No Sky Or League Sponsorship Money Etc...

[Cockney Rebel 97]

Eastbourne run on a Saturday night,have no grand prix riders,have about 19 free Saturdays in a 30 week season and they still lost £70,000 .Just having more weekend speedway will not fix speedway's problems,improving the core product will.Just to cheer myself up I watched a rerun of the Poole/Coventry play off final 2010,nobody was complaining about rundown stadiums,poor presentation,double points etc just revelling in watching great speedway.If we can get good speedway regularly former fans will return,people will literally 'stand on a grass bank' to watch a good product ! not sure how we get a better product thou ?

That rather proves my point, even though Eastbourne don't have GP riders how many opposition teams turned up without the GP stars using guests, r/r etc, which may have affected the number of people attending or maybe Easbourne didn't ride on GP weekends which means fans get out of the habit of going regularly. Bob Dugard said a similar thing in the Speedway Star a couple of weeks ago regarding the GPs. I agree one hundred percent about what you're saying about not caring what the stadium is like if you can watch good racing and an exciting meeting. Unfortunately no sport can guarantee an exciting meeting/match be it speedway, football, Rugby or tiddlywinks. I do feel that nowadays some of our expectations are too high not only in Speedway but life in general, so many people live on credit that thy can't really afford and that attitude extends into other aspects of our lives. Want a nice new car? get it on credit. Want a nicer house? take out a bigger mortgage. Holiday in the West Indies? My flexible friend will pay for that. Want a League winning Speedway team and lots of exciting races? Erm.. not so simple.

If only Carlsberg ran Speedway

[BluTiger 21,701]

Whereas if you don't have the play offs you could be cast adrift towards the bottom and your season ended well before September.

A bit like several times who aren't in contention to top the league.

 

Plus didn't Poole qualify for the play offs right on the cut off, which was well after 1st Sept??

Still think something should be done to keep the season going for those that are not in the play offs. I go to watch good speedway, and don't really care if its a play off or some other meeting. Just don't want it to end early Sept..

[Steve0 5,517]

Still think something should be done to keep the season going for those that are not in the play offs. I go to watch good speedway, and don't really care if its a play off or some other meeting. Just don't want it to end early Sept..

And I don't want it to start in March - when the weather is Baltic - hardly supports the concept of speedway being a summer sport!

[stevebrum 6,824]

Still think something should be done to keep the season going for those that are not in the play offs. I go to watch good speedway, and don't really care if its a play off or some other meeting. Just don't want it to end early Sept..

To me Poland have the right idea. Play offs for those at the top end and chance for more meetings and race for positions for those in the bottom end.

Obviously they, like Sweden do have promotion/relegation which gives their leagues some credibility.

Maybe start the league racing slightly later say mid-late April and run something like a KO Cup to start the season, maybe fans will support something launched that means something.

The KO Cup became a joke and was rightfully dropped this season, but to give it some importance it needs to perhaps be relaunched perhaps with PL involvement.

[Cockney Rebel 97]

Still think something should be done to keep the season going for those that are not in the play offs. I go to watch good speedway, and don't really care if its a play off or some other meeting. Just don't want it to end early Sept..

I'm with you on that Blupanther, any speedway is better than none. Unfortunately not everybody thinks like that, some fans only want meaningful matches, I presume they mean league racing so with a 10 team Elite league you're only going to have 18 home meetings or 20 if you make the playoff final. A very short season.Then what? go home and wait for next year? Can promotions who have to rent the stadium earn enough in those weeks to cover the rent, assuming they rent for a year and not just on a weekly basis? Of course we can all spend our money on what we want, if fans only want to watch the "meaningful" League meetings that's their prerogative but if their club folds through lack of support of the "lesser" meetings don't be surprised.

[BuzzCagney 310]

Speedway survived and, at times, thrived before SKY. It can again.

So we may have to lose the top riders to cope with the loss of money- ok, lets do that.

Do away with the frankly only-there-to-satisfy-SKY play-offs. Yes, it can provide a spectacle but it also leaves the sport looking rather daft at times to the non-fan.

Go back to 13 heats and a second half. Get a local sponsor for the second half every week and it will help cut costs.Happiness can be 40-38 again.

Have one cup competition that carries real prestige and try to get a big name sponsor to add weight to it. For preference a national newspaper for the publicity.

Bring back the Golden Helmet match races. It will add interest and excitement again for minimal expense.

Get some energy into the presentations. Some clubs are better at this than others. Try to keep admission prices as low as possible, of course. People just cannot pay £100+ a month in admissions.

If this all sounds like speedway 30 plus years ago then you are right. It is. Back then speedway was exciting and attracting crowds. Speedway should look to its past to create a future. SKY didn't prove to be the answer after all and the money they paid in just made for a sport all too prepared to sit on its arse rather than look at what it has been offering. Given some brave choices speedway can survive.

All imo of course.

[Starman2006 2,356]

Speedway survived and, at times, thrived before SKY. It can again.

So we may have to lose the top riders to cope with the loss of money- ok, lets do that.

Do away with the frankly only-there-to-satisfy-SKY play-offs. Yes, it can provide a spectacle but it also leaves the sport looking rather daft at times to the non-fan.

