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The continuing decline of Speedway

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On 5/24/2018 at 9:57 AM, Grachan said:

Didn't they try something similar to that a few years back? A match in 3 parts, with a point up for grabs each time. I don't think it got past the trial stage though. So the final result would be 2-1, 3-0 or whatever. Not sure what happened if one section was a draw though. Maybe they had a run-off.

Eastbourne v Poole at Arlington did a trial along these lines.

I think there was just one match.

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On 5/24/2018 at 4:18 PM, Big Al said:

Per 7 heat match I'm thinking maybe league 2 points for a win, one apiece for a draw, although with the away team getting a point if they finish within 3 match points (but still only 1 point for a draw). The "grand finale heat" would be a straight 1 league point, but only if there is a heat win otherwise no league point is earned.

So the overall league points could for example end up as 4 for the home team, and 3 for the away team - if the results were 22-20, 22-20, and 2-4.

Or 5-0 for a clean sweep by the home team.

Keeps the interest going right through to the end. You just have to look at cricket and how the 20/20 format has worked to see that people like the shorter versions now, especially younger people who seem to have much shorter attention spans.

Even cricket authorities are looking at shortening Twenty20 matches now to 100 ball innings.

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On 5/26/2018 at 9:50 PM, topsoil said:

Even cricket authorities are looking at shortening Twenty20 matches now to 100 ball innings.

Absolutely right. Younger people like things in shorter formats, and it's a trend which is intensifying. I suspect that speedway has left it far too late in getting around to keeping in step with these significant changes.

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1 hour ago, Big Al said:

Absolutely right. Younger people like things in shorter formats, and it's a trend which is intensifying. I suspect that speedway has left it far too late in getting around to keeping in step with these significant changes.

Which goes with their shorter concentration spans.

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On 5/26/2018 at 10:50 PM, topsoil said:

Even cricket authorities are looking at shortening Twenty20 matches now to 100 ball innings.

 

30 minutes ago, The White Knight said:

Which goes with their shorter concentration spans.

BUT a 20/20 match lasts three hours 

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Sadly the 15 heats themselves are very rarely all "exciting" or have have points of interest in them. And those 15 heats are wrapped up in virtually nothing. If we cannot improve the thrills on track and there is no consensus on the importance of running crisper meetings, the sport has little to offer new fans of any age.It's presented in a very tired way in the UK.

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14 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

 

BUT a 20/20 match lasts three hours 

Fair cop but the trend everywhere you look is towards shorter formats, not just sports but in most things. In common with a sizeable percentage of speedway folk I am in my 7th decade and so 4-day cricket, endless tennis sets, FA cup replays etc etc are my sporting heritage. 

A 20/20 match does indeed last for three hours, but a county championship match lasts (sometimes!) for four days!!

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7 hours ago, waytogo28 said:

Sadly the 15 heats themselves are very rarely all "exciting" or have have points of interest in them. And those 15 heats are wrapped up in virtually nothing. If we cannot improve the thrills on track and there is no consensus on the importance of running crisper meetings, the sport has little to offer new fans of any age.It's presented in a very tired way in the UK.

sometimes i wish the fourth lap wasn't happening - all 4 spread out over half a lap

just stick the bleedin chequered flag out!

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20 hours ago, ch958 said:

sometimes i wish the fourth lap wasn't happening - all 4 spread out over half a lap

just stick the bleedin chequered flag out!

And of course at some meetings you could stick the chequered flag out after ONE lap each race and get pretty much the same results as for four laps!

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On 5/23/2018 at 7:33 AM, waytogo28 said:

If there is a future for speedway it needs to include live streaming ( an abysmal failure so far ) and not only for those who now prefer to stay at home but for those who want to watch it on a phone, tablet or whatever in the pub.

I couldn't agree more. It's 2018. The technology is to hand. Most teams seem to be filming all their meetings anyway, with excellent quality visuals and often plenty of behind the scenes stuff, commentary, interviews etc. Look at the amount of interest in the proboards site, which simply offers live text updates of the score of a meeting - often several hundred or more people will be viewing (which can easily exceed the crowd size at the meeting itself). It's an untapped income stream. Yet no promoter seems interested. Astonishing.

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  To me its fairly obvious, there are 15 minutes of racing in speedway meeting, yet meetings tart at 7.30 and finish at around 9.15 on average, stadiums in general do not have full under cover stands, pa systems that are pizz poor, announcers/presenters that are ta best average in terms of geeing up the crowd and keeping everyone entertained.

 Fans and riders used to moan about Frank Ebdon but maybe just maybe he was ahead of his time in pushing meetings through, todays youngsters are the one's that will need to sell speedway to their youngsters going forward, nobody wants to stand out in the elements for nigh on two hours for 15 minutes of entertainment and lets be honest most races or even meetings may not be entertaining!

 

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On 5/29/2018 at 2:40 PM, ch958 said:

sometimes i wish the fourth lap wasn't happening - all 4 spread out over half a lap

just stick the bleedin chequered flag out!

It wasn't like that at belle vue on Monday morning. There was some tremendous racing to entertain the fans. Unfortunately the vast majority of the tracks are nothing like the NSS.

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On 5/26/2018 at 10:50 PM, topsoil said:

Even cricket authorities are looking at shortening Twenty20 matches now to 100 ball innings.

Not looked into the proposal but that's the bit I don't understand. 100 balls is 16.5 overs so not being shortened by much. Suspect there's more to it I don't know about.

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5 hours ago, Harry The Goat said:

And of course at some meetings you could stick the chequered flag out after ONE lap each race and get pretty much the same results as for four laps!

There's the future, 1 race lap and 4 laps of wheelies

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17 hours ago, Brian said:

Not looked into the proposal but that's the bit I don't understand. 100 balls is 16.5 overs so not being shortened by much. Suspect there's more to it I don't know about.

The BBC have rights to 10 men's and 8 women's matches but wanted them finished quicker to fit into their schedule.

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