The Direction That Speedway Needs To Take In The U.k.

[Robbie B 262]

Maybe get rid of the averages system and return the rider control, that was used upto 1977. It take away any team thoughts of manipulating riders averages. This would also allow riders to stay at their present tracks far longer then now, thus the riders would be able to bulid up a following with supporters, and sponsers.

 

 

 

[lavalamp 0]

The major problem with trying to look to the future is that there is little support for British riders. There are few training tracks around and so getting proper track time is difficult and expensive for British youngsters to progress. Unless you have money behind you then it can only be a dream of so many people who spend money on bikes and equipment to find that they get only a few races in the second half of a meeting.

 

Why can't the BSPA or the SCB take some time to organise proper training tracks in different parts of the country? Leigh Adams stated in the Speedway Star that his son has a better chance of starting in the sport in Australia than here.

 

All the best riders are coming from different countries and it will soon be a case of spot the british rider in each team (some already do). The foreign riders can demand flights and bikes and there is no cheaper option of choosing a british rider as there are not enough (or not good enough) as they haven't had the same practice.

[Halifaxtiger 5,318]

 

I have a lot of time for your posts , Vince, and believe I have said so in the past. Some of this I agree with but not all.

 

The greatest strength of our current league system is that it allows teams to pitch themselves according to their income (be that through gates, sponsorship or whatever). Forcing clubs down is bad, but forcing them up risks their very future.

 

If an average PL rider is paid £45 per point and an average NL one £15, coming in the middle the likes of Mildenhall, Isle Of Wight and Weymouth (I miss Buxton out because they struggle to meet £10 per point and Plymouth because I think they could afford higher rates) would be forced to pay their riders £15 per point more than they are now. In a single match, using a draw and 7 bonus points that's around £800 per match or £20k per season more and at a stroke doubles rider costs. I can see those clubs being forced to the brink of bankruptcy, and the same might apply to those forced up from the PL.

 

The same goes for Bee's point; how many fans from Coventry would watch their PL side ? Very few. Its not financially credible.

 

Although the present league structure is not ideal, its better than any alternative I have seen.

 

The setting of averages to the league winners will make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Again, the present system is the best alternative: it allows teams to be equal (at least in theory, and its rare one doesn't pop out of the pack, look at Newcastle) while also permitting them to use their financial muscle which has been created by on and off track success.

 

No-one has yet explained to me the essential difference between the old tactical substitute rule and the much maligned tactical ride. In terms of value and swinging a match, they are exactly the same. Moreover, they bring extra excitement into a match; there is that much more emphasis on a race involving a tactical ride, both from those who are using it and those who are having it used against them. On occasion, its like having a last heat decider in the middle of a meeting and I cannot see why that is such a bad thing.

 

Can you see King's Lynn subsidising Mildenhall ? No, neither can I.

 

The point on engines is, I think, unworkable. Nice try, though

 

Essentially I'd say people bond with the team rather than an individual rider. While I would be loath to lose any rider from last seasons Mildenhall team, if the new ones are just as good (or better) I'll support them just as much.

 

Having criticised...........

 

I just think that loan fees should be abolished or substantially rediuced. Again, the rich get richer and the poor poorer. Clubs can retain ownership; they just can't charge for the privilege.

 

Agree completely on foreign riders, one per team (of any nationality) in the NL and average reductions for Brits.

 

To me, the way forward is not about a major restructure of leagues or rules, encouraging top riders or young juniors - its far simpler than that.

 

Its about those who run our sport doing everything possible to ensure that the money we pay over every week is well spent and that the entertainment we get is just about as good as it gets and I'd say that's about one thing - track preparation.

 

Prepare the best and fairest surface you can to ensure that both teams can race on it and people will pay and come back. Read the thread on best away track and you'll find that Scunthorpe is by far and away the best in Britain, with people coming from all over just to watch a meeting. That's because they prepare a surface that has little advantage and is made for the spectator, no-one else.

