The new Ltd company should be responsible for all speedway marketing nationally, just because speedway promoters are called promoters does not mean that they necessarily have the skill set to promote the sport or their club, this should be done by professionals. A national campaign to find major sponsors for each league should be undertaken. Speedway itself should seek a major sponsor, Speedway GP can do it why can't Speedway GB? The national title should have a major sponsor, remember the days when all things British speedway were sponsored by British Coal under the Sunbrite banner. Seeing speedway on TV with 500 or a 1,000 people crowded into a small spectator area of a stadium and the rest being empty is not a good look. I moved to Australia in the 90's and we regularly get coverage of the Speedway GP's, my wife recently asked me why more people don't watch speedway as it's such an exciting sport, this is what needs to communicated to non speedway people.
As for diluting the product I believe that there should be a return to the 45 point team average as a minimum, preferably 48, why should teams that can commercially work to these limits be punished? There should also be a minimum points limit. I can recall the days in the 80's where clubs had three out and out heat leaders, with the third heat leader generally having an average above 7 and a half with the top two riders averaging above 9. Speedway promoters need be aspirational and want to get to the pinnacle of the sport, Matt Ford and Poole should not be the butt of jokes, they should be congratulated for creating such a successful business model and fantastic product for the public. In these days where the sports and leisure market is so huge and varied you need to understand where your threats are and be looking at the bigger picture, you also need to understand how to make the most of opportunities for cross promotion.
Guest riders is another area that needs to addressed, the Premiership KO Cup Final with Somerset using 3 or so guest riders is ridiculous, clubs should be limited to using one guest rider for one of their top two averaging riders only. What happened to the days where teams had rider assets riding in other leagues that you could call on, the old number 8's? Fans need to be able to identify with their riders, having club assets riding in other leagues also stimulated interest in those clubs from the parent clubs supporters.
