RobHowe

And that’s speedway and sport in general for you when a Play-off system is operated. Its disappointing that we most likely won’t make the Play-offs, but I’ve enjoyed this season. Granted it’s not been as good as last season, but you can’t win everything, every year. How boring would that be? I’ll keep enjoying speedway at Sheffield and IF at some point in the future, as the doom and gloom merchants have been “predicting” for years, it ceases to run then, and only then, will I mourn it’s passing.

And aside from the two free Thursdays that I’ve mentioned Sheffield has had continuity all season long.

Sheffield has had too many free dates? Really? How many have we had?

The continuing irrational and wholly unnecessary negativity of some fans is doing the same.

How has it been a stop start season? Aside from one rained off meeting (there were six last year) there have been just two Thursdays without a home meeting this season. Plus one Thursday when we were away at Ipswich. And the “gaps” in the schedule were there to accommodate more rained off meetings and progression in the Cup and shield. Had we progressed further in these competitions there wouldn’t have been enough free Thursdays.

Kids for free tonight - a great offer throughout the school holidays. Hopefully this and the weather will attract a lot of people out tonight.

Some of the fans. But if they gave all the tickets away for free one year these fans would probably find a reason to complain about that. They are so frustrating and so draining.

I was thinking the very same thing. Edit that into a 3-4 minute segment and that’s all the advertising the sport needs. A truly incredible watch.

I think there is still some merit in attracting fans back that used to go, perhaps those that don’t have the apathy or downright negativity that some fans have, but I agree 100% about identifying and attracting new fans to the sport. We all know that by and large speedway’s demographic is more older than younger. With some previous minor involvement in ice hockey back in the day I know that Steelers looked at a fan drop off per season of 10%. Death, ill-health, moving away, financial pressures, losing interest, etc all played a part. So they were always looking to replenish 10% of their fan base each season just to stand still. I don’t pretend to have the answers, but surely some form of collective marketing approach could go some way to reaching out to potential new fans. Granted this will come at a cost.

I kind of agree with that but there’s a chance that in canvassing opinions when some are inevitably discarded that you end up alienating those that put forward the opinions that were passed over. Granted you’ll never please everyone. But I think ultimately that the clubs need to get their collective heads together and agree for the sake of the sport and it’s long term survival what does and what doesn’t work. They need to develop and agree a long term business plan that will mean the survival of the majority, if not all, of the clubs long term. As.much as fans believe they know the ins and outs of running a speedway team I imagine that the vast majority do not in reality. So taking business advice from those that don’t know isn’t necessarily going to be a sound move IMO. If the clubs and their owners can put forward a product that ensures the long term survival of the sport in this country then I’m sure most fans will happily buy into that.

But what if the client base wants a myriad of different and at times conflicting things? We all want entertaining and affordable speedway, but the variety of views I’ve read on here or heard in person would make it difficult to please everyone.

One of the issues that “minor” sports like speedway have is that they very much rely on the good will of the team owners to act in the best interest of the sport. However, and without being disrespectful, I’m not convinced that any owner is going to take instruction from an “independent” governing body at this stage. Call me cynical but I’m not sure in a such a minor sport that an independent individual could be found that wouldn’t end being influenced by one or more owners. So for me a governing body is not the answer. What I believe is the answer is the team owners coming together to act in the best interest of the sport that they and we all love. Peter Oakes in this week’s Speedway Star makes reference to the problems that ice hockey in the UK experienced in the early 2000’s. At one point the top flight was down to just five teams due to teams folding mid-season. But after much soul-searching and fan involvement the then team owners came together to create a business model that would enable the teams and top flight league to survive and then ultimately prosper. As a hockey fan I remember this period very well. The EIHL that was created out of that period went through a few rocky years before starting to stabilise and ultimately grow. As Peter points out many of the teams can boast growing attendances but the league is still basically run by the team owners. I’ve kinda moved away from UK hockey in recent years but I still keep an eye on it, and of course particularly the Steelers. As Peter says in his piece, there’s a lot that speedway could take from the experience that UK hockey went through 10-15 years ago.

It is a shame, but I’m guessing because the gaps in the schedule - this week just gone and next week - were initially left blank to account for further meetings in the Shield and the KOC (or perhaps potential rain offs from earlier in the season) it wasn’t possible to announce this meeting until very recently when it became clear that we hadn’t advanced any further in those two competitions.

Oh yes. I’m a diversity and inclusion supporting, non-voting leftie, socialist Guardian reader. You’d love me.

You couldn’t be further from the truth if you tried! I’m certainly not part of the establishment, nor am I an appeaser. I’ll gladly share a drink with you one Thursday night to demonstrate this. But what I am is a realist; someone who realises that running and promoting speedway is not as easy as some fans believe. And I believe, in what are challenging times for the sport, that we should in the main support those that are running which club we support. Without these guys there would simply be no speedway. And then we’d all have something to really complain about.

