Possible Way To Make Elite Stronger?

[Christopher Bcmma Cook 33]

Was having a little think today on how Speedway Grand Prix could actually improve the standard of rider opting for the Elite League...

 

Now in Football terms, the number of places handed out to clubs to qualify for the Champions League and the Europa league is done on a ranking system based on how different countries do when in European competition. For example. Scottish clubs no longer get an automatic place in the Champions League (if they win their league) - the league winner now has to enter the qualifying round and i believe this season they have to go in even earlier.

 

Instead of having a "grand prix qualifcation process" which is just more meetings etc. Why don't they give the 3 qualification places to the riders to either

 

A - finish top of the Elite League average, Polish league & Swedish league (who are not in the following years Grand Prix series) - this would make riders probably take a punt on the elite league thinking they could finish top of the non-gp rider averages and qualify for the grand prix series.

 

B - Elite League riders championship gets a place for the highest finishing non GP rider, same as the Polish and Swedish Leagues.

 

C - If they rate the leagues in order that Poland is no.1 followed by Sweden & England.... why dont they do either of the above to get the qualification and the wild card places i.e. out of 7 places available 3 places go to Poland, 2 to Sweden and 2 to the Elite League.

 

 

The only way I can probably explain it is that the Europa league in football was deemed as awful by the top clubs as there was no merit in winning it, but this season the winner of the Europa league qualifies for the Champions League the following season. So by linking these 3-7 places in the GP series to the respective 3 leagues should only make it stronger....

 

As it stands qualifiying from the Polish & Swedish leagues would be quite competitive.... if you look at the Elite League you could probably guess who would get the places, so riders would look at the EL and think "If i ride there, I can get into the GP series easier" and once 8/9/10 riders think the same, the product in the UK becomes a lot stronger.

 

Just an idea

[capone 35]

EASY...dont put national league riders in the elite league, (elitional)

as i see you compare with football ....would man utd or arsenal field 2 players

from accrington sunday league..or similar.....and then not allow the opposing 9 men intercept the

ball from them...do yorkshire cricket and all others field 2 lads from a local league that can only bowl and bat against each other...

just to give the up and coming ones more practise.

it could only happen in speedway

[Christopher Bcmma Cook 33]

I see where you are coming from but a good percentage of football teams in the lower leagues are made up from players released from the top clubs academies, Speedway isn't set up the same way, this is about making the Elite League attractive to the top foreign riders, so the 2 "national league" reserves isn't even part of the equation

[T.N.T. 355]

The best way of making the Elite League stronger is to ride on one fixed night and no other nights.

 

This would have to be Mondays to fall in with Sky who the sport needs more than ever in this country

 

 

Riders then do the GP, ride in Poland, fly into England then fly out to Sweden and have Wednesday - Saturday off or for other meetings which they choose to enter.

[brewer 159]

The best way of making the Elite League stronger is to ride on one fixed night and no other nights.

 

This would have to be Mondays to fall in with Sky who the sport needs more than ever in this country

 

 

Riders then do the GP, ride in Poland, fly into England then fly out to Sweden and have Wednesday - Saturday off or for other meetings which they choose to enter.

you mean mondays because thats when wolves race, lets face it mondays is one of the worse nights for riders doing the leagues, poland sunday then england monday back out to sweden for tuesday, its easier to go straight to sweden from poland, imo weds and thurs would be bestfrom sweden to hear race 2 nights back out to wherever for gp's internationals etc then poland sundays, after all, kings lynn, leicester, poole, belle vue, coventry (i believe) swindon have and could race these nights, lakeside possibly not sure on stocks, just leaves wolves who never seem to move for any reason.

[kelvinht 354]

Was having a little think today on how Speedway Grand Prix could actually improve the standard of rider opting for the Elite League...

 

Now in Football terms, the number of places handed out to clubs to qualify for the Champions League and the Europa league is done on a ranking system based on how different countries do when in European competition. For example. Scottish clubs no longer get an automatic place in the Champions League (if they win their league) - the league winner now has to enter the qualifying round and i believe this season they have to go in even earlier.

 

Instead of having a "grand prix qualifcation process" which is just more meetings etc. Why don't they give the 3 qualification places to the riders to either

 

A - finish top of the Elite League average, Polish league & Swedish league (who are not in the following years Grand Prix series) - this would make riders probably take a punt on the elite league thinking they could finish top of the non-gp rider averages and qualify for the grand prix series.

 

B - Elite League riders championship gets a place for the highest finishing non GP rider, same as the Polish and Swedish Leagues.

 

C - If they rate the leagues in order that Poland is no.1 followed by Sweden & England.... why dont they do either of the above to get the qualification and the wild card places i.e. out of 7 places available 3 places go to Poland, 2 to Sweden and 2 to the Elite League.

