ch958

contracted meetings for the full season, with DU a possibility or the chance of the odd match in Poland. If they were forced to make the choice I know which they would choose.

well its not just that - it means teams turning up without some of those names - more guests/farcical fixtures

nice mention on Look North tonight.

anyway, the short answer is no, no one is bothered, its an ok thing.

presumably Sundays when the diamonds aren't operating

some folks have been calling for a single person to be in charge: its just not Barry Hearn

Fridays work for me - and anyone with kids you would think.

bit like the other big announcement today - bit of. a fudge

I wouldn't ridicule any rider

the comparisons with football are completely bogus. For one thing, a home team mullering the away team every week is fine in football but v boring in speedway. People keep going on about the product being lower standard but the product is racing not names. As long as the racing is competitive then the product is fine. In the good times of the 60s and 70s for every Briggs, Mauger, etc there were 2 or 3 journeyman riders making up the numbers. How do you think they achieved regular 11 plus averages? If Briggs, Mauger, Moore, Fundin, etc met each other once a week their averages would struggle past 9. Mathematical fact

well they could be forced if the dog was wagging the tail and not the reverse. You would simply be allowed only 1 rider over a certain average, thereby sharing out the talent. Its never that easy of course but .....

so how the hell can the football club dictate anything??

one thing that occurred to me - the proposed sharing of a new stadium and the football club's objection to having a track around the pitch. Will the football club make up the lost rent from the speedway club? Will the comets pay more rent and tell the football club to sling it. Who the hell do they think they are? I should imagine the Comets, despite everything, pull in more punters than the Reds

no but top riders would be spread more widely therefore meeting less often so scoring more points and earning more ££

i'd sh*t on the sandwiches

some of the 'lesser' riders from the 60s and 70s speak of the highlights of their careers when they beat Mauger or Briggs, etc. So there was a massive gap and some riders trundled along with 3, 4 point averages for years. And yet these were the glory years. So don't worry about the gap between top and bottom riders - it'll just make the top ones seem more appealing to audiences

if the old men in charge thought Rathbone was a 'flash harry' or 'wideboy' they're unlikely to go for someone like Horton

true - its totally unsustainable in employment law.

you can't. Sooner or later this will be a court case. Assets are a farce, there's no such thing in reality. When a contract runs out a worker can do what he wants and no court would deny this

you can keep the play offs but just ensure the league winners are properly recognised. League champions then have play offs for a shield - Craven/Mauger/Buzz Burrows, anyone

I think, generally speaking, it is broke. There's a swell of opinion that league winners should be league champions and play off winners win something else, maybe a chance to have 'The Ivan Mauger Trophy' for the top 4.

"Finally, the riders have got to come to their senses. If you want to be a full-time rider and are either rich or riding in Poland in front of 15,000 fans, then fair enough and good luck to you. If you are second string in the 'Championship' riding in front of 500 people, surely you cannot expect to be full-time. Look back at the Peter Oakes' Who's Who book in 1974 and the vast majority of the riders had jobs. Now, for some reason, all the riders seem to feel that they are entitled to be full-time, thereby expecting the wages that would enable them to sustain that lifestyle. It cannot continue on current crowd levels." THIS

The product is more than names. It is, or should be, four closesly fought laps of racing by riders familiar and liked by their fans. Myself, i had Steve wilcock, Martin Dixon, etc etc I didn't feel shortchanged because i wasn't watching Mauger, Ashby, etc. I saw very good racing. That's the product.

1500? Try basing a budget on a third of that, then go forward. When and if crowds pick up, pay picks up. Hoping 1500 turn up is suicide. At the Div 2 tracks in the north a 20 pc crowd increase is probably only another 100 or so people. Its time to be realistic and go into survival mode first, then try and build.

i agree with the lack of promotion and advertising but when they get to the stadium the product should at least be credible and not select teams. One division for me but it doesn't seem there's the will. Oh well, more nails in the coffin I'm sad to say