 

Wouldn't it be brilliant if we were all absolutely convinced that promoters do everything they can to ensure that that is the case ?

 

I don't know about everyone else, but I think at the moment that it is anything but.

[tomcat 21]

Been sitting here mulling over how speedway could get its act together and become

more competitive and attractive to both riders and the public again.

 

We've all gone down the road of machinery, but I really do believe that this is

one serious area that needs looking at. Rather than the "Why not get the mainstream

manufacturers in", ie: Honda etc, why not just stop the use of all the special parts.

We have riders using lightweight flywheels, special cams, etc etc.

Ban the lot, make the riders keep the engines as they came out of the crate, as

they were in years gone by.

A lot of people seem to forget, that speedway started out as basic road going bikes, with

the extra's ripped off to lighten them. So, lets go back to basics again.

There would be no need for special tuning, just routine maintenance, all riders would

be on equal machinery and those with the skill, or brass balls to race hard enough will

triumph. Rather than the "My dads got more money than yours" brigade pouring a shed

load of money into producing rocket ships, that quite frankly the average youngster just

cannot afford to buy.

I suggest the above for League racing, GP riders should have the choice if they wish to

have a super tuned engine or several.

Any League machine suspected of being illegal could be checked, or better still, instigate

random checks. Its been done countless times when a team lodges a complaint about

a suspected oversized engine, so whats the difference.

 

We sit here bemoaning the complete lack of youngsters coming through in British

speedway, but its not all down to a lack of a training programme, the costs of getting

started and then becoming competitive are prohibitive to most.

No doubt I'll get a ton of negatives as to why it shouldn't be done, but something has to,

sooner rather than later and its the best place I can think of to start the process off.

 

All we keep reading is rider X is a gating tart, rider Y has such fast machinery, but put them

onto the standard thing and they suddenly become mortal again, giving others a much

better chance of challenging the half dozen or so riders that are ruling speedway right

now.

 

[AndyM 1]

Good post, Tomcat. I agree totally, very necessary part of controlling costs but alone that will not revive speedway. In fact, I agree with most of the thoughtful and well-written comments on this thread - but they are peripheral to the core issue.

 

The reason speedway had good years was because people had fewer options and were worse off. Speedway at the time was a relatively cheap form of entertainment and entrance prices were subsidised by the fact that volumes were relatively high. The sport could sustain many clubs then.

 

Conversely, most people are much better off in real terms but still feel poor, so revenues are squeezed at one end while costs have been expanding well beyond inflation at the other. The potential for big crowds has diminished because have many options for their leisure time, not least a vast array of TV channels and lots of alternatives for a night out, and speedway is simply not the attraction it once was - there is no hook to keep potential new fans loyal and coming week in, week out. At the same time, the core audience has died away and clearly the sport has not attracted a new generation to replace them.

 

If that in a nutshell is the problem, what's the solution? I've gone on for years about having the right skills to plan ahead and develop an approach, but in essence it's what we've already known - the promoters tinker with the sport but they're afraid to do anything radical for fear of alienating riders and fans alike. There has been no research to find what people genuinely DO want, so the sport has declined and not ventured into anything dramatic to reverse its fortunes.

 

Taking cricket as an example, 20/20 is not universally popular with traditional but by gum, it sure created a massive new audience for a brand of cricket. Furthermore, cricket clubs charge more to attend 20/20 matches than other forms of the game, even though there's less of it - and they did a brilliant job of cross-selling to ensure more people attend other fixtures too. It helps generate funds within the game to sustain and build real cricket, and generates momentum, something severely lacking in British speedway.

 

I'd say speedway needs to reinvent itself by creating a variant that will sell tickets big time. That requires a lot of thought and development but is possible in my view - after all, indoor and ice speedway certainly proved popular when they've been staged, so why not find something that might help win people over to real speedway? To work, we would need it to be:

• Profitable: cheap to run & relatively cheap to attend
• High value-add for customers - lots of good entertainment, plenty of passing and excitement
• Potential to be staged at many locations, not just existing tracks
• Low noise to avoid planning battles etc.
• The ability for many people to participate, having watched top riders do it
• Not subject to weather, and preferably year-round
• Fun! Also addictive - make it easy for people to support teams and build up atmosphere

Thoughts?

