Jump to content
British Speedway Forum
Sign in to follow this  
Steve Shovlar

Promoters Conference. Why So Late? And Other Thoughts.

Recommended Posts

I don't know how you get to £500 in lost revenue due to guest fests at Belle Vue.

We've had two guests for Kenneth but that was due to the fact we signed him late on. IMO the two matches he missed are outweighed by his contributions in his other meetings.

The only other one was Heeps in for the injured Tungate.

We have had some meetings with R/R but those heats were filled with Aces not guests.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

British Speedway is the proverbial sinking ship and those that run it have no idea how to do damage control, yet alone save it.

You only have to look at a random fixture and see how many guests and rider replacements are in use for riders who are not even injured to know the sport in this country has lost all CREDABILITY it is a JOKE!

 

Forget about where we are on the world stage, it's pointless, the sport in this county needs to back to being amateur/part time like non league football, model it on the old National League of the late 80s, good number of clubs, variety of fixtures and nearly all of the riders were your own and only rode for your team and when they were not riding they had part time jobs to supplement their income.

Ok that won't work for every club, but we need something like that for a few seasons as a solid base to build from.

 

Further to that I would even consider breaking away from the FIM in order to bring some sort of standardised equipment in, not to make it fairer but to reduce costs, reduce that and the riders will earn more, the promoters will have less overheads and could then make the product cheaper or better still reinvest in it, something that has never been done.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just show's you what a shambles British speedway is Poole have got five meetings in a period of five days admitting one is a rain off

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm fairly certain that when the AGM was brought forward it was then discovered that any rule changes etc could not be confirmed or announced officially because the BSPA Constitution still referred to November as the 'decision date'!!

 

One would hope that the Constitution has by now been amended to allow for an earlier 'rubber stamping' exercise.

 

However anyone thinking that rule changes, league structures, points limits et al are left to the AGM has to be a little deluded - however it may appear to the fans. Clubs/Promoters are aware of the main changes/limits by August as they have been discussed at monthly BSPA meetings throughout the season - its just that the fans have not been informed - and why should they be until they are officially confirmed?!

 

Hasn't it been stated already that the BSPA Chairman has spent much time attending 'World' fixture meetings already to try to minimise the major fixture clashes. I can't imagine that is an easy task in any year - least of all in 2018 when football's World Cup is also taking place - so we can expect many of the usual fixture issues to continue imo.

 

The Polish rules and the likely Swedish option of only running one league (rather than 2) will have a bearing on the number of rider places up for grabs across Europe.

 

The British Clubs or Promotions that are financially confident of running next season will have begun their team planning already.

 

One thing is for sure, speedway will continue in UK!! The variables include number of teams, number of leagues/divisions and the standard/number of riders required.

Edited by Skidder1
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't know how you get to £500 in lost revenue due to guest fests at Belle Vue.

We've had two guests for Kenneth but that was due to the fact we signed him late on. IMO the two matches he missed are outweighed by his contributions in his other meetings.

The only other one was Heeps in for the injured Tungate.

We have had some meetings with R/R but those heats were filled with Aces not guests.

Away teams have guests too...

 

Last year one of Danny King, Rohan Tungate and Paddy Hougaard seemed to be there every week, either riding for us or the opposition...

 

As we head to the play off deadline and re arranged fixtures get crammed in (in both leagues) just to complete the season, U21 and GP Challenge events reach a climax, as will Poland and Sweden, I can guarantee guest levels will increase just like they do year after year as the season come to a close...

 

Even more so this year with teams not being able to sign riders to replace injured competitors..

 

NB. 8 out of 11 fixtures at BV already this season have had Guests...

 

(12 riders in total)...

Edited by mikebv

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A rider is signed to a British club under contract. He is loaned out to another British club if not required by the club that owns his contract. A loan fee is paid.

 

Promotions don't own 'contracts', only the registration of the rider and that only applies within Britain. Quite aside that retain-and-transfer between EU countries was outlawed by the Bosman ruling, there's no regulation of cross-border registrations by the FIM or FIM Europe as far as I'm aware.

