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Grachan

Thursdays - Use them or lose them!

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59 minutes ago, drb said:

Is there any reason why Speedway isn't run on a Saturday afternoon ? That is the traditional sport day and would more likely attract more Football fans during the summer months. I understand there may be a clash with Grand Prix schedule but has previously mentionned how many GP riders are in UK. Also you are more likely to attract larger crowds when they are not at school or work rather than rushing to a stadium after a busy day.

Bristol, Birmingham, Wolves, United, City etc may have Saturday matches, would you want to run a meeting down the road at the same time as this going on ?

Your number one could have a meeting in Poland, so you would have to do without him. Saturday's may be good at Championship level tracks but most prefer a Friday to avoid a clash with the football. 

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I haven't seen that Thursday has now been approved by the FIM for Sweden. 

In this weeks SS Damien Bates, was discussing which league Sheffield and Leicester may race in next year and it was said that a change to the Monday and Wednesday fixed nights introduced last winter could be a key factor in his decision.

Bates said,  it's said that following pressure from the three CL clubs who race on a Thursday, as well as Poole, who were keen to keep their Wednesday race night, Monday and Wednesday were picked for the PL protected evenings............ With only Swindon making use of Thursdays currently, Swedish Elitserien clubs are now pushing to occupy that night and make the move from Tuesdays. This pressure could force Premiership teams to revert to Thursdays and race on that day.

From that it would appear that If a decision has already been made by the FIM giving Thursdays to Sweden, Damien Bates doesn't know about it.

Edited by Aces51

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Long time observer, never posted... until now....

Seriously - Mondays? Thursdays? Wake up. The sport is on it's arse in this country. If they don't run at weekends, it's gone pretty soon as a team sport. Stuff the GP's, just don't sign GP riders! Not saying every team should have a weekend race night, but in Belle Vue's case I think it's imperative to get Friday or Saturday, regardless of who is in the team.

Attracting new or casual people through the gates does not mean they need GP 'Stars' (I use that term loosely these days), they need the whole experience to be decent.

If the racing is good, then I wouldn't care what the 1-7 is, but I'd agree some continuity between seasons would be good, so the long-term 'fan' can relate.

Sack the fixed race nights & clubs should run on any night when it's most viable for them. The tail has been wagging the dog for far too long.

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As has been proved again this year, there will be loads of guests regardless of using fixed nights or not...

Which means there will still be loads of contrived nonsense meetings....

Therefore, you might as well run this nonsense on nights when the majority of the population enjoy their leisure time,  ie at weekends...

Those who still go are obviously not bothered about the lack of any credibility in what they are watching, so will turn up anyway, so run at weekends when you may get an odd ex fan or two (or heaven forbid a newbie), deciding occasionally to make Speedway their weekend night out....

We have dozens and dozens of meetings made up of contrived septets, even with FRN, on nights which the entertainment sector regard as the worst ones in the week to attract custom, therefore...

Run dozens and dozens of meetings made up of contrived septets, on nights which the entertainment sector regard as their best ones in the week to attract custom...

Nothing to lose surely? So no risk, the die hards will always be there, the rest of the population will have more of a chance to go....

Edited by mikebv
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6 hours ago, INCOGNITO said:

 

SWEDEN have already had approved by the FIM that they will run their top level on a Tuesday or Thursday and have priority on riders. 

POLAND have the same with Friday, Saturday's and Sunday's 

 

BRITAIN went with Monday and Wednesday's so Sweden jumped in already to claim Thursdays so Britain have to now keep Monday and Wednesday or accept they may have to cover for riders involved in the top leagues in Sweden and Poland  if fixtures do clash. 

 

NOTE There may only be one or two top level meetings in Sweden on a Thursday and the same in Poland on a Friday and Saturday night so in most cases fixtures can be sorted to avoid clashes but it would be a risk any track riding on these nights at home signing a rider that competes in the Swedish or Polish top leagues.

 

other countries get their next season sorted early, Poland complete their signings now and Sweden not far behind but we haven't had an AGM yet so are way behind and have to take what's left.

Is this for 2018 or 2019?

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All I remember is attending Coventry, Cradley, Eastbourne, Swindon etc etc on Saturday nights and always in front of healthy crowds, the ONLY thing that should dictate what night a club runs on is the availability of the stadium for the night a club wants to run on. GP riders seem to be able to make it to a Polish League match on a Sunday afternoon from wherever the GP event has been held on the Saturday night so why any other riders couldn't I fail to understand, Poland is 3 hours away max, on an early morning redeye they could be at the stadium by 11 am. Some riders are going to have to make some tough decisions either 30 odd matches in the UK or a handful in Poland. British Speedway can't be running it's business to suit others, it's never been at a better place to lay down some of its own rules, all of the prima Donna riders have been weened out of the league and with the country brexited by the start of next season there'll be no restriction of trade laws to block British Speedway doing its own thing. I think we all agree something radical needs to happen, Poland really shouldn't be an issue anymore!

