the books undergoing pre-training or rehab or whatever.
Same as the pigeons. There are one third of the lofts that there were 30 years ago. Many of them these days have gone from two dozen race birds to 300 race birds.
Where I live money racing is huge. The money invested and the prize money to be won is driving the sport.

What I am hearing, if you stop and listen, is a lot of people really don't just want the game to survive. What they really want is for it to be as it was 30 or 40 years ago. Well it won't be. Those days are gone.

I saw a sign at a loft I visited about 10 years ago. It said "GET BIG OR GET OUT!" I was a bit offended at the time, having about 30 pigeons on total.
But he was right. Every form of competitive sport is getting bigger, more professionally organised and definitely more competitive.

king wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2026 1:46 pm

Murray wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2026 9:08 am And this is were I will be attacked for my views. I think the often repeated view that pigeon racing is in decline is wrong.

Pigeon racing is undergoing some big upheavals. It is like the racing stables when I was an apprentice in the 70's. Many yards had 20 or 40 , the big ones maybe 60 horses. These days the big stables have hundreds in training all the time and as many again on the books undergoing pre-training or rehab or whatever.
Same as the pigeons. There are one third of the lofts that there were 30 years ago. Many of them these days have gone from two dozen race birds to 300 race birds.
Where I live money racing is huge. The money invested and the prize money to be won is driving the sport.

What I am hearing, if you stop and listen, is a lot of people really don't just want the game to survive. What they really want is for it to be as it was 30 or 40 years ago. Well it won't be. Those days are gone.

I saw a sign at a loft I visited about 10 years ago. It said "GET BIG OR GET OUT!" I was a bit offended at the time, having about 30 pigeons on total.
But he was right. Every form of competitive sport is getting bigger, more professionally organised and definitely more competitive.

In some countries the sport is healthy and membership is increasing. BUT anybody who thinks that it's not in decline here in Europe is not living in the real world. I started in 1974 and from a 60 member club my local club is down to some weeks just 2 members sending. I'll agree that in other parts of the UK the sport is more healthy, but the overall picture is a slow demise. The numbers do not lie. For every 'new' member the sport in the UK it's losing 10 older members. And NO AMOUNT of money will reverse that trend. The idea that combining clubs or Feds does save running costs but it doesn't increase members, in fact it will lose members, as older fanciers are less likely to travel longer distances to mark their birds.

When I started the RPRA issued near on 1 MILLION rings. Today it's around 550,000 with 12,000 members, NEHU have 3,364 members and sell 131,200 rings. Belgium 15,500 members, selling 890,000 rings. Holland 15,374 members selling 870,000 rings ect.
China is very healthy 418,000 members selling 29 Million 363,100 thousand rings but their way of racing in the UK, would not be supported by either the fanciers or welfare groups.

Murray wrote: Fri Oct 02, 2026 12:40 am

king wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2026 1:46 pm

Murray wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2026 9:08 am And this is were I will be attacked for my views. I think the often repeated view that pigeon racing is in decline is wrong.

Pigeon racing is undergoing some big upheavals. It is like the racing stables when I was an apprentice in the 70's. Many yards had 20 or 40 , the big ones maybe 60 horses. These days the big stables have hundreds in training all the time and as many again on the books undergoing pre-training or rehab or whatever.
Same as the pigeons. There are one third of the lofts that there were 30 years ago. Many of them these days have gone from two dozen race birds to 300 race birds.
Where I live money racing is huge. The money invested and the prize money to be won is driving the sport.

What I am hearing, if you stop and listen, is a lot of people really don't just want the game to survive. What they really want is for it to be as it was 30 or 40 years ago. Well it won't be. Those days are gone.

I saw a sign at a loft I visited about 10 years ago. It said "GET BIG OR GET OUT!" I was a bit offended at the time, having about 30 pigeons on total.
But he was right. Every form of competitive sport is getting bigger, more professionally organised and definitely more competitive.

In some countries the sport is healthy and membership is increasing. BUT anybody who thinks that it's not in decline here in Europe is not living in the real world. I started in 1974 and from a 60 member club my local club is down to some weeks just 2 members sending. I'll agree that in other parts of the UK the sport is more healthy, but the overall picture is a slow demise. The numbers do not lie. For every 'new' member the sport in the UK it's losing 10 older members. And NO AMOUNT of money will reverse that trend. The idea that combining clubs or Feds does save running costs but it doesn't increase members, in fact it will lose members, as older fanciers are less likely to travel longer distances to mark their birds.

When I started the RPRA issued near on 1 MILLION rings. Today it's around 550,000 with 12,000 members, NEHU have 3,364 members and sell 131,200 rings. Belgium 15,500 members, selling 890,000 rings. Holland 15,374 members selling 870,000 rings ect.
China is very healthy 418,000 members selling 29 Million 363,100 thousand rings but their way of racing in the UK, would not be supported by either the fanciers or welfare groups.

What you are saying is true, king, but it doesn't mean the sport is dying, it just means it's losing it's appeal in some places and gaining in others. In western Europe, Holland, Belgium, France etc it is becoming the domain of the mega lofts alike Eijerkamp, Bas Verkerk, young Tom Van Gaver etc, while in Eastern Europe the hobby fanciers are growing in numbers.
I read that in the Philipines the sport is booming, many thousands of flyers now competing.
I believe that governments indirectly influence it too. In countries like the UK where everything is heavily regulated, everything gets so difficult and expensive that people just give up.
Over here, if some adenoidal nuisance with a clipboard turns up to audit your loft, you just tell them to bugger off.