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Sidney the robin

Big decisions in November.

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4 hours ago, mikebv said:

No, if that happens you could still decide it's 42.5 for the League so Ippo could decide to keep their seven or use the extra points available...

If though another team over 42.5 wins the league they should be allowed to keep their seven too if they so wish, and that figure becomes the maximum figure..

It's ridiculous that fans become attached to riders who win leagues (especially younger fans who you want to engage more than ever) only for them to be often left out the year after...

That simply doesn't equate to a sensible business model...

You also have the nonsense of TV mentioning that a meeting involves "last year's Champions" when maybe only four of them are actually in attendance... 

British Speedway desperately needs some aspirational attainments, and dumbing down the leagues means no team has to aspire to "beat the best" because "the best" invariably gets diluted...

I seem to remember this was actually voted in during the 97 agm but immediately scrapped when the all conquering Witches swept the board in 98 :)

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2 hours ago, Lefty said:

Why not. Not far off British League in the sixties! 

Variety is the spice of life :t:

The National League in the 80s reached 21 teams at one point. Goodness knows how we coped! (Well, we enjoyed every minute.....20 league matches plus KO Cup ties, 4TT qualifiers and a load of support meetings now cynically dismissed as 'meaningless') We were far too busy enjoying what we had. Tracks like Hackney used to stage over 30 meetings a season. Goodness knows how today's "Less is more" snowflakes would cope ;-)

 

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15 minutes ago, RobMcCaffery said:

The National League in the 80s reached 21 teams at one point. Goodness knows how we coped! (Well, we enjoyed every minute.....20 league matches plus KO Cup ties, 4TT qualifiers and a load of support meetings now cynically dismissed as 'meaningless') We were far too busy enjoying what we had. Tracks like Hackney used to stage over 30 meetings a season. Goodness knows how today's "Less is more" snowflakes would cope ;-)

 

And no guests and only a few overseas riders , I loved the old National League 

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1 hour ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

I seem to remember this was actually voted in during the 97 agm but immediately scrapped when the all conquering Witches swept the board in 98 :)

Was it? If so, no surprises there then..:rolleyes:

I also seem to remember the Aces having two absolute cracking meetings against Messrs Rickardsson,  Gollob, Nicholls et al that season..

Played out in front of comfortably the two biggest crowds of the season..

Sometimes having 'the team to beat' arriving at your venue can be truly money in the bank...

As a Man United fan who regularly used to go watching them all over, we used to sing to the home fans "you've only come to see United". A reference to the fact that when we played them a sudden 10000 or so above the average crowd level would turn up, (for one week only it seemed)..

Speedway needs a level of aspiration be it beating the best to be the best, or moving up the leagues through organic growth based on performance, rather than having "what league do you want to be in this year?" as the measure..

The same for riders too...

Too good for the NL?

Then you move up to the Championship.

Get too good for that and you then move up to the Premiership..

Become one of your countries best riders in the Premiership then you get picked to ride for your country in Test Matches..

Perform well in those and you then get nominated for GP qualification and SEC rounds at individual level and SON/SWC at team level...

The bar getting raised through constantly improving, not standing still, or even worse, constant regression..

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4 hours ago, racers and royals said:

If points 1 and 2 are to be met- how many teams in the league  25 !!!

Depends when the season starts and finishes, I personally wish it started first week of March and ended last week of October but those days are far behind. 

Fixture planning is important but even the best intentions may not work out. King's Lynn had lots of home fixtures during the summer hols this year which backfired on us earlier in the year when we had loads of away fixtures in succession which didn't help their form I think personally. 

 

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4 hours ago, DSC67 said:

And no guests and only a few overseas riders , I loved the old National League 

I worked damn hard for it, having played a leading role in getting it televised from 1984. Having effectively two BSPAs at the time helped the situation. The British League couldn't accept an offer from Screen Sport to cover their league matches because they felt it would conflict with their deal for ITV's coverage of international events,.

I lobbied hard for us to go for the NL instead and it paid off. Luckily our boss was Chris Fear, formerly with Westward TV, the ITV station for the south west who used to televise the odd event from Exeter. He knew that NL racing was just as watchable as the BL and as for lack of names our audience probably didn't know any names anyway. 

We went to the NL management committee and understandably they leapt at the chance. There was one technicality. The deal with ITV specified they were broadcast rights. We argued that at that dawn of cable and satellite (five years before the Sky multichannel service launched) we were not broadcasting but 'narrowcasting'.

That won the day and we commenced weekly recorded match coverage plus open events recorded during the year to fill the close season until the ice racing coverage started in February. 52 weeks a year speedway was the result.

I know strange things can happen in speedway. First you have to try. Within a year BL tracks were queueing up to join the NL, tempted by lower costs, a still high quality of racing and regular TV coverage. 

It grieves me to see today's speedway with pathetically short seasons for many. Back then if a track closed in September you knew they were in serious trouble and were likely to be goners. 

It was fun. It isn't now. How do we get back to enjoying ourselves? That 21 team NL meant that apart from the KO Cup and 4TT there were 20 losers. Now winning is all and anything that doesn't contribute to a possible league title is written off as meaningless. The fun's gone. Winning is far too important and if you try to make a meeting fun you'll probably get hit with a hefty misconduct fine from the BSPA/SCB for improper comment that would write off an entire season's fees or worse if you were doing it for free. 