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49 minutes ago, iainb said:

All I remember is attending Coventry, Cradley, Eastbourne, Swindon etc etc on Saturday nights and always in front of healthy crowds, the ONLY thing that should dictate what night a club runs on is the availability of the stadium for the night a club wants to run on. GP riders seem to be able to make it to a Polish League match on a Sunday afternoon from wherever the GP event has been held on the Saturday night so why any other riders couldn't I fail to understand, Poland is 3 hours away max, on an early morning redeye they could be at the stadium by 11 am. Some riders are going to have to make some tough decisions either 30 odd matches in the UK or a handful in Poland. British Speedway can't be running it's business to suit others, it's never been at a better place to lay down some of its own rules, all of the prima Donna riders have been weened out of the league and with the country brexited by the start of next season there'll be no restriction of trade laws to block British Speedway doing its own thing. I think we all agree something radical needs to happen, Poland really shouldn't be an issue anymore!

Spot on...

Sign up 100% to ride over here....

Or dont. ...

The Promoters will need to play their part by putting together a fixture list early enough, and sticking to it obviously...

I know, I know, I am laughing as I type...;)

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9 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Spot on...

Sign up 100% to ride over here....

Or dont. ...

The Promoters will need to play their part by putting together a fixture list early enough, and sticking to it obviously...

I know, I know, I am laughing as I type...;)

What would you do with riders like Dan Bewley? He rode in a GP Challenge qualifier, four World U21 Individual meetings and two Team U21 meetings. That's seven weekends where he was unavailable for a Saturday meeting in Britain. Should he not be signed by any club as he isn't 100% committed to British speedway?

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32 minutes ago, MattK said:

What would you do with riders like Dan Bewley? He rode in a GP Challenge qualifier, four World U21 Individual meetings and two Team U21 meetings. That's seven weekends where he was unavailable for a Saturday meeting in Britain. Should he not be signed by any club as he isn't 100% committed to British speedway?

Were they all on Saturday nights?

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Who actually cares what nights that Poland uses?  Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the best nights for attendances, so we should use them. The riders then have a simple choice.  It's about time the tail stopped wagging the dog.

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9 minutes ago, iainb said:

Were they all on Saturday nights?

GP Challenge meetings are both Saturday, Under 21s Individual was two Fridays, one Saturday and one Sunday and Team U21s was both Saturdays.

Similarly for Robert Lambert, he rode in five SEC meetings (all Saturdays), two GP Challenge meetings, Four U21 individual meetings and two Speedway of Nations (one on Friday the other the following Saturday).

The ship has sailed for Saturday speedway unless you want to run a league at the amateur level.

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5 minutes ago, MattK said:

The ship has sailed for Saturday speedway unless you want to run a league at the amateur level.

I'd say we're pretty much there. Club's will have to run on an alternate night if they want to pander to their "star" rider otherwise the likes of Lambert/Bewley etc will have to do a Woffinden and ride exclusively abroad. Not what anybody wants to see be we can't run the whole sport for a handful of riders. The other solution is squads

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Saturdays are out as far as Kings Lynn is concerned  as the Stadium is used nearly every Weekend for Stock Cars and Speedway couldn't run on its own.  and as so many  Teams are in trouble at present  without any others joining to list

Quote

 

 

Edited by John Scrutton

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3 minutes ago, iainb said:

I'd say we're pretty much there. Club's will have to run on an alternate night if they want to pander to their "star" rider otherwise the likes of Lambert/Bewley etc will have to do a Woffinden and ride exclusively abroad. Not what anybody wants to see be we can't run the whole sport for a handful of riders. The other solution is squads

It isn't a handful of riders I'm afraid:

GP Challenge

Ricky Wells
Krzysztof Kasprzak x2
Jack Holder x2
Niels-Kristian Iversen x2
Robert Lambert x2
Brady Kurtz
Jacob Thorssell
Daniel Bewley
Bradley Wilson-Dean
Kenneth Bjerre x2
David Bellego x2
Kevin Wölbert x2
Chris Harris
Rohan Tungate
Nicolas Covatti
Craig Cook x2
Hans Andersen x2
Max Fricke x2
Kyle Howarth

World U21s (Four meetings)
Robert Lambert
Daniel Bewley

Team U21s (Two meetings)
Daniel Bewley
Ellis Perks
Zach Wajtknecht
Nathan Greaves
Connor Mountain

SoN (Two weekends)
Woffinden
Cook
Lambert

Are you suggesting clubs should avoid signing any of the above riders or that the riders above should be forced to choose between the British league and their individual aspirations?

The whole point of fixed race nights is to avoid the inevitable clashes with the lower division, foreign leagues and the meetings as described above.

I agree that attendances where significantly higher when clubs ran at weekends, but Britain was also the dominant league featuring all the world's top riders. Which of those (weekend meetings or top riders) was the biggest draw is open to debate.

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6 minutes ago, MattK said:

The whole point of fixed race nights is to avoid the inevitable clashes with the lower division, foreign leagues and the meetings as described above

So be it if we are stuck with fixed race nights - likely Monday. If it also turns out that supporters don't want meetings on Mondays, the BSPA and clubs will have a clear, definite answer. No Thank You. Promoters can then decide on what is really their lowest crowd numbers that are viable or go on the hunt for more sponsors prepared to run in front of sub 1,000 or even sub 500 crowds ( at whatever level ).

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