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HackneyHawk

Time to have an enquiry into the death of Speedway

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22 hours ago, Ringitsneck said:

He made friends and enemies on both sides of the fence. He’s ‘ old school ‘ and hardly going to look at things with a fresh , new attitude.

old school worked to be fair

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3 hours ago, HackneyHawk said:

Well I'd like to do it! But seriously, it has to be someone from outside Speedway.  Maybe a promoter of other sports that are more popular now than they once were???

Someone made the excellent point of Promoters working together for the good of the sport and not engaging in petty rivalry.

Controversially, I think that third tier Speedway may harm the sport's popularity amongst outsiders and maybe should only exist as second halves of senior Speedway.  The 'quality of the racing and presentation is just not as good and therefore the uninitiated go along and are disillusioned, not knowing that they have watched an inferior product.

All of you fans of third tier tracks please try and see the sport's dire predicament before taking me to task on my opinion.......

Anyone who has been to Isle of Wight Speedway will laugh with derision at that ridiculous statement.

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4 hours ago, Skodaman said:

David Hemsley tried the questionnaire,the interval entertainment and giving out posters but to no avail. Even though I enjoy sidecars, I would not put them on during a meeting as they cut up the track too much.

Depends on the sidecars. 
 

if you use the 1000cc English ones, yes they do cut up the tracks. They run in the opposite direction to speedway bikes so where the apply the power exiting the bend it can cause problems for speedway bikes hitting a rut as they enter. 
 

the European 500cc chairs on the other hand use the same engines & tyres and run in the same direction as speedway bikes. 
 

problem solved. 
 

it’s not much, but it’s something else that can be done. 

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3 hours ago, Jonny the spud said:

Depends on the sidecars. 
 

if you use the 1000cc English ones, yes they do cut up the tracks. They run in the opposite direction to speedway bikes so where the apply the power exiting the bend it can cause problems for speedway bikes hitting a rut as they enter. 
 

the European 500cc chairs on the other hand use the same engines & tyres and run in the same direction as speedway bikes. 
 

problem solved. 
 

it’s not much, but it’s something else that can be done. 

the 500 chairs are good to watch too, Mitch Godden among others would probably jump at the chance to have regular racing.

 

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maybe , just maybe all promoters/riders will for once see light at the end of the tunnel and make it a part time sport again . entrance fee will be a lot less and give all fans something to see again . 

who give a chuff if you have to stand all the time to watch it . great in summer siting on a grassy bank having a few tinnies 

 wid yer mates . its a £10 pund sport all day long. time to wake up an smell the coffee .

2021 will not take place anyhow because of this civid thing . so roll on 22 

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6 hours ago, jenga said:

maybe , just maybe all promoters/riders will for once see light at the end of the tunnel and make it a part time sport again . entrance fee will be a lot less and give all fans something to see again . 

who give a chuff if you have to stand all the time to watch it . great in summer siting on a grassy bank having a few tinnies 

 wid yer mates . its a £10 pund sport all day long. time to wake up an smell the coffee .

2021 will not take place anyhow because of this civid thing . so roll on 22 

If it was a £10 sport then more would go, and far more regularly, without any doubt..

Which can only increase atmosphere and enjoyment of the 'overall experience'. ..

When the Aces tried it a few years ago at the old place, the crowds were noticeably larger, however the Promoters deemed it a failure as they took less money than the usual crowd at the usual admission..

So it stopped, and crowds dropped back when full admission was resumed...

I presume it stopped because that was far easier than doing something about why the costs were so high that needed such a high admission charge in the first place....

The more difficult thing to do of course would be reducing these costs down to make something like £10 price point workable...

Therefore it wont ever get done...

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19 hours ago, HackneyHawk said:

Controversially, I think that third tier Speedway may harm the sport's popularity amongst outsiders and maybe should only exist as second halves of senior Speedway.  The 'quality of the racing and presentation is just not as good and therefore the uninitiated go along and are disillusioned, not knowing that they have watched an inferior product.

All of you fans of third tier tracks please try and see the sport's dire predicament before taking me to task on my opinion.......

