Elite League 2014

[MattK 3,447]

SWINDON; Troy Batchelor 8.31, Jason Doyle 7.15, Edward Kennett 6.48, Nick Morris 5.32, Ashley Birks 3.77, Kyle Howarth 3.69, ...... 3.00 = 37.72

 

 

But Batchelor would expect #1 points money, Doyle second headleader points money etc. and the cost savings would be negligible.

 

In order to make a significant cut in costs, the leagues need to be merged, the top 25% of riders jettisoned and the remaining riders to ride for Premier League points money.

 

Anything else is just papering over the cracks.

[Leicester Hunter 381]

How about a Ryanair British League, next year?

Not likely! All teams will be moved a minimum of 50 miles from base camp, you'll have to be in the stadium 90 minutes before the start and pay to use the bogs!

[Kester 3,028]

Not likely! All teams will be moved a minimum of 50 miles from base camp, you'll have to be in the stadium 90 minutes before the start and pay to use the bogs!

The admission price will be £1, but you have to pay £15 to walk through the turnstiles, £5 to carry a programme board and supporters over 70 kg will have to pay an additional tax.

[uk_martin 1,606]

The admission price will be £1...

 

Unless you decide at the last minute to go, in which case the admission will be £398.00 to go in, and it'll be your fault for not booking your ticket way ahead in advance.

[G the Bee 639]

The problem is, due to the constant mis-management of the product (especially over the last ten-years), the top-level of the sport in this country has reached rock bottom. At the moment we are scraping along in a sort of half-way-house between being a league with some of the world's top riders and being a glorified Premier League.

 

In my opinion one of the biggest problems is that the league has become steadily weakened over the last ten years as promotions continued to dilute the product to appease the weakest teams rather than working together to ensure the weakest teams could increase their competitiveness without diluting the value of the product. I believe the best years for the EL were its formative years up until around 2003. From that point on, the product has declined year-on-year.

 

I have said before that speedway promoters must be the only business owners who think they can consistently provide a product which is, year-on-year weaker than the year before yet steadily increase the price of the product and expect their business to be successful.

 

We have also failed to move with the times. If we want to provide a product which has the worlds best riders in it then we need to pay attention to the needs of those riders. I believe that a fixed race night (or nights) as the other main leagues adopt has been needed for years. Unfortunately the powers that be have consistently came up with all manner of reasons why this would not work in the UK without ever really showing the 'can do' attitude to make it a reality. They will point out that certain clubs cannot guarantee their stadium week-in-week-out on a certain day. Others will state that their landlords have other sports (usually greyhounds) on other nights of the week. However my argument is that where there is a will there is a way. Sure it may have meant certain teams would have had to move into the PL if they could not meet the requirements of the EL in terms of race night but others would have moved up to take their place.

 

It is certain that we can't keep on the way we are going, lurching from one season to the next with no long-term plan. The way I see it, we have two options.

 

1) Start from scratch again. Go single race-night and tempt some more of the 'world-class' riders back, to get the league back to the standard it was 10 years ago. Hope that, over a steady period of time, crowds improve. I actually believe that, in terms of fixtures, less quantity and more quality will get the crowds back. Look at the Cov v. Poole meeting earlier this season. Bees hadn't had a home meeting for a few weeks, Poole come to town with Holder, Ward and Janowski and the crowd was excellent. Of course, the crowds won't come flocking back overnight. This would also, of course, depend on a new multi-year contract with Sky. It would also probably require the asset system to be re-structured with riders initially allocated to clubs. Clubs who have a large asset base wiped out could be compensated by receiving a greater percentage of the Sky money for a fixed period of time.

 

2) Strip it right back. Accept the days of the EL are gone. Build clubs without the global superstars unless they are either ACU registered (like Tai) or based over here.

 

On thing is for sure. Dropping the points limit drastically for next season will not in itself fulfill the aims of number 2. When riders like Kildemand, Batchelor, Larsen, Cook are all on 8 point+ averages at the end of 2014, the points limit for 2015 will have to rise to accommodate that. And that is when certain clubs will bring back some of the 'Global Superstars' on their 2013 averages and we will be back to square 1.

[BWitcher 12,453]

 

The admission price will be £1, but you have to pay £15 to walk through the turnstiles, £5 to carry a programme board and supporters over 70 kg will have to pay an additional tax.

 

Ah more claptrap I see.

 

It's amazing how many people fall for the spin put out there by the British Airways of the world.

 

Always amuses me that folk moan about Ryanair effectively giving them a choice of not paying for services you don't want.

[uk_martin 1,606]

Always amuses me that folk moan about Ryanair effectively giving them a choice of not paying for services you don't want.

 

Sorry Mr O'Leary !!!

[BADGER69 33]

The problem is, due to the constant mis-management of the product (especially over the last ten-years), the top-level of the sport in this country has reached rock bottom. At the moment we are scraping along in a sort of half-way-house between being a league with some of the world's top riders and being a glorified Premier League.

 

In my opinion one of the biggest problems is that the league has become steadily weakened over the last ten years as promotions continued to dilute the product to appease the weakest teams rather than working together to ensure the weakest teams could increase their competitiveness without diluting the value of the product. I believe the best years for the EL were its formative years up until around 2003. From that point on, the product has declined year-on-year.

 

I have said before that speedway promoters must be the only business owners who think they can consistently provide a product which is, year-on-year weaker than the year before yet steadily increase the price of the product and expect their business to be successful.

 

We have also failed to move with the times. If we want to provide a product which has the worlds best riders in it then we need to pay attention to the needs of those riders. I believe that a fixed race night (or nights) as the other main leagues adopt has been needed for years. Unfortunately the powers that be have consistently came up with all manner of reasons why this would not work in the UK without ever really showing the 'can do' attitude to make it a reality. They will point out that certain clubs cannot guarantee their stadium week-in-week-out on a certain day. Others will state that their landlords have other sports (usually greyhounds) on other nights of the week. However my argument is that where there is a will there is a way. Sure it may have meant certain teams would have had to move into the PL if they could not meet the requirements of the EL in terms of race night but others would have moved up to take their place.

 

It is certain that we can't keep on the way we are going, lurching from one season to the next with no long-term plan. The way I see it, we have two options.

 

1) Start from scratch again. Go single race-night and tempt some more of the 'world-class' riders back, to get the league back to the standard it was 10 years ago. Hope that, over a steady period of time, crowds improve. I actually believe that, in terms of fixtures, less quantity and more quality will get the crowds back. Look at the Cov v. Poole meeting earlier this season. Bees hadn't had a home meeting for a few weeks, Poole come to town with Holder, Ward and Janowski and the crowd was excellent. Of course, the crowds won't come flocking back overnight. This would also, of course, depend on a new multi-year contract with Sky. It would also probably require the asset system to be re-structured with riders initially allocated to clubs. Clubs who have a large asset base wiped out could be compensated by receiving a greater percentage of the Sky money for a fixed period of time.

 

2) Strip it right back. Accept the days of the EL are gone. Build clubs without the global superstars unless they are either ACU registered (like Tai) or based over here.

 

On thing is for sure. Dropping the points limit drastically for next season will not in itself fulfill the aims of number 2. When riders like Kildemand, Batchelor, Larsen, Cook are all on 8 point+ averages at the end of 2014, the points limit for 2015 will have to rise to accommodate that. And that is when certain clubs will bring back some of the 'Global Superstars' on their 2013 averages and we will be back to square 1.

I agree with a lot of what you say but would add that speedway is a1970 sport trying to compete in 2013 It also takes place in outdated stadiums with one or two exceptions

[PHILIPRISING 7,298]

The problem is, due to the constant mis-management of the product (especially over the last ten-years), the top-level of the sport in this country has reached rock bottom. At the moment we are scraping along in a sort of half-way-house between being a league with some of the world's top riders and being a glorified Premier League.

 

In my opinion one of the biggest problems is that the league has become steadily weakened over the last ten years as promotions continued to dilute the product to appease the weakest teams rather than working together to ensure the weakest teams could increase their competitiveness without diluting the value of the product. I believe the best years for the EL were its formative years up until around 2003. From that point on, the product has declined year-on-year.

 

I have said before that speedway promoters must be the only business owners who think they can consistently provide a product which is, year-on-year weaker than the year before yet steadily increase the price of the product and expect their business to be successful.

 

We have also failed to move with the times. If we want to provide a product which has the worlds best riders in it then we need to pay attention to the needs of those riders. I believe that a fixed race night (or nights) as the other main leagues adopt has been needed for years. Unfortunately the powers that be have consistently came up with all manner of reasons why this would not work in the UK without ever really showing the 'can do' attitude to make it a reality. They will point out that certain clubs cannot guarantee their stadium week-in-week-out on a certain day. Others will state that their landlords have other sports (usually greyhounds) on other nights of the week. However my argument is that where there is a will there is a way. Sure it may have meant certain teams would have had to move into the PL if they could not meet the requirements of the EL in terms of race night but others would have moved up to take their place.

