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24 minutes ago, moxey63 said:

Reading between the lines, maybe it's my drugs, so please excuse me. But are you a speedway promoter from the past? It's just the way you defend the way most have left a gravel yard that was once a nice little summer place. If so, perhaps it's easier to blame someone else for a problem perhaps you have helped create. I know, the drugs. I will probably be deleting it when I have clearer mind.

As you no doubt already know, yes I was. I opened up Newcastle in 1997, after investing in it in 1994, only to be told the owner didn't want speedway again at his stadium. His accountant had different ideas and bought it off him, and got in touch with our group to invite us back in. Third in our first season, we went on to sign a young Nicki Pedersen followed by Bjarne Pedersen and Kenneth Bjerre and won the PL title in 2001, and runners up on equal points in 2002.   I gave my major share in the club away for free in 2003, and retired from promoting, but continued to work with the promotion and established my own free training school(10 years on now) restarting the Gems team which last season produced the NJL 500cc and 125/150 champions and the 2018 BYC 150cc champion. All riders in the current Gems team had never ridden a speedway bike before riding in the training school, so I run the only home bred team in speedway. 

What part of my failures do you want to concentrate on while your head is a bit fuzzy ?

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The problem with the promoters in my opinion is not that they deliberately want to run the sport into the ground, it makes no sense for them to purposely lose their money, but the system that has been created makes it impossible for the sport to function properly.

There are too many conflicts of interest and pulling in opposing directions. What the sport needs is for decisions to be made in the best interests of speedway as a whole but unless someone independent is elected to make these decisions things will just carry on as they are, leading to a slow and painful death.

The argument that it’s the promoter’s money doesn’t stand up for me. What other sport operates in this way? You wouldn’t get Malcolm Glazer and Roman Abramovic making up the rules of football so why do we have to put up with it.

Tsunami clearly had the best interests of Newcastle at heart and anyone who puts their cash into speedway has my respect but the sport needs an independent, honest, respected leader.

And to your rival moxey63, get well soon.

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13 hours ago, Tsunami said:

As you no doubt already know, yes I was. I opened up Newcastle in 1997, after investing in it in 1994, only to be told the owner didn't want speedway again at his stadium. His accountant had different ideas and bought it off him, and got in touch with our group to invite us back in. Third in our first season, we went on to sign a young Nicki Pedersen followed by Bjarne Pedersen and Kenneth Bjerre and won the PL title in 2001, and runners up on equal points in 2002.   I gave my major share in the club away for free in 2003, and retired from promoting, but continued to work with the promotion and established my own free training school(10 years on now) restarting the Gems team which last season produced the NJL 500cc and 125/150 champions and the 2018 BYC 150cc champion. All riders in the current Gems team had never ridden a speedway bike before riding in the training school, so I run the only home bred team in speedway. 

What part of my failures do you want to concentrate on while your head is a bit fuzzy ?

I wasn't aware you were a promoter. I was aware of the decent period Newcastle enjoyed during that era and have no embarrassment in admitting you were one of the good ones. I know how strong the Diamonds were.

But they are not all like you. For example, my hindsight of how Belle Vue was run for years under certain promotions may have tarnished my outlook. Maybe promoters run out of energy after initial good meaning.

But, yes, Newcastle were a bit of a go-out-and-find- the-talent set up. I admire that.

I also admire TigerOwl and his work for we history buffs. Thanks for the well wishes.

 

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Even with the headline in this week's Speedway Star " Listen to fans" ( Thank You Neil Machin ) I wonder how many of the other promoters gathered around the table will heed his call? Of course, they all should put the fan's views reasonably high up on the Agenda, as crowds continue to dwindle. The best suggestion is for Promoters like Neil to persuade the others to get their heads around the concept that feedback does not mean the same as complaints.  Fans collectively also want speedway in the UK to be an attractive, well presented, exciting motorcycle racing sport that they can continue to offer their support to and spread the word to other would-be fans knowing that that is what they are going to see on a consistent basis. Fingers crossed hey!