[Vince 9,458]

I'd say speedway needs to reinvent itself by creating a variant that will sell tickets big time. That requires a lot of thought and development but is possible in my view - after all, indoor and ice speedway certainly proved popular when they've been staged, so why not find something that might help win people over to real speedway? To work, we would need it to be:

• Profitable: cheap to run & relatively cheap to attend
• High value-add for customers - lots of good entertainment, plenty of passing and excitement
• Potential to be staged at many locations, not just existing tracks
• Low noise to avoid planning battles etc.
• The ability for many people to participate, having watched top riders do it
• Not subject to weather, and preferably year-round
• Fun! Also addictive - make it easy for people to support teams and build up atmosphere

Thoughts?

 

Team MotoX on electric bikes???

 

Just realised - it's cycle Speedway!!!

Edited January 9, 2010 by Vince

[tomcat 21]

Just going back to my pots about banning special parts in engines etc.

I have just read, on the Scunthorpe Promoter Fear for NL thread, or whatever

its entitled, as it descended into a bit of a barney between a few posters on there,

a poster called halifaxduke, NOT our mate from Mildenhall I must add, this halifaxduke

chap says about days gone by, when a youngster could get an old jap/jawa for around

£80 and still go out and compete at a decent level, scoring points.

 

Nowadays we obvioulsy cant get a bike for £80, but to read of the reported £10k just

to get started is just ridiculous. Keep the bikes as they come out of the crate, tilt the

scales back towards what we used to have and maybe more people would give our

sport a go.

My lad wanted to ride, but after kitting him out with a racesuit, boots, body armour,

helmet, googles, gloves, back protector etc etc, then a half decent machine, it just

broke us. Trying to get sponsorship help is just about impossible, as most company's

only want to be associated with sportsmen or women that are somewhat established

already, which a complete newcomer is not going to be.

At this time, my lad cannot even start to think about racing again anytime soon, due

purely to costs. How many more kids are out there in the same boat financially.

I keep reading about altering the points limits, banning certain riders from certain

other country's, but thats not the real answer.

We have to reduce the startup costs, by doing that, maybe it will have a knock on effect

throughout speedway, specially in the UK.

Like it or not, speedway IS becoming a rich kids sport, if you have the financial clout

to get supertuned fast bikes and all the trimmings, then your made, if not, tough luck,

you cant even begin to have a career in speedway.

 

Speedway was a working class mans sport, both for the fans and riders, but now its

all money money money....it has to stop.

 

I'll give you an example of how speedway was... and not that long ago.

 

One Kevin Teager, altered a Jawa upright to the Laydown configuration. Didn't cost

him the earth, but he would still pop out ahead of the 'proper' laydown mounted stars

and win a heat here and there.

I actually get very sick of reading about us so called dinosaurs, who advocate speedway

from the past being better. These comments come largely from people that were not

around during the 70's and 80's. All they see are a few YouTube clips and think they've

seen it all. Maybe, just maybe, if they listened to those of us that witnessed a better sport

back then, we may not have such a mess now.

Speedway in the 70's and 80's was better to me..why? Because anyone could afford

to take the sport up and have a good go at it.

 

As an example of rich kids involved, take Andreas Jonsson (No I'm not picking in AJ

personally), he is reported to be financially set for life. He doesn't have to worry about

how he is going to afford the latest piece of engineering wizardry. For that reason, he

doesn't have to put in the effort that lesser riders have to to make ends meet.

To those lesser riders, points scored could mean the difference between a long career

or a very short one due to being broke, just to be competitive. Making that latest piece

of engineering kit unaffordable to the lesser rider leaves him way behind the rich kids,

both on track and financially.

 

I know I've waffled on a lot here, but hopefully someone will understand the point I am

trying to make here.

 

Just Make Speedway Affordable to riders throughout speedway, no matter what their

level is.

[Halifaxtiger 5,318]

Very fair comments, TC.

 

This will be the second season that I have helped out Adam Kirby and the first where Oliver Rayson is concerned (financially, apart from that I just get in the way) and when you talk to their Dad's about it you do get some idea of just how much effort it takes to keep them both in racing gear.

 

I read this article recently:

 

'One major item as far as riders are concerned will be to find a way to peg the rising expenses. This is not a new problem. It has existed ever since speedway began. Gradually costs have gone up and up. For a while it was possible for pay to keep level with them but now it isn't.

 

Keeping expenses down is going to be a riders problem. Unfortunately, there seems to be only one way to do it - by banning items which may make some contribution to the progress oif speedway racing, but which can be done without'

 

Very similar to your thoughts.

 

The thing is those comments were made by Eric Linden in Speedway Star & News in December 1962.

 

 

 

 

[kjefco 0]

Look it's simple... speedway is now a minority sport thanks to the greedy penny pinching promoters. Look at the cost for an average family to have a night out at the speedway 50 quid plus!!

Example - Redcar Bears (Formally Boro Bears) - Few years ago had a great chance when opening a new track but done to total minimum, yeah resonable track for riders but no thought for the fans!!

I've watched speedway for 30 plus years and raced it for 3 so have seen both sides. I know any business has to make money and the riders risk it every meeting but it shouldn't be like that, the riders deserve much better facilities and so do the fans!!!

Sky have done so much to raise the profile of speedway but most of the benefits have gone into promoters pockets, how the fck do we fix this as I'd hate to see speedway fall to the level of stock cars, hell it used to be bigger than football!!!!

[seedef27 107]

Look it's simple... speedway is now a minority sport thanks to the greedy penny pinching promoters. Look at the cost for an average family to have a night out at the speedway 50 quid plus!!

Example - Redcar Bears (Formally Boro Bears) - Few years ago had a great chance when opening a new track but done to total minimum, yeah resonable track for riders but no thought for the fans!!

I've watched speedway for 30 plus years and raced it for 3 so have seen both sides. I know any business has to make money and the riders risk it every meeting but it shouldn't be like that, the riders deserve much better facilities and so do the fans!!!

Sky have done so much to raise the profile of speedway but most of the benefits have gone into promoters pockets, how the fck do we fix this as I'd hate to see speedway fall to the level of stock cars, hell it used to be bigger than football!!!!

 

2 posts now & still no mention of which team you follow (i'm guessing it's not Redcar) and just out of curiosity which team did you ride for..

 

[gsmills 0]

2 posts now & still no mention of which team you follow (i'm guessing it's not Redcar) and just out of curiosity which team did you ride for..

whats the way foward , took my two lads to watch speedway for first time last year, 7.45pm start till 10.00pm they saw 15 races at 60 secs each. this left 2 hours when they were bored and they couldnt even prounounce the riders names as there wasnt even a british rider racing. So this evening cost me 35 quid to see a bunch of foreigners take the money, not helped any of our british lads cause the league is swamped by foreigners and even the mention of "going to speedway"to the kids results in a loud BOOORING.Well i dont know the answer but if you cant get youngsters to watch were really struggling,but i do no i want to watch british riders like Carl Wilkinson who will always give it a go rather than foregn riders any day.I just beleive its right look after our own. ps before any body says im not a rascist or a Scunthorpe supporter just want to see speedway survive.

[Trees 2,814]

Ban the lot, make the riders keep the engines as they came out of the crate, as

they were in years gone by.

A lot of people seem to forget, that speedway started out as basic road going bikes, with

the extra's ripped off to lighten them. So, lets go back to basics again.

There would be no need for special tuning, just routine maintenance, all riders would

be on equal machinery and those with the skill, or brass balls to race hard enough will

triumph. Rather than the "My dads got more money than yours" brigade pouring a shed

load of money into producing rocket ships, that quite frankly the average youngster just

cannot afford to buy.

