You can even play footy with the Scunny riders if you want...the above post sounds to me like someone years ago wanted to get involved but got told to F.....Off. i like the idea of a track walk, especially if someone explained what riders are looking for..its about understanding, how tracks change,which lines riders like, how much prep has gone into it, By talking to the riders you get to know whos approachable or who to avoid,anyway the riders arent working on their bikes its the mechanics..after 7pm they go and get changed then the bikes warm up 

It was still night and day compared to what we all get now!

Exactly. They just want to do their job and get out of there. And lets look at it from their point of view, If you were doing some work to your car would you want a bunch of wulfsport jacket wearing mongs standing around you staring at something most know f*** all about? I remember some promotions brought in the interactive track walk where they could follow the riders around. Why? I'd say most don't really care or know about what the riders are looking for but hey ho! Nigel and Janet get to feel important because they walked the track with the riders. 

Totally agree. From an Ipswich perspective, Ipswich is a sporting Town, and it’s always been a Speedway Town. The people of Ipswich know their speedway and are knowledgeable about the sport in good numbers. They know who the world class riders are and who isn’t.    Of course there’ll be plenty of others who have no idea about Speedway there’s no denying that, but they won’t attend anyway so they’re not the target audience. There are so many who know everything about the sport, have been for years, but are now 50/50 on whether they can be bothered to go anymore or not (I’d put myself in that category). They're the ones they have to first and foremost entice back on a regular basis. That’s the start. Give them the incentive and a reason to go from 50/50, to “I’m 💯 going to be there Thursday/Monday”. That begins with having a team worth paying to watch, a world class rider or two that undoubtedly gets more through the turnstiles. More top class riders will increase the chances of TV companies becoming interested again as Richard Coleman points out. Getting a couple more clubs involved to increase variety and fixtures will also help. With all due respect to the Championship, there’s a reason that hasn’t been shown other than streams. Get those people back regularly and then they can work on a strategy to get newcomers to start attending also. I’ve been to a couple of Poole meetings the last couple of season’s and although they still get good crowds (again by Championship standards), they get nowhere near the level they did when they were in the top flight and had peak Holder and Ward amongst others. Any Poole fan that comes on here and say they do, are lying pure and simple.

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.