Why Can't All Speedway Be Like This

[pandorum 1,259]

The meetings were entertaining because something was at stake but I have seen a lot better meetings than any of the four on show as I am sure most if not all here have. Decent meetings yes great meetings certainly not.

 

The crowds were nothing special either but compared to the usual crowd speedway nowadays attracts seemed that way.

The commentators assertion that the city of Birmingham had turned out in force was pretty laughable.

 

Why Can't All Speedway Be Like This? Because it's a sport and ALL sport has good bad and indifference.

Better tracks more balanced teams. The answer is obvious but the wherewithal to provide this is severly lacking.

Speedway is a great sport but poorly promoted and lacking in financial support.

 

Until it has a good look at itself in the mirror and sees itself for what it really is then there is little hope that 2014 will bring any great cheer.

We need home grown talent but we have no real plan to bring on home grown talent.

We waste most of the sports income on flying useless foreigners back and forwards and trying to entice the Greg Hancocks of the sport here when the money would be better spent on tracks, stadium facilities and training schools/leagues.

 

Will 2014 be the start of a new era? Of course it won't.

The EL will struggle on desperately trying to justify a league that collapsed years ago and we will see our league once more used as a training ground for the rest and a bolt hole for the likes of Hancock to be used as a fall back when the lucrative leagues dispense with their services.

 

The sport is a shambles but the POs gloss over that and leave the sense that the league system has been some kind of success when it really has not.

The PL and EL need to start working together for the good of the sport but are a bunch of petty minded fools who prefer to get one over on their rivals and in reality could not promote thier way out of a paper bag regardless of the 'massive' crowds the POs attract.

 

Develop new structures to bring on new UK based talent, put money into stadia (where possible), produce better racing surfaces and work towards better balanced teams which would be condusive to good racing.

 

Sort of thing people here, who are seen as the enemy by promoters, have been banging on about for years.

Edited October 1, 2013 by pandorum

[pandorum 1,259]

Points limit = 45 pts.

It's time we dumped average based team building and embraced some kind of grading system that favours home grown talent and UK based foreign riders who commit to our leagues.

Allow grading to last a set number of years and give teams some stability.

[Tsunami 10,219]

It's time we dumped average based team building and embraced some kind of grading system that favours home grown talent and UK based foreign riders who commit to our leagues.

Allow grading to last a set number of years and give teams some stability.

 

Grading of riders has been considered several times, but the system has more flaws than direct averages. Within grades there are bands covering say 1 point, e.g, 6.99 to 7.99. One team gets say a 7.01 rider and another richer team gets a 7.99 rider, so the lesser teams will lose part of the potential sum total of the agreed grading value. If say a team signs all lower riders within their grades, their team could be about 6 points value less than someone who is rich enough to sign all the top of grade riders. Averages don't lose or gain value, they are what they are, and are much more practical than anything others have considered. Everyone, to start with, has the opportunity to sign riders upto the agreed limit, making the potential of equal value teams. Grading does not.

There is still the possibility of discounts for signing home riders in either system.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Tsunami

[salty 2,194]

I was speaking to someone who was at Perry Barr last night and their main reaction about the meeting was not about the quality of the racing (which was deemed as OK), but the ridiculously long time it took the meeting to be run. They left before Heat 15. I know Sky like the double header nature of the play-off semi's but it always drags the meetings on for ever.

[Stokielee 30]

The Brum meeting was mediocre and the Poole meeting OK. I'd describe neither as good or anything approaching excellent.

The slo-mo's showed the Poole track to be shockingly rough, I remember seeing Greg Hancock bouncing around on the entrance to the corners.

[pandorum 1,259]

Grading of riders has been considered several times, but the system has more flaws than direct averages. Within grades there are bands covering say 1 point, e.g, 6.99 to 7.99. One team gets say a 7.01 rider and another richer team gets a 7.99 rider, so the lesser teams will lose part of the potential sum total of the agreed grading value. If say a team signs all lower riders within their grades, their team could be about 6 points value less than someone who is rich enough to sign all the top of grade riders. Averages don't lose or gain value, they are what they are, and are much more practical than anything others have considered. Everyone, to start with, has the opportunity to sign riders upto the agreed limit, making the potential of equal value teams. Grading does not.

There is still the possibility of discounts for signing home riders in either system.

 

It's a fair point and I concede there are flaws and abuse whatever the system.

The advantage of grading if you allow grades to stand for a reasonable period of time is in team stability.

Also it opens up a sensible squad system as with the Danish model. Instead of trying to scrabble about trying to fiddle your team average as Poole did at Swindon with a plethora of engine failures simply have ABCD grades and a squad of riders.

Each team has a set number of each per match. Replace a graded rider who is injured with the same grade or lower from your squad. Of course the difficulty comes in having enough riders for a squad system but other leagues seem to manage squads.

Averages failed the sport decades ago as far as I can see.

 

But as you say no system is perfect

[Skidder1 7,631]

I was speaking to someone who was at Perry Barr last night and their main reaction about the meeting was not about the quality of the racing (which was deemed as OK), but the ridiculously long time it took the meeting to be run. They left before Heat 15. I know Sky like the double header nature of the play-off semi's but it always drags the meetings on for ever.

Couldn't agree more. That was the one downside at Wimborne Road too, especially after it had been announced that the first televised race (from Perry Barr) would be at 7.40 pm. It was very drawn out and unnecessarily so. What it must have been like for the 2 BBC Radio 'simulcasts' (Solent and Wiltshire), who started their broadcasts at 7.05, with all the long gaps, no action and limited background knowledge, goodness only knows?! Another media 'own goal' because of Sky's production!!

