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The continuing decline of Speedway

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However many points you pile onto the system for away wins or draws it is NOT going to pull in any new fans who might become regulars. That is merely more tinkering while Rome falls down. The "managed decline" has started.

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Historically speedway teams were 3 heat leaders 2 second strings and 2 reserves.

Building teams within the constraints of averages has seen riders put out of work and dodgy foreign imports (not so many now).

Particularly in the Championship we see teams with 1 to 7 where their averages are a couple of points different so reserve strength is formidable. It seems that’s the way the league is going, partly due to the average calculation and riders levelling off in their development.  

Ultimately that will be damaging to riders wanting to come up from the NL. This season I can only think of Tom Bacon who is making it ok in the CL.

If promoters don’t think about the future then it will be sorted for them by a lack of riders, you could say it’s been like this for too many years hence the problems we have now with rider availability.

 

 

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On 8/19/2018 at 2:44 PM, Trees said:

If you were part of the Premiership what night would you run on? 

Sorry I thought I had responded to this question. Our planning is for Tues, Wed or Thursday only. Wednesday is used by the football team so regardless of league the only days we can currently run on is a Tuesday or Thursday.

All the best

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 I see from last night's results that the Scunthorpe v Sheffield and Glasgow v Newcastle that all 4 teams used r/r. What happened to the rule that when both teams use r/r and or guests they ruled each other out and promote the no8?. 

People say they want to see 7 riders in the team's and comment that next season there will be a shortage of riders, well the good book says (and I don't mean the BSPA  rule book)  "Reap what thy shalt sow" but if we don't give our no 8 a chance then the harvest of new talent will be very thin.

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On ‎9‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 2:01 PM, Thornaby48 said:

 I see from last night's results that the Scunthorpe v Sheffield and Glasgow v Newcastle that all 4 teams used r/r. What happened to the rule that when both teams use r/r and or guests they ruled each other out and promote the no8?. 

People say they want to see 7 riders in the team's and comment that next season there will be a shortage of riders, well the good book says (and I don't mean the BSPA  rule book)  "Reap what thy shalt sow" but if we don't give our no 8 a chance then the harvest of new talent will be very thin.

haven't  seen that sensible rule used for years, don't know why

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8 hours ago, The Third Man said:

haven't  seen that sensible rule used for years, don't know why

Pretty clear why .no one wants to see a no hoper be half a lap behind ..plus crowd numbers go down ...not sensible at all unless you like losing money 

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36 minutes ago, orion said:

Pretty clear why .no one wants to see a no hoper be half a lap behind ..plus crowd numbers go down ...not sensible at all unless you like losing money 

Yes, that's probably what will happen now. But if it was regular practice the #8s would have ridden several matches by now and would have come in at reserve with the reserve moving into the team. That would have evened things up and given NL riders experience at the higher level.

I remember a time when many #8s could hold their own against lower order riders in league matches but that was when they had second half rides firstly against their peers and occasional rides against better riders if they won their junior scurries. They were used more often in league matches too back then and guess what, there were more riders coming through the system to hold down places in BL teams.

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10 hours ago, orion said:

Pretty clear why .no one wants to see a no hoper be half a lap behind ..plus crowd numbers go down ...not sensible at all unless you like losing money 

It would be nice to have a constructive  comment instead of all negative ones

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10 hours ago, orion said:

Pretty clear why .no one wants to see a no hoper be half a lap behind ..plus crowd numbers go down ...not sensible at all unless you like losing money 

I'm not entirely convinced that would happen. Wandering round chatting to folk now and again at the various tracks I go to during a season, I've discovered very few actually know the team situation at a given match before arriving at the track. To even know about changes you have to be on this forum, read the SS (and that won't tell you if the injury or whatever is quite recent), read the local press or the team's web-site. Quite a few of those I see don't do any of those, they just make up their minds to go to a match and they go. I've even come across those that will go to a match when the visitors are light, more chance of a win.

Edited by Vincent Blachshadow
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13 hours ago, orion said:

Pretty clear why .no one wants to see a no hoper be half a lap behind ..plus crowd numbers go down ...not sensible at all unless you like losing money 

Funny how the Poles name a number 8 in their league matches and they can come in at any point. But then it's a proper professional sport over there. 

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52 minutes ago, Spl77 said:

Funny how the Poles name a number 8 in their league matches and they can come in at any point. But then it's a proper professional sport over there. 

Not such a noticeable decline in their league either. Running as a proper professional sport has it's benefits in other countries.

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11 hours ago, Vincent Blachshadow said:

 it I'm not entirely convinced that would happen. Wandering round chatting to folk now and again at the various tracks I go to during a season, I've discovered very few actually know the team situation at a given match before arriving at the track. To even know about changes you have to be on this forum, read the SS (and that won't tell you if the injury or whatever is quite recent), read the local press or the team's web-site. Quite a few of those I see don't do any of those, they just make up their minds to go to a match and they go. I've even come across those that will go to a match when the visitors are light, more chance of a win.

I think that go's against what most fans are saying .it's common sense that because of the internet and all the other forms of social media people are more aware than ever on what riders  are likely be at a match and that in turn that has can a massive effect on the size of the crowd .

Do you really think if Swindon were missing there top two are were replaced say by juniors that people would not find out and it would not effect the crowd ? even by a speedway fan standards that is an amazing claim ..I think it  also shows how the older fan is out of touch with things 

Edited by orion

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25 minutes ago, orion said:

I think that go's against what most fans are saying .it's common sense that because of the internet and all the other forms of social media people are more aware than ever on what riders  are likely be at a match and that in turn that has can a massive effect on the size of the crowd .

Do you really think if Swindon were missing there top two are were replaced say by juniors that people would not find out and it would not effect the crowd ? even by a speedway fan standards that is an amazing claim ..I think it  also shows how the older fan is out of touch with things 

I know that youngsters need to get the experience, but other than a handful - a very small handful - of riders over the years, very few have benefited from being thrown in at the deep end.  Sure, they have potential, but chucking them in against top riders usually does nothing other than destroy their confidence and end a promising career before it has even started.

Look what happened back in the 80's (I can't remember what year), when they introduced the "compulsory junior"; it achieved absolutely nothing.

Incidentally, please don't just claim that us "older fans" are "out of touch with things".  I am one of those, and I am only too aware that things have to change, but I just don't know what the solutions are....  What I do know is that throwing kids to the lions, and putting out a sub-standard team resulting in a tedious and one-sided match is not one of them.

Steve

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I take it, Orion that you don't regard yourself as an older fan, and consequently you don't realise how much better speedway was 30 or so years ago! Sure, the racing was probably no better than it is today, but the noise, the smell, the atmosphere and most of all the fun has largely been lost from the sport to its detriment.

Speedway today takes itself far too seriously.  If you have ever watched stock cars or bangers you would have to agree that the "racing" is nothing special. Difficult to tell who is winning, if you even care, but these events seem to attract far better crowds than speedway, simply because of the noise and the smell, etc. which speedway has systematically eradicated due to "technological improvement".

I know that, unfortunately it would be difficult to reintroduce the noise and to a lesser extent the smell as this would upset the environmentalists, bit I can't help thinking that reverting to deep tracks so that rider ability was more important than horse power would be a step in the right direction. How you bring the fun back is another question altogether!

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16 minutes ago, Davet said:

I know that, unfortunately it would be difficult to reintroduce the noise and to a lesser extent the smell as this would upset the environmentalists

There have been rule changes to deliberately reduce the smell?

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