At times it's hard not to despair. How DID we let that all go? 

Speedway - a great idea ruined. 

 

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Less is more, snowflakes !!!

When Hamburg started in July of 1929 they managed to fit in over 60 meetings before they finished the season!!!! 30 meetings eh:rofl:

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7 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

I worked damn hard for it, having played a leading role in getting it televised from 1984. Having effectively two BSPAs at the time helped the situation. The British League couldn't accept an offer from Screen Sport to cover their league matches because they felt it would conflict with their deal for ITV's coverage of international events,.

I lobbied hard for us to go for the NL instead and it paid off. Luckily our boss was Chris Fear, formerly with Westward TV, the ITV station for the south west who used to televise the odd event from Exeter. He knew that NL racing was just as watchable as the BL and as for lack of names our audience probably didn't know any names anyway. 

We went to the NL management committee and understandably they leapt at the chance. There was one technicality. The deal with ITV specified they were broadcast rights. We argued that at that dawn of cable and satellite (five years before the Sky multichannel service launched) we were not broadcasting but 'narrowcasting'.

That won the day and we commenced weekly recorded match coverage plus open events recorded during the year to fill the close season until the ice racing coverage started in February. 52 weeks a year speedway was the result.

I know strange things can happen in speedway. First you have to try. Within a year BL tracks were queueing up to join the NL, tempted by lower costs, a still high quality of racing and regular TV coverage. 

It grieves me to see today's speedway with pathetically short seasons for many. Back then if a track closed in September you knew they were in serious trouble and were likely to be goners. 

It was fun. It isn't now. How do we get back to enjoying ourselves? That 21 team NL meant that apart from the KO Cup and 4TT there were 20 losers. Now winning is all and anything that doesn't contribute to a possible league title is written off as meaningless. The fun's gone. Winning is far too important and if you try to make a meeting fun you'll probably get hit with a hefty misconduct fine from the BSPA/SCB for improper comment that would write off an entire season's fees or worse if you were doing it for free. 

At times it's hard not to despair. How DID we let that all go? 

Speedway - a great idea ruined. 

 

If I've understood your post correctly, the 'nail on the head' comment is 'weekly recorded match coverage', ie not live?!  Is that right as I only go back to 1987 with Mervyn, Pete, and Alan Hodder.

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Nobody has mentioned the FIM 'Rev Limiters' rule recently that is due to come in next season as far as I know. Or has that been shelved?

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Well over 60 riders rode this season and delivered an average of over 4.00 in the Premiership or 6.00 in the Championship..

(Individual riders that is, not the same rider doing both)!:rolleyes:

Therefore, how about six man teams with eight clubs in the League?

48 riders needed with plenty of riders to come in for injury and poor performance. And no need for GUESTS!..

Maybe also use the Test Match formula of the first nine heats where all pairs race against each other..

Then three races of lowest scorers to highest..

Then one final nominated heat..

Run on a 39 point average so the average rider would be a 6.5 point man (decent level) leaving scope to include some of the higher average riders without needing to bring in 'makeweights' at the bottom of the team to accommodate them..

£100 a point average per rider would mean £7800 in total paid to the riders over the two matches your home meetings cover..

Due to less races than at present maybe charge £15?

1100 adult punters would mean £16500 so £13200 approx ex VAT.

Leaving enough headroom to pay all the other bills with programme profit and sponsorship?

Maybe run a six heat 3 a side 'junior meeting' each night after the main event too? Or just some junior races? Expenses covered (at best) to give some track time to new riders?

That would deliver 19 races for £15...

It could even be promoted as "less than a pound a race"!!

Edited by mikebv

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2 hours ago, mikebv said:

Well over 60 riders rode this season and delivered an average of over 4.00 in the Premiership or 6.00 in the Championship..

(Individual riders that is, not the same rider doing both)!:rolleyes:

Therefore, how about six man teams with eight clubs in the League?

48 riders needed with plenty of riders to come in for injury and poor performance. And no need for GUESTS!..

Maybe also use the Test Match formula of the first nine heats where all pairs race against each other..

Then three races of lowest scorers to highest..

Then one final nominated heat..

Run on a 39 point average so the average rider would be a 6.5 point man (decent level) leaving scope to include some of the higher average riders without needing to bring in 'makeweights' at the bottom of the team to accommodate them..

£100 a point average per rider would mean £7800 in total paid to the riders over the two matches your home meetings cover..

Due to less races than at present maybe charge £15?

1100 adult punters would mean £16500 so £13200 approx ex VAT.

Leaving enough headroom to pay all the other bills with programme profit and sponsorship?

Maybe run a six heat 3 a side 'junior meeting' each night after the main event too? Or just some junior races? Expenses covered (at best) to give some track time to new riders?

That would deliver 19 races for £15...

It could even be promoted as "less than a pound a race"!!

£100 a point? Are you serious?:rofl:

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10 minutes ago, Skidder1 said:

£100 a point? Are you serious?:rofl:

You think it should be less?

Could we say £99 a point?

Save another £78 if we could...

B)

 

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So you are pitching the level at somewhere between current NL and mid-SGBC level.?:rolleyes:  and expecting adults to pay £15?

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hasnt matt ford in the past tentatively suggested the way forward for british speedway may be semi-professional riders?never be a shortage of youngsters who want to race motor bikes,who knows.Non league football by and large is a pretty successful and stable product.

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