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It's true that quite often fans want different things but anybody reading through the BSF would see that there are many things that most of us agree about. Most agree that the sport needs to reduce the amount of messing about at the starting gate and the time spent at the pit gate before a re-run. We mainly agree that the presentation needs to be slicker and geared to the 21st century. We agree that the fixtures need to be better planned to provide continuity and to avoid the chaos at the end of the season and we mainly agree that there should be a continuity of riders in teams to allow fans to better identify with "their" team. 

Any professional organisation would look at those and all of the other issues of concern raised by fans and where fans express different views, analyse those opinions and try to identify remedies that would appeal to the majority and not alienate the rest.

What is certain is that any organisation in the entertainment business will fail if it does not provide what it's customers want. 

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11 minutes ago, Aces51 said:

It's true that quite often fans want different things but anybody reading through the BSF would see that there are many things that most of us agree about. Most agree that the sport needs to reduce the amount of messing about at the starting gate and the time spent at the pit gate before a re-run. We mainly agree that the presentation needs to be slicker and geared to the 21st century. We agree that the fixtures need to be better planned to provide continuity and to avoid the chaos at the end of the season and we mainly agree that there should be a continuity of riders in teams to allow fans to better identify with "their" team. 

Any professional organisation would look at those and all of the other issues of concern raised by fans and where fans express different views, analyse those opinions and try to identify remedies that would appeal to the majority and not alienate the rest.

What is certain is that any organisation in the entertainment business will fail if it does not provide what it's customers want. 

It'll be new season, same old sh!t.

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1 minute ago, foamfence said:

It'll be new season, same old sh!t.

Sadly, history tells us you will be correct.

(Or ran even worse)....:rolleyes:

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There are some differences amongst the fans but I think the core issues about value for money, organisation of fixtures, integrity of the competitions and team identity are a common thread.

Just like the politicians tell us that when students go to university, they come out with £50,000 of debt and everyone believes them, the promoters tell us that there aren't enough riders to go round to stop doubling up. Solve this issue and get riders riding every week for one team, rather than pulling on a different race jacket every night of the week and other things may well fall into place.

Also, as I said in a previous post, the riders have to realise that they can't all be full time on the crowds we are getting.

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Get the basics right and maybe the sport could be saved in this country , two three four leagues but get the product and fixtures better or at least try to!!

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Those suggesting riders cant be full time need to also then accept that if their plans to completely stop doubling up were implemented that those riders may miss meetings to work elsewhere (particularly when rearranged)

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2 minutes ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

Those suggesting riders cant be full time need to also then accept that if their plans to completely stop doubling up were implemented that those riders may miss meetings to work elsewhere (particularly when rearranged)

We seemed to manage in the 1970s and 1980s when most of the riders were either self employed or had other jobs. 

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10 minutes ago, tigerowl said:

We seemed to manage in the 1970s and 1980s when most of the riders were either self employed or had other jobs. 

Needs a huge amount of goodwill from the employer for it to work

Some would find that but many other wouldnt

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Never mind then. 

Let's just leave things as they are. Let's have an ever decreasing number of them riding for various teams every night of the week whilst their mates (and I'll mention Joe Jacobs again) having to pack in because he can't get a ride.

Let's have fans who want a team to support continue to drift away because they can't take the sport seriously (Chris Harris just missing out on the play off's with Glasgow but winning a league winner's medal with Poole and a cup winners medal with Somerset).

Just let things continue as they are and see how many riders can be full time then. The answer will be none, because the sport will cease to exist.

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11 minutes ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

Needs a huge amount of goodwill from the employer for it to work

Some would find that but many other wouldn't.

Sadly i'm not sure that goodwill exists anymore, with a few exceptions, compared to back in the day. Especially with the amount of injuries riders suffer these days...

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