Go back to 13 heats and a second half. Get a local sponsor for the second half every week and it will help cut costs.Happiness can be 40-38 again.

Have one cup competition that carries real prestige and try to get a big name sponsor to add weight to it. For preference a national newspaper for the publicity.

Bring back the Golden Helmet match races. It will add interest and excitement again for minimal expense.

Get some energy into the presentations. Some clubs are better at this than others. Try to keep admission prices as low as possible, of course. People just cannot pay £100+ a month in admissions.

If this all sounds like speedway 30 plus years ago then you are right. It is. Back then speedway was exciting and attracting crowds. Speedway should look to its past to create a future. SKY didn't prove to be the answer after all and the money they paid in just made for a sport all too prepared to sit on its arse rather than look at what it has been offering. Given some brave choices speedway can survive.

All imo of course.

[pandorum 1,259]

Have one cup competition that carries real prestige and try to get a big name sponsor to add weight to it. For preference a national newspaper for the publicity.

 

The sport could not attract ANY sponsor for it's leagues even with 15 years of excellent TV coverage so how will it attract a big sponsor for a cup with less than barely two dozen teams in it without TV?

A national newspaper :) Those days are long gone.

[tonyd 165]

Speedway survived and, at times, thrived before SKY. It can again.

So we may have to lose the top riders to cope with the loss of money- ok, lets do that.

Do away with the frankly only-there-to-satisfy-SKY play-offs. Yes, it can provide a spectacle but it also leaves the sport looking rather daft at times to the non-fan.

Go back to 13 heats and a second half. Get a local sponsor for the second half every week and it will help cut costs.Happiness can be 40-38 again.

Have one cup competition that carries real prestige and try to get a big name sponsor to add weight to it. For preference a national newspaper for the publicity.

Bring back the Golden Helmet match races. It will add interest and excitement again for minimal expense.

Get some energy into the presentations. Some clubs are better at this than others. Try to keep admission prices as low as possible, of course. People just cannot pay £100+ a month in admissions.

If this all sounds like speedway 30 plus years ago then you are right. It is. Back then speedway was exciting and attracting crowds. Speedway should look to its past to create a future. SKY didn't prove to be the answer after all and the money they paid in just made for a sport all too prepared to sit on its arse rather than look at what it has been offering. Given some brave choices speedway can survive.

All imo of course.

 

 

I think this is a great post and true. We have got to look back to move forward. Lets get back to basic speedway, rules that were tried and tested, no stupid double point rides and at the end of the season the team at the top of the league to be called champions.

How about putting some dirt on the tracks and reverting back to upright machines .........Controversial I Know but could a cost saving be made ? cheaper bikes? lower mainaince / repair bills for the riders?

Happiness needs to be 40-38 once again.

Edited November 3, 2013 by tonyd

[jimmy jimmy 298]

But we aren't in the 1970s any more, many fans can't afford speedway every week. Give me better quality once a fortnight than wobblers every week.

Edited November 3, 2013 by jimmy jimmy

[T.N.T. 355]

Still think something should be done to keep the season going for those that are not in the play offs. I go to watch good speedway, and don't really care if its a play off or some other meeting. Just don't want it to end early Sept..

 

How about the teams that fail to make the play-offs ride against each other for the Peter Craven or Jack Young trophy that seem to have disappeared. If there are 7 teams then include a bye and do a straight KO or put 5th, 8th, 9th and bye in one group and 6th, 7th 10th and 11th in the other. Then the two winners meeting in the final which would take you through to October.

[moxey63 1,785]

I really hope speedway and Sky can maintain the relationship, but would it really be a major loss if speedway was dropped? Back in the 70s, for example, a 10 minute piece on World of Sport heralded household names into living rooms throughout the country. How many names have been promoted into minds on non-speedway fans by all the hours Sky have given us the last decade and half?

[BuzzCagney 310]

But we aren't in the 1970s any more, many fans can't afford speedway every week. Give me better quality once a fortnight than wobblers every week.

Well, all i'm suggesting is we will have to lose the very top boys and that won't leave us with 'wobblers'.

Lets face it the top boys are all leaving anyway so why not embrace it and leave them to Poland and the GP circuit.

Once a fortnight sounds all well and good but the reality, with rain-off's and other commitments is we will end up with 4 week breaks and a mad panic to cram meetings in the last few weeks. And people will have lost the habit by then and, even if they haven't, won't be able to afford 6 meetings in a month. This is very much the experience at Swindon.

And Tonyd is so right- shake up all these idiotic rules! 2 points for a win. 1 for a draw.

And if i'm honest i'd love to see a bit of rolling allowed at the starts too. Nothing better to get the fans going!

Edited November 4, 2013 by BuzzCagney

[jimmy jimmy 298]

I agree that the rain off issue needs sorting. Meetings should be restaged a lot sooner, or promotions should work harder to get matches on, better use of track covers etc

Edited November 4, 2013 by jimmy jimmy

[TesarRacing 1,825]

As has been suggested, start the season slightly later (mind you we have had really warm March's recently) with maybe a KO cup with PL involvement to hopefully bring in a 'Giant Killer' element. Ran at the start of the season might well bring greater interest as we will all have been starved of speedway for 5 months!!

Edited November 4, 2013 by TesarRacing