 

 

The only way I can probably explain it is that the Europa league in football was deemed as awful by the top clubs as there was no merit in winning it, but this season the winner of the Europa league qualifies for the Champions League the following season. So by linking these 3-7 places in the GP series to the respective 3 leagues should only make it stronger....

 

As it stands qualifiying from the Polish & Swedish leagues would be quite competitive.... if you look at the Elite League you could probably guess who would get the places, so riders would look at the EL and think "If i ride there, I can get into the GP series easier" and once 8/9/10 riders think the same, the product in the UK becomes a lot stronger.

 

Just an idea

 

Might be something in this, but rather than the 3 places in the GP using this criteria, expand it a bit to determine the riders for the GP challenge, that way you could expand to other countries (or perhaps for lesser speedway countries allow 1/2 riders from their national championship into a pre-challenge meeting with a couple of places up for grabs in the GP challenge itself)

[Christopher Bcmma Cook 33]

Kelvin - you mean maybe a one-off meeting with the top 16 averaged riders in say Sweden, Poland and the UK with however many from the 3 meetings taking the 7 slots on the next gp? I wouldn't expand it to other countries, let those riders come and race in those 3 leagues to merit a place

 

only other way to make the speedway product work domestically would be to not focus on the gp riders, run on friday nights, saturday afternoon/nights sunday afternoons and not have any gp riders at all - regionalise all teams into north/south boost attendances which will hopefully keep clubs alive.

[capone 35]

I see where you are coming from but a good percentage of football teams in the lower leagues are made up from players released from the top clubs academies, Speedway isn't set up the same way, this is about making the Elite League attractive to the top foreign riders, so the 2 "national league" reserves isn't even part of the equation

[/quo

e]

see where your comin from too...but you are talking a reverse situation.. teams from lower leagues

using top teams released rubbish for lower league strength speedways top "ELITE" ;

league is getting the best brits from a lower ..2 leagues lower......just for extra practice...gaining in some cases inflated averages...better than in some riders in the main body of team.. lets face it ..if the powers that be could get it right the team average would not need to be altered EVERY year..they just as well offer a free bus to drive people away from the sport....fans certainly aint returning

[magnificentseven 236]

Perhaps the question should be how to make the Elite League Better rather than stronger because any dreams of top riders flocking back are simply dreams and it ain't gonna happen.

 

Drastic action is needed to make it better - we need a bigger league with more teams and therefore more variety - that would involve a lower strength overall of each team to start with but given the choice I would rather watch a league of more teams at a lower strength than a league of 4 or 5 teams including top riders.

 

Lowering the strength of teams doesn't necessarily lower the standard of racing.

 

Wolfie

[mickthemuppet 976]

The best way of making the Elite League stronger is to ride on one fixed night and no other nights.

 

This would have to be Mondays to fall in with Sky who the sport needs more than ever in this country

 

 

Riders then do the GP, ride in Poland, fly into England then fly out to Sweden and have Wednesday - Saturday off or for other meetings which they choose to enter.

If all Elite League matches were on a Monday night that would be the end of Speedway.How many people do you think would bother going to live speedway when you can watch it for nothing .on TV. Mind you if it were taken off TV more people would go but certainly not a Monday

[A ORLOV 8,628]

If all Elite League matches were on a Monday night that would be the end of Speedway.How many people do you think would bother going to live speedway when you can watch it for nothing .on TV. Mind you if it were taken off TV more people would go but certainly not a Monday

Agree, if the visiting team is a bit naff or the weather iffy or the sky match was between two good teams, many more would stay at home and watch what is being shown.

[steven101 103]

This could work well actually like this idea.

 

Top 8 from following season

highest ave rider in sweden britain poland

and highest position in british, swedish, polish, danish individual championships

And the wildcard

 

Theres your 16

[waiheke1 4,295]

Back to the op. I think the idea of qualifying via domestic leagues is quite a good one, and would likely result in stronger riders qualifyingvthan the current gp challengevsystem. but could see issues such as riders not wanting to race in heat 15 for example as it id likelyvto drag their average down. I think also at least a couple of wildcard spots need to be retained to cover for injuries.

[Humphrey Appleby 13,960]

Instead of having a "grand prix qualifcation process" which is just more meetings etc. Why don't they give the 3 qualification places to the riders to either

 

I had a similar idea some years ago, but using 'second half' individual races/competitions where riders would score ranking points towards GP qualification places. The aim was to add more meaningful races to the rather woeful 15 you get nowadays at a standard meeting.

 

The main drawback is that it would potentially exclude riders outside of the main national leagues, although you'd generally expect the best riders to be riding in either Britain, Poland, Sweden. However, you could reserve some places for the best-placed non-qualifiers in the Euro competition, or even run a separate GP challenge for those with no other means of qualification.

[waiheke1 4,295]

Again I like the suggestion sir h, but potential issue would be a) by half way through the season 80% of the match races would be meaningless as only a handful of riders would have a chsnce of qualifying riders letting their team mates finish ahead ofvthem.