[SCB 0]

 

 

It's a fair point and I concede there are flaws and abuse whatever the system.

The advantage of grading if you allow grades to stand for a reasonable period of time is in team stability.

Also it opens up a sensible squad system as with the Danish model. Instead of trying to scrabble about trying to fiddle your team average as Poole did at Swindon with a plethora of engine failures simply have ABCD grades and a squad of riders.

Each team has a set number of each per match. Replace a graded rider who is injured with the same grade or lower from your squad. Of course the difficulty comes in having enough riders for a squad system but other leagues seem to manage squads.

Averages failed the sport decades ago as far as I can see.

 

But as you say no system is perfect

so your grade b rider gets injured. He's graded b because his average us between 6 and 8. So you use a squad rider on a grade b. how's that different to a 7 pointer getting injured and replaced by a squad rider on a 6 point average?

 

Yet it has the downside Tsunami mentions. Grading is a truly terrible idea.

[moxey63 1,785]

I also thought the entertainemnt last night was average. Can't understand why SKY insists on building up to the Play-Offs and then cramming 30 races into one show for the two-legged semis. My old brain can't keep up with the dipping to and from each track and it is confusing me. Also think the Play-Offs have lost a little of their shine, teams and riders pretending they are really keen to win, Alun Rossiter hugging the camera and appearing to be one step away from taking his life as Swindon dip out. It's a game, man, an entertainment industry... but after 30 heats of mashed-up speedway last night, the only entertaining thought was the calling of my pillow. As for the crowd, I've seen better attendances at Belle Vue's chopper bike championship in the 1970s (a winter event staged on old grifter pushbikes in one of the suites at the old Belle Vue)

Edited October 1, 2013 by moxey63

[kelvinht 348]

I don't like the 2 semi's in one night. You lose the thread keeping jumping around and don't get to see replays of all the better bits as they have zip off to the other track. Its all very disjointed, then you get a couple of falls as we did last night and it all goes to pot towards the end. Was at the Norfolk Arena a couple of years back when the Stars made the PO's - it was the worst nights entertainment I'd seen all season - not due to the racing, but continual stop / start nature of the racing and killed the atmosphere and it was a right drag. The play offs should be a great finale to the season, but in the current form they don't really work for either the spectator or arm chair viewer

[orion 7,610]

OVER the past two Mondays we have been greatly entertained on Sky with terrific meetings from Swindon, Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Poole. Last night's fare from Wimborne Road, especially for neutrals like me, was pulsating. Good racing surfaces, good crowds, what more could you want?

 

If British speedway was always like this (an impossible dream I know) the sport would have no financial woes and Sky wouldn't even hesitate about a new contract.

 

What is does prove is that fundamentally the actual product can still be terrific. That's the frustrating part.

Cant say I agree ...the semi's should never been shown and rode on the same night being a fan at the match I found it like pulling teeth waiting for the next heat ...I thought the crowd last night at Poole was very poor ,got there thinking there would a massive wait to get in only to find no one outside at all and we just walk it and bar the stand it very Spartan ...saying that I guess it must have look good on tv but as a fan at the match I did not enjoy it and it was nowt to to do with the result .

[Trees 2,814]

I must congratulate the Birmingham riders for going into the crowd at the end of the meeting, chatting, having photos taken for me this should be done more often, its the personal touch which is being lost nowadays. Thats what kids remember, and come back for more, well in my day it was, so well done Brummies.

How right you are!!

[mikebv 10,223]

why can't all speedway be like this?

 

play offs bring a 'crap or bust' mentality', which I am sure is probably enhanced by a bigger than average financial inducement for the riders...

 

also each team can cherry pick an 'horses for courses' team selection when it comes to double uppers as there is no PL clash, hence the 'worst rider' is more than capable of holding his own..

 

and finally Esther...

 

the league is nothing more than glorified qualifying rounds where riders know 'there is always the next meeting, (as long as I dont get injured)' which leads to 'minimal risk taking' riding....

 

put up a big financial inducement on every meeting with 14 riders of pretty similar ability and 'on the edge speedway' would be the norm, a la SGP...

Edited October 1, 2013 by mikebv

[Tsunami 10,219]

I also thought the entertainemnt last night was average. Can't understand why SKY insists on building up to the Play-Offs and then cramming 30 races into one show for the two-legged semis. My old brain can't keep up with the dipping to and from each track and it is confusing me. Also think the Play-Offs have lost a little of their shine, teams and riders pretending they are really keen to win, Alun Rossiter hugging the camera and appearing to be one step away from taking his life as Swindon dip out. It's a game, man, an entertainment industry... but after 30 heats of mashed-up speedway last night, the only entertaining thought was the calling of my pillow. As for the crowd, I've seen better attendances at Belle Vue's chopper bike championship in the 1970s (a winter event staged on old grifter pushbikes in one of the suites at the old Belle Vue)

 

Ain't that the truth.

[Starman2006 2,353]

I was speaking to someone who was at Perry Barr last night and their main reaction about the meeting was not about the quality of the racing (which was deemed as OK), but the ridiculously long time it took the meeting to be run. They left before Heat 15. I know Sky like the double header nature of the play-off semi's but it always drags the meetings on for ever.

 

Semi finals should be run on two separate days.