Exactly mate. Some fans seemingly just want something to complain about. Which is their prerogative. But I don’t see what benefit it is to direct their complaint at the people trying to run the club. The free Thursdays have been known since the fixtures were released, so why didn’t people arrange to do something else on those nights? Or stay home and watch some speedway on YouTube or something?

Generally the kids go back on Monday 3rd so that’s only one week of the holidays with no home fixture. And if, as you say, things stay as they stand currently we will have had just three Thursdays with no home meeting up to the end of the season (not including the one rained off meeting in April) - 17th May, 7th June (when we were away at Ipswich) and 12th July. Compare this with other tracks that are really struggling and I don’t see an issue. Obviously if we were to make the playoffs then that’s probably at least one home meeting in September. Last season we had six rained off meetings (I think) and one Thursday with no meeting - and we were forced to run on Mondays and tried to host a doubleheader on a Sunday to squeeze all the fixtures in. Something which I understand ultimately cost the club money. If we’d had six rained off meetings this season we wouldn’t have had enough Thursdays free to accommodate them. So have the lunatics really have taken over the asylum, or are we simply looking at clubs trying their best to fit their fixtures in and around the availability of their home track?

But that’s what I mean about being damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Personally I think it’s a great idea - just a shame I’m on holiday But if they hadn’t put this meeting on some people would be complaining about there being a two week gap. They seemingly can’t do right by some fans. Which I find baffling given that I don’t see a long line of would-be promotors waiting outside Owlerton.

I understand your frustration but, given that the schedule has been known for many months now, I find it strange that people are seemingly surprised by this and feel the need to complain about it. In my opinion a couple of issues have created this situation. Firstly despite the horrible weather the country experienced throughout March and April we actually only lost one meeting to the weather. And secondly we didn’t progress in the Shield and KOC as we perhaps thought we would. Given both of those it’s a fair assumption that these “gaps” in the schedule were created deliberately to accommodate re-scheduled meetings and additional fixtures in the two aforementioned competitions. That we subsequently haven’t needed to use these dates up has created this situation. But rather than have a 2 week gap the club / promotion have done something about it and arranged an individual meeting - potentially at some cost - to limit this to just one week. So aside from creating other fixtures out of thin air I’m at a loss to know what they are supposed to do. Its frustrating for me because I’m free this Thursday when there’s no meeting and then I’m away for the next three Thursdays on holiday when there are meetings. But that’s life. I just wish some fans could see the positives and the efforts that the club / promotion have made and are making to give us as much continuity throughout the season. Sadly in the eyes of some fans the club / promotion are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

I have no issue with anyone expressing their opinion. What I do have an issue with is the constant negativity and apparent complaining from some fans, irrespective of what the club does in terms of trying to improve things on or off the track. Every change in the line up or effort to promote the club is met, from some quarters, with a barrage of negative tweets, posts, etc - seemingly without consideration. The Broc Nicol signing is a perfect case. He’d not turned a wheel for the club and yet some fans were already writing him off and were criticising the club for making the change (a change that the some of the same fans were no doubt asking for). And yet he has shown in a very short time that he has tremendous potential - his 11 point performance at Scunthorpe last week for example was a joy to watch. The beauty of social media is that everyone now has the ability to have their voice heard way beyond what it could have been previously. Personally I think it’s great and I have debated many topics with people I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do via social media. I have even met and become friends with people through it. It really is a wonderful tool. But the ability to voice your opinion to more people than before, and more significantly to those who you are directing your opinion at, comes - in my opinion - with a degree of responsibility. An angry tweet or post sent to someone - promoter, rider, etc - might be someone’s way of getting something off their chest. But they need - in my opinion - to understand how that tweet, post, etc will be received by the person it’s been sent to. Last week’s programme notes by Peter Mole demonstrated to me the level of frustration he and the rest of the promotion are feeling right now. And this has apparently been created by social media posts from fans. Again, I’m not saying people shouldn’t voice their opinion, BUT if they’re going to do so why not try to be constructive in their criticism or better still give the changes a few weeks to take effect before criticising the club? Put yourself in their shoes - you’re doing everything you can to put a competitive, entertaining but financially sustainable team on the track following a Championship winning season but some people seemingly find fault with everything you do. Ask yourself how you’d feel? I know I could and would only take this for so long before saying enough is enough Now unless that is ultimately the aim of these fans I would implore them to check the negativity, to consider for a moment how their criticism will be received and try to be constructive as opposed to out and out critical. And this doesn’t mean being a happy clapper, far from it. We all know that British speedway is in a difficult position right now, but I just think we need to support whoever is in charge of our club. The speedway world is far from perfect. But then life is far from perfect.

No, I’m just a realist who supports his team and the efforts of the promotion - in what has been at times a difficult season - without expecting the speedway utopia that some fans seemingly demand.

Or maybe he’s just a realist who supports his team and the efforts of the promotion - in what has been at times a difficult season - without expecting the speedway utopia that some fans seemingly demand.

Agreed. The constant negativity from some fans is baffling, not to mention wholly unnecessary.

Exactly. Too many people overreacting after a couple of minor set-backs. When Josh and Kyle are fit we’ll be a match for anyone.