After a few years, Sky's coverage got slightly repetitive. It was two and half hours for 15 minutes of speedway action - and then it quite often overran! I used to sit through it all, but now I ask how I however did, even standing for two hours at the track itself. There was and still is too much padding out for live matches on the television. Live speedway, and it's only my opinion, helped the sport for a few years, maybe introducing new fans, but I feel it also cost many who actually wanted to attend the stadium and instead save their money and remained at home.
Though the ardent fan would say he'd never miss a match at his track, It's an easy habit to get into. And with the Play-Offs as we have them now, the whole season is pointless apart from the last six weeks or so. It is like watching wrestling where you know the guy who's being smashed about is going to eat some spinach and then win out eventually.
From day one of the season, a match should be important. The Play-Offs allow a team so many sleepy days before anything matters. And, do you know what, I think fans have cottoned on. I mean, Where do they all appear from when Play-Off Final arrives - surely it's like the fans you see outside a stadium when it's raining, waiting until the last minute to part with their cash in case the match is rained-off and their money is tied up.
Unless there was a relegation system to go with it, a serious one and not where clubs can decide if they want to come up or go down, then Play-Offs have probably impacted on the whole seven months of the speedway season for the benefit of a couple of teams that make the Final.
Once finished, they leave you cold and empty, all the hype when really they are anti-climatic. The only one that sticks out is 2006 - Reading v Peterborough - and that's because of the dubious double point rule that cheated the Berkshire club.