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The reasons for the demise of our sport

Part 2. The importance of League Racing

The importance of league racing is paramount to the survival of speedway. It’s the place where we watch the bread and butter racing on a regular basis. It’s where the new riders start on the long road to stardom. Its supplies rational helpings of keeping interest in racing at a local level. A connection that most people recognise.

League racing can come in many forms, and of different standards. When run successfully there should be a progression in standard of the leagues that most people recognise. They can be seen as a stepping stone for the talent, and one which all riders want to climb. For this reason, you cannot overemphasise the importance of league racing

When we look at the shambles that now exist in the Elite league, you wonders how it has survived this long. Tell me another example when a second division team take preference over that of a top team. The way the rules are altered to accommodate whoever, reeks of conspiracy. Whatever way you look at it, it’s Pathetic. No wonder it has almost died. And people are leaving in their droves.

The most worrying part for me, is that the people that should know and are able to make the changes needed, are not prepared to do it, can’t be bothered too, or else they’re part of the conspiracy. That’s a big worry!!

Going back to what I mentioned earlier about league racing and qualifying for the SGP. The FIM should take on board the importance of this and totally govern the rules for each of the 4, named countries, top league on similar basic. Same team format; Same programme; Same Points limit; Same number of teams; Same average calculation; Same everything, with the only difference being the race night. That could be say: - Poland on Sundays; Sweden on Mondays; Denmark on Tuesday and England on Wednesday. Limits the riders to compete in maximum of 3 leagues only. That way, all four countries would be attractive to all the riders, knowing they needed a top 3 finish to qualify into SGP. There would be no more missing riders, no more RR, no more guest. No more fixture clashing. Sounds too good to be true, but it’s not. Let’s imagine the top league is competed by 10 teams, which would produce 9 Quality home meetings for each track, probably one every other week. With play-off and finals to follow, as per some countries aboard.

Running alongside this could be more leagues governed by each country’s control board, i.e. (BPSA). The clubs that compete in the top league could even have another team in lower leagues as well and on other race night’s if wanted. All these leagues needs to do, is be competitive and progressional. Some top clubs might have problems running their speedway on a specific night of the week, but this would have to be conditional of entry. Clubs who can’t move their race night would have to race in a lower league.

As you can imagine, I have given this, a great deal of thought. Dictated by all the problems that exist at the moment. I know times have moved on and the sport changes in so many ways. But, I feel unless a new structure or something similar is taken on board the sport is a good as dead. How much longer can we survive like this? We need this structured approach to encourage new talent and to get rid of the mercenary rider approach. The club should and HAS to be bigger than the rider, and the sooner the top riders and the top brass realise this, then better the chance of survival.

It is this or give up now.

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One thing the top league must do ,if it continues to exist, is condense the race nights into one or at most two (wed/thur). I maintain it is no accident that Poole are the best supported and successful franchise. They can attract top riders with the Wed. racenight and the opposition turn up full strength making the whole thing look more professional. At Coventry on a Friday night it's been a total joke this year with Swindon minus half their team on FIM duty, Wolves minus Lindgren at Togliatti, Belle Vue minus Craig Cook doubling up. Keep the current points limit, maybe increase the league to 12 teams and race 22 fixtures on fixed night(s).

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If we continue to have the league structure as at present, what needs addressing urgently is the "doubling-up" situation

Whilst I applaud to opportunity for riders to earn more money and gain more track time and experience, the way it is set up at present causes more guests and r/r's than anything else in British Speedway - a self-inflicted wound, I would say

It could work very well, but it needs reorganising

 

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I maintain it is no accident that Poole are the best supported and successful franchise.

 

 

It's in the town centre with easy access by any travel method chosen and seems to be offered as one of the main entertainment attractions of the city, both for locals and visitors alike, without much additional promotional work needed, how many other tracks have all of that going for them?

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Well done to GRW-123 for two of the most dreadfully English-blinkered and naive posts this forum's ever likely to see ... I won't waste bandwidth copying the pair of them but suffice to say they misjudge England's (well, actually Great Britain's) current standing and influence within world speedway by such a wide margin that they haven't a prayer of becoming a reality.

 

You're never going to establish a single night every week for running an Elite League in this country ... too many of the venues are reliant on the differently-restricted days of the week available to them once the greyhound landlords have scheduled their more lucrative meetings first (or in Peterborough's case, fitting around the car parking availability once the Showground's other big events have been fixed in their schedule).

 

GRW-123 reckons the SGP has turned the majority of its riders into mercenaries ... well there wasn't any SGP in the 1960's or 1970's but you'll do well to find a bigger speedway mercenary at any stage in the sport's history than Ivan Mauger (and frankly, I don't blame him or any other riders since then for looking after themselves financially given they're risking life and limb in every race).

 

As for relying on SGP qualification coming via performances in the leagues of Poland, Denmark, Sweden & England, how the hell are you going to successfully get the FIM to bring the SGP and 4 different domestic authorities together on agreeing how many qualifiers they're each going to supply for next year's Grand Prix meetings ? !! ... and what do you do when the same rider picks up 2 qualifying tickets from different leagues ? !! (for example, Andreas Jonsson isn't quite high enough in the current year's SGP standings to re-qualify that way but does score well enough in both Poland and Sweden to pick up a ticket from each).

