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Killing the sport

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11 minutes ago, mikebv said:

The "tipping point" of it being a credible offering in a Team Sport guise went probably a couple if decades ago, when 'Guestfests' started to appear regularly...

Usually to accommodate the individual aspirations of the top riders as the FIM grew its competitions..

Then along came Poland and to a lesser degree Sweden, with their "lands of milk and honey" and suddenly there wasnt enough riders of a level that the Promoters steadfastly (or maybe stubbornly?), wanted to run their clubs at..

Hence we jumped into 'Doubleupfests' taking place every night, with the obvious knock on effect of making even more 'Guestfests' when these riders were either needed in two places at once or got injured, meaning two teams (and for a time three teams when 'Trebling Up' was in place), needed covering with riders from other teams..

The answer to this issue was an obvious one..

Realign the leagues into 3 clearly demarcated ones, ensuring that each team had an even share of what "upper level talent" remained, and reduce the numbers in the team to at least six, thus ensuring each team came to the tapes at the "correct level" for their infrastructure with the reduction to six per team meaning enough riders were available to be competitive at thier 'natural level'..

With the number six riders in the top two leagues being "RS' level to ensure development of UK talent existed..

Instead. We had "let's do fixed race nights so the top names will come back"...

Which (as anyone with half a brain could foresee), didnt happen, and became "let's do fixed race nights so loads of riders can ride seven nights a week for any team that needs them, restricting clubs to nights on which they may not actually make the most money, and restricting the potential number of fans who attend given what should be a 'weekend sport' has now become an any night one"..

When it needed vision and a radical plan for 'stand alone' future growth, it just got more of the same fudge, make do and mend..

Sadly  A truly GREAT product, held back by ridiculous infrastructure..

Spot on.

For some reason speedway in this country seems to not want to even attempt to change. Why that is I'm not sure. Clearly there are some people within the sport who understand professionalism.

My team Ipswich are one. The race suits matching bikes, and a real feeling or brand identity within the stadium on racenights is lightyears ahead of what it was even 15 years ago plus the Ipswich website is possibly the best out there.

So why does none of that travel further up the tree especially given Louis is a director of the BSPL

 

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As a spectacle, speedway is superb. But in that sense, it's a bit like Boris Johnson. It's only when you stay with it a while you realise it's having you over. Nearly 100 years of team racing and British speedway has never been further from that boast. After the a while, the razzle-dazzle wears thin and you just want something you can believe in.   

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I have always said s/way was a team sport ridden by individual's earning a living by piece work  and I don't think it will ever change now sadly .

That aside I think it needs someone to take control and inject enough money to get the riders attention something along the lines of Darts or Snooker with Hearne  .Look at this LIV Golf   a fraction of that money would launch British s/way to different level and customer base .

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‘’On a neutral track how manytimes out of 10 would, for example, Joe Thompson on a rocket ship beat Tai Woffinden on a donkey?’’

I’m sure we all remember the Michanek v Collins k o cup run off at Belle Vue. Collins with a broken wrist so his clutch was on the throttle side and Mich jumping on Bernie Leigh’s bike as his own had gone bang. One of the best 2 man races you are likely to see!


 

 

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24 minutes ago, FAST GATER said:

I have always said s/way was a team sport ridden by individual's earning a living by piece work  and I don't think it will ever change now sadly .

That aside I think it needs someone to take control and inject enough money to get the riders attention something along the lines of Darts or Snooker with Hearne  .Look at this LIV Golf   a fraction of that money would launch British s/way to different level and customer base .

Are Discovery Sports not the ideal organisation to take that control? Not just of the UK scene but internationally.

1. They seem to understand that the flag ship SGP needs a high quality field hence SGP2 and in particular SGP3 and SGP4 aimed at developing young talent. For all Greg Hancock was a great ambassador for the sport it's so much easier in a social media world to market young talents to the youth market.

