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One League - Matt Ford

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very illuminating admission on inside cover of Speedway Star.

claims Poole lost a 5 figure sum in matches v Ipswich

says Top Riders will never return to British Speedway

suggests that One League is perhaps best way, I assume pay rates would be nearer to Championship, he quotes success of Eastbourne in that League.

Question is, if 1 League delivered enough matches to sustain riders pay needs (40 matches??) 20 home and 20 away for instance, would pay rates mean Clubs were put out of business or would it put too many riders out of the sport, would there be enough riders?

Is he (Ford) just marketing or is this a serious suggestion? 

   

 

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Been touted by Gary May as well. Said Somerset would definitely prefer one league. 

The downside is riders like the top riders Doyle would be lost. Can you imagine the remaining top guys wanting to turn up at the more remote tracks? 

The quality would probably sit somewhere a bit better than the current championship level.

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I think you would lose a lot more top riders than Doyle as the likes of Lambert would be too good for British Speedway, probably trying to get spots in 3 European leagues. Also, having a lot of riders doubling leagues, would we not need more NL riders to make up numbers or go to 6 man teams.

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35 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

Been touted by Gary May as well. Said Somerset would definitely prefer one league. 

The downside is riders like the top riders Doyle would be lost. Can you imagine the remaining top guys wanting to turn up at the more remote tracks? 

The quality would probably sit somewhere a bit better than the current championship level.

I don't see why they would need to be lost. If they wanted to ride here they could be fitted in if the maximum converted average was set to 12.00 and averages set at Championship level.

If the current standard of rider could be maintained I'd be all for it, and, with so much doubling up nowadays, I think they could.

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Wouldn’t one league raise the amount of meetings per season? And that would be the reason I suspect that top riders would drop out. I mean the likes of Bech, Michelsen or such like are hardly top names but have gone

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34 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

If it was mandatory that reserves had to be British u21s, that would be a great step forward. It was disgraceful that it was dropped a couple of seasons ago. Bring on our own talent. We will benefit in the long term.

Certainly needs serious consideration. There needs to be a structure in place that encourages British talent with appropriate training schools run professionally. I recall that Jan O.Pedersen was earmarked to run such a scheme some years back but it was met with apathy by the authorities and hence the continual slide.

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At last...

Sounds like some realisation and common sense has arrived..

Put out five man teams..

Grade the riders 1-5..

Grade five being young British riders or oldies but new to the sport.

Have a maximum team average based on adding the mean average of every one of the five grades. Meaning no one can pick the best rider from each grade..

Run on nights you get your best crowds, with riders only getting contracts if they agree to be at every meeting.

Only run on FIM nights when there are no riders impacted by the FIM meeting

And have a maximum team payroll of £4500. 45 points at an average of £100 per point. Top riders £150 down to £50 for number fives..

That will mean it will cost circa £9k to pay for two matches from your home meeting..

£15 to get in, and just 800 punters would bring £12000..

Got to be do able 800 surely?

And if you bring more in, performance pay the riders more. Let them be in charge of their own pay destiny..

Kids up to 18 free if in education..

And no g****s.. (wishful thinking).

Lots of variety of teams..

More local ish derbies..

Lots of different riders only turning up once so, if decent, you won't get to see then again so you have to go..

Affordable to fans, on nights they want to watch, young fans in for free to help the future and credibility..

Come on Matt, you know it makes sense..!!

B)

 

Edited by mikebv
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It would create more variety. But, as someone mentioned, certain riders would be put off by the increase of meetings, the same riders I bet who say they ride in Poland and Sweden because there aren't sufficient meetings over here.

The set-up would have to be what all clubs could afford, perhaps on second division level of pay. Perhaps replace riders who refuse to race the extra meetings with hungrier ones who perhaps would never get a chance, from the lesser countries. More meetings would hopefully cut the need for riders to flit to and fro other countries. This would hopefully reignite the meaning of a proper team sport and not freelancers. 

British speedway doesn't rule the waves any longer, so we have to sort of begin from scratch and rebuild. Even have money-spinning meetings every so often during the season and invite big stars to race.

 

  

Edited by moxey63
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It has to be a two league set up next season for the sport to survive. A championship level top flight and the NDL to develop the british talent to feed the top league. No one wants to see a reduction in standards, but what other options are there. When the likes of Poole are hemorrhaging money, the games up.

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What Mr Ford did mention was supporters getting used to success and that sometimes it's best to give them second place and leave them wanting more.

At a time when league speedway is set-up for a win at all costs, perhaps we may revert to a time when supporters were interested in watching their team, their riders, no matter how good, and that winning isn't the be all and end all.  

Edited by moxey63
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13 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

It has to be a two league set up next season for the sport to survive. A championship level top flight and the NDL to develop the british talent to feed the top league. No one wants to see a reduction in standards, but what other options are there. When the likes of Poole are hemorrhaging money, the games up.

I think in essence the term "one league" refers to the "top flight", with room for a development league as well

Similar to when the NL and PL amalgamated into the British League in the 60s, there was still room for a Div 2 development league

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and when the riders who have already qualified for the GP season  have to qualify the day before the GP for gate start positions .  just pull the draw out of a velvet bag with hand warm balls the day/week before . save shaed loads of money , sheds loads of time . no mechs having to strip down bikes for proper racing the following day .

no riders passing the cost onto the paying public and no huge stadium rent to pay .

speedway is struggling big time ATM . so lets try and save it f.f.s. 

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I'm a little puzzled by the timing of this. If you'd asked me a year ago, I'd have said that the logic underpinning the BSPA's actions over the previous decade had been to reduce the gap between the 2 leagues so as to make one big league possible, but last winter the decisions taken seemed more likely to widen the gap, making a big league less likely. I know I used logic and BSPA in the same sentence there.....

To make it viable, you'd need 18 teams at least in a big league, so 34 league meetings, 2 (minimum) in cups and some meaningful regional competitions. Individual meetings become more attractive because you're not seeing the same old riders every week.

I'd always thought Matt Ford was a convinced top league man, so maybe there's a significant shift in attitudes developing.

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