I suggest the above for League racing, GP riders should have the choice if they wish to

have a super tuned engine or several.

Any League machine suspected of being illegal could be checked, or better still, instigate

random checks. Its been done countless times when a team lodges a complaint about

a suspected oversized engine, so whats the difference.

Clubs should own all the engines, use a club tuner for servicing etc and the riders from both teams draw lots before the meetings. Allow the riders to have several laps of practice so they can get sorted too before the meeting starts.

[Lakeside Shrimper 0]

Clubs should own all the engines, use a club tuner for servicing etc and the riders from both teams draw lots before the meetings. Allow the riders to have several laps of practice so they can get sorted too before the meeting starts.

 

I've commented on this in various articles in Speedway Star and on my personal blog, but I remain convinced that the way for Speedway to survive, build, and once more thrive, is not necessarily to re-invent itself, but to look at what is fundamentally wrong and thus holding back Clubs all over the land...this always points back to the ownership of facilities, and the subsequent inability to control their own desitny.

 

Through much more careful consideration of planning applications (a la Beaumont Leys, Leicester), new, much improved Speedway 'mixed-use' facilities can be built and possibly owned by their promotions, and only by doing this, can they make the necessary revenue to improve the way the Club performs on and off the track.

 

I cannot underestimate the importance of Leicester formalising their planning permission at BL, as this will pave the way for other promotions to be brave enough to follow suit and make the move.

 

Sherif

[AndyM 1]

I've commented on this in various articles in Speedway Star and on my personal blog, but I remain convinced that the way for Speedway to survive, build, and once more thrive, is not necessarily to re-invent itself, but to look at what is fundamentally wrong and thus holding back Clubs all over the land...this always points back to the ownership of facilities, and the subsequent inability to control their own desitny.

 

Through much more careful consideration of planning applications (a la Beaumont Leys, Leicester), new, much improved Speedway 'mixed-use' facilities can be built and possibly owned by their promotions, and only by doing this, can they make the necessary revenue to improve the way the Club performs on and off the track.

 

I cannot underestimate the importance of Leicester formalising their planning permission at BL, as this will pave the way for other promotions to be brave enough to follow suit and make the move.

 

Sherif

Surely the ability to attract and sustain a regular and viable crowd is most important in any location? We still haven't solved the long-term structural decline and found ways to bring through generations of new followers. As I said before, speedway in its current guise and presentation is maybe not going to achieve this, hence my suggestion of "reinventing" a version of the sport to fund the development of traditional speedway, much as cricket has done. It's about bringing the sport closer to spectators.

[Lakeside Shrimper 0]

Surely the ability to attract and sustain a regular and viable crowd is most important in any location? We still haven't solved the long-term structural decline and found ways to bring through generations of new followers. As I said before, speedway in its current guise and presentation is maybe not going to achieve this, hence my suggestion of "reinventing" a version of the sport to fund the development of traditional speedway, much as cricket has done. It's about bringing the sport closer to spectators.

 

Correct theory Andy....the key here is that you tend to attract the 'current day' spectator (i.e. Mum, Dad and 2.4 children etc...) with good quality, comfortable facilities, backed up by good quality entertainment.

Whilst the stadium stock in the UK continues to crumble, with Promoters having no ability to change the situation, due to their ownership status, these types of spectator cannot be targeted....we have data here at work which even hints at that fact.

 

I am a traditional football and speedway spectator, and I, like a number of those similar to myself, prefer the feel of an archaic stadium with the associated history, feel, smell and atmosphere, but out-of-town mixed-use bowls with no soul are the future...I am afraid that is just fact.

 

IMHO, once you start improving the facilities to this point, you can better attract the next generation of fan, bulk up the attendance figures and filter the increased revenue to improve the facilities further, and expand the offer to different user groups.

 

I do however feel that the sport could benefit from running on one or two fixed days per week only, reduced admission fees, and better promotion from the BSPA as a whole.

Edited March 9, 2010 by Lakeside Shrimper