 

And as for BSI's quaifiers for the Grand Prix meetings "not giving a thought, or caring a damn, to the disruption they create by taking the riders away from their league commitments" ... well, football seems to cope with having 3 or 4 "international weekends" each year (one each in September and October with others sometimes fitted into November and March) where every domestic league closes down for around 10 days so why can't the domestic speedway authorities begin to do something similar with the FIM or BSI ? !!

 

Domestic clubs can do their bit as well ... the FIM releases next year's international calendar every October and the more organized British clubs (Elite & Premier) do bother to match their plans for next year's team-building against that calendar before requesting any gaps in their home fixtutre-list.

 

One of speedway's biggest problems at the moment is that too many people within it (administrators and fans) are realizing far too late just how big a mess the sport's tumbled into when the necessary repair work should have started ages ago.

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WELL put Arthur Cross... would just add that BSI have nothing to do with qualifying rounds for the SGP. The fact is that there are many more speedway meetings taking place across Europe than ever before, especially 20 or 30 years ago. Riders have much more choice when it comes to earning a living now than ever before.

 

Kelvin Tatum and I spoke to Martin Vaculik at our hotel in Dauigavpils last weekend and suggested that a few meetings in the UK might be good for him, not in terms of money but widening his riding skills. He wasn't interested in the slightest. Actually said that he could never see himself racing in the UK. Doesn't like the tracks. the surfaces and particularly the thought of commuting in and out of the country.

 

He can race as much as he likes across continental Europe and he is not alone in that.

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WELL put Arthur Cross... would just add that BSI have nothing to do with qualifying rounds for the SGP. The fact is that there are many more speedway meetings taking place across Europe than ever before, especially 20 or 30 years ago. Riders have much more choice when it comes to earning a living now than ever before.

 

Kelvin Tatum and I spoke to Martin Vaculik at our hotel in Dauigavpils last weekend and suggested that a few meetings in the UK might be good for him, not in terms of money but widening his riding skills. He wasn't interested in the slightest. Actually said that he could never see himself racing in the UK. Doesn't like the tracks. the surfaces and particularly the thought of commuting in and out of the country.

 

He can race as much as he likes across continental Europe and he is not alone in that.

 

Good point, I recently spoke to Michael Jepsen Jensen and he told me that the travelling into the UK and then hearing of a rain off was extremely frustrating mentally and physically.

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Good point, I recently spoke to Michael Jepsen Jensen and he told me that the travelling into the UK and then hearing of a rain off was extremely frustrating mentally and physically.

 

Your right arm must be massive

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The way I see it is the Elite League next season will be full of riders that commit to racing here regardless of what is happening in other countries. Yes they can't hide away from riders wanting to ride in the Polish or Swedish leagues or in the European or GP Series which is growing each season.

 

 

This will obviously be a tough call for any Swedish or Polish riders that compete in all three leagues or even the other events. Riders like Darcy Ward, Chris Holder, Tai Woffinden won't have the problem of a governing body making them ride in their own country and those three could easily stay involved, but like Tai, it would possibly mean riding in only one other league.

 

 

Riders like Ben Barker, Craig Cook, David Howe etc etc have made the decision to double up here rather than ride abroad and so too have a number of Australians like Nick Morris, Ty Proctor, Aaron Summers etc. These riders have at present commited themselves to British Speedway and with an influx of more young Australians, riders from lesser known countries basing themselves here along withriders progressing from the National League will form the back bone of the future of British Speedway.

 

 

Darcy Ward may decide to stay riding in Poland and for Poole while Tai Woffinden has found riding for just Wroclaw in Poland and Wolverhampton has been the best set up for him to plan his calendar and get the right training and rest between meetings with Tuesday his special day where he can eat a bit more after a heavy weekend of racing

 

 

It may mean Wolves start next season with Woffinden, Skornicki, Proctor, Wells, Thorssell, Morris and a new number seven while Poole go with Ward, Holder, Zetterstrom, Tungate, Dyer and two new youngsters ...... Swindon with Batchelor, Doyle, Kildemand, Morris, Birks, Howarth and a 3.00 rider ....... etc etc

 

At least the league will be full of riders committed to ridng here and it will be affordable

 

 

 

 

Or ...... the Elite League virtually lowers itself to a level just above the Premier League with a view to makig it one big league in 2015 ?

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Biggest sufferers next yeat will be the airlines. Can see only British based riders in use next year to cut the travel costs. It will be bye bye to some big names (and a lot of small names) but it may give the sport a chance to survive and give some British youngsters a chance to develop.

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Biggest sufferers next yeat will be the airlines. Can see only British based riders in use next year to cut the travel costs. It will be bye bye to some big names (and a lot of small names) but it may give the sport a chance to survive and give some British youngsters a chance to develop.

 

No offence but watching somebody wobble around the track doesn't appeal to me or many other fans and it would lead to crowds being lowered all across the country and possibly the death of speedway

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Simply splitting the 3 leagues for fairness.

I don't have the actual figures of attendances for each league , if you can get hold of them it might make my fair split look silly.

 

A drop in crowds of 35% will be fine if costs are cut by 50-60%.

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No offence but watching somebody wobble around the track doesn't appeal to me or many other fans and it would lead to crowds being lowered all across the country and possibly the death of speedway

it won't make any difference to you because you don't go anyway
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it won't make any difference to you because you don't go anyway

 

:D

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