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Phil

Next Promoters meeting - "Cards on the table"

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The thing that needs sorting more than anything is the surface we ride on, with the amount of wet summers we are getting, its playing havoc with fixtures, not to mention televised meetings being scuppered,it can't be long before SKY get fed up of things.

 

We've had shale since the late 50's, before that we were on cinders, I cant remember rained off matches on cinders, I can remember riding 40 miles in the rain to a track not thinking one moment that it would be rained off, you couldn't over water cinders.

 

British Rail ran a Special train from Northampton to Coventry every week then, thats how certain it was that the matches would be on,3 carriages full of supporters.

 

There must be an effort made to find a man made material that will not turn to mud,after all in the horse racing game they have all weather tracks and training strips, I beleive they consist of sand and coconut hair, a surface that we could probably ride on.

 

We lose a percentage of fans every year because of rain off's, and the new fans coming in hardly keep pace with those going out

 

And rain off's cost the promotion money.

 

I know its almost impossible to get cinders in large quantity now, but we must find something similar, and soon..............

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An Elite League, by definition, needs G.P. riders.

But the Elite League, in its present form, suffers too many absences, too much disruption, and has clubs who aren't viable, whilst G.P. riders are the backbone of its teams.

Ipswich, for one, have had enough, and Perrin constantly threatens to pull the plug on B.V.'s E.L. future (although he contradicted himself this year with his steak and chips statement).

The Elite League looks doomed in its present structure.

The conundrum for the promoters now is to find a blueprint for the future, which safeguards all tracks' survival, wherever possible.

Let's not look back wistfully wishing for a resurrection of the old British and National Leagues, and let's not imagine that a salary cap is workable, or that promotion and relegation can be implemented in this country.

Bold initiatives are needed to ensure that speedway in Britain has a healthy future.

I believe that we have to start by excluding G.P. riders from our league teams, and creating two viable divisions where teams can operate according to their income.

This is not to drive a wedge between Britain and the FIM/BSI, but to safeguard the continuation of a number of tracks in this country.

The BSI boys are very bright; I'm sure that they would come up with a plan to give the G.P. riders enough meetings to satisfy them, so that everyone would be happy with the outcome.

Sam.

 

Says it all really.

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Guest andyo

surfaces are a problem and cutting costs has lead to a decline in standards of the material used over the last 20 years. the amount of rubbish that turns to mud and dust is greater than it ever was. plus the knowledge required to prepare a good track is being lost.

 

in many ways the position now is worse than at the last great reorganisation in 1965 when the british league was created from the remnants of the national (elite in modern terms) and provincial (premier) leagues. then it was possible to force riders to move to weaker teams from stronger ones but these riders were almost entirely brits and foreign commitmets were unknown.

 

it may be that anyone wanting to ride in the GP's will have to choose as Billy hamill diid this year between britain and europe.

 

But, something along the lines of 65 is needed for the same reasons it was needed then to share out the money between tracks; to equalise rich and poor.

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An Elite League, by definition, needs G.P. riders................

 

The BSI boys are very bright; I'm sure that they would come up with a plan to give the G.P. riders enough meetings to satisfy them, so that everyone would be happy with the outcome.

Sam.

 

Some good points in your post Sam.

 

Couple of questions.............

 

If we exclude GP riders then we'd have no Elite League. Would Sky be interested in sponsoring one of the 2 viable divisions?

 

Would having the GP riders competing against each other 3 or 4(?) times a week, to keep their income at it's present level, devalue the GP's and make the other meetings rather , well.............same-ish? Methinks BSI and the broadcasters may not be quite so interested after a short while.

 

I still can't think of anything better than not allowing them to ride for more than one European club and, perhaps restricting clubs to 1 GP rider. Spreading them thinly across 20 or so clubs should reduce running costs somewhat. It's not perfect but where else can the top riders go. They seem to have priced themselves out of the market so will probably have to suffer some of the pain.

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It would be nice to have some local opposition again. Seems a lifetime ago when I was making the trip to Canterbury on a Friday evening to watch a local derby match.

Blimey! You WERE keen going a day early! :P

then

I was thinking the same there Bryn ;)

 

Well it was a long time ago. 30 years ? :lol:

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