Trees 2,814 Posted June 17, 2022 34 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said: It does make a huge difference. If you're trying to market the sport to people outside of speedway to ensure its survival, them having to explain that the riders in your team can ride for any other club in the UK under the doubling up/guest regulations & that their performance for a rival club could impact your own season or worse if an injury is suffered. It made a difference to me and many other 1000s who gave up on the sport. And just because it's happened for years doesn't make it right does it? Why do you have to say anything about their other teams? They can see that speedway is a dangerous sport, you can tell them that there's not enough money in the sport to have squads so when one of your best riders gets injured or whatever one of the options is to get a rider from a different team to guest because without it your team is weakened and you'd definitely lose without them. You can explain that whilst our sport is this poor this is the only option ...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,270 Posted June 17, 2022 45 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said: It does make a huge difference. If you're trying to market the sport to people outside of speedway to ensure its survival, them having to explain that the riders in your team can ride for any other club in the UK under the doubling up/guest regulations & that their performance for a rival club could impact your own season or worse if an injury is suffered. It made a difference to me and many other 1000s who gave up on the sport. And just because it's happened for years doesn't make it right does it? Definition of insanity... British Speedway. Repeat ad Infinitum... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
moxey63 1,785 Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) 21 hours ago, chunky said: Let's not forget that Andy Grahame qualified for both the BLRC and NLRC the same year... But Andy Grahame was on loan to Milton Keynes from Birmingham that year (think it was '79). He was always destined to go into the top flight for the Brummies, as happened the following year. There was a bridge back then for riders to cross over, the second division to the top league. In fact, Grahame was BLRC qualifier because top rider Billy Sanders moved from Birmingham to Ipswich in September, after Steve Bastable arrived at Birmingham due to a fallout with Cradley. Nowadays, as Dean Felton says, it is a swingers club. It is like the wild west. It has lost its direction - is it a team sport or a sport merely keeping a set of individuals in work? Individual meetings became unpopular decades ago, but now we're having a bunch of individuals thrown together to pretend we have a team sport. Edited June 17, 2022 by moxey63 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cowboy cookie returns? 747 Posted June 17, 2022 8 minutes ago, Trees said: Why do you have to say anything about their other teams? They can see that speedway is a dangerous sport, you can tell them that there's not enough money in the sport to have squads so when one of your best riders gets injured or whatever one of the options is to get a rider from a different team to guest because without it your team is weakened and you'd definitely lose without them. You can explain that whilst our sport is this poor this is the only option ...... The issue is it's at the heart of the problem a team sport has to have credibility & competitions worth winning. Currently it has neither only a band of riders who can & will ride for any club during the season. Even if you didn't tell anyone it wouldn't be long before they found out. I think as some elsewhere on here has pointed out Danny King was interviewed on Eurosport as the Ipswich skipper later in the same programme he pops up as Poole Skipper. That's on international TV the very tool that you're trying to promote your product. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
THE DEAN MACHINE 4,738 Posted June 17, 2022 36 minutes ago, Trees said: Why do you have to say anything about their other teams? They can see that speedway is a dangerous sport, you can tell them that there's not enough money in the sport to have squads so when one of your best riders gets injured or whatever one of the options is to get a rider from a different team to guest because without it your team is weakened and you'd definitely lose without them. You can explain that whilst our sport is this poor this is the only option ...... Think you’re missing the point of team sports, the danger aspect is irrelevant , speedway is and has always been a team sport on bikes not a motorcycle sport, hence bikers don’t really go to watch, speedway should be like football or rugby, it is territorial, poland is a classic example of this, the fans support their team and don’t support any other speedway except the GPs in great numbers, they are passionate about their own town/club like football over here 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trees 2,814 Posted June 17, 2022 22 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said: The issue is it's at the heart of the problem a team sport has to have credibility & competitions worth winning. Currently it has neither only a band of riders who can & will ride for any club during the season. Even if you didn't tell anyone it wouldn't be long before they found out. I think as some elsewhere on here has pointed out Danny King was interviewed on Eurosport as the Ipswich skipper later in the same programme he pops up as Poole Skipper. That's on international TV the very tool that you're trying to promote your product. That's where the TV company have made a mistake imo. They ought to edit better .... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
