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Excellent turn out at the Brandon Hall Hotel tonight for a presentation by the S.C.S. Group detailing the continuing fight against Brandon Estates. Over 300 people attended, standing room only, to hear how the group are to counter the 'ahem' *inaccuracies* in the developers claims about viability and alternative sites. Almost a two hour presentation with no-one calling for a refreshments break, such was the interest in the well prepared (and delivered) presentation.

As someone who got addicted to Speedway with the Bulldogs in 77, I fear we will never see or hear the roar of a speedway bike in Bristol again. I have so many fond memories...it's under my skin and I keep logging back into this forum to keep up to date. However...after the demise of the Bulldogs and then following Swindon, Newport and Somerset around the Country...I'm left in despair. I haven't watched one single meeting this past season...either live or on TV. I'm so depressed with how this sport is run. I can't give it my time or effort...it's a complete farce. However...it feels like a son or daughter who has strayed...and you are still thir for them. You can't help the love...but you know deep down it's totally screwed. So sad...yet so simple to resolve. The sooner the old school promoter dies the better...bunch of clowns that only have the interest of their pockets. The sooner Speedway riders realise they aren't like any other Motorsport...the better. Apart from Poland...they are a Garden Shed product...yet they want to portray an F1 type status. It's total bullrubbish...smoke and mirrors. Speedway is followed by Lower working class people with very little disposable income...said with respect...it's run by Promoters that are no better than second hand car salesman, Circus Clowns, found out by TV and sponsorship. It's a total shambles. I just feel for the kid I was at 12yo age....who got addicted and wanted to ride a bike and have fun. And then got a bunch of speedway politics thrown at me. Same for riders....same for public....it's all complete bullrubbish...yet it's totally ingrained in our lives and hard to ignore. Totally punch drunk with the whole affair.

Really? You want to swap 2 meaningful heats for 6 un meaningful heats that the crowd aren't bothered about, from my memory at least 50% of the crowd left after the match, then some of the top riders were not interested and often dropped out anyway followed by whoever was in the Rider of the Night Final agreeing to split the prize money whatever the result

One seasons experience of him at Berwick was more than enough to see he wasn’t fit for purpose

Thats terrible This year Ipswich didnt run the 16 Lapper which was due as part of the season ticket A pro rata refund cheque was sent within a couple of weeks of the confirmation the season was finished with a letter apologising for the meeting not happening and thanking the fan for their valuable support

Seems a few were left wondering what that post on Twitter meant especially when it gets on other sites and you don't see the comments made. Seems to be something a school kid would post but strange for an official account to post. Did the post White Bunnies on the first of the month

It depends what people want to spend money on, 20 fags about a tenner, 4 pints up town about fifteen quid. In that context sixteen quid for speedway is ok, it’s getting people in and coming back again that is the problem.

I do think that £16 is a completely fair price for an adult. Could even reach £18 and I think it would be well worth the entertainment (considering some championship tracks do charge this and more, with no greater facilities than Derwent Park). As for concessions, it would be wrong to scrap the discounted rate in my opinion as the majority of the current audience are 65+. However, a concession rate is offered for ages 16-17, students and OAP’s. The argument has been raised regarding retired people having more disposable income. What about the massive amount of young workers (24 and under), apprentices, that earn a totally lower pay rate than ages 25+. No discount is given. Maybe this could explain a lack of interest from young people. There will never be an answer to please everybody. It is seemingly difficult to pull in new fans, but we can protect the club with what we already have. Every little helps, plenty of fundraising, people contributing to Workington Speedway Trust. It would be a real shame to lose the club we love after such a brilliant season.

Honestly It is not just the teams you have quoted who run at a loss nearly all of the promotions in all the leagues are "blowing their brains out", however when you talk to these guys it is the same old "Hydraulics" "oh we have made a small profit", or "oh we have broke even this year" or the old chestnut "oh we have only made a small loss but we are nearly their". One promoter advised that "I've nearly balanced the books and only took a seven grand hit this year due to buying a 25 grand air fence, next year I am in the black" on further due diligence inspection prior to a possible investment that £7k loss was actually and £85k loss and the following year there was another £75k loss. When are these people going to realise, when is the message going to get through, how the sport is being run (especially in the top two leagues) is just not sustainable. We can not compete financially with Poland or anywhere else on the European continent for that matter. Currently British Speedway is being run as a "feeder country" for the Polish Leagues and we may have to revert back to the semi pro or fully amateur format that we once run in the past and stick with that for a period before we can climb back to anywhere near the way the sport was. BluPanther may have put up a really negative post however under the current terms of reference the sport has major difficulties and he may well be correct in his assumptions (unfortunately) Regards THJ

That of course was similar to that plan of Gaming International (Stadia UK) initially - move Dogs/Speedway from Blunsdon to the new Racino in Reading. I actually drove round the land which Reading Council had offered GI/Stadia today. Warehouses - made me think what it could have been if GI/Stadia had kept their word. They of course didn’t and never have when it comes to any stadium construction / replacement.

mr Gresham - without reading the thread but seeing the topic, immediately thought of Steve Gresham - wasn’t he a member of the Eastville days from way back when ? It ain’t you is it ? your post is 100% - for me, first time since 1976 I have not seen a live speedway event is in 2018 - not in the ‘flesh’ or even on tv. Missed Cardiff, and can’t say I gave a monkeys. Am Coventry based, where tonight there has been a BIG event close to the stadium in a hotel near the derelict stadium - have seen photos of the attendees and the age profile appears to be aged 50’s (I am being diplomatic here) and above. This week hearing the demise of Berwick and Lakeside/Arena - whatever they are called these days - just shows the writing is on the wall. The sport in the Uk needs an injection of younger personell, otherwise speedway will be remembered,purely on Wikipedia as what it was all about. No prospect anytime soon of that - being the younger injection I mean. as a youth, young man, middle aged man and now getting on a bit, had some fantastic experiences - Ole Olsen, Coventry Bees, trips to Dudley wood and getting our coach bombarded with stones from the Cradley ‘massive’ - Wembley world finals, White City dis-appointments when Ole failed to make the World final in Sweden 1980 (Michael Lee !) but travelling along on a tee mill trip by coach hearing false stories of Finn Thomson breaking a leg in practice and meaning Ole was in ! I remember our coach had a ‘commisioner’ who was Fat Rat Dave - who ran the supporters club office for badges/programmes at Monmore Green - my god we ripped into him with banter big time.

Yes THJ it may well be £20 for me next year

Would they not try run a nl team team to keep the track running ,the likes of Eastbourne and Birmingham seem to have put decent competitive teams together and have kept a decent crowd level and not lost any money from what I hear they would have a decent team with some local riders in Leon and kerion plus the likes of mitch Davy Luke Ruddick Ryan MacDonald Kev Whelan blair Smith that would give locals something to cheer about and with less matches could have a weekend of now and again and with having the training track on their doorstep could bring riders up from there, also there wage bill would be easy quarter less than they pay out now and with local riders the local press might cover it more

For what it's worth I think current prices are about right, but don't think concessions should be got rid of, as a vast majority of crowds at Workington ( and other places ) fall into this category, you would lose more money as a lot of older people would not pay. Another point that should be considered is have fewer meetings a month, one week home, one week away, a bit like football, sometimes less is more,

went down hill when they done away with the forum

EVEN if speedway in Norwich was a huge success it would never rival soccer in the shape of Norwich City. Places like Torun, Gorzow, Leszno, and Zielona Gora are towns where speedway is the undisputed number one sport, it is what they are synonymous with, and the fans that attend are doing so in support of not just the club but the town itself. The whole culture is different and is reflected in the media at all levels including TV.

Will never happen, it's dying a death and there is no way back ...

Not defending the rider. as you and your other Scunny fan has pointed out Phillips was not scoring the points all season, so why did it take your Team Management while after the cut off point for team changes to decide that he needed dropping. Your Team Management were caught with their pants down, I find it more than frustrating that you vent your frustration out solely on the rider the rider, why not the Management team as well?

Its a bit unfair to single out individuals when there are so many interesting and knowledgeable contributors to this section of the forum . Yes there are also a few numpties who's sole purpose is to wind folk up and also one or two of the nasty variety . But thankfully they are in the minority and the rest of us love the sport and i enjoy the quiet moments reading the various threads . I remember the days when i went to the speedway ; went home and didnt have anyone to talk to about it until the following week , so this forum has been a godsend in that respect . Long may it continue to flourish .

I thought I'd watch this on catch-up after seeing this here. Good luck to Blair. I hope he gets himself sorted out in the rehab that they sent him to. I wonder if this is one of those cases of someone involved in sport desperate to regain the adrenaline rush that they have lost after finishing their careers. I felt very sad for him watching this. He wasn't your typical "Jeremy Kyle" type guest who comes on screaming and shouting, and his family were clearly a bit embarrassed to have to resort to putting him on the show. He looked emotional throughout and seemed to genuinely want help. No way did he come across as a "scum bag". I think he is lucky in that his family clearly care about him. I hope they do some sort of catch-up programme in the future and he is doing well.

You sound nice.

That's my Xmas present together with the Ivan Mauger DVD!

The London speedway tracks and teams dvd looks a winner too.

In 2014 Wolbert started with Glasgow on 8.48 and finished the season on a deplorable 6.19. The following season he rejoined Edinburgh on that bargain average and finished the season on 8.18. Supposing he was the only rider left on the planet who could fill your final team place, you'd be better closing your track with dignity than employing this shameless individual IMO.

did he build it up ? it was an very interesting meeting with the promoters keen to hear the fans ideas, wishes and expectations as well as give some feed back feedback they gave was that they are 99% certain of riding next season which given last years winter's issues is great news and that crowds are up which is good but we all would like them higher various discussions and thoughts about raising more income for the team and making the meetings more enjoyable and more family friendly promoters discussed due to the winter issues, that team building was difficult (which I think we all appreciated back in March) but they believe they are in a good place to build a stronger team next year (within their budgetary limits) they like the supporters have been frustrated by the lack of meetings and lack of continuity. Whilst they refused to discuss likely size of the divisions, they believe that the minimum number of competitive meetings next season will be more like 18-20 rather than 14 this year - excellent news!! attendance of the meeting was very good although I expected more questions from the supporters only rather contradictory bit, was the pop at us keyboard warriors who predicted doom and gloom at the start of the season :-) ... even though up to the Sheffield meeting the promotion were still worrying about the wooden spoon and throughout the meeting they conceded the team was not as strong as they would have liked hands up the lads have done better than I expected - although I never doubted their commitment just that the team is way below the entitled limit. Although it has been a very strange season, especially at Brough where some teams have turned up beaten before the start, and who could believe that Sheffield would finish bottom. Even this current team, is probably only 2 riders away from being a very competitive side as at least 4 can up their averages and we have points available under the limit and also I would say well done to Martin and George, whilst other teams go through their regular annual axing of riders, George has again stayed loyal to his riders through thick and thin. And this can only be positive as more riders will want to ride for them. I think we can look forward to 2019 with optimism