Bspa Meeting...

[Skidder1 7,636]

Young Beckham will more likely be offered the opportunity by the likes of Billy Hamill or Greg Hancock in the States!!

[ford 26]

What ever means that there is to see any sort of publisity that could help to promote speedway should be taken.

Even if it costs the BPSA a few quid to let young Beckham ride at a slid and skid day, what have they got to lose if all the major nespapers are there to cover it and the TV. Don't miss out on a chance to let the public at large see that there is still speedway going on in the UK, because I personally feel that there is many people out there that don't even know that what once was a major attraction to many people is now only attended by a few die hard fans that get fewer by the year.

So yes give the lad a shot at it, get the press there and put it in evet paper and all the TV screens, so folks can see that we are alive and kicking, just about.

It is no use going down the long road we are going down now, that in around 10 years time there will be no one left to go and see speedway any longer.

I can remember every meeting at Long Eaton speedway when there was poster splashed all across the stadium telling you about the next meeting and all around the town. How many clubs now have even used a poster to let people know about a meeting.

It was only 3 years ago when trawling the internet that I found that speedway was again running at Leicester, how many people are there who don't do that.

We are now nothing but a minor sport that has lost its way.

The BPSA has failed to find a new sponser this year, they can not stand to lose the money they have lost from Sky now not sponsering our sport.

So yes put the lad on a bike and show folks that we have not died and lets hope that we can once again get British speedway as it once was the top of the tree in the sport.

Because the way we are going now speedway is dyeing on its feet. The glory days have gone and now we are the bottom of the pile. We can see this as we are losing teams every year because they can't make it pay any longer. It is time for some radical changes to be made to save speedway in this country.

 

 

Don't worry there will always be speedway, but riders will have to pay to race just like in go karts and moto x.

 

Did the poster's around town pay off for long eaton, is it still going strong.

[clambo71 136]

Things I would like to see

1 get rid of the double point rule

2 tape touch automatic 15 metre handicap, no replacement rider from the tapes.

3 false start straight round to the start again, if you go off the track you dont come back on again.

4 bring back the rakers

5 card system maintained throughout the season to riders who try to jump the start or lay down on the track, get to a certain number of points and you are suspended for a week or longer and twice in one meeting and you are out of the meeting. Not allowed to replace the rider for the rest of his rides.

6 better prepared tracks all over the country.

Vehemently disagree with point 5 about jumping the start.Should only be penalised for tapes infringement.

If the start marshall gets all riders to the correct distance from the tapes its impossible to jump without

touching the tapes. Just accept some riders are faster out the gate or do you want all riders to be reduced

to the same level. I also believe the current rule is responsible for first bend bunching resulting in so

many crashes and re-runs.

[The White Knight 9,039]

Vehemently disagree with point 5 about jumping the start.Should only be penalised for tapes infringement.

If the start marshall gets all riders to the correct distance from the tapes its impossible to jump without

touching the tapes. Just accept some riders are faster out the gate or do you want all riders to be reduced

to the same level. I also believe the current rule is responsible for first bend bunching resulting in so

many crashes and re-runs.

I believe a lot of Riders are punished harshly by being excluded for 'jumping' at the Start. If someone gets away quickly by using their reflexes then it should be allowed. Rolling at the Start, however, should be penalised.

 

You may well have a point about bunching too.

[weatherwatcher 664]

Long Eaton track closed after it wasw sold for re-devlopment for housing, but it never happened and the area where the stadium stood is now just a piece of waste ground. The Long Eaton team stopped racing for a few years and they have tried a number of times to get the old stadium back up and running to no avail. But they have started racing again in the MDL and they have Leicester Lions to thank who let them race at the Lions track.

Far to many teams are losing thier tracks when being sold for hosing etc. Long Eaton have been lucky that someone lets them track share, I know the same happened to Weymouth twice when they lost thier track and have not raced for a few years now but they are looking to bounce back.

Far to easy for the owners of the land to make a few quick bob selling the land, no thought goes into the teams who lose thier track and then have to close.

It is times like this that the BPSA should step in and help those teams, with the possibility of herlping them to find another track to race on, instead of just sitting back and watching more teams being lost.

[The White Knight 9,039]

Long Eaton track closed after it wasw sold for re-devlopment for housing, but it never happened and the area where the stadium stood is now just a piece of waste ground. The Long Eaton team stopped racing for a few years and they have tried a number of times to get the old stadium back up and running to no avail. But they have started racing again in the MDL and they have Leicester Lions to thank who let them race at the Lions track.

Far to many teams are losing thier tracks when being sold for hosing etc. Long Eaton have been lucky that someone lets them track share, I know the same happened to Weymouth twice when they lost thier track and have not raced for a few years now but they are looking to bounce back.

Far to easy for the owners of the land to make a few quick bob selling the land, no thought goes into the teams who lose thier track and then have to close.

It is times like this that the BPSA should step in and help those teams, with the possibility of herlping them to find another track to race on, instead of just sitting back and watching more teams being lost.

They'll be clean then. :rofl:

[Gemini 4,894]

 

 

.....weatherwatcher.....Long Eaton track closed after it was sold for re-devlopment for housing, but it never happened and the area where the stadium stood is now just a piece of waste ground.

