mickthemuppet 976 Posted October 19, 2014 Although the majority of people prefer league Speedway to Individual events all the biggest crowds are always for the individual meetings. If all the top attended meeting ever in GB would there be 2% or less for team matches. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trees 2,814 Posted October 20, 2014 Team for me too, I'm one of the lucky ones to still have a team. Individuals are ok as long as u care about the result. I can watch foreign team racing if it's good racing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iris123 20,972 Posted October 20, 2014 Although the majority of people prefer league Speedway to Individual events all the biggest crowds are always for the individual meetings. If all the top attended meeting ever in GB would there be 2% or less for team matches. You can't just make things up like that.I'd love to see evidence to back that claim up.For a start if we take a 100 meetings,how many world finals would there be in that 100?And for a few years Wembley Lions had massive crowds that were bigger than Cardiff plus back in the early days some of the biggest meetings were the Tests against Australia...... As it is i used to be more of a team meeting person,but since my team folded i now tend to watch more individual meetings.Pure speedway without any of the strange rules.......well not many 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hebbs 29 Posted October 20, 2014 So have people found the elite league meetings on Sky better quality than the GP's? I have enjoyed both and the Swedish league but I just don't feel riders are passionate about team speedway any more, just mercenaries. Just personal opinion but to me the GP a better product. Having said that I'd kill for another chance to watch the Wildcats at the Wessex. In relation to the Sky coverage I personally think that this is more to do with the quality (or rather lack of it) of the Elite League. When teams are full or guests, R/R, or missing the stay away "stars" then league racing is diminished to such an extent that most people don't see it as team speedway any more but just a big con. Well that's why I haven't been since 2010 anyway. Still next season we (Eastbourne) are in a different league and I will give it a go again. I don't mind if there are no "superstars" riding as long as it is a proper team fixture. So it's team speedway for me then. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCB 0 Posted October 20, 2014 Still next season we (Eastbourne) are in a different league and I will give it a go again. I don't mind if there are no "superstars" riding as long as it is a proper team fixture. So it's team speedway for me then. You mean the league where teams get a facility for riders going on holiday, or just plain can't be bothered? Expect as many dodgy missing riders as ever before. It's a myth the EL is any worse than any other league. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mickthemuppet 976 Posted October 20, 2014 You can't just make things up like that.I'd love to see evidence to back that claim up.For a start if we take a 100 meetings,how many world finals would there be in that 100?And for a few years Wembley Lions had massive crowds that were bigger than Cardiff plus back in the early days some of the biggest meetings were the Tests against Australia...... As it is i used to be more of a team meeting person,but since my team folded i now tend to watch more individual meetings.Pure speedway without any of the strange rules.......well not many Of course you are right as Wembley in the late 40,s used to average 55,000 per meeting and in the 1970,s up to 20,000..But since then the team meetings have dropped considerably although the individual events like the Daily Express Classic and Internationale still drew 20,000 crowds. Then there were the World Championship rounds like Intercontental, Overseas and UK Finals. It would not surprise me if Ipswich get one of their biggest crowds this Thursday which is a individual meeting.. Excepting the play offs, which many people hate, when was the last time there was a big crowd for a league meeting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hobnob Smith 77 Posted October 20, 2014 team speedway all the way nothing better than seeing a top rider team ride his lesser partner home in front of other class riders Hans Neilsen, Sam Ermerlenko style 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
van wolfswinkel 635 Posted October 20, 2014 I prefer to watch team racing at Swindon, but enjoy the Cardiff GP as well(for the comfort, atmosphere and facilities rather than the racing). Obviously more people prefer Cardiff to the league format as the crowds at the 30 tracks(probably less than 25000 per week in total) don't match the 40,000 at the GP. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gemini 4,894 Posted October 20, 2014 Have a league match once a year at each track and I'm sure the total attendances would more than match the 40,000 at Cardiff. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weatherwatcher 664 Posted October 20, 2014 It was good to see in the final at Poole tonight, that speedway is alive a kicking, it was a pleasure to watch the 2 young Polish rider show just how 2 riders team riding can win a race. This is something that needs to be learnt by lots of other young riders. It makes the meetings so much more enjoyable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trees 2,814 Posted October 21, 2014 Well said Gemini :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,270 Posted October 21, 2014 (edited) Team racing in its current guise isn't worth carrying on with as it is simply now a farce.. When 50% of the competitors in a play off semi final are guests it really is time to give it up.. Maybe tracks running individual events once a month with big prize money is the answer? Maybe run once a month, charge £15 and see if you can get 2000 there with a months worth of advertising/promotion... Prize money of 25k (or maybe more) would be achievable I am sure with a 2k crowd and meeting sponsorship, and maybe the sport should do what many other motorsports do and charge the competitors to compete? (16 riders at £200 quid would generate the rent money surely?) Stock cars pack crowds in due to not racing weekly and has even less of a public recognition than speedway.. The sport needs to go very much back to basics and given the embarrassment of team speedway nowadays in relation to credibility and integrity then maybe some high profile individual meetings will once again put the sport back in the public eye and if successful after a couple of years maybe restart team speedway again? And this time try and get it right..! Edited October 21, 2014 by mikebv 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mike1944 151 Posted October 21, 2014 Team speedway is fine if it is actually a team. After this year's debacle watching teams race with riders from all over the place just making up the numbers it is becoming a bad joke. There appears no actual team just pick any number of riders on a random basis to make up the numbers and call them a name. The laughing stock of the sporting world. What next, make it official— have pool of riders willing to ride put their names in a hat and select your team on a weekly basis. Some people somewhere who have speedway at heart needs to sit round a table and decide what direction Elite League speedway is going. At the moment it looks like a blind 3-legged donkey pulling a cart being driven down a track by an inebriated handler heading towards a 100 ft cliff 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arson fire 4,785 Posted October 21, 2014 They have destroyed team speedway in this country imo, the gp is 100% than anything we have to offer currently. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iris123 20,972 Posted October 21, 2014 Team racing in its current guise isn't worth carrying on with as it is simply now a farce.. Maybe tracks running individual events once a month with big prize money is the answer? Think it could be the answer for not all,but some tracks.The trouble is i doubt it would be allowed by those tracks who are running a team in the league.It is also(i think) linked in with promoters renting stadiums and having to use them as often as possible rather than just 6 or 7 times a year Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
