But if you have a stronger #1 you can't retain the strength in depth, that's the nature of team building under a points limit.

everyone's got to cut their cloth accordingly, to survive today, but speedway isn't.

Well I would think they would have to include the matches as the SCB rules state that the league and BSN series matches count towards the match averages.

Again spot on Ben when I went in the mid 80's to early 90's every team brought a superstar some like Cradley a team packed with stars and as you said you got to see the Gundersons & Nielson's once or twice a year unlike now where its 3-4 sometimes 5 times with play off's. As a lot of people have also commentated play off's are money spinners but equally mean some will pick and choose meetings more, that plus way more to do leisure wise these days than mid 80's and cost of living hasn't helped, I work in finance and estimate prices since 2020 and a minimum 25% higher over five years.

BZ Mauger  P Karlsson

The big stars can bring crowds in, but I’d suggest the repetition somewhat knocks that on the head. If Emil Sayfutdinov (for example) was coming to my track once a season and I absolutely had to be there on that night to see him I’d get it. But last season he went to some away tracks three, maybe four times. It’s not so much of a novelty when the big name is back in town again in a few weeks.  This is one of the benefits of a larger league, you don’t race the same teams two to three times at home a season.  The damage is done and probably too hard to rectify in the short term but seeing the same old faces week in, week out in both divisions is a contributing (one of many) factor to the decline of the sport on the whole.