You could say the same about CL & PL compared to the SGP series... Imagine watching it on BT Sport, thinking I like the look of that and then turning up at any of the tracks in Britain (BV exempt)

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On 8/5/2020 at 6:59 PM, London Racer said:

Personally I felt it was a massive shame when Buster Chapmans son dropped out of the sport. Not everyone’s cup of tea but he had some great ideas when he was involved, it’s a shame some of the ‘experienced’ promotors never let him see them through. 

Some of Jonathan Chapman’s ideas were a swing and a miss, some were good, but he wanted to innovate and drive the sport forward. His advantage was that he had a way in through his father too in what is a notoriously hard sport to get into and make any impact. I feel that had he still been involved in the sport and allowed to spread his wings so to speak we could be looking at a much better product today. He could have been our answer to Eddie Hearn in some ways.  

19 hours ago, HackneyHawk said:

Well I'd like to do it! But seriously, it has to be someone from outside Speedway.  Maybe a promoter of other sports that are more popular now than they once were???

Someone made the excellent point of Promoters working together for the good of the sport and not engaging in petty rivalry.

Controversially, I think that third tier Speedway may harm the sport's popularity amongst outsiders and maybe should only exist as second halves of senior Speedway.  The 'quality of the racing and presentation is just not as good and therefore the uninitiated go along and are disillusioned, not knowing that they have watched an inferior product.

All of you fans of third tier tracks please try and see the sport's dire predicament before taking me to task on my opinion.......

I don’t think the issue is petty rivalries, more that each club is an individual business and thus wants to do what is best for their business to keep running. Which is understandable but it results in a rob Peter to pay Paul system where the clubs whose needs/wants are in the majority get their way when it comes to voting time. The next year that can swing back to the other side of the fence and there’s massive upheaval again. 

18 hours ago, ch958 said:

old school worked to be fair

“Worked,” being the key word. It won’t work now. 

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19 hours ago, ch958 said:

old school worked to be fair

Anyone who has been around the sport for a major length of time in a Promotion capacity over the past 20 to 30 years or so, shouldn't be anywhere near heading up any plan for the future..

As they have basically joined in the fiddling whilst Rome burned around them..

The sport needs those who have come in recently to head up any movement forwards. 

They dont have the baggage of past failings and, hopefully, haven't been sucked into yet the "Ahh! But you see, that wont work, because this is Speedway" bubble..

 

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By 'worked' I mean that bikes were affordable, tracks had dirt, nobody was paid more than could be afforded, guests were fewer, riders generally only had 1 team other than 2nd div riders occasionally doubling up to Div 1 temporarily. I have no objections to things moving forward but not when it clearly adds nothing.

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53 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Anyone who has been around the sport for a major length of time in a Promotion capacity over the past 20 to 30 years or so, shouldn't be anywhere near heading up any plan for the future..

As they have basically joined in the fiddling whilst Rome burned around them..

The sport needs those who have come in recently to head up any movement forwards. 

They dont have the baggage of past failings and, hopefully, haven't been sucked into yet the "Ahh! But you see, that wont work, because this is Speedway" bubble..

 

There are some new bright thinkers out there who have appeared in the past 3-5 years.

Some have Business backgrounds.

The structure and system though dictates that the "top table" is a combination of "dead mans shoes and cronyism".

Until that is blown away the bright thinkers will only impact locally.

Adrian Smith, perhaps the brightest of them all has hit the nail on the head. The Sport needs independent governance.

Look at what's being achieved by Team GB and GB Academy since it was allowed to be run independently.

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The time for an enquiry will be next March, when the season is delayed again. A repeat of this year will probably finish the sport off.

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1 hour ago, HGould said:

There are some new bright thinkers out there who have appeared in the past 3-5 years.

Some have Business backgrounds.

The structure and system though dictates that the "top table" is a combination of "dead mans shoes and cronyism".

Until that is blown away the bright thinkers will only impact locally.

Adrian Smith, perhaps the brightest of them all has hit the nail on the head. The Sport needs independent governance.

Look at what's being achieved by Team GB and GB Academy since it was allowed to be run independently.

It was plain long before Adrian Smith came along that the sport needs an independent governing body to be honest. 

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