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But surely Plymouth can't go on without Wallinger? They will have to close the club down.

For a sport that is reliant on averages... says it all about the 'sport' when the governing body can't even add up 7 figures correctly

Sssssshhh

Did you really say that Sarjeant could beat Wells? That is some leap of faith. He’s got to get past the tapes first.

Give it time

So . . a confession from Mr R that televised speedway DOES affect attendances trackside I’ve said this all along, and I still see no benefit to the sport in having league matches televised live in the UK It’s not as if it’s a great product to advertise to the wider public in the current format Much better would be a carefully edited weekly highlights package - just show the races, and sensible interviews post-meeting instead of the gap-filling chats as at present Put together a package that just might attract new spectators and ex-attendees to the tracks

This is what we are missing!!!

I really do hope that the BSPA see sense and do not allow Eurosport to get the British Speedway broadcast rights as it will be a budget production gone will be your UHD coverage with multiple camera angles they will look at doing a more remote production with around 4 cameras and commentary done from London to save costs. As much as it pains me to say it but BT sport have done a good job in broadcasting Speedway since taking over with new innovation and fresh sense of broadcasting

Top riders don't need to have ridden a track before.

THJ should be a solid signing, although I still feel we are 1 rider short. Wells is struggling at times which would be a big concern for me if I was Matt!

Meeting preview http://www.swindon-speedway.com/news.php?extend.3324 With Nick Morris guesting for Tobi, is this a test for Nick on the track for 2020 ?

oh ohh . scunny struggling for guests on a Friday . thought godders had sorted all that stuff out ..

A full list of all the team changes this season are available to view as I keep the SGB Premiership, Championship and National league pages upto date on Wikipedia. SGB Premiership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGB_Premiership_2019 SGB Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGB_Championship_2019 National League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_National_League_speedway_season

Musielak rides in Russia on Thursday in a FIM pairs event. We are entitled to use a guest so no big deal.

WRONG! Jonasson has scored 11 points in a GP, 9 points in a GP and 8 points in a GP twice. Berntzon's best GP tally is 7. Thorsell's is 4. GP averages: Jonasson 90 103 4.58 Berntzon 15 12 3.20 Thorsell 15 7 1.87

PROBABLY three times as many people watch British speedway on television than actually attend. TV is good for general awareness that speedway still exists and for sponsorship both with riders and tracks.

I blame forums like this as much as anything for team changes. There are loads of pages full of "we need to replace xxx".

Those who already go are probably best suited to introduce new fans. I was introduced by a current fan. I introduced my youngest brother when he was 11, giving him a blank programme and showing him how to fill it in before he even attended a match. As he has said a few times, if he didn't know what it was all about and didn't know the scoring, he'd probably have not returned. That is why live matches on TV might not be encouraging new fans. It is a great spectacle but after a while, even cake becomes boring. New fans have got to understand the scoring system. Forget the rules, as they would have new fans running to the hills.

Both the top 2 flights should have 2 young (ish) reserves who stay there for the season. The draft idea was a good one just poorly implemented. And if persevered with and tweaked into a more workable model, then British speedway would be 3 or 4 years further down the line of development.

It is a major FIM-Europe event, recent past winners include the mighty speedway nation of Italy! ( and most of Italy's points were scored by an Argentinian)

You would, yes, but whatever the Bates' says goes at the end of the day at Sheffield. I would just caution against singling Simon out.

Time to Grow up .

The ambition was evident when we started the season 3 points below the limit

Scored 11 on last visit, has Harris scored that at home this season? And I don't mean by adding all his scores together.

If Worrall is seeing his Consultant this week, he could be cleared to return for this. But even so, it could be worth getting his brother in for this one, nobody would notice the difference.

OR it could be that tracks racing on a Bank Holiday hope for bigger than usual crowds and don't want TV to affect that.

I'll be travelling to this. I have full belief in the Panthers to win this, and string a run of results together, to make the top 4.

Possibly. Swindon are the team to beat tho.

