cityrebel 2,960 Posted August 26, 2021 2 minutes ago, Marky_Mark said: And Weymouth Wimbledon & Carmarthen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,292 Posted August 26, 2021 (edited) Surely there has to come a time when Promoters take a step back, put their own egos away, and realise that what they are doing simply doesnt work? Its clear that "Championship Lite/NDL Plus" is the (maximum) level for so many.. Not "Premiership Lite".. If your crowd is less than 1000 why would you be paying Premiership Heat Leaders? Premiership Heat Leaders dont forget whose very presence has delivered that less than 1000 crowd!! The sport is now down to the die hards, with the vast majority of whom willing to watch anything served up and packaged as "Team Speedway" (as is proved by their regular attendance even after well over a decade of contrived output), therefore why spend hundreds of thousands in delivering it?. For me, the sport (all sports), need a standard bearer to aspire to, so maybe you could get 8 teams to be the pinnacle with 5 man teams. Meaning the best 40 riders ride in that league.. The rest then race in an 11 team "Championship Lite/NDL Plus" level, with the best riders providing injury cover to the top league by being affiliated to the teams there.. Meaning no guests in the top league!! Grade the top 40 riders, A to E and set a mean average based on their total points divided by 40. This will then ensure no team with money can get the best rider from every grade.. Put simply, your crowd level should deliver the level you race at, not the ego of the Promoter.. Edited August 26, 2021 by mikebv 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,292 Posted August 26, 2021 17 minutes ago, orion said: And even more extraordinary nearly closed the club the next year Was never going to happen.. The council were not going to close down a multi million pound tax payer funded facility that they had just opened.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gazzac 1,015 Posted August 26, 2021 8 minutes ago, mikebv said: Surely there has to come a time when Promoters take a step back, put their own egos away, and realise that what they are doing simply doesnt work? That should have happened a decade or so ago, will that really happen now? Perhaps there's a number of clubs they have to get down to first, maybe single figures before it happens? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaizer 2,864 Posted August 26, 2021 14 minutes ago, mikebv said: Surely there has to come a time when Promoters take a step back, put their own egos away, and realise that what they are doing simply doesnt work? Its clear that "Championship Lite/NDL Plus" is the (maximum) level for so many.. Not "Premiership Lite".. If your crowd is less than 1000 why would you be paying Premiership Heat Leaders? Premiership Heat Leaders dont forget whose very presence has delivered that less than 1000 crowd!! The sport is now down to the die hards, with the vast majority of whom willing to watch anything served up and packaged as "Team Speedway" (as is proved by their regular attendance even after well over a decade of contrived output), therefore why spend hundreds of thousands in delivering it?. For me, the sport (all sports), need a standard bearer to aspire to, so maybe you could get 8 teams to be the pinnacle with 5 man teams. Meaning the best 40 riders ride in that league.. The rest then race in an 11 team "Championship Lite/NDL Plus" level, with the best riders providing injury cover to the top league by being affiliated to the teams there.. Meaning no guests in the top league!! Grade the top 40 riders, A to E and set a mean average based on their total points divided by 40. This will then ensure no team with money can get the best rider from every grade.. Put simply, your crowd level should deliver the level you race at, not the ego of the Promoter.. But the premiership heat leaders aren't really premiership heat leaders. Guys like Lawson, masters, Ellis would be 5/6 point riders maybe if was to standard of 20 years ago. James Grieves a consistent 9 point average second division rider barely got above 4 in his Wolverhampton days. The premiership is just a slightly harder championship as apposed to the old days when it was a huge jump. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,292 Posted August 26, 2021 7 minutes ago, Jaizer said: But the premiership heat leaders aren't really premiership heat leaders. Guys like Lawson, masters, Ellis would be 5/6 point riders maybe if was to standard of 20 years ago. James Grieves a consistent 9 point average second division rider barely got above 4 in his Wolverhampton days. The premiership is just a slightly harder championship as apposed to the old days when it was a huge jump. Agree 100%.. But I bet their remuneration package doesnt reflect their level against riders 20 years ago.. It will only reflect their position now against all those below them.. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaizer 2,864 Posted August 26, 2021 1 minute ago, mikebv said: Agree 100%.. But I bet their remuneration package doesnt reflect their level against riders 20 years ago.. It will only reflect their position now against all those below them.. No doubt Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TotallyHonestJohn 3,078 Posted August 26, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, mikebv said: Grade the top 40 riders, A to E and set a mean average based on their total points divided by 40. This will then ensure no team with money can get the best rider from every grade.. Mike Mike Mike Grading was proposed for the 6 man team format 5 year back where each team could have 1 grade A rider or 2 grade B riders amongst other permutations but that wasn't acceptable because two promotions had two riders each in the Band A group and weren't prepared to share because they wanted to put out the absolute strongest team they could in the hope of trying to win something regardless if they are humping weaker opposition each week... Speedway isn't Football however promoters have that football mentality but if a club is getting all the best riders and the opposition can't get anyone to put up a reasonable opposition for competitive racing then regardless fans get fed up. Now this is all well and good when there is a requirement for say 140 riders and the pool of talent available is say 540 riders however when the pool only consists of 100 riders the whole premise falls apart... Not wanting to pick on any clubs but there are teams with 3 recognised riders who could and should be filling a No 1 slot in most Championship teams yet this race to the bottom to spend as much as possible to get the absolute strongest 1 to 7 possible is an exercise in bancrupcy and it's ridiculous... I am not a big fan of American Sport however even those massive franchise's see the need for competitive meetings and contests and undertake a draft pick giving the weakest teams first pick of the best up an coming talent and unless Speedway adopts something similar on team selection promoters will always be in the rat race to the bottom... Even football have tried to achieve some sort parity across clubs with the financial fair play league... although it doesnt seem to work that well but thats football where clubs get 50,000 crowds and this is speedway where promoters get a hard on when they get a crowd over a 1000... Home fans generally don't come when they see sides that they percieve as having no chance from the start of the season and sides with three big hitters a reserve who should be a second string and two second strings rolling up who are knocking on the door of becoming a third heat leader it's a joke... Oh everyone builds to 40 points (or so) and it should balance out but we all know the reasons why it doesn't... Riders getting a ridiculous guarentee that clubs can't afford with promotions losing money hand over fist year after year and the lesson is never learned... The whole thing is corrupt from top to bottom and the big idea they will be working on this year and next to save speedway is rolling out the second rising star reserve which we all know the reasons why this is a good idea however it is just another fiddle and something that clubs try to manipulate... and why does this process need to come with 15 pages of rules ffs? I'm not often a supporter of old Len Silver but I am with him 100% when he says why do we need to have so many complicated rules in a sport that is basically 4 guys racing round a track for 4 laps and a minutes entertainment... Someone recently mentioned a circus of a show at a track well if they need some clowns I'm sure the BSPL have pleanty to go round if they are looking for any more... Here's a thing I'm with the IOW and how about a breakaway league... tell the mafia who are running the sport at present to poke it... Having been through this with Workington all Eastie fans have my heartfelt condolences at their loss... let's hope unlike Workington Eastie can make a come back and this is only a temporary blip... Regards THJ Edited August 26, 2021 by TotallyHonestJohn Spelling 10 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iainb 5,022 Posted August 26, 2021 3 hours ago, Jaizer said: Isle of Wight Somerset Trelawny Long Eaton & Bradford 3 years before that Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iainb 5,022 Posted August 26, 2021 Been thinking about the Eastbourne closure... why was it different to what's happened at Birmingham & Newcastle? Both of those were given opportunities to continue, fixtures rearranged to bring forward attractive opposition and go fund me pages setup. Eastboune, fixtures cancelled, press blackout and then closure! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marky_Mark 55 Posted August 26, 2021 1 minute ago, iainb said: Been thinking about the Eastbourne closure... why was it different to what's happened at Birmingham & Newcastle? Both of those were given opportunities to continue, fixtures rearranged to bring forward attractive opposition and go fund me pages setup. Eastboune, fixtures cancelled, press blackout and then closure! Yes I’m surprised there wasn’t a call to arms, for example a crowdfunding type page set up for donations to try and get the team to the end of the season. Unless the debts were so high that they knew that wouldn’t scratch the surface, I mean after all we’re now hearing that the riders are owed SEVERAL meetings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruffdiamond 6,115 Posted August 26, 2021 2 hours ago, Jaizer said: But the premiership heat leaders aren't really premiership heat leaders. Guys like Lawson, masters, Ellis would be 5/6 point riders maybe if was to standard of 20 years ago. James Grieves a consistent 9 point average second division rider barely got above 4 in his Wolverhampton days. The premiership is just a slightly harder championship as apposed to the old days when it was a huge jump. Yeah, but its the taking part that's counts,,, equality and diversity,(not the pop group), is the way now,,, so it doesn't matter if the jobs crap, it happens all the time so don't worry about it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fromafar 10,375 Posted August 26, 2021 8 minutes ago, iainb said: Been thinking about the Eastbourne closure... why was it different to what's happened at Birmingham & Newcastle? Both of those were given opportunities to continue, fixtures rearranged to bring forward attractive opposition and go fund me pages setup. Eastboune, fixtures cancelled, press blackout and then closure! We don’t know the facts though,perhaps the Stadium owners wanted what they were owed (if anything) before they were allowed to use the Stadium .We will never know. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marky_Mark 55 Posted August 26, 2021 1 minute ago, Marky_Mark said: Yes I’m surprised there wasn’t a call to arms, for example a crowdfunding type page set up for donations to try and get the team to the end of the season. Unless the debts were so high that they knew that wouldn’t scratch the surface, I mean after all we’re now hearing that the riders are owed SEVERAL meetings. In fact the more I think about it, I would have several questions of the Eastbourne management team if they were prepared to answer; - Why was the break even figure set at such a high attendance coming out of lockdown, what outgoings were so high, overpaying riders, staff or unaffordable rent? - Why were fans not informed sooner that there were problems, speedway fans are a big community and don’t like to see any track close. It could have led to donations, offers of support and larger attendances? - Why did they enter and then continue with a National league side, as sad as it would have been to see them pull out, it may have been a sacrifice worth making to save one of the teams. - Why were the 2 owners/directors not licensed promoters and therefore having to employ 2 promoters. I could be wrong but does this somehow imply that the BSPL already had concerns and didn’t want to give them a promoters license? - They state that the company will continue to trade for 5-6 weeks and pay off everything they owe, does that include all outstanding rent and riders pay? - Why did they start a crowdfunding page for an air fence for next season knowing that they had financial problems and therefore were unlikely to even get to next season? Surely would have been more valuable to ask for funding to get through the problems first? 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
enotian 562 Posted August 26, 2021 1 minute ago, Marky_Mark said: Yes I’m surprised there wasn’t a call to arms, for example a crowdfunding type page set up for donations to try and get the team to the end of the season. Unless the debts were so high that they knew that wouldn’t scratch the surface, I mean after all we’re now hearing that the riders are owed SEVERAL meetings. I'm wondering if Birmingham and Newcastle were given a bail out by the BSPL, Eastbourne asked but the pot was empty?? Or maybe because Eastbourne has a much more attractive 'asset' base than those two. Couldn't they just sell Tom Brennan to the mega rich to raise some cash.... ...or do they just now 'own' him by default. This won't be popular but I have to say weren't Eastbourne one of the teams that insisted on retaining their 2020 line up in 2021 even though there was no precedent or legal requirement to do so. When it was obvious that was going to mean there wasn;t going to be enough riders to make all of the teams competitive. A team they then appear to have been unable to afford. Madness. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites