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bellevueace

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Posts posted by bellevueace

  9. Posted

    12 hours ago, Bagpuss said:

    This might be an unpopular opinion but would it be fair to say that Bewley has been a little disappointing in an Aces racesuit this year bearing in mind his accomplishments in the GP's and Extraliga/Elitserien?

    Totally agree he has been disappointing in an Aces jacket considering his form in Poland and the GP,s, i would be surpised if he rode over here next season, i just get the feeling he regrets returning, Max is doing a better job for Leicester. Brady has been our best rider for the past couple of seasons.

  10. Posted

    1 hour ago, iainb said:

    You've not seen the guy at Oxford with his leaf blower then? :D

    I remember when the budget used to extend to bags of sawdust being thrown around to soak up the water. Sadly zero effort went into getting this meeting to continue which is what we've come to expect these days

    Saw many a meeting with sawdust down and riders racing through the conditions with billowing boilersuits lol, i remember going down to Wimbledon in conditions that would create an early call off today, down went the sawdust and we got through the meeting rain and all, and it was a decent meeting.

    • Like 2

  11. Posted

    1 hour ago, Daniel Smith said:

    King's Lynn tried this one year in the 2nd tier & half of the tickets found there way in to the hands of those already attending or at least attended Speedway before & happy to attend for the freebie. The majority of the rest didn't ever get used. 

    The idea is ok in principle but as with what happened with King's Lynn, that would be what Horton meant by losing money. It's not from potential new supporters, it's from the existing taking the freebie. 

    I remember when ice hockey started in the arena, Manchester had the biggest crowds by far normally between 12,000- 20,000, i was talking about this with John Perrin and he said it wont last, the majority of the crowd are there thanks to free tickets to promotes the sport, a couple of seasons later the free ticket scheme was pulled and the club went bust as it wasnt viable, after a few years they did reform but at Altrincham ice rink with an average attendance of around 1,400.

  12. Posted

    1 hour ago, bloom89 said:

    But didn’t he appear on bbc news and I’m sure he’s been on question of sport although someone may correct me if I’m wrong. He was in numerous tabloids doing interviews after winning his world titles but people just aren’t bothered about speedway that is the problem, you might’ve got a few hundred people up and down the country going when they discovered what it was and the novelty factor because they hadn’t seen it before and it looked exciting on the tv the clips they’d seen or whatever then they go to a uk meeting the track is unfit for racing and meeting gets delayed an hour while work gets done to it and said people won’t return. Or the ludicrous guest rules your trying to explain to a newbie that Chris Harris is employed by Coventry but tonight he’s guesting for Swindon because there rider is riding in Poland instead of the uk. People won’t understand and just think it’s a joke (which it is)…. imo the sports problems are far bigger than woffy advertising it. When do you ever see any of the current promoters promoting the sport anywhere? Why can’t they all chip in and get a proper advert out on bbc or itv or channel 4 or whatever it may be? They can’t or don’t know how to promote it in some cases yet why should that fall back on to the riders to promote the sport for them? The top riders will promote it to gain sponsorship but the vast majority of sponsor’s already know about speedway or are already involved in it.

    Despite all the other problems that has dragged the sport to where it is the fact that a three time world champion took no interest in supporting his home countrys league cannot be denied. Jason Doyle has been far more loyal to this country and only missed riding here when Swindon didnt run, Anyway as long as Belle Vue dont sign him, que así sea.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    13 hours ago, Bojangles said:

    While I agree with most of what you say, he's not coming back to top up his pension pot is he. He's giving up Sweden, so he'll probably be earning less.

    Arent clubs in Sweden also struggling due to employing GP riders in their sides on crowds that are even worse than here when you look at their publicised figures?

    • Like 2

  14. Posted

    10 hours ago, bloom89 said:

    I get that but we have to be realistic and speedway in this country is now not a popular sport well gone are the 60/70s where you had tens of thousands of people at league meetings. It’s never going to get back to those days yes you have the odd meeting here and there where a good line up will draw the crowds but in the main apart from the people who go it’s a sport nobody cares about and that isn’t going to change. 

    At the rate we’re going be lucky if there’s a dozen tracks between the “top” two leagues next year but it’s fine because we have a couple of the gp riders over here. Looking at the crowds I don’t even know how some of the teams can afford them.

    IMO we should just go to one league next season 5 man teams and number 5 rider has to be British and under 23 stop all this doubling up nonsense and have the ndl for teams who just want to stay in that league with no intention of stepping up but this is all fairytale stuff and will never happen. They’ll bury there heads in the sand again and probably bring in a squad system for number one and in there mind everything will be hunky dory because we have Doyle, holder, bewley and woffy riding here.