 

If British rider contracts normally only run from March to October, then there's no reason why Poland or anywhere should respect 'ownership' of registration, far less pay anything if a rider isn't actually under contract. And even if a rider is under contract, it would have to specifically state that rider couldn't ride elsewhere without permission, which would be disincentive to sign it if said rider were good enough to ride in Poland anyway.

 

Multi-year contracts are somewhat impractical in British speedway, given the hand-to-mouth existence of most promotions. Plus the fact that they're basically zero-hour contracts probably means you can't stop riders riding in another country, nor prevent them resigning in favour of a better contract elsewhere.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Away teams have guests too...

 

Last year one of Danny King, Rohan Tungate and Paddy Hougaard seemed to be there every week, either riding for us or the opposition...

 

As we head to the play off deadline and re arranged fixtures get crammed in (in both leagues) just to complete the season, U21 and GP Challenge events reach a climax, as will Poland and Sweden, I can guarantee guest levels will increase just like they do year after year as the season come to a close...

 

Even more so this year with teams not being able to sign riders to replace injured competitors..

 

NB. 8 out of 11 fixtures at BV already this season have had Guests...

 

(12 riders in total)...

Must admit it hadn't occurred to me that you were penalising Belle Vue for how other promotions run their business. I get it now.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh absolutely, that's what's been wrong with British speedway for the last 80 years , we have wasted far too much time trying to run speedway on nights when stadiums are available and supporters have a favoured race night , for the benefit of the whole of British speedway , we should pick a night of the week and any team who cannot or will not because it's financially not viable, race on that night will just have to close down . 80 years is a decent run . time to fit in with the requirements of Aussies , Poland and Sweden , we have had it our own way for far too long, and as long as there's enough teams left to provide places for those who need to brush up their skills or get a European work permit that'll do . winner all round

Times have changed, don't we have to change with it, or at least try? Kings Lynn changed from Saturdays to Wednesdays and survived. They all manage Mondays for TV.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Must admit it hadn't occurred to me that you were penalising Belle Vue for how other promotions run their business. I get it now.

Contrived bollox meetings are delivered week in week out by the Promoters as a collective so all reap crowd level wise what their actions deserve...

 

With the Aces being as 'guilty' over the years as all other promotions...

 

How many times did we go to Lakeside with less than half a team of Aces?

 

Amazing coincidence how so many teams manage to never have their 'top riders' missing for home matches but agree to fixtures away from home when they know their main 'drawcard' won't be there...

 

As for "penalising Belle Vue"? All promotions pee in the same pot and contrive meeting after meeting as an in house organisation so regularly effectively 'penalise' each other...

 

Run the Sport properly collectively and more would go to watch it...

 

Keep doing what they are doing and (as the last ten years will testify) less will attend..

 

Simple really....

Edited by mikebv

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Leicester away fixture was a farce and something rightly to be angry about, other than that there was only Kurtz in place of Bjerre at Rye House.

 

Must admit it hadn't occurred to me that you were penalising the new Belle Vue promotion for how previous owners ran their business. I get it now.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

kings lynn changed from Saturday to Wednesday to suit their customers who wanted to do other things with their weekend . not to pander to Aussies or Poland , single race nights are not what's best for british speedway ,they are what's best for foreigners and foreign leagues , we have allowed british speedway to be driven into the ground pandering to foreigners time to stop it

No we didn't, Buster changed for the stocks I think, either that or it was about the time the Gp series started...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

kings lynn changed from Saturday to Wednesday to suit their customers who wanted to do other things with their weekend . not to pander to Aussies or Poland , single race nights are not what's best for british speedway ,they are what's best for foreigners and foreign leagues , we have allowed british speedway to be driven into the ground pandering to foreigners time to stop it

Unfortunately, it shouldn't be the case, but if Poland say jump we say how high..

Edited by Starman2006

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Never Fridays - there are too many other European 'non-GP' meetings that require riders to either practice or travel on Fridays.

 

Mondays/Wednesdays or Mondays/Thursdays for me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Monday's and Fridays (Non GP weekends) for the top tier of british speedway, the lower leagues run on whatever night they wish

Poland Sunday. Sweden Tuesday

 

Monday is a no no for top league British Speedway... getting a top rider to agree to Sun mon tues for home matches is almost impossible

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Privacy Policy