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Do We Still Need The Play-offs

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Having spent a lot of time in Australia and being a big AFL fan I am a big fan of play offs...the race for top 8 in AFL and the ultimate Grand Final is fantastic...and Western Bulldogs were champions last year from 7th in the league...

Play offs are a great idea in my opinion..but I am not sure they work that we'll in speedway...great idea if teams stay injury free and it's 2 full teams...but not great if we get teams full of guests..often on dodgy end of year wet tracks making the rest of the season a bit of a farce..

So great in principle but not always in reality as far as speedway goes....but they do keep the season alive for a few clubs

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Some very good posts on here regarding play offs.I am sure crowds drop off once you have qualified.Does a big crowd for the final make up the numbers I'm not sure.Really like Paulco's ice hockey idea.

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And of course only four get the chance to make any lost revenue during the qualifying matches up. For the others its lose/lose.

No it's not. If there were no playoffs, the other teams would still be riding for nothing, so instead of lose/lose it would be same /same. Teams in say 5th 6th and 7th in the no playoffs senario are just riding the season out, but with playoffs they still have a chance to get into the playoffs and bumper meetings. In a no playoffs situation what happens when teams like Reading and Peterborough did in 1997 and 1998 and were runaway winners all season. For most of the others their seasons were over in July, but with playoffs there would have still been 3 places to go for.

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Not sure Lynn, Leicester, Somerset and Rye House fans would agree. Their seasons have sort of petered out, without the climax of a final meeting.

? Without the play offs there seasons would have petered out a lot sooner ..this subject been done to death and the thing people can never quite understand is plays offs without a league title on the line hold no interest for the fans and would run at a massive loss .

Some very good posts on here regarding play offs.I am sure crowds drop off once you have qualified.Does a big crowd for the final make up the numbers I'm not sure.Really like Paulco's ice hockey idea.

And what happens if went back to the old format and a team runs away with the league ? do you expect the teams in 2nd 3rd and 4th to have better crowds ? what about the teams who or 5th and 6th this year who still had a chance to make the play offs ,do you expect them somehow to have bigger crowds under the old format once there season is over by june ?

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Some very good posts on here regarding play offs.I am sure crowds drop off once you have qualified.Does a big crowd for the final make up the numbers I'm not sure.Really like Paulco's ice hockey idea.

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One thing I don't like about the playoffs is they put the admission price up for the final, thanks for supporting us all year and being a loyal fan in return we are going to sting you for another couple of quid

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Yet again nearly every final in every sport put the price up for a final but in speedway its some how a crime even thou clubs need every penny they can get to survive .

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One thing I don't like about the playoffs is they put the admission price up for the final, thanks for supporting us all year and being a loyal fan in return we are going to sting you for another couple of quid

 

Well given a Play off Final is at least 10 times better than a normal meeting for the atmosphere alone, we're still getting a bargain

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Now I know you don't like American sport.....

Just kidding, I know many of you love American sport.

Maybe we can learn from the US.

I don't know all the details of how games are organised in American Football but they basically organise the divisions on a roughly geographical basis. Games are played and teams are declared division champions. Each one of two conferences organise games at the end of the season to determine the conference champions and then they meet in the Super Bowl.

My point is that the league structure means that they don't have this ambiguity between the team scoring the most team points and who wins the playoffs. Winning your division gets you to the next stage of being the champion.

Let's have one big league. Split it into 4. Doesn't need to geographical, race night might be more logical. Organise the fixtures, which don't need to all within division but would be for the most part. Division leaders would race in semi finals and the winner of those meet in the final.

Adopting this kind of idea has endless possibilities but we'd all know who the League Champions were at the end it all.

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Yet again nearly every final in every sport put the price up for a final but in speedway its some how a crime even thou clubs need every penny they can get to survive .

not interested in any other sports but when money is tight and the sport is struggling to attract fans it shouldn't be making the public pay extra , you get nothing extra for your money , the riders don't get anything extra , the costs are the same so why should the fans be charged extra ?

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Yet again nearly every final in every sport put the price up for a final but in speedway its some how a crime even thou clubs need every penny they can get to survive .

 

Well, yeah, but the majority of finals are one-off affairs played in a super-duper stadium somewhere with comfortable seats, proper facilities and an excellent view. I'd pay well over qualifying match prices for that.

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Now I know you don't like American sport.....

Just kidding, I know many of you love American sport.

Maybe we can learn from the US.

I don't know all the details of how games are organised in American Football but they basically organise the divisions on a roughly geographical basis. Games are played and teams are declared division champions. Each one of two conferences organise games at the end of the season to determine the conference champions and then they meet in the Super Bowl.

My point is that the league structure means that they don't have this ambiguity between the team scoring the most team points and who wins the playoffs. Winning your division gets you to the next stage of being the champion.

Let's have one big league. Split it into 4. Doesn't need to geographical, race night might be more logical. Organise the fixtures, which don't need to all within division but would be for the most part. Division leaders would race in semi finals and the winner of those meet in the final.

Adopting this kind of idea has endless possibilities but we'd all know who the League Champions were at the end it all.

The important thing to remember about American sports - certainly with both football and baseball - is that they don't compete against the others in an equal amount of matches. Therefore, there is a slightly greater value to playoffs.

 

As far as baseball, the number of divisions within a league (and remember that all divisions run parallel) can also lead to another anomaly; the fact that if the two best teams in the league happen to be in the same division, then the team with the second best record in the entire league could miss out on a spot in the playoffs! That is why it is structured the way it is. In speedway, and British footy, that can't happen.

 

Steve

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Well if the "play offs" wouldn't have existed Smederna would have been fifth but now we have got ourself into the final by knocking out the 2nd and 3rd placed teams in Elitserien.
Having a "play off" as a national team champion decider gives extra meaning to the final rounds of the regular series. Without "play offs" a team could be far enough ahead for

the title to already be decided and the final rounds would be meaningless. A standalone championship cup doesn't have the same "prestige" or what you want to call it

as a series connected "play offs".

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not interested in any other sports but when money is tight and the sport is struggling to attract fans it shouldn't be making the public pay extra , you get nothing extra for your money , the riders don't get anything extra , the costs are the same so why should the fans be charged extra ?

 

Of course you are getting extra for your money!

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The important thing to remember about American sports - certainly with both football and baseball - is that they don't compete against the others in an equal amount of matches. Therefore, there is a slightly greater value to playoffs.

That's exactly my point. Design a divisional system that doesn't result in an outright winner so that the play offs are the deciding factor.

As to your point about the best two sides being in the same division. No problem. Again follow the NFL model whereby the 2 clubs (say) with the best losing record get wildcards into the playoffs and design the play offs so that clubs from the same division don't meet early on.

This is possible. Once you abandon the idea that all clubs have to meet each other home and away you can make the play offs more meaningful and you can organise the fixture list to better suit the club's availability and rider availability etc.

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