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British Speedway to be reborn?

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36 minutes ago, greyhoundp said:

Which brings us back to the fact the Sport as it is now can only support Semi professional riders, maybe the Premier should be for full time riders, with the Championship being for semi professional riders, with riders salaries to reflect that they are NOT professional, however its always difficult to police what promoters actually pay riders, even if books were verified by accountants, promoters can always pay cash or in kind..

 

Funnily enough that was the rule of thumb in the past in fact there were only a hand full of full time riders in the top league Mauger ,Briggs and co , second strings and reserves were semi pro in that league as well.Saving  holidays and  riding for team that  best fit their  day jobs  which I am sure could be done today plus if we had more wkend teams that would assist with this issue and maybe more fans .

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27 minutes ago, FAST GATER said:

Funnily enough that was the rule of thumb in the past in fact there were only a hand full of full time riders in the top league Mauger ,Briggs and co , second strings and reserves were semi pro in that league as well.Saving  holidays and  riding for team that  best fit their  day jobs  which I am sure could be done today plus if we had more wkend teams that would assist with this issue and maybe more fans .

I recall that many riders had other jobs as well as speedway. As I mentioned on another thread George Hunter was an HGV driver whilst riding speedway.

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Even Briggo sold bikes as well.

A lot of riders were in the motor trade or construction.

The problem for riders is what sort of job will be around once we come out of the lockdown as businesses will be smaller and unemployment huge.

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31 minutes ago, GWC said:

Even Briggo sold bikes as well.

A lot of riders were in the motor trade or construction.

The problem for riders is what sort of job will be around once we come out of the lockdown as businesses will be smaller and unemployment huge.

Garry Middleton sold Mercedes cars as a sideline.

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2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

I recall that many riders had other jobs as well as speedway. As I mentioned on another thread George Hunter was an HGV driver whilst riding speedway.

I remember talking to him a Wolves in 76  and he said I drive the trucks because this could all be over tomorrow for me and you need food on the table

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I don't see much change going into 2021 when/if things settle down again even with the aviation industry currently in a mess someone will come along and go for the budget approach as it worked for Ryanair for years and someone with the financial capability to offer cheap air travel will enter the market if those currently in the market increase prices or go bankrupt.

However all this mess is a great opportunity for British speedway to remodel itself rather than constantly just rebranding the same turd calling in elite league, premier league etc.  

Promoters aren't going to voluntarily give up the sport so the maximum number of tracks will still want to operate and if we stick purely to british riders we will go further backwards as there are just not enough riders coming into the sport in this country 

The guys involved in youth speedway are doing a great job but still the numbers coming into the sport are not of the past.

To progress to any sort of professional level we need the foreign riders

I'd like to see two leagues, in the second tier the only requirement being all reserves are British  

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On 4/20/2020 at 9:35 AM, jchapman said:

The top two leagues of British speedway has for many years relied on cheap airlines to enable riders to race in multiple leagues around Europe, however with the aviation industry collapsing the knock on effect for British Speedway is simple….. it will not have access to riders who wish to race in more than just the British league as the logistics will just not allow it.

No star riders will mean a significant drop in crowds (I am guessing levels of 50% pre CV19) which will lead to lower revenues from ticket sales along with a significant drop in sponsorship/advertising revenue as well. If clubs have less money to spend then riders will also be paid less and some will probably turn their back on the sport as they cannot afford to ride, thus reducing the pool of available riders down even further.

In my opinion British Speedway needs to give up on the idea of their rider assets holding any financial value and press the reset button to create a new blueprint to survive post CV19 ready to be launched in March 2021 (subject to government restrictions).

I believe now is a great opportunity for supporters to share their thoughts and ideas on what British Speedway ‘reborn’ should look like and which clubs should be part of it so I can send them on to the current guardians of each club.

I look forward to reading the thoughts you may share on this.

If travel, quarantine and foreign league restrictions aren’t lifted before a re-start is allowed we’ll be left only with a finite number of British riders to make anything of the season.

Some clubs might be willing to run and others not.

We might be left with a completely unique, one season league of just 10 clubs and a team building average of CL 32!

We’d need 70 riders and we have about 85 British riders, including NL ones.

Three of Swindon’s top five might be Ellis, Perks and Rowe, and if we could get Jordan Stewart over and have say Kinsley, Luke Harris and Stoneman, I’d be happy to watch that type of team.

We might increase the standard or the number of teams if foreigners (including Aussies) base themselves here.

Each team could have a home and away meeting each week and conclude the league meetings after week nine, leaving one spare week for rain offs and two weeks for the play offs and final. 

Without being dependent on foreign riders, clubs could generally run on their preferred race nights and there would be no double uppers! Your rider would be solely your rider.

This season could be used as a worthwhile trial for a future blueprint for British speedway, especially one that includes living within its means.

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10 hours ago, DC2 said:

If travel, quarantine and foreign league restrictions aren’t lifted before a re-start is allowed we’ll be left only with a finite number of British riders to make anything of the season.

Some clubs might be willing to run and others not.

We might be left with a completely unique, one season league of just 10 clubs and a team building average of CL 32!

We’d need 70 riders and we have about 85 British riders, including NL ones.

Three of Swindon’s top five might be Ellis, Perks and Rowe, and if we could get Jordan Stewart over and have say Kinsley, Luke Harris and Stoneman, I’d be happy to watch that type of team.

