Jump to content
British Speedway Forum

greyhoundp

Members
  • Content count

    2,561
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by greyhoundp


  1. 3 hours ago, East End Fan said:

    Interesting thought.  I always pay in cash at the entrance to Central Park.  I must find out if they accept credit cards as that would be very convenient sometimes.

    Convenient for the Fans, but then it has to go through the books for promoters ;), I know 2 seasons ago i was doing some promotional work at a stadium, and had to go through the gates not the turnstiles, i paid cash to the guy on the gates which he put in his pocket, i doubt very much that it ever came out again if you follow my meaning.


  2. On 9/27/2019 at 10:42 PM, TurnTwo said:

    Fact is.. whether you’re making a loss of 1p or £1m you’re making a loss. I personally can’t see how moving up will help Plymouth as the costs must be nearly tripled? I don’t know what costs go into running a speedway team but surely just thinking of it as a business I’d guess your costs are: track rent, medical, insurance, riders wages, mileage, track staff, referees I presume take a wage? 

    Whats the average NL rider? £20pp x 45 £900

    what’s the average CL rider? £70pp x 45 £3150 so just in rider wages as I’m guessing that’s the only tangible cost from those above. I guess they can charge £15/£16 for championship 

    £3150 - 900 = 2250 / £15 = they’d need an extra 150 people through the gate. That’s a big risk as if you don’t get the 2250 each night 15 home meetings at a loss of 2250£ Not quite six figure but it’s a 5 figure loss!

    When you say £20pp X 45 =£900 doesnt the gate money have to cover home and away meetings.


  3. 24 minutes ago, Sings4Speedway said:

    I have no record of this but im sure i read somewhere that NL was the only option for Cradley as they wouldn't be allowed to enter the higher leagues without a track of their own? Anyone else have any recollection of this or of course know if what was said/heard is factual asit only comes from my cloudy memory.

     From what i recall the last fans forum with the promotion at the Liberal Club (some years ago now) a vote was taken on would fans prefer to see a higher standard of league racing the vote was overwhelmingly for a higher standard, the reason often given for not moving up is that there is a lack of available dates to move into a higher League, I have not heard of the not having our own Track be used as a reason to not move up.


  4. Cost reductions by diluting the product on offer just doesnt work how many years have the BSPA been doing that for ?. There has to be realistic cost reductions beginning with machinery, tuning etc etc, a small step could be a bog standard Bike with NO tweaks to it, but thats where everything falls down with most riders trying there best to get even the smallest extra bit of power from there machinery.. and so it goes on, fewer and fewer spectators being asked to pay more for an inferior product, on Tracks that were built for less speed than what is acheved nowadays, whats the issue with being 5 seconds slower but with better racing ?, oh i get it, every rider wants to be a GP star ;). Then there is the issue of newish sign written vans, I understand the days of having a bike on a rack at the back of the car have long since gone, but jeez surely the object is to get from A to B with whatever mode of transport is available how much does a half decent trailer cost ?.

    • Like 2

  5. 1 hour ago, cityrebel said:

    If the rumours of the NL Becoming an MDL type of training league are true, older riders like Ledwith might not be eligible.

    If the NL does become a type of MDL training League will people be prepared to pay £10, £12+ to watch riders learning to ride, I very much doubt it. The NL will suffer due to the incompetance of the BSPA, There should have been a break away from the BSPA years ago but Clubs/Teams were not prepared to grasp the nettle, the breakaway by the Provincial Leage from the National League in the early sixties forced the Perceived stronger National League to be realistic, then we had the amalgamation of the two Leagues which gave us a period of strong/good League racing for a number of years.

     Two of the worst things we have at the moment is doubling up/down, and Teams constantly changing riders, there is no bond being created between riders and fans its just watching seven riders wearing your teams colours for that particular meeting or that month, Team changes should be limited to 2 per season unless a rider is unavailable due to long term injury, or another possible suggestion could be that teams have a squad of 10 riders to pick there Team from with any 7 riders totaling a combined average of a certain number of points.


  6. I will probably be coming up to this finale at Loomer road as the weather forcast is good, just sad to see the way our once great sport has gone over the last 20+ years or so, the powers that be have a lot to be accountable for they have presided over a long slow death of Speedway in the UK, whilst Dave Tatum may not be everyones cup of tea there can be no doubt he has always done his best to keep Speedway at Loomer road, its just unfortunate Speedway cannot compete with developers who just seem to sit back and wait for an oportune time to come in and buy up many Sport Stadia, Stoke,s time has come now and will join other long gone Stadiums given over to development it will be just a matter of time to wait and see who will be next.