    I agree with you but your first paragraph sums it up, the sport isnt as popular as it was, crowds are woeful, nobody cares about it, hence the reason a British world champion with the charisma to connect to the generations it needs to rebuild and to put the sport back into the media headlines would have been a great asset, that he didnt chose to do that but now is happy to come back when hes on the wane is just another example of riders using the British league to suit themselves, when he could have made a big difference in promoting speedway he was nowhere to be seen and i wonder how much it will cost a team to employ him? Will he ride for next to nothing as clubs in this country are struggling financially or take a big chunk of a budget a club cant really afford?

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    9 hours ago, bloom89 said:

    Or you could look at it like any fan up and down the country has for years and seen the only way speedway in the uk was heading was downwards, woffy would’ve clearly seen the way it was being run badly as it has for the past 15+ year and when he was winning his world titles it was him alone with an embarrassing Chris Harris or Nicholls struggling to get a handful of points each gp, you can’t lay the blame on him for the way speedway has been mismanaged over here. It’s only the last few years we’ve had the youth days and the gb training camps which woffy has been involved in as well as glasgow and a host of other people, if they hadn’t bothered I dread to think what state we would be in because the people in charge have no interest in setting anything up like this. 

    True but Woffinden was in a position to help the sport from his position of being a British world champion with the personality to promote the sport nationally and connect with the younger generations the sport badly needs to attract, im not blaming him for the sport being mismanaged  but he could have done a lot more to help the situation considering his standing. The sport is still badly run but apparently he has no problem coming back to top up the pension pot, he would have made a far greater impact as a current world champion, opportunity missed.

    • Like 2

  17. Posted · Edited by bellevueace

    4 hours ago, 1 valve said:

    Why (if you are referring to the Laguta case) do you think that?
    There is a a statutory rule banning riders for 7 days who present a medical note relating to a none speedway illness.
    Laguta is not due to ride in UK for 7 days so no meetings missed - other than the Wolves fixture which is "explained" by the medical note.  

    I would question the validity of many of these medical notes where a rider is injured one day and rides the next, i doubt any rider would struggle to obtain one, the SCB need to amend the rule, but with many other decisions theyve taken apart from a disregard of the fans they just makes the sport look ridiculous, hence the lack of mainstream interest from media sources and sponsors.

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    17 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

    I'm indifferent to this, never warmed to him and of course it's now that it suits him

    Me too, when he was in his pomp and world champion he could have done so much for the sport in this country, he had the image to connect with the younger generations and create media headlines. Of course he was nowhere to be seen and now sees the UK as a top up to his pension pot now his star has waned. Compare to Jason Doyles loyalty to speedway in this country,

    • Like 4

  21. Posted · Edited by bellevueace

    47 minutes ago, mikebv said:

    They often talk of "working together", but seldom seem to do so..

    As you say "Speedway Co-op" has to be the way forward...

    With one independent head of it to be the final arbiter of what is a fit for purpose operating model..

    They have a unique product which can give fantastic entertainment, yet seem to want to commit 'Hara Kiri' in the way they run it...

    Truly baffling....

    Edit :

    Even more baffling is that not one single promoter ever comes out and says "Do you know what, this isnt right, and we cannot ever hope to succeed doing the same thing"..

    Not even the more progressive ones like Louis and Lemon...

    Meaning that they must all be happy I presume.. 

    When we have had new blood come into the ranks of the promoters with new ideas to take the sport forward they soon realise they are banging their heads against a brick wall. Coincidence that the Isle of Wight opted out and are putting on events that the public are praising and embracing?

    • Like 4

  22. Posted

    1 hour ago, Mr. Clemens said:

    Good job Tarasenko is there to inspire the Panthers, otherwise it would have been a walkover.

     

    The interesting thing is watching meetings like this inspire you not to go to watch it live and to keep your money in your pocket.

    I had resolved to get out and about this season to a few tracks up and down the country, but the more I watch it on TV the less likely I am to do that. You just get the feeling there is no point in driving miles just to be disappointed. That's the real tragedy of the sport these days.

     

    And still some think speedway on tv will bring in new fans, all it does is keep those that would normally go to the track at home, and any newbies happening to be watching away.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  23. Posted

    Zmarzlik is no doubt the best rider by far and can only beat whats put in front of him but i feel hes come along at the right time. The likes of Woffinden, Doyle, Lindgren, are on the slide and are not the riders they were, the upcoming younger riders are nowhere near yet the likes of Bewley, Lambert, Holder, Magic and Dudek arent good enough to challenge so Bartoz is having a bit of a free run at the moment the two that could challenge are suspended in Emil and Artem, Far cry from the days of Crump, Rickardson, Adams, Gollob, Pedersen etc banging elbows. A poor meeting and we seem to be saying that more often than not when it comes to the GP,s.

    • Like 4

  25. Posted

    On 6/21/2023 at 10:12 PM, lisa-colette said:

    Winning the league is always great but I am a bit worried we are going to have a forced promotion on our hands!*

    *promotion into the prem not a clubs promotion!

    Poole need to stay well away from the prem, i would have preferred Belle Vue to go Championship, more variety and it actually resembles a league, and the same riders with the exception of a handful.

    • Like 4
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