mikebv
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Posts posted by mikebv
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With all due respect I don't see how banging in a maximum at Redcar will prove anyone wrong. Cook is too good for the PL and has wasted a year for me by not riding abroad and doing the PL again instead.
I would like to have seen Middlo stick with Cook for tomorrow but in any squad sport if you perform poorly you will get dropped, simple as that. I feel the changes have given us a good chance of getting to the final, lets hope the four selected can do the business.
getting dropped when out of form is fine, but bringing in a replacement who isnt as good and has been there before and failed seems a strange decision...
the marketa will be slick, one line and a gaters paradise..
ideal for craig cook...
britain is crap at speedway so we should keep the faith with cook, worrall, lawson, birks etc etc and see if in a year or two improvements are made..
let's be honest, no one in the wider sporting public even know what the sport is never mind that the world cup is taking place, so running a last place will not be even noticed...
who knows, give these lads more exposure, maybe some test matches? and maybe, just maybe in a few years we will be competing..
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So they had a decent crop of players come along in a sport they should really be dominating given the size of the UK's population, number of rugby clubs etc and of course the fact that very few countries take the sport seriously anyway. Odds are you're going to stand a decent chance of winning the World Cup at some point. Besides, although they won the World Cup, they were hardly dominant either side of that.
so the plan didnt work then??
rugby doesnt get massive publicity in the national media?
rugby doesnt get endorsed by national companies' sponsorship?
rugby players are not very well known in the wider sorting domain?
'only winning a world cup' is now not a major achievement, as well as reaching finals?
and using your rationale in a sport that even less countries take seriously, with 3 leagues and over 200 team places up for grabs then surely british speedway should be 'failing' like rugby and cricket seem to be??!!
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England are the best in the world at Rugby right now? When did this happen?
2003 if i remember correctly...
approx 10 years after the rfu put a vision in place to increase attendances for the domestic game by delivering a great national team...
they realised that the national media and national sponsors would come on board if 'the game' at international level was successful..
central contracts, restrictions on foreigners, and greater proffessionalism from the players and clubs were all part of the plan..
you can see today how this plan has benefited the sport domestically and even though england are no longer No1 the legacy of that plan still lingers...
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I DON'T know whether any of you have read Gary Neville's comments on the current paucity of World class English soccer players and the lack of opportunity for many up-and-coming youngsters in the game right now. Scale it down and he could just as easily be talking about British speedway.
said it before on here...
the football leagues are following the same 'hugely successful' blueprint that speedway embarked on during the eighties..
ie bring over hundreds of journeymen foreigners rather than develop your own,..
rugby and cricket used to do this but then changed tack and started to restrict overseas players and put their focus instead on young british players...
amazingly since that plan was delivered (from independent governing bodies) the england team in those sports became the best in the world...
can't imagine how and why....
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in the speedway star edition that asked why speedway in this country was not doing 'too well'..
rob godfrey came across as someone who had his finger right on the pulse,,
shame he wont get listened to,
shame he wont get to be chairman of the bspa...
great night at scunthorpe, and when you attend you feel that your custom is valued and respected...
dont feel that at too many tracks..
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in the early seventies on world final night my mum would ring up the newsdesk of (I think) the sunday people which was based in manchester....
i would stay up till she did it, about 10.30, and she would then pass me the note with the top four written on it....
when I saw 'first Ivan' on it there was no need to read the rest, it was running round the room, going ballistic time!
I do also remember being in Rhyl the sunday after PC won in 1976 and seeing on one of those newspaper boards outside the shop (again for the sunday people) with the words "Collins - World Champ" on it...
dont get many national media headlines any more now do we?
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look at what cricket has done this evening with its 20/20 games...
a joined up country wide as well as local marketing plan, some thought around a complete entertainment package, reduced adult admission, kids in for a quid, noise, colour, a public address system that works (and all scheduled participants turning up
)...result?
full houses across the country.....
some great ideas for no real outlay have already been mentioned, but another zero cost one for me is when a team gets a five one (or even the winner of every race) should do a lap of honour so the fans can show appreciation, too many times you have a great race and all go straight back to the pits....
take every opportunity to keep the fans involved and part of the experience..