  7. My last comment on Mark Robinson, whilst he may not have the best use of the written word and i may not agree with everything he posts, I count on him as a very good friend, he wants the best for Speedway in the Uk, though some of his ideas are impractible and financially impossible make no mistake there is nothing more than he would like to see than all three UK Leagues to be succesful, and riders to ride on well prepared tracks which is after all nowt more than what they deserve, and for spectators to be treated with respect rather than most Promoters treating us like a bit of dog dirt on our shoes..


  8. On 9/11/2019 at 9:41 AM, adonis said:

    At least one person will be over the moon at the announcement . Mark Robinson , that idiot has been wishing it to close for years ,

    Wrong, He didnt like the way the track was prepared, he didnt like the regular power cuts, but he has never wished to see any track closed, in fact he has suggested had either of the promoters requested a ACV be put on the track once it was known it was for sale, the current situation may have been avoided.


  9. I do fear for the future of Cradley after this season, since we re-emerged in the NL we have managed to keep going mainly through having the use of Monmore, and on occasion Perry Barr, however its become apparent that the promotion and club partner Gary Patchet have lost some of there enthusiasm over recent seasons, this has gone arm in arm with a drop in attendances for various reasons.

        I do believe there could be a way forward for the Club but that would probably mean the promotion would need to move over and let someone else take over the reigns, note i didnt say sell the club as there is little if anything left to sell..


  10. Yesterday i had to make a delivery to Hinckley Point (Power Station) all visitors to the site are required to have an escort, The person escorting me was a young guy who would be about 25 years old, and lives in Bridgewater, last week he went to watch his footy team over at Cardiff, he said there isnt a lot happening in Bridgewater and its 40+ miles up to Bristol, naturally i asked him how often he goes to the Oaktree arena, he looked at me gone out, wheres that ? i said just up the road on the A38, why whats there ? Speedway, Speedway whats that ?.

        This is the problem with our Sport Promoters simply do NOT do enough to get the Sport out there..

    • Like 2

  11. 3 hours ago, MattJ81 said:

    Something else I meant to mention as an aside, again in the promoters notes for this meeting there was space dedicated to highlighting how much more difficult it is for the management to keep the club going at present with outside interests etc and along with the continued online abuse this leaves questions to be asked over the winter.  Questions over the winter occur annually, with perfectly understandable reason considering the general outlook in the sport and specifically the situation at Cradley with no new home on the horizon (co-incidentally the same promoters notes mention Dudley Council who have stated recently there is no chance of finding anywhere, or words to that effect).  It does strike me that the same message has been in every programme this season.  I appreciate the promoters only really have this avenue as a right of reply but that first page of the programme has been a consistent message all season.

    One other thing worth mentioning, a little bit of beef between Len Silver and Will Pottinger after the Kent match with Len allegedly using some unsavoury language - mentioned a couple of times in the programme how disappointed it left Cradley officials.   With Will being Cradley and Eastbourne manager I'm sure he isn't the most popular bloke around Central Park!

     The promotion have the option of putting the club up for sale the same as they did a few years ago, however it would IMO be best for everyone if they agreed a sale this time, rather than just invite expressions of interest then announce that they have decided to remain as promoters but with an additional partner, since that time their has been a big drop of in support through the gate, and the teams assembled have not really threatened to win anything worthwhile winning, added to which there seems to be less interest by the Promotion for various reasons, which in itself spreads to the riders and fans alike..


  12. NP is part and parcel of the reason the sport is in such a mess, I just wish he and his fellow partners would walk away from my Team now, and hand over to people who genuinely have the Clubs best interests at heart, its been obvious for some time, that they no longer have the ambition to move the Club forward, hence its slowly going downhill. Sorry to invade a Wolves thread but i just wanted to reply to some general comments about the Sport, and a certain person in particular though he is not alone in how he regards some fans..

    • Like 2

  13. 11 minutes ago, Midland Red said:

    Following recent meetings being cut short due to curfews, and subsequent discussion/argument as to their validity, is it now time for a rule to be introduced that, for every meeting, a cut-off time is printed in the programme within the details of officials and riders for the meeting - then, should a curfew be necessary, there can be no misunderstanding and the spectators are well aware of the situation

    Thats far to sensible a ruling for the BSPA to adopt.

    • Like 1

  14. 6 hours ago, pete cc said:

    If robinson told me it was raining I would go outside to check.

     love or hate Robbo he has his beliefs, and is somewhat outspoken, however telling lies is not one of them. He strongly believes what he says to be correct, I realise many people disagree with his views, I just happen to believe a lot of what he says is pretty close to the truth, what I do disagree with is how he sometimes puts things across, but as we all know he lives life to the full almost exclusively in public on Social media.