moxey63 1,785 Posted June 17, 2022 1 minute ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said: Think you’re missing the point of team sports, the danger aspect is irrelevant , speedway is and has always been a team sport on bikes not a motorcycle sport, hence bikers don’t really go to watch, speedway should be like football or rugby, it is territorial, poland is a classic example of this, the fans support their team and don’t support any other speedway except the GPs in great numbers, they are passionate about their own town/club like football over here True. I am not interested in any other form of motorsport. Speedway is different. I liked it because it was primarily a team sport and you had your favourite team men to cheer on in individual events. Without the loyalty of having those team men, cheering any individual in solo racing is a turn-off. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trees 2,814 Posted June 17, 2022 1 minute ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said: Think you’re missing the point of team sports, the danger aspect is irrelevant , speedway is and has always been a team sport on bikes not a motorcycle sport, hence bikers don’t really go to watch, speedway should be like football or rugby, it is territorial, poland is a classic example of this, the fans support their team and don’t support any other speedway except the GPs in great numbers, they are passionate about their own town/club like football over here Same except I'm not a huge fan of the GPs, like to see our Brits do well ....... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iris123 20,972 Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) 6 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said: Think you’re missing the point of team sports, the danger aspect is irrelevant , speedway is and has always been a team sport on bikes not a motorcycle sport, hence bikers don’t really go to watch, speedway Think you are missing the point that bikers don't relate to speedway more probably because they don't ride the sort of bikes that speedway riders do. If Harley or Indian etc still made speedway bikes it might have more connection with the outside biker world As it was, back in the 70s i used to love the GB v US series with Barry Sheene, Mick Grant etc Edited June 17, 2022 by iris123 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cowboy cookie returns? 747 Posted June 17, 2022 23 minutes ago, Trees said: That's where the TV company have made a mistake imo. They ought to edit better .... Head well and truly in the sand. Every TV company will always want to interview a clubs skipper & or top player or in speedway's case rider. It's not the TV companies fault that the governing body comes up with such insane rules. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trees 2,814 Posted June 17, 2022 16 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said: Head well and truly in the sand. Every TV company will always want to interview a clubs skipper & or top player or in speedway's case rider. It's not the TV companies fault that the governing body comes up with such insane rules. So the Championship promoters would be happy to promote a league with all NL riders in would they whilst the Premiership have all the best riders prepared to race here? Bloody Championship promoters won't even embrace the Rising Star scheme! Are you coming up with the readies to pay 2/3 riders extra in each team to allow for injuries during the season and for them to train to keep race fit etc? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fina 78 Posted June 17, 2022 1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said: Think you’re missing the point of team sports, the danger aspect is irrelevant , speedway is and has always been a team sport on bikes not a motorcycle sport, hence bikers don’t really go to watch, speedway should be like football or rugby, it is territorial, poland is a classic example of this, the fans support their team and don’t support any other speedway except the GPs in great numbers, they are passionate about their own town/club like football over here Interesting comment. I have started to become aware from chatting to fans at Redcar and on social media that not many would class themselves as bikers. And I have failed in getting my biker friends to even try watching speedway live - one or two will watch on tv. I am a biker & my main involvement has been with road racing. I enjoy watching a good speedway match, recall really loving going to Exeter when I was a lot younger, but coming back to watch after a break I am finding it difficult to get into the team mindset - keep looking for a team I can really get into following, but its individual riders I will pick up on & they are all over the place 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deano 1,318 Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) I took my lads friend to Perry Barr for the first time this week, he 13 and a keen motorsport fan. My lad wanted to go and I said why not take some of your school mates. Anyway, He really enjoyed it and wants to go next week. Fingers crossed none of the guests for Plymouth this week ride for the Brummies next week or vice versa and ride for Redcar as I’m going to struggle to explain that one away . Edited June 17, 2022 by Deano 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fina 78 Posted June 17, 2022 10 minutes ago, Deano said: I took my lads friend to Perry Barr for the first time this week, he 13 and a keen motorsport fan. My lad wanted to go and I said why not take some of your school mates. Anyway, He really enjoyed it and wants to go next week. Fingers crossed none of the guests for Plymouth this week ride for the Brummies next week or vice versa and ride for Redcar as I’m going to struggle to explain that one away . If the lad is into other motorsport he will probably understand guests as Moto GP teams are obliged to find a replacement rider is one of their main riders is injured. The team contract with Moto GP is to compete every round. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
enotian 562 Posted June 17, 2022 It is one of speedways problems and attractions. It's (or used to be) both an individual and team sport. Other sports like Darts and Snooker have international team events but there's no team work involved really. Whereas speedway does involve team work at least off track nowadays if not via team riding anymore and has affiliation to geographical area which other motorsports "teams" don't. To that extent it's difficult to formulate a pyramid structure for speedway that most other successful sports have. Is it SGP - SEC/SGPChallenge - SGP2 - SGP3 - SGP4? No. Is it SON/SWC - Domestic Top Flight - Domestic 2nd/3rd tier - Domestic Youth Leagues? No It's a bit of both and not very structured to the point it isn't a pyramid at all. SGP - Polish Extraliga - SGP Challenge/SON/SGP/SEC/Swedish Elite - Danish top division/SGP Premiership/Polish 2nd Division - Other domestic leagues. As I've posted before, it looks like Discovery Sports understand the need for a structure to ensure there is a sufficient supply chain of riders to develop the SGP product but would the FIM give them the power to structure domestic competitions to facilitate that?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