2. They have the broadcast platform and need content to sell subscriptions. That only happens if the content is attractive enough. I doubt that the current offering of SGP/SON and British Premiership is.

3. They want to grow the sport globally, reignite old markets (USA, Australia) and expand into new ones (Asia, Middle East, maybe even Spain) for the purpose of attracting more subscriptions. To do that they need control over development.

You either work with them to realise the vision or you rally against it in the wilderness.

 

 

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17 minutes ago, enotian said:

Are Discovery Sports not the ideal organisation to take that control? Not just of the UK scene but internationally.

1. They seem to understand that the flag ship SGP needs a high quality field hence SGP2 and in particular SGP3 and SGP4 aimed at developing young talent. For all Greg Hancock was a great ambassador for the sport it's so much easier in a social media world to market young talents to the youth market.

2. They have the broadcast platform and need content to sell subscriptions. That only happens if the content is attractive enough. I doubt that the current offering of SGP/SON and British Premiership is.

3. They want to grow the sport globally, reignite old markets (USA, Australia) and expand into new ones (Asia, Middle East, maybe even Spain) for the purpose of attracting more subscriptions. To do that they need control over development.

You either work with them to realise the vision or you rally against it in the wilderness.

 

 

You would think Discovery would be the ideal partner..

The only concern would be that they would be used to dealing with fellow ultra professional organisations, who have individuals well versed in dealing with people of the same standard..

The GP's will have that given the level of organisations that have been behind them..

And you also have to have the concern that the Promoter's fierce desire to completely control the sport would ultimately scupper any company coming in to partner it/take over..

It would be game changer though if a huge global organisation got the opportunity, and autonomy, to lead the domestic sport out of it's current malaise, and into a bright new future.. 

Hope springs eternal...

Edited by mikebv
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one big league. Count the number of available riders, divide by the number of clubs (plus Eastbourne and maybe Swindon) and thats how many riders per team you can have, probably 5. 16/18 team league, plenty variety, chance for the heat leaders to earn good money. People forget the reason some blokes had 10 plus averages was because the scarcity of meeting other top blokes during a season. There'd be plenty of 2/3 point averages but there always was AND they could still compete at NL level. I don't like the idea of 5 man teams but what else can you do?

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in my personal opinion 2 and maybe 3 teams have signed riders knowing full well they wouldn't hang around so they could use (misuse) the guest rule. Having said that I don't know what else they could do in circumstances as they are.

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On 6/8/2022 at 10:18 PM, secsy1 said:

It is not just the Guest and rider replacement facility that has killed the sport so far this season.

Petrol prices and cost of living go part way, but the whole package as it stands is a bag of she ite.

Even if the 15 races are brilliant, who wants to watch a tractor on a Monday night at Belle Vue race round 9 times and not even grade the track, every 4 races!!!!!!!!

Fortunately I watched on Eurosport where it was just drivel from ill informed pundits and piss poor presentation.

But wait a minute you say, racing was superb (Which it was) but 1 hour 45 minutes of clap trap is not worth the 15 minutes.

Overhaul is not required, autopsy is

 

Regarding the tractor comment we get the same at Kings Lynn, Buster just loves to show off his collection of tractors and other bits of equipment he does more laps than the riders.

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5 hours ago, mikebv said:

You would think Discovery would be the ideal partner..

The only concern would be that they would be used to dealing with fellow ultra professional organisations, who have individuals well versed in dealing with people of the same standard..

The GP's will have that given the level of organisations that have been behind them..

We are talking about the outfit that runs Eurosport don't forget

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1 hour ago, iainb said:

We are talking about the outfit that runs Eurosport don't forget

Fair comment...:D

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11 hours ago, mikebv said:

The "tipping point" of it being a credible offering in a Team Sport guise went probably a couple if decades ago, when 'Guestfests' started to appear regularly...

Usually to accommodate the individual aspirations of the top riders as the FIM grew its competitions..