     


  15. 10 hours ago, MattJ81 said:

    I'm a poor judge of crowds to be honest, and where we stand doesn't give us a great view of the whole area either.  The crowd for the IOW cup match was down but with season tickets not included that may have had an effect - I don't know how many season ticket holders there are.

    With regard to Monday's meeting I thought we were outgated pretty consistently (Clegg included although it was great to watch him pick his way through the traffic), Luke Harris had an off night for the first time this season and Lewis Whitmore looks really low on confidence.  Jack Smith will come good with more meetings around Monmore, although to ask anyone to fill Tom Brennan's shoes on that average is probably optimistic.  Dan Halsey is doing his job as third heat leader and has never looked particularly comfortable around Monmore in the past so a few more meetings should help - having said that there are only 5 home league meetings left!

    Really impressed with Jordan Palin who seems to have a big future ahead of him. Our reserves are ticking along OK., enjoy watching Tom Spencer who isn't afraid to mix it and has a really unique style and Harry is picking up good steady points.

    There is a consistent message from the promoters in their programme notes about the frailty of the future and they're happy to move over and let someone else take charge if land can be found etc.  I think the barbs on social media are having an effect and it wouldn't surprise me if this was a last hurrah, of course it always depends on available dates and the make up of the leagues anyway but you sense their enthusiasm is not what it once was.  

    Good sensible summary, but with regards P & P why don't they just move over now, I think there are almost as many stay away fans as regulars now for various reasons, not least amongst those are CH stagnating in the NL, which leaves many to question the motives behind the promotion continuing to stay on board when there are people rumoured to be willing to step in, remember the club were for sale a few years ago, then just as suddenly not for sale, imo this also contributed to the drop off in support, with regards finding land the outlook can be best described as bleak, both local authorities have paid lip service to helping find a new location, with the standard line being, we are open to the return of CH at any "suitable" new site, the important word being "suitable" and there is none deemed suitable by either council.


  16. I'm not to familiar with PL rules & regs, but I understand race nights are Monday, and Wednesday, It does seem to be a bit of a coincidence that Wolves & Poole just happened to race on one or the other of those race nights. Teams should be allowed to race on whatever night there fans support best, yes I can understand Televised meetings need to be on a fixed night, but the TV fee should make up for lost revenue through the gate. This fixed race night business is fine in theory but in practice can lead to a loss of some of the few supporters speedway has left, the other issue is does the fixed chosen race night encourage additional/new support through the gate ?.

    • Like 1

  17. Im sorry that i have to say this, but the warning signs are out for the Brummies already even this early in the season, History shows that Brummies fans have never supported a losing team, and this present Team are going to need strong shoulders, because they will be holding the rest of the League up for sure, they either need some more investors or need to unearth a talent that no-one is aware of..

    • Like 1

  18. 3 hours ago, Dickie Head said:

    What’s happened to Chris Widman. That’s another poor home meeting. Not matching a 3 point average. He’s been slipping over the last couple of seasons. For the good of the team they need to be brave enough to show him the door even though he’s the promoters son.

    Im sure the promotion are aware that they cant keep carrying Widman, question is, is there anyone who would improve the Team, someone who will improve, that is able to ride for the IOW bearing in mind the geographical location of the Team..


  19. On 3/9/2019 at 10:17 AM, spin king said:

    For a number of clubs the profits that are produced for the catering does not go into the clubs pockets it goes into the pockets of the landlords of the stadium, and they have very little or no say in what is served up.

    Having viewed on FB some of the stuff that Barry Bishop eats, I would be very wary of anything that is homemade by him. 

    If Barry Bishop makes that Curry down at the IOW then there is nowt wrong with it, its the best curry i have ever tasted at a Speedway Track, indeed its almost worth the journey for the curry alone ;), I would go so far as to say it puts a lot of well known Takeaway establishments to shame.

    • Thanks 1

  20. I had been keeping my eye on this thread waiting for someone else rather than me to point out that its all gone rather quiet, My own Team Cradley have still not mentioned this Group on the CH website, and when you consider that one of our Promoters is none other than a Nigel Pearson whose job is in the media, and the other is CVS who has long been part of the top brass at the BSPa, it just about sums up the state of British Speedway, Piss up and Brewery come to mind. 

     This will be another case of blowing smoke up peoples ar*es because this group wont even get of the ground if its left to the BSPA to organise it.. it begs the question why do they even bother..

×

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Privacy Policy