Interesting, when the multi platform sports broadcasters need to fill Summer airtime they turn to the live minority sports instead of utilising tertiary rights to fill the schedules. Eurosport Events who are bidding are backed by Discovery/Disney and as you are aware are not a secondary or tertiary rights outlet like UK Eurosport consequently I expect a big enough budget to retain the current production team although I agree 4K would be history. If I was in a position to influence this in any way I'd stick with BT who are steadily building their audience from a co-funded fragile start just like Sky and the BSPA did the difference is that BT are offering fees that are relative to what Speedway can deliver and not creating 9 or 10 shopkeepers who think they have won the lottery so that they can go out and blow it on the equivalent of Rickardsson, Gollob, Adams, Hancock, Crump, Wiltshire, Pedersen etc. £120,000 a club of Sky money bred complacency and avarice whereas £20,000 (est) of BT money now plugs a bit of a hole but nobody goes out and gets pizzed on it. Yes everybody you read that right, the BSPA and TR covered the broadcast costs in the early days for Sky and I don't believe either have ever had the credit for that.

Probably different everything, different shape, size, type of dirt, bikes would also be different with exhaust regs and stuff like that. It's the same as starting from scratch

Rob's number 1 fan gets his wires crossed again!

Not sure if he has as he rode for Edinburgh in 2008 when Ipswich were still in top league

ONLY 60,000. Is that bad? I basically only with BT for the speedway, it doesnt cost much for a BT TV box, and we watch "normal" tv programmes through freesat. When you say they had bigger audiences on SKY. Maybe, but SKY didnt want British speedway, fortunately BT picked it up. I not willing to pay £20 plus travelling (an hour each way) to my local team no matter how good the racing is there (BV). In fact, if only the GP's were on BT then I would still subscribe. The other benefit of me being with BT is I am one of the 7% in the UK who get fibre to the house. I went from 1.2mbps to 52mbps (and more if I wanted to pay for the speed).

Hopefully it’s not Practice for the play offs!!!

Sundstrom actually topped the averages for Coventry in 2013 & Peterborough in 2012 after a reasonable 2011 also in Panthers colours. 2011 Linus Sundstrom Peterborough 6.90 2012 Linus Sundstrom Peterborough 7.87 2013 Linus Sundstrom Coventry 7.22

I genuinely label speedway in the same bracket as wresting, or even when Popeye steps in to save Olive Oil from the hands of Bluto in the vintage cartoons. In wrestling, the guy who is being thrown about like a Bonfire Night Guy, but summons enough strength in the end to win the day. We know it's not real, genuine. Popeye's the same. He uses his available tin of spinach and comes come at the end. The good guy always wins. Speedway has gone the same. I'd say (usually) Poole have fathomed out the precise time to use the spinach, having gone much of the summer looking like that home-made Guy doll.

Yes it often gets things wrong

This is a very civilised and quiet thread so far, expected far more childish bickering

Championship level clubs might actually start showing an interest in the NL and development leagues below. Leicester have been tracking and helping the Thompson Twins for years, Jordan Palin signed for Scunthorpe already. Those in the know are looking forward and can see these changes coming. Might even see some Championship level sides hosting development league teams or linking up with NL sides so that an actual progression chain can be established.

On my predictions done in December Once all teams were known properly and when Peterboroughs were dismantled i said Swindon would win it earlier this year and got told mainly by Poole fans i was foolish People who think with their heads and not emotion We have outperformed expectations this season

Peter Ljung also had a season in the GPs. And if you exclude AJ, Freddie and Tonio he has been the top Swede in the Elitserien four times in the last five years. [Sundstrom was the best in 2017.] BUT at 36 he is older than Lindback and Lindgren! In both 2018 and 2019 Oliver Berntzon (age 26) has been the top averaged Swede under 30 in the Elitserien.

Gavan getting wound up about Poole surely not!

Can’t imagine the rest of the side would be happy with a new signing coming in on better terms than they’re on. Pure speculation, no basis in facts. Move on....

Think we should adopt Polish style for British youngsters.

Danny King has the second highest average in the league behind Cookie, but yet you want an out and out number 1? He’s on over 9?

Interesting that I am only doing what Swindon fans do on Poole threads during a course of a season back ( + winter) and you don't like it. 1. HS doesn't like it if i ask Batch and JD if they lost at Poole. 2. None of you like it if I ask if Vissing is your weakest rider? Simple enough question really. Every team has a weakest rider. I bet you're pretty quick to say who's Poole's is.

I'm genuinely starting to think that Starman has a female alias on here with some of the crap I've seen posted over the last few weeks. I know the school holidays send parents over the edge but this is clearly an extreme case.

Me and you same...I've being saying it for years. Who is the target audience? Those who already go or to attract new fans or indeed new sponsors?

I Expect he will join Boro ..they pay peanuts

Saga Magazine this month(shows my age ) full page Speedway article(GP and domