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Time to send a GB/England touring team abroad?

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Just now, Mr. Clemens said:

 

A Polish friend of mine said 'don't run away with the idea that speedway is popular throughout the country.

There are areas where it is popular but a lot of areas where it isn't'.

 

 

 

 

Shock and horror. Well ain't that a surprise !!! :rolleyes:

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6 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Shock and horror. Well ain't that a surprise !!! :rolleyes:

 

 

Why would you be surprised/ 

Can you explain ??

 

 

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Basically the sport just needs people who are enthusiastic and positive. I've witnessed it with a local non-league football team. They were relegated and last season finished the season in their lowest ever position. A new board came in, showed that they were willing to work hard, brought a bit of enthusiasm and as a result, sponsorship from local and not so local businesses has exploded, which is no mean feat in this climate. And all this despite being in a lower standard of football than ever before.

It's like the Premier League football on BT / Sky. We are constantly told it's the best league in the world, the players are made out to be superstars and the games are hyped up. As a result fans lap it up. But if we are constantly told the sport is dying / dead, we will believe this as well. I often think speedway fans are the sport's own worst enemy.

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9 hours ago, topsoil said:

Basically the sport just needs people who are enthusiastic and positive. I've witnessed it with a local non-league football team. They were relegated and last season finished the season in their lowest ever position. A new board came in, showed that they were willing to work hard, brought a bit of enthusiasm and as a result, sponsorship from local and not so local businesses has exploded, which is no mean feat in this climate. And all this despite being in a lower standard of football than ever before.

It's like the Premier League football on BT / Sky. We are constantly told it's the best league in the world, the players are made out to be superstars and the games are hyped up. As a result fans lap it up. But if we are constantly told the sport is dying / dead, we will believe this as well. I often think speedway fans are the sport's own worst enemy.

I can’t agree with that last sentence. It isn’t the job of the fans to make the product look good. They should be the sounding board for the people running the sport to know whether they are running a product that is entertaining or not. 

Imagine watching a Premier League match between Spurs and Leicester for example on Sky and the commentators trying to explain how Winks and Dier are playing for Spurs, Barnes and Albrighton are playing for Leicester but next week in the Championship Winks and Barnes will be team mates for Watford as they play against Stoke who will be fielding Dier and Albrighton. It’s an instant credibility drainer. And that’s not on the fans, it’s on the rules and rule makers. 

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5 minutes ago, Ben91 said:

I can’t agree with that last sentence. It isn’t the job of the fans to make the product look good. They should be the sounding board for the people running the sport to know whether they are running a product that is entertaining or not. 

Imagine watching a Premier League match between Spurs and Leicester for example on Sky and the commentators trying to explain how Winks and Dier are playing for Spurs, Barnes and Albrighton are playing for Leicester but next week in the Championship Winks and Barnes will be team mates for Watford as they play against Stoke who will be fielding Dier and Albrighton. It’s an instant credibility drainer. And that’s not on the fans, it’s on the rules and rule makers. 

Agree. And it is around the time of doubling up/down that the standard of both leagues started to weaken a lot.

When it was first introduced, it was only for Premier League riders to be able to double up in the Elite League. So an Elite League team would use two Premier League riders at 6/7 and use whichever one was available. The doubling up rider would never miss a meeting for his Premier League club and they would always take preference . If Rider A rode for Hull in the Premier League and Kings Lynn in the Elite League, Kings Lynn would of had to use Rider B any time there was a fixture clash.

Then I think a season or two later they also introduced doubling down, where two Elite League riders with an average of 6.00 or less could share a place in a Premier League team. Pedersen/Robson I think done it at Newcastle, Kylmakoorpi and Ruud at Arena. It was then when things just turned messy, I think that was 2003.

The season after the EL brought in the grading system and scrapped the doubling up. And has just got worse in quality ever since.

