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Dansdad

If you want to know what’s wrong with British speedway

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You are right but that has been talked about for over twenty years and nothing has happened. 

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I always worry when the incoming chairman of the BSPA states " I believe in the product " " We have a great product "  AKA Keith Chapman and now his successor Mr Godfrey . Unless someone realises that the Premiership is not a great product, Belle Vue and  now Swindon aside,and that's the reason people are not turning up to watch week in week out then the malaise and general decline will continue. Watch all BT live matches broadcast last year and its not great watching compared to other sports competing for the consumers pound ! 

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4 minutes ago, iwright71 said:

I always worry when the incoming chairman of the BSPA states " I believe in the product " " We have a great product "  AKA Keith Chapman and now his successor Mr Godfrey . Unless someone realises that the Premiership is not a great product, Belle Vue and  now Swindon aside,and that's the reason people are not turning up to watch week in week out then the malaise and general decline will continue. Watch all BT live matches broadcast last year and its not great watching compared to other sports competing for the consumers pound ! 

Agree about the tv meetings, I only watched a few as many of them were not worth the effort, the same with the GPs. 

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Ooh, Orlov,  might agree British meetings on TV is not good, but I disagree with you re the GP’s.  The majority of the 10 GPs are very good, couple Okish, and a couple mediocre.

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1 hour ago, OveFundinFan said:

Ooh, Orlov,  might agree British meetings on TV is not good, but I disagree with you re the GP’s.  The majority of the 10 GPs are very good, couple Okish, and a couple mediocre.

The main lack of interest in the GPs was because there was no real chance of any Brit or a Swindon rider doing well after the first few rounds.  Jason picked up towards the end.  I tend to watch the GPs on utube so that if the meeting is not good I can just cancel it.    

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5 hours ago, iwright71 said:

I always worry when the incoming chairman of the BSPA states " I believe in the product " " We have a great product "  AKA Keith Chapman and now his successor Mr Godfrey . Unless someone realises that the Premiership is not a great product, Belle Vue and  now Swindon aside,and that's the reason people are not turning up to watch week in week out then the malaise and general decline will continue. Watch all BT live matches broadcast last year and its not great watching compared to other sports competing for the consumers pound ! 

I watch a lot of 'old league Speedway' on YouTube, mainly from the eighties, and a hell of a lot of it is pretty garbage to be honest. Even allowing for the one camera, independent, straight to video coverage of the time..

The main differences to today when it's garbage is that back then the crowds were bigger so the atmosphere was there, and riders were mainly part time and hadn't spent fortunes on machinery to take part, so didn't expect/need big money to compete..

Nowadays you get pretty mediocre racing,  interspersed with the odd great race..

Just the same as happened back then..

Definitely worth watching a few YouTube League meetings from the eighties and nineties if you have an hour to kill..

Pretty poor fair in the main and definitely not too dissimilar to what we get today at most tracks..

 

Edited by mikebv
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On 12/6/2019 at 3:45 AM, mikebv said:

I watch a lot of 'old league Speedway' on YouTube, mainly from the eighties, and a hell of a lot of it is pretty garbage to be honest. Even allowing for the one camera, independent, straight to video coverage of the time..

The main differences to today when it's garbage is that back then the crowds were bigger so the atmosphere was there, and riders were mainly part time and hadn't spent fortunes on machinery to take part, so didn't expect/need big money to compete..

Nowadays you get pretty mediocre racing,  interspersed with the odd great race..

Just the same as happened back then..

Definitely worth watching a few YouTube League meetings from the eighties and nineties if you have an hour to kill..

Pretty poor fair in the main and definitely not too dissimilar to what we get today at most tracks..

 

most sports are the same, take football, the most watched sport on TV, Keeper passes the ball to one of his defenders then the ball is passed across the field, then back, then back across again eventually arriving back at the keeper who passed it out in the first place. If and when a goal is scored that's what it's all about, so a 1-0 win gives seconds of excitement the rest is expectation and boredom. 

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7 minutes ago, hyderd said:

most sports are the same, take football, the most watched sport on TV, Keeper passes the ball to one of his defenders then the ball is passed across the field, then back, then back across again eventually arriving back at the keeper who passed it out in the first place. If and when a goal is scored that's what it's all about, so a 1-0 win gives seconds of excitement the rest is expectation and boredom. 

You are watching the wrong matches!! 

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3 hours ago, hyderd said:

most sports are the same, take football, the most watched sport on TV, Keeper passes the ball to one of his defenders then the ball is passed across the field, then back, then back across again eventually arriving back at the keeper who passed it out in the first place. If and when a goal is scored that's what it's all about, so a 1-0 win gives seconds of excitement the rest is expectation and boredom. 

I’m guessing this is MUTV? :D

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3 hours ago, hyderd said:

most sports are the same, take football, the most watched sport on TV, Keeper passes the ball to one of his defenders then the ball is passed across the field, then back, then back across again eventually arriving back at the keeper who passed it out in the first place. If and when a goal is scored that's what it's all about, so a 1-0 win gives seconds of excitement the rest is expectation and boredom. 

 

League speedway produces at least fifteen moments of excitement in the starts and maybe another six on track.

Most football matches provide fewer.

 

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So, which UK stadium can you shoehorn 50 - 75,000 fans in for a match? Is it 6,000 at the NSS and they can't even fill that, or 2,500 at Glasgow where ditto. There is no punter demand for speedway matches on a regular basis above 1,000 to 1,500. And Ahem many below 1,000.

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On 12/6/2019 at 3:45 AM, mikebv said:

I watch a lot of 'old league Speedway' on YouTube, mainly from the eighties, and a hell of a lot of it is pretty garbage to be honest. Even allowing for the one camera, independent, straight to video coverage of the time..

The main differences to today when it's garbage is that back then the crowds were bigger so the atmosphere was there, and riders were mainly part time and hadn't spent fortunes on machinery to take part, so didn't expect/need big money to compete..

Nowadays you get pretty mediocre racing,  interspersed with the odd great race..

Just the same as happened back then..

Definitely worth watching a few YouTube League meetings from the eighties and nineties if you have an hour to kill..

Pretty poor fair in the main and definitely not too dissimilar to what we get today at most tracks..

 

I have put similar things on King's Lynn threads,mainly in response to people that keep harping on about "the good old days".I agree totally with you the racing was barely any different back then.It's really only things outside of speedway that has seen the gradual decline in speedway crowds.

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I actually think that if you get the track right, then racing today is better than it used to be.

Old shaped tracks don't seem to work so well with the modern bikes. Swindon is a good example of how reshaping and shortening a track can improve things. 

Belle Vue, as an example of a modern track, can provide better racing than I remember in the past. That race where Fricke was in  last place for much of the race then went round everyone on the final lap, for example. You never saw races like that in the 1970s.

 

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I’m sure speedway seemed better back in the day because the crowds were bigger and the atmosphere better. 

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24 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

I’m sure speedway seemed better back in the day because the crowds were bigger and the atmosphere better. 

Possibly, but you have to ask why crowds were bigger surely.Maybe some thing to do with entertainment factor.!

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