We might increase the standard or the number of teams if foreigners (including Aussies) base themselves here.

Each team could have a home and away meeting each week and conclude the league meetings after week nine, leaving one spare week for rain offs and two weeks for the play offs and final. 

Without being dependent on foreign riders, clubs could generally run on their preferred race nights and there would be no double uppers! Your rider would be solely your rider.

This season could be used as a worthwhile trial for a future blueprint for British speedway, especially one that includes living within its means.

If this did happen it could be the final nail in the coffin surely to run at this level it would have to be a 10/12 pound sport.Would some clubs not run ? for me  personally i could except the level but i would  imagine plenty of others could not ( even some diehard fans).I can't see Speedway happening in the UK until 2021 at the earliest and with this stubborn Government stance on not being flexible and admitting SOME of there mistakes speedway has a long wait.The biggest problem could be getting all the medical cover for meeting's even  by April / May  2021.

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On ‎4‎/‎28‎/‎2020 at 5:27 PM, FAST GATER said:

Funnily enough that was the rule of thumb in the past in fact there were only a hand full of full time riders in the top league Mauger ,Briggs and co , second strings and reserves were semi pro in that league as well.Saving  holidays and  riding for team that  best fit their  day jobs  which I am sure could be done today plus if we had more wkend teams that would assist with this issue and maybe more fans .

I think the job market has changed so much since those days that working and racing is a lot more difficult. In the past the vast majority of jobs finished at 5pm which would allow riders to make home meetings after work or with a couple of hours off. Now with more and more jobs being run over a 24 hour rota hours are all over the place and it's very much more difficult to find a job that fits in. Also in the past Speedway was a much bigger sport and many employers were happy to help riders in their career allowing for time off and injuries, that just wouldn't happen now. Weekend racing would help a lot but is not possible for a lot of tracks and even that is becoming difficult with ever more 7 day working.

Plenty of riders do work running their own business or part time during the season and there aren't so many that could really say they are making a good living out of Speedway, most will have to work at least the off season. At the end of the day it has to be remembered that the likes of Briggo had businesses to run because they used their Speedway income to set them up not the other way around. Certainly in comparison the money paid to riders in the past was a whole lot more than it is now.

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1 hour ago, Sidney the robin said:

If this did happen it could be the final nail in the coffin surely to run at this level it would have to be a 10/12 pound sport.

 

Actually it would be speedway’s chance to start taking the nails out of the coffin and lifting the lid on the realisation that it needs to live within its means.

As for the admission fee, yes, you would imagine that no flights and fewer big names would result in a lower one, just the same as the different price levels between the PL, the CL and the NL now.

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15 minutes ago, DC2 said:

 

Actually it would be speedway’s chance to start taking the nails out of the coffin and lifting the lid on the realisation that it needs to live within its means.

As for the admission fee, yes, you would imagine that no flights and fewer big names would result in a lower one, just the same as the different price levels between the PL, the CL and the NL now.

I totally agree  100 per cent but lots of supporters would not,even some of the  diehards.Would you pay 18.00 for the line up you suggested ? when they have tried the 10 pound offer before it never really worked.This is why Speedway in this Country let's itself down no forward thinking nobody in power asking the sort of Questions you asked why not? they  have plenty of time on there hands.I always feel that in SOME cases ( not the Swindon the promotion  ( i.e.) Kilby / Rossiter) that some promoters make it a promoter v supporter battle.The supporter  not being valued and listened to where would you get this attitude in any other business.As you say there is a chance now to change the model but to do that you need to interact with the supporter/ customer is that that to difficult.?

Edited by Sidney the robin

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1 hour ago, Sidney the robin said:

I totally agree  100 per cent but lots of supporters would not,even some of the  diehards.Would you pay 18.00 for the line up you suggested ? when they have tried the 10 pound offer before it never really worked.This is why Speedway in this Country let's itself down no forward thinking nobody in power asking the sort of Questions you asked why not? they  have plenty of time on there hands.I always feel that in SOME cases ( not the Swindon the promotion  ( i.e.) Kilby / Rossiter) that some promoters make it a promoter v supporter battle.The supporter  not being valued and listened to where would you get this attitude in any other business.As you say there is a chance now to change the model but to do that you need to interact with the supporter/ customer is that that to difficult.?

 

I think it would be a pretty easy sell:

”Hey, fans, the Covid ban has ended and speedway can now run but we can’t fly in the continental stars due to quarantines, so we’re going to try a domestic league with a reduced admission fee.  

Will you support us or would you rather have no speedway this year?”

Edited by DC2
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The riders that are left - especially those expected to be heat leaders - would still demand a decent financial package.

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1 hour ago, Skidder1 said:

The riders that are left - especially those expected to be heat leaders - would still demand a decent financial package.

 

I’m quite sure that promoters know full well the pay expectations of riders and what might be acceptable to them.

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2 hours ago, DC2 said:

 

I think it would be a pretty easy sell:

”Hey, fans, the Covid ban has ended and speedway can now run but we can’t fly in the continental stars due to quarantines, so we’re going to try a domestic league with a reduced admission fee.  

Will you support us or would you rather have no speedway this year?”

I'll take whatever's on offer, but i fear i might be in the minority.

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