Have had the debate with a few people on here who say the standard of rider back 20 years ago wasn't as good as it is now. When the Premier League was full of top riders,  Stonehewer, Wilson, Carr, Watson, Schott, Topinka, Parker, Bird, Zagar... the list is endless. Fair enough, their averages were all higher as their were more teams in the League but to say the current standard of second tier riders is better than before is barmy. Someone even said Howarth would of averaged 10+ in that company. Lol.

I have named a few reasons why I think the sports fallen on its arse in the UK, but in all honesty there is an endless list of reasons. Weakening the product each year is another factor. I wouldn't say its the reason newbies don't attend as they wouldn't know the difference, but a massive number of fans have walked away from the sport. Being treated poorly by a promoter, watering down of the teams etc... it all contributes.

So we have an out dated product, terrible stadiums and viewing conditions, over priced catering and entrance prices, a year on year diluted product as four big reasons why the sport is in such a mess. And there will be many more. Add them all up and then try finding a solution to bring the sport back to a modern day, attractive product. It would take a Euro Millions winner with a massive heart for Speedway to even scratch the surface. Not very promising, is it?

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27 minutes ago, Pinny said:

Agree. And it is around the time of doubling up/down that the standard of both leagues started to weaken a lot.

When it was first introduced, it was only for Premier League riders to be able to double up in the Elite League. So an Elite League team would use two Premier League riders at 6/7 and use whichever one was available. The doubling up rider would never miss a meeting for his Premier League club and they would always take preference . If Rider A rode for Hull in the Premier League and Kings Lynn in the Elite League, Kings Lynn would of had to use Rider B any time there was a fixture clash.

Then I think a season or two later they also introduced doubling down, where two Elite League riders with an average of 6.00 or less could share a place in a Premier League team. Pedersen/Robson I think done it at Newcastle, Kylmakoorpi and Ruud at Arena. It was then when things just turned messy, I think that was 2003.

The season after the EL brought in the grading system and scrapped the doubling up. And has just got worse in quality ever since.

Have had the debate with a few people on here who say the standard of rider back 20 years ago wasn't as good as it is now. When the Premier League was full of top riders,  Stonehewer, Wilson, Carr, Watson, Schott, Topinka, Parker, Bird, Zagar... the list is endless. Fair enough, their averages were all higher as their were more teams in the League but to say the current standard of second tier riders is better than before is barmy. Someone even said Howarth would of averaged 10+ in that company. Lol.

I have named a few reasons why I think the sports fallen on its arse in the UK, but in all honesty there is an endless list of reasons. Weakening the product each year is another factor. I wouldn't say its the reason newbies don't attend as they wouldn't know the difference, but a massive number of fans have walked away from the sport. Being treated poorly by a promoter, watering down of the teams etc... it all contributes.

So we have an out dated product, terrible stadiums and viewing conditions, over priced catering and entrance prices, a year on year diluted product as four big reasons why the sport is in such a mess. And there will be many more. Add them all up and then try finding a solution to bring the sport back to a modern day, attractive product. It would take a Euro Millions winner with a massive heart for Speedway to even scratch the surface. Not very promising, is it?

Half of the beauty of those big names in the league was also that you only saw them once or twice a season. As a Rye fan it was an event when Stoney or Topinka came to town for example, because it didn’t happen every week. These days you see every team visit you at least twice and the novelty of seeing a different set of riders each week isn’t there. No doubt bonus points being included in averages made a difference in a way but there is no chance a rider like Howarth could have held a torch to the riders you’ve listed above. There actually was a worthwhile quality difference from league to league.

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6 minutes ago, Ben91 said:

Half of the beauty of those big names in the league was also that you only saw them once or twice a season. As a Rye fan it was an event when Stoney or Topinka came to town for example, because it didn’t happen every week. These days you see every team visit you at least twice and the novelty of seeing a different set of riders each week isn’t there. No doubt bonus points being included in averages made a difference in a way but there is no chance a rider like Howarth could have held a torch to the riders you’ve listed above. There actually was a worthwhile quality difference from league to league.

Would depend from memory. You would have some teams coming twice or even three teams . Back in the day of Premier Trophy, Knock Out Cup, Premier League. Plus challenges/friendlies. It was usually the Northern sides who came down South once a season.

Agree about there being a buzz when the big guns came to town. As a Newport fan, whenever Workington or Sheffield came, I always used to look forward to heats 1, 13 and 15 most watching the likes of Watson, Henriksson and Smart take on Stoney or Wilson.

I suppose back in those days there was loyalty between riders and clubs as well. Would never see the constant club swapping for riders that you do now.

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21 hours ago, iainb said:

I thought Newport was quite a nice little setup tbh, I only ever went to the New Year Classic's though. I don't know if you've seen any of the racing from Poland this year but the racing has mostly been dire with the match score usually never in doubt after the first 4 races. The music seems to consist of Now That's What I Call Heavy Metal Vol 1 from the 1980's as the bloke that does the commentary for Premier Sports seems to like playing Name That Tune and is always mentioning AC/DC, Metaillica, Van Halen etc. I've seen fans drinking from plastic cups.

I agree with all of your other points, especially the lack of other sports and council subsidy... Isn't netball big over there too? Is that an indoor winter sport do you know?

Newport wasn't too bad a set up as far as a speedway stadium is concerned, but in general it was a dump. A 1/4 finished bar under the grandstand which flooded every time it rained, weeds around the whole perimeter of the stadium, shoddy catering facilities etc. It could of been a lot better, I remember Tim Stone had began turning some of the rooms behind the steel shutters in the main stand into corporate boxers for sponsors etc but before they could be finished he had alienated a lot of potential sponsors and fans and that was that.

I have no idea what music they listen to in Poland, OK maybe it is 80s or 90's music at the speedway. There isn't anything wrong with music from that era of course, as long as suits the scene. At certain tracks around the UK, you'd have all sorts of depressing rubbish from all eras.  The banks you have listed, whilst not being my type of music, certainly aren't depressing and are quite heavy, pump you up style bands that suits speedway meetings. I think its widely agreed UK speedway presentation is ancient and awful in general.

If your getting value for money, you wouldn't mind drinking out of a plastic cup for a bit extra. Everyone does it at a festival or concert. Difference is there you 9.5 times out of 10 have full value for money.

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13 hours ago, Mr. Clemens said:

 

A Polish friend of mine said 'don't run away with the idea that speedway is popular throughout the country.

There are areas where it is popular but a lot of areas where it isn't'.

 

I mentioned to a Polish friend of mine that I'd been to speedway the previous evening and she said: "Really? Speedway is really popular in Poland. Where was that? I didn't know they had it here."

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15 hours ago, Mr. Clemens said:

 

A Polish friend of mine said 'don't run away with the idea that speedway is popular throughout the country.

There are areas where it is popular but a lot of areas where it isn't'.

 

 

 

 

I was in Krakow a couple of years ago. At a flea market in the town, there were two stalls selling badges including many motorcycling ones. When i asked if there were any speedway ones, they didn't know what speedway was.

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10 minutes ago, Skodaman said:

I was in Krakow a couple of years ago. At a flea market in the town, there were two stalls selling badges including many motorcycling ones. When i asked if there were any speedway ones, they didn't know what speedway was.

That`s because you should have said Zuzel- they would have known then ;)

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3 hours ago, racers and royals said:

That`s because you should have said Zuzel- they would have known then ;)

 

 

It is said to be popular here and there 

Obviously the person I spoke to didn't come from here or there 

That probably explains the insanity of it all don't you think???

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Mr. Clemens said:

 

 

It is said to be popular here and there 

Obviously the person I spoke to didn't come from here or there 

That probably explains the insanity of it all don't you think???

 

 

Every Pole i have talked to know what Zuzel is

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Just now, racers and royals said:

Every Pole i have talked to know what Zuzel is

 

 

Zuzel a Polish word I would expect that they do 

 

 

 

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