 

Is that definitely true? I always thought houses had been built? Perhaps they're not exactly on the land where the stadium stood but no-one would want to buy a house right next door to a stadium anyway so it couldn't stay.

[woofers 467]

It been apparent to me for some time though, that speedway around the world can't seem to dig itself out of an association with a specific social strata, and this is a barrier to leveraging big sponsorship and corporate entertainment which is needed to survive in the modern world.

Very, very true, and probably the "elephant in the room".

Motorbikes, and speedway in particular, have been and probably still are, the sport of the "working classes".

I agree with HA, speedway is seen at the lower end of the social spectrum and this is such a shame. It is the one sport I was very comfortable taking my wife and children to. Never seen any trouble and I've always enjoyed decent banter with opposition fans, much to the surprise of my pals when I've persuaded them to come along.

As a couple of examples of the "social strata" issue, a fair number number of posters on here categorise Kelvin Tatum as posh, when to my mind he is a normal, decent chap, who speaks well, and Kevin Coombes at Eastbourne, who I think is a great presenter and announcer, refers to Sky as "posh TV", which surely doesn't help the image of the sport or of the people attending at the stadium.

Edited November 1, 2014 by woofers

[TeamBouchard 31]

After the last speedway meeting at Station Road in October 1997, the site stood empty, derelict and increasingly over-grown until 2010 when the area was finally levelled for a new housing estate which developed over the latter part of 2010 and into 2011.

No trace of the Stadium remains, sadly.

Edited November 3, 2014 by TeamBouchard

[Gresham78 215]

unfortunatly with money getting tighter within speedway the promoters are getting less and less open to fresh ideas unless they can see an instant windfall and thats understandable i suppose but it dosent benifit speedways future ,the rules of the sport have to be decided by someone or a group who have no finacial intrest in any team because as impartial as the promoters claim to be they will never go for a rule which impacts their team no matter how benificial it is to the sport , its a promoters job to promote his team and get the best for his team but it just dosent sit right with anybody when he needs to slightly bend the rules and he is part of the rule making team because obviously he will get away with it and that shouldnt be, but then look at the other side of the coin ,if you were a promoter and it was your money/living at stake would you want to pay an independant body to dictate to you how you should run your buisness , i do feel slightly for the promters but for the future credility of the sport an independant body has got to be the way to go

Totally agree with this Dean. The sport in this country will continue to decline while the promoters run the show. For its long term future speedway needs to be run by an independent body.

The noises coming out of the pre-AGM meeting were not good as it seems those concerned are not pulling in the same direction - what a surprise.

I suspect this years AGM will probably flunk the big issues again and produce little more than a bit more tinkering.

Expect another year of dwindling attendances and possible further track closures.....

[weatherwatcher 664]

It is well time that the promoters did just that, promote thier teams, which most of them are doing a pretty poor job of anyway, the only thing they promote is thier own financial interests.

It needs a body of people who can sit on a board and meet at least 6 times a year with an AGM as close to end of season as possible, to sort out and iron out any faults that are happening. Make the promoters work for thier money and get the stadiums up to date and let people know that they have a stadium and that speedway is still alive, just.

There has to be a major re-think, I know a lot of promoter only rent thier stadiums but it up to them to get the owners of the said stadiums to bring them into this century, it is no different to renting a house if the roof is leaking get the landlord to mend it.

A decent set of people who would make up the board can look at the sport from various angles that the promoters don't want to see or even to look at.

Changes have to be made before the sport is gone. Then all we will be able to see is a few dedicated riders racing from a farmers field on a Saturday afternoon, much in the way it was in the 1930,s. Riders who enjoyed tinkering with thier bikes in the shed after getting home from work at very little cost. The cost of risen to such a large extent, that now lots of riders can't afford to upgrade thier bikes and be competative. If things are done in the right way, reduce the cost to the riders, with cheaper bikes that are cheeper to run, and give us more competative racing at a cost that reflects these changes, then they may just save the sport.

bwefore it becomes a very, very minority sport.

[Starman2006 2,354]

It is well time that the promoters did just that, promote thier teams, which most of them are doing a pretty poor job of anyway,

 

Except Matt Ford at Poole. High time other promoters got out of bed a little earlier, and started assemblling competitive sides.. Jeez, its getting boring winning it every year. I mean, we've still got to find a space for the latest one. We'l just have to jer jer jiggle things around a big bit...

[foamfence 2,917]

I just hope we get ALL the information from the meeting instead of condensed highlights. It's really bad when you start learning about new rule changes, three weeks into the new season.

[Blackadder 280]

It wouldn't take much time to publish the agenda and the minutes, so that everyone can see what has been discussed, who said what etc., but it won't happen.

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv 10,706]

Except Matt Ford at Poole. High time other promoters got out of bed a little earlier, and started assemblling competitive sides.. Jeez, its getting boring winning it every year. I mean, we've still got to find a space for the latest one. We'l just have to jer jer jiggle things around a big bit...

I thought Pirates always buried their treasure....try the hole on the first bend - plenty of room there!