They certainly are a crowd puller, but only within the context of the meeting meaning something... And only within those who already know who they are... If BZ suddenly turned up for Northampton then their crowds would double and every away meeting would have their best crowd by miles... As it would be a huge noveoty so "lapsed fans" would attend, (the very large amount that exist).. The challenge would be maintaining that level of crowd over the next few years... The Aces had two of the top three riders last season, but crowds were not good compared to even five years ago with no World Class top three riders. As I said previously, when this country had all the best riders over here, crowds dropped, which suggests it is either that their presence is over emphasised, or it is the  events themselves that don't engage enough fans to regularly attend..

I don’t know where you’re really going with this Mike. Fans just won’t watch any old speedway simply because it’s still “The Witches” and I think you know that full well. The more attractive the line up, the bigger support you will get. That’s just common sense and backed up by general crowd levels you see the lower you go down the pyramid. Ipswich had decent crowds when they dropped a tier, but that’s by really poor Championship standards. They increased when they moved back up, and they increased again handsomely when the world class top two arrived and stayed consistently healthy during the duration that they were here. Thats completely natural and understandable. You’ve been beating this drum about the top riders not making a huge difference for years now on here, but I think you’re severely underplaying the difference they actually make.

But crowds were dropping annually when Sky showed the sport and pretty much every World Class rider rode over here... There were plenty of inflation busting price increases though at this time, so maybe that was the reason for the drop off, rather than the riders who were there?.... (Or not there as the case often increasingly became, due to "other commitments elsewhere"....)

Doubt it, Workington have one heat leader, three second strings and three reserves.

Can I have a try.

Never a truer word spoken. We can only hope things may finally be about to change but it’s definitely a “don’t hold your breath” scenario.