Then along came Poland and to a lesser degree Sweden, with their "lands of milk and honey" and suddenly there wasnt enough riders of a level that the Promoters steadfastly (or maybe stubbornly?), wanted to run their clubs at..

Hence we jumped into 'Doubleupfests' taking place every night, with the obvious knock on effect of making even more 'Guestfests' when these riders were either needed in two places at once or got injured, meaning two teams (and for a time three teams when 'Trebling Up' was in place), needed covering with riders from other teams..

The answer to this issue was an obvious one..

Realign the leagues into 3 clearly demarcated ones, ensuring that each team had an even share of what "upper level talent" remained, and reduce the numbers in the team to at least six, thus ensuring each team came to the tapes at the "correct level" for their infrastructure with the reduction to six per team meaning enough riders were available to be competitive at thier 'natural level'..

With the number six riders in the top two leagues being "RS' level to ensure development of UK talent existed..

Instead. We had "let's do fixed race nights so the top names will come back"...

Which (as anyone with half a brain could foresee), didnt happen, and became "let's do fixed race nights so loads of riders can ride seven nights a week for any team that needs them, restricting clubs to nights on which they may not actually make the most money, and restricting the potential number of fans who attend given what should be a 'weekend sport' has now become an any night one"..

When it needed vision and a radical plan for 'stand alone' future growth, it just got more of the same fudge, make do and mend..

Sadly  A truly GREAT product, held back by ridiculous infrastructure..

Reading this is truly sad. Being from Sweden I'm sometimes worried about our league over here in different ways getting worse but by the looks of it it's nowhere near as bad as in Britain

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3 minutes ago, Lorenzo558 said:

Reading this is truly sad. Being from Sweden I'm sometimes worried about our league over here in different ways getting worse but by the looks of it it's nowhere near as bad as in Britain

You have a major sponsor..

And you dont share riders, so still have a credible offering.. 

The one glaring problem is that you need to ring fence your number 6 and 7's to be Swedish only...

GB from circa 1980 trained every other nation to the detriment of their own riders..

Sweden is going down the same path..

Get a strong national team, or individuals,  and national media will take notice...

As was proved when Trick was the main man...

Dont make the mistakes the UK made by not seeing "the bleeding obvious"... 

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Individuals stopped being attended when the promoters decided to dilute the product by only using 12 riders and often that was 7 home riders and a few second strings/reserves from other clubs.

The super national marathon at Arena Essex was once a highlight of the season, seven hammers plus nine others often made up of NL heat leaders from teams like Rye House, Hackney, Ipswich, Wimbledon, Eastbourne etc, only half the field would qualify for the 8 man final and only the top four would get to start off the front in said final.

it was very competitive, it meant something and so the fans brought into it and this was second division.

Oh and those 16 riders, you could bet everyone of them had jobs outside of speedway and they worked those around their racing commitments.

 

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2 hours ago, marko said:

Individuals stopped being attended when the promoters decided to dilute the product by only using 12 riders and often that was 7 home riders and a few second strings/reserves from other clubs.

The super national marathon at Arena Essex was once a highlight of the season, seven hammers plus nine others often made up of NL heat leaders from teams like Rye House, Hackney, Ipswich, Wimbledon, Eastbourne etc, only half the field would qualify for the 8 man final and only the top four would get to start off the front in said final.

it was very competitive, it meant something and so the fans brought into it and this was second division.

Oh and those 16 riders, you could bet everyone of them had jobs outside of speedway and they worked those around their racing commitments.

 

The same as the 16 lapper at Ipswich. Once a great event with strong fields which was well supported. If I remember rightly I can remember it being ran on a Sunday afternoon mid season and also featuring on TV.

The last few years it was run was on cold dark October evenings with the 7 Ipswich riders plus some second strings and reserves from other tracks.

As with everything else serve up diluted rubbish people won't attend.

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