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Social media is nothing to do with preaching to the converted. If you spend a little bit of time and money on the right material you can reach 1 million+ people on social media. This isn't guess work, it's based on me being CTO for a company with a £10m+ turnover generated almost entirely from social media. A cafe will do nothing. A sustained and committed social media strategy involving each and every club could save the entire sport.

The point is value for money, if i am expected to buy a programme then a programme with loads of adverts and a team sheet is not value for money.

No, it's about having teams of relatively equal strength so that you don't have a race to financial extinction for those who cannot compete economically. It's a case of not having the insanity of paying highly expensive 'star' riders blasting round half a lap in front and taking home more than the total attendance money. Sadly too many fans hide behind the "watered down" mantra that totally fails to realise that the sport in Britain is a brown ale sport trying to live off champagne. Yes, there was a day when we could afford the top talent but those costs have been disastrously escalated by the money being paid in Poland and riders' expectations soaring as a result. The bubble will burst but for now Britain has to find a way to survive until then and if it does not then find a way to survive. Having fans that see that the quality of racing is vastly more important that the quality of names in a sport like ours might help. At this level it's all about putting on meetings that will attract and entertain new crowds, not provide them with uncompetitive meetings but telling them,"Who cares, that's Tai Woffinden half a lap ahead of Jason Doyle". Most would say "Who the hell are they and why is there no action?". British speedway's situation cannot be simplistically laid entirely at the BSPA's door. The competition of Poland and the Grand Prixs have battered British speedway which never stood a chance. When the sport here tries to do something to survive it would be useful if these posturing 'supporters' actually demonstrated that support by dropping this damaging "watered down" rubbish, but then that would ask for a view of the bigger picture that too many cannot or will not even begin to try. This will be my 47th season in the sport and in those years I have watched speedway and often worked in it all levels from World Finals to training tracks. Thankfully I've learned that I was just as likely to see a decent speedway race at Iwade as I would be at Cardiff of Wembley. I would have missed so much joy if I had stupidly stuck to the "I don't DO second division" or "It's watered down" approach. In most sports the greater the talent the greater the entertainment, but that doesn't work in racing unless you have the enormous hype budget of F1. I adore the sight of a match being won by a rider bravely taking the outside line to win on the line and I don't care what his name or reputation is....

I very much doubt you could write the rules of most sports on a sheet of paper (unless it was a very large sheet and writing was very small), especially a sport that caters for multiple formats. 'Tear up the rulebook' is just one of those silly mantras that gets bandied about by speedway people, and you of all people should know better than to repeat that. Whether or not there should be points limits, guests, averages and the like is one debate, but whilst they're deemed to be necessary by the sport, then there's always going to need to be a degree of complexity in the regulations. If there was nothing written down about these things, it would be total chaos and even more open to ad-hoc and biased decision-making. 'Four riders doing four laps' would frankly get pretty boring pretty quickly if there wasn't any structure to it. That's why the sport quickly evolved from ad-hoc scratch races to team events. And in reality, it's really only the team building stuff and certain technical elements that are highly contentious. The rest of the rulebook, whilst it might be better written, isn't controversial.

Because attracting 3, 4, 5 or even 20 people from a local cafe to attend an event that they are unlikely to ever attend again is not a good approach to marketing. It won't grow the sport in the slightest.

Workington have tweeted that their completed team will be announced this week, so you would presume that we will know where Kyle will be riding by week’s end too

ill never be 1 of the puppet masters puppets so ill just get my info from the contacts ive got or when its made public

Disgusting for a speedway programme should be 2 max. A premier league football programme is 3 pounds and it has at least 4 times the content

Please could you stick to posting your twaddle in the Berwick threads.

But you clearly said “hope he gets as mush stick as CH did” you knew CH got a lot of stick, so you are hoping CC gets the same treatment. If you didn’t mean that you should word you posts more clear. I for one didn’t know the history behind your comment.

there is always one bitter and twisted fecker from a defunct track that claims to be a speedway supporter . BITTER,TWISTED AND CORRUPT FAN . PROPER DOOR HANDLE .

If Thursday's had been approved, why change it? Sheffield and Ipswich should have had two choices if they wanted Thursdays. Ride top league or ride Thursday's but top league sides get priority on riders. Ipswich, in particular, seem to have been holding the top flight to ransom for years. I'm just fed up with speedway seeing the best way forward being to make the good clubs as crap as the poor ones.

Gardening should be cut back too

Because the whole average situation this year is farcical and the people who run the sport in the UK are unable to distinguish between their bumholes and their earholes?

I'll informed nonsense yet again.

Actually, thousands, in fact tens of thousands enjoy 4 guys racing, it's called the Grand Prix. No arbitrary rules, points limits, "assessments", just pure racing. Unfortunately, for many reasons, league racing needs to have some element of restrictions in order to cater for clubs with a wide variance of incomes and support levels. My grip is that this is not done in a transparent way so that all fans feel their are competing on a level playing field.

I think the main reason speedway appears so chaotic isn't the decisions themselves, which I am sure are based on considered opinions, but is in fact the lack of transparency. For example, why haven't the promoters who voted in favour of the "one over 8" rule been made to come forwards and explain their logic? Similarly, the process for which foreign riders receive assessed averages seems completely random, yet I am sure someone at least thinks they know how they are determined - so why isn't this published in the public domain? Until then, the determining and implementation of rules will always seem random and chaotic.

If I was still running a speedway I would have kicked your arse for you. Fans can speculate with their wishes or what they know. Riders and especially a hired hand like a mechanic, should leave the business to the promoters who's business it is. I would remind other readers of theses post, that this poster is the same poster who published what was going on at Newcastle in October, when Alan Hedley was about to quit the Diamonds. That was internal business, his post wasn't banter, but more attempt to get himself known as a part privileged knob with some information but wanted to big up what he knew. in any business, you don't want an internal mouth blabbing to the forum, to make himself look big and informed. I said at the time it was a mechanic who was blabbing and it didn't take long for me to find out who it was. Beware Kevin and all at Redcar, some will love it, but he will do no good to your business.

i will move on, its over now - i didn't like it though

it wasn't banter though - he claimed authority for a statement which he knew to be false. He could have caused problems - they may have appeared available to other promoters for example. If i was promoter or manager he'd be in trouble. Needs to keep it shut if he's in a trusted position. Well the management know he's not trustworthy now. Yes fans come on here and speculate - they do not claim authority and thats the difference

From the guest appearances Shanes made last year he was producing 5 point plus performances With more regular racing doubling up I would expect he will kick on further He certainly could be challenging for a spot in the 1-5 and possibly most likely to be the biggest improver of 2018

infantile behaviour, proved wrong and then 'it was just a joke' . Pathetic actually

Looks like our 90th Anniversary Meeting is going to be on Saturday 24th March. The longest continuously running speedway team in the world.

Christmas Statement from the Save Coventry Speedway group. WE would like to extend our Season’s Greetings to all supporters of Speedway and Stock Car Racing at Coventry. Our thanks to all who have supported the Campaign Group efforts over the course of the year, and also to everyone who helped organise and supported the Challenge matches run in 2017 with Coventry Bees not running as part of the official league structure. It has been the worst year imaginable for everyone with a love for the sports at Brandon; from the shattering news that ‘agreements’ for future racing were not to be fulfilled, to the eventual omission of Coventry from the 2017 Premiership, to the deterioration in condition of the stadium throughout the year arising from the lack of security on-site by the owners. Brandon Estates bought the stadium for their own purposes, but in doing so they have shown zero regard for the 89-year history and heritage of the iconic venue, nor the fact that regular visits to Brandon to watch these family sports remained a way of life for many thousands of people throughout the season, right up until the end of 2016. In addition, the intransigence of the owners to engage in reasonable communication is a further indication of their motives, along with the material included within their official representations and public exhibition material – much of which is open to serious question. At the Exhibition in October, comments from the public were invited by planning consultants Framptons. We have seen a number of these responses, and the local reaction is clear - but as with the 2014 Exhibition arising from the initial plans, they appear to be a closely-guarded secret at this time. The display boards also indicated that an outline planning application would be submitted in Autumn 2017. At the time of writing, this has not taken place. We do not know the reason for that, but we can assure Brandon Estates – and their front-man, Monaco-based businessman John Downer – that as soon as their planning application is submitted, we will be ready with strong opposition. They must understand that they cannot simply take two major sports away from the region – sports which were both perfectly viable running in tandem at the stadium – merely on an outrageous speculative bid for development on land which had not been earmarked for that purpose, and expect everyone to sit back and let it happen. Our Campaign Group came together in its present form in the immediate aftermath of Coventry’s exclusion from the 2017 SGB Premiership, and our primary aim was to bring about a return to racing at the stadium for 2018 as well as establishing plans for the long-term continuation of both sports in the area. In those respects, we have regrettably been unsuccessful. The sheer depth of issues to be considered and resolved arising from the activities of recent years has been eye-opening in the extreme, and we have to respect the fact that the timescales of official business are sometimes longer than we would wish for. We believe there is tremendous momentum behind our campaign and overwhelming opposition to Brandon Estates' proposals. So our work will go on into 2018, and there are various events and hearings in the early part of the New Year which will play a vital part in matters going forward. Finally, we must emphasise to all who pass comment on the situation, often on social media, that the status of Brandon Stadium remains absolutely fundamental to the entire argument, and an acceptance that it has been lost to sport permanently is simply not an option. We wish every supporter of Speedway and Stock Car Racing a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and we hope 2018 provides some encouragement to everyone who wishes to see our two famous sports restored to their rightful place.

Search the forum as this topic has been raised a number of times.But I did put this on one thread before and there is more stuff if you google