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Agreed but. Many times they are made mandatory by the FIM so how can you avoid the cost. I used to laugh at the waste of space and cost of the environment mats, and especially the oil drip into the earth reason for having them. However, with the state of a lot of pits, the mats actually give you a cleaner and level area to work on during a meeting, which you will already know.
..... and then the track runs a stock car meeting and the bangers leave half their engine fluids all over the pits!!!
need a big 'freakin' mat for that!!!
speedway bikes need new quieter silencers for four bikes for 15 mins to ensure the sport continues in residential areas, yet the week before on the same track 80 v8 cars thundered round for six hours!!!
shows just what a load of bollox these rules are...
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To be honest I think their time would be far better spent visiting Football, Rugby, Ice Hockey or taking a trip to the US and experiencing US Football or Baseball. If other tracks are following the seemingly established model of 'play some music, have an announcer/roving mc then rely on the 15 races to fully entertain the paying punters' they are unlikely to find much inspiration.
agreed, variations on a 'same old, same old' theme in most cases so not much to be gained...
ice hockey/basketball/rugby would be worth a visit...
and maybe also visit a 'mcdonalds' and a 'wimpy'??
see which establishment is busiest and review why, ie whose got the youngest customer demographic, whose got the highest level of brand loyalty, which establishment in the customers' eyes delivers the best value for money and which of the two is seen as clean, modern, vibrant and exciting....
and then maybe also review which one is seen as ageing, hasnt moved with the times and has a brand perceived by many as being a relic from the '70's that simply didn't adapt to the modern day customers needs till it was too late and is now eventually updating its business model to meet the 21st century expectations of its customers...
might be hard to find a 'wimpy' to review though to be honest, as 'amazingly' there are not that many left....
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In a land of make believe - bucks fizz
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The athletics at the "other Perry Barr" features plenty of well-known names off free-to-air television so that gives it a big head-start compared to speedway for attracting a big crowd paying big money.
It's a bit tricky trying to compare athletics with speedway for crowds/revenue because there are relatively few major athletics meetings each year around the whole country compared to each of the Elite, Premier and National League clubs staging a full schedule of home meetings.
Speedway relies much more on people attending plenty of meetings at the same place each year ... athletics is aiming for more folk looking for one or two good days out each year.
agreed, no comparison to be made, similar to how we cannot compare the cardiff gp crowds with the league racing numbers...
i wonder how many attend a weekly/monthly 'club' athletics event? - not many if don valley is a barometer..
it does show though that there are enough people willing to pay for the 'right product' if the show is good enough,
today in birmingham they saw the world class mo farah, however how many would pay 66 quid next time if they had announced today, after you had arrived at the stadium, that mo couldnt make it so he has been replaced by someone from the local athletics team?
you wouldnt get away with that too many times would you??
speedway in this country tries to get away with it almost weekly it seems, hence it is where it is...
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Looks like Speedway Star could well be an interesting read next week. I just hope that the powers that be take onboard now that things need to change & start the planning for that to happen from next season. Is it time for another Lord Shawcross type of thing as was done in the 1960's?
just read the piece in speedway star xtra. Excellent, objective comment from Philip Rising...
my concern sadly is that in Philip's comments, nothing is new, as all is blindingly obvious and has been put into print thousands of times over the past ten to fifteen years or so by fans the length and breadth of the country..
however, when I say 'blindingly obvious' it seems to have only been so by an ever decreasing fan base themselves and not the people who have driven speedway down a cul de sac the wrong way for what seems like forever.
let's be honest, even as recent as the start of the season in an edition of the speedway star, one promoter deemed everything as rosy in the garden and wondered why fans knocked what was on offer each week !,
truly, truly mind blowing..
perversely though, maybe the sport is so knackered now that even the most blind of promoters are seeing the true picture of the dire situation that exists and 'one or two' may even be considering that 'the recession', 'the olympics', 'the world cup', 'the euros', 'wimbledon', the boat race', 'climate change' etc etc etc are not the reasons fans have deserted the sport in droves over the years and maybe, just maybe, 'one or two' may feel that they too have had a 'small part' to play in the sports demise in this country?
sadly, given the evidence of their track record, I do fear that those who run the sport haven't got the capability, or foresight, to do something anywhere near radical enough to completely change the sports direction and fortunes, such is the frankly amateurish way the sport 'governs itself'..
without an independent, strong, leadership team who have a clear vision for success (and more importantly can deliver it over a set period of time) then the sport in this country is I would suggest for want of a better phrase irrevocably 'donald ducked'...
that would be a great shame, however you do reap what you sow, and the head in the sand/make it up as you go along/survival of the weakest/stick your fingers in your ears, close your eyes and go "laaa laaa I cant hear you" mentality which has prevailed for so long is certainly delivering the only outcome it could....
maybe they will listen to you Philip?