 

It is certain that we can't keep on the way we are going, lurching from one season to the next with no long-term plan. The way I see it, we have two options.

 

1) Start from scratch again. Go single race-night and tempt some more of the 'world-class' riders back, to get the league back to the standard it was 10 years ago. Hope that, over a steady period of time, crowds improve. I actually believe that, in terms of fixtures, less quantity and more quality will get the crowds back. Look at the Cov v. Poole meeting earlier this season. Bees hadn't had a home meeting for a few weeks, Poole come to town with Holder, Ward and Janowski and the crowd was excellent. Of course, the crowds won't come flocking back overnight. This would also, of course, depend on a new multi-year contract with Sky. It would also probably require the asset system to be re-structured with riders initially allocated to clubs. Clubs who have a large asset base wiped out could be compensated by receiving a greater percentage of the Sky money for a fixed period of time.

 

2) Strip it right back. Accept the days of the EL are gone. Build clubs without the global superstars unless they are either ACU registered (like Tai) or based over here.

 

On thing is for sure. Dropping the points limit drastically for next season will not in itself fulfill the aims of number 2. When riders like Kildemand, Batchelor, Larsen, Cook are all on 8 point+ averages at the end of 2014, the points limit for 2015 will have to rise to accommodate that. And that is when certain clubs will bring back some of the 'Global Superstars' on their 2013 averages and we will be back to square 1.

 

YOUR second paragraph could apply to speedway over the past 30 years let alone the last 10...

[mudflaps 664]

My opinion that's all.

You know what they say about opinions and ar$eholes?

[stevebrum 6,824]

You know what they say about opinions and ar$eholes?

 

Id expect you to know?

[T.N.T. 355]

But Batchelor would expect #1 points money, Doyle second headleader points money etc. and the cost savings would be negligible.

 

In order to make a significant cut in costs, the leagues need to be merged, the top 25% of riders jettisoned and the remaining riders to ride for Premier League points money. Anything else is just papering over the cracks.

 

Batch is already on #1 points money and Doyle not far behind. They will earn more money by scoring more points but clubs won't be paying the four figure sums to others but will instead be paying lower riders a quarter of that. There will still be 90 points up for grabs that need paying, but on average these will be 30% down on what is being paid out now.

 

On thing is for sure. Dropping the points limit drastically for next season will not in itself fulfill the aims of number 2. When riders like Kildemand, Batchelor, Larsen, Cook are all on 8 point+ averages at the end of 2014, the points limit for 2015 will have to rise to accommodate that. And that is when certain clubs will bring back some of the 'Global Superstars' on their 2013 averages and we will be back to square 1.

 

Riders that miss out riding in 2014 will only return on a newly assessed average. So a 7.30 point rider would return on a 8.39 average which is a 15% increase.

Edited August 27, 2013 by T.N.T.

[G the Bee 639]

 

Riders that miss out riding in 2014 will only return on a newly assessed average. So a 7.30 point rider would return on a 8.39 average which is a 15% increase.

 

I agree. What I was driving at was that some sort of forethought would be needed. The powers that be need to move away from this apparent belief that simply dropping the points limit will provide answers to problems.

 

Proposals such as that you have made need sorting out at this agm to stop promoters, at the end of the 2014 season, already having their hypothetical Holders, Iversens etc waiting in the wings for a return in 2015 and a resulting fraught agm at the end of 2014 between those that have a 'ringer' heat leader and those that do not.

[Hackett 220]

Pretty sure Sky will renew, They have been very impressed with the viewing figures from what I understand.

 

Last years television figures were always going to be artificially low , with the Olympics and the Euro 2012 taking place and would naturally see an upturn this year. Next year the promoters and Sky will have the same problem with it being World Cup year.

 

Be interesting to see what the AGM throws up this year because once again the season is too sporadic , can't remember when the last meeting was on a Sat at Eastbourne. Then this Sat its a double header and then season over again with a whimper.

 

Swindon , Birmingham in financial difficulties , I can't believe Eastbourne have made much profit with the poor season on the track + sporadic race calendar once again.

 

 

 

 

[Kester 3,028]

 

 

Be interesting to see what the AGM throws up this year because once again the season is too sporadic , can't remember when the last meeting was on a Sat at Eastbourne. Then this Sat its a double header and then season over again with a whimper.

 

That's the biggest thing I miss from the PL days, you knew if it was Wednesday it was speedway, there were only a handful of free Wednesday's scheduled throughout the season, and most of them disappeared with rain-offs. One thing that must disappear is the disparity in the fixtures. Either meet each team once or twice, this current some once/some twice setup is laughable and unfair.