God knows the fans that are left have tried!!
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I have an idea, the guest rider uses an alias, so no one knows the identity of the guest rider. The guest rider has to use a 'guest race suit', unmarked bike and gear. And has to wear a mask when his helmet is off....a sort of Speeday 'kendo Nagasaki'.
Brilliant idea!!!
After every winning race, the guest rider could do a lap of honour, and when he gets back to the tapes the starting marshal could 'clothes line' him and try to remove his helmet and mask , but he would only get as far as exposing his chin before the announcer calls '2 minutes' and 'kendo' escapes as the starting marshal is distracted; ..
Imagine the frenzy in the crowd that would create...
it'd pack 'em in I tell ya, pack 'em in...
NB - If anyone from the BSPA is reading this, I am not being serious...
(honestly, don't do this)
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I think it would have been on if so many on here hadn't kept posting 'poor' weather updates..
You almost 'willed' it to rain if you ask me....
Shame on you....
Your fault this, your fault....
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although there are some variants in the way they are paid(some full time ,some paid per match) the wage bill for mechanics in the elite league is around £19000 a week and a lot are paid by the club. can speedway afford that? i know mechanics deserve that money they work damm hard, i know cause i currently one but the fact is speedway cant afford it
often wondered why the EL promoters dont just make the league a 'one make league' and buy all bikes themselves then employ one mechanic per team to look after all of them...
you could then pay a rider a lower points money as they wouldnt have any costs themselves other than their safety kit, they simply turn up and ride..
go down to six man teams to save a wage, buy the bikes as a 'job lot' to get best prices and then sell them off each year to PL/NL/newbie riders to recoup a fair proportion of your initial outlay to re invest on the next years purchases...
make plenty of rules around what can and cannot be done to the machinery (they are good at making rules), get rid of dirt deflectors and other 'non essentials', ensure proper policing and I am sure watching riders performing on bog standard kit would mean closer racing, with talent winning over those who currently have more machinery investment?
many motorsports now run 'one make' championships with clear rules around what can be done to improve performance (even F1 has rules around what can be modified to reduce costs) therefore surely in EL speedway it is worth a go?..
if as you show deano, the costs have gone out of control then something has to be done and that something needs to be radical, not another 'variation on a theme' that promoters seem to just come up with..
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just got a copy of 'speedway now' july 1991 from a car boot sale..
there is an advert in it for a tri nation test match at poole, - england, aussie and sweden..
admission 4.50...
what would it be today to watch a test match? based on the 16.50 I pay to watch the EL about 20 quid??
if so that would be an increase of just under 350 percent in a little over 20 years...
if the admission had matched the inflation rate since 1991 then todays admission should be 8.60*!!
wonder if that effects attendance figures?
(* figs from the Historical UK Inflation and price conversion website)..
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And your fully thought out solution is what.
well it's obviously to leave everything 'as is' ..
as it is working so well for the credibility of the sport isnt it?
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Good luck to Kevin Doolan about getting guest bookings,but its getting beyond a joke now,so far this season Doolan has rode for ...........
Eastbourne x2
King Lynn
Berwick
Redcar
Scunthorpe
The next time a promoter says the attendances are down,they should take a look at whats happening in this sport.How can you try to bring new fans in,and try to explain whats happening and encourage them,when the powers that be are making a joke of the sport,also the double up rider replacement rule in the elite league is even more of a joke,try telling someone new that the rider is riding on the same night for another club,and see the look on their faces.Also the upcoming attractive Eastbourne v Poole match this week has been reduced to a farce with Poole turning up with 3 guest riders!!! would Matt ford have called the match off if it was there home fixture,like he did a few weeks back when he said quote "i dont want to cheat the paying public"
!!! but hes sending a team to Eaastbourne who themselves have injury problems that doesnt look like anything Poole have put out this year.You couldnt make it upto save loads of people coming on I'll fill in the counter argument
"ahhhh, but this is speedway"...
not a very good one really though is it??
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Eight "Ace" £1.49
arlll wash me fookin' speedyweh for that, ar wood, und neva aft ter bray me missus fet ter go neetha..
I go back 40 odd years watching the sport 'off and on' and have to say that taking the rose tinted specs off, a lot of what I watched even in 'the good old days' was processional racing with my team BV, in particular at hyde rd, hammering most teams by 20 point margins..
The difference from then to now is when we got yet another 5-1 the crowd level, and therefore subsequent noise level, created an 'atmosphere' that was far greater than the sum of what entertainment value we had watched..,
Thus it became a self fulfilling prophecy in that the crowd were involved (as you were stood with thousands you were not inhibited to join in), more away fans were there so more banter took place and therefore regardless of result, you had had a 'good night' and would return the week later...
Therefore the equation isnt so much about ten pound speedway but what price level will fill the stadium to bring back that elusive crowd level and 'lost atmosphere'..
The debate about whether cheaper entrance could be afforded could be counted with how much could you charge for sponsorship/season tickets/bar take/prorammes etc if you had 5000 attending every week and how much extra revenue would the increased local (national?) media interest bring in?
Always wondered why promoters dont budget their seasons costs with one less meeting's income and let the 'world' in for free to kick start their season, a full house would persuade far more to return the week after I would venture as it would maybe give them the impression the sport was a success and they had been 'missing out'...
One thing is for sure, the sport at its current admission levels is unsustainable in its current guise, as its ever dwindling fan base, eroding almost weekly, is testament to..
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Put Somerset in the EL and meetings at the OTA would be just as good. It's the track responsible for the racing rather than the league.
used to attend sheffield in the early nineties, even though a bv fan, as the racing was fantastic..
in the main we used to think it was due to the great track shape..
one week they held an individual meeting with many EL world class riders.....
Hans Neilsen I seem to remember went thru the card with a fifteen max and the racing was garbage with most races being won by thirty metres or so..
the track was the same, it was the calibre of rider that meant races were processional
on any track, get 14 riders of similar ability and you have more chance of close racing..
throw in a great race track and you have everything you need for a proper nights entertainment...
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great meeting, well done to all the riders...
if you could pay a tenner every week to watch speedway like this then people would attend in much greater numbers i am sure..
as for those who bemoaned roscos' commentary, my remote has a 'mute' button, see if yours has too, they are quite common I believe, might help your enjoyment more next time.....
well done the mon arrrrkkks....
and cookie in particular, shoe in for the SWC surely?
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Will Craig Cook of Edinburgh set a record this season for riding for so many different teams. He must have featured in half a dozen Ipswich matches already this season.. Does anybody know who holds the record. I think Kevin Doohan has done quite a few in the last couple of years. I wonder which league has the most guest riders?
craig could qualify for a league winners medal for about 8 teams so far!!!!!
total joke really isnt it?....
sorry, I forgot...
aaahhhh, but this is speedway...
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THE riders were invited to have just two runs ion the track having cancelled practice on Friday. It was also only then that they could determine whether the restoration work had indeed succeeded. No matter how many times even riders walk a track they cannot be sure until they ride a speedway bike on it. The riders were happy while accepting that it would not be 100 per cent perfect... not that such a track necessarily makes for great racing anyway.
Just ask Emil if he had any complaints about the track? Of course he didn't but those who only watch via a TV screen can never experience the true value of the whole show that is the British GP at Cardiff.
Eurosport were again chuffed and their viewing figures so far are exceeding what Sky were getting. The official attendance was 38,760.
doesnt matter what emil thinks....
these riders are going for a world title and as such they are so committed that sometimes they literally need to be saved from themselves..
you know more than most how these lads have nothing more than tunnel vision ie the world title is everything..,
the track was a total disgrace and freddie's crash in particular when the bike just 'stops' is often the most dangerous as the rider has simply no time to react or brace/defend himself..
very, very lucky tonight to see no major injuries.. (if as we do in our blase way class broken bones as minor)
still the viewing figures were good..
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well done the organisers for providing a dreadful and dangerous track........
very, very lucky freddie then..
and nki....
a disgrace to be honest to let these lads risk their neck on such a 'p' poor surface
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World Cup Race Off - 18th July 2013
in Speedway Grand Prix and Speedway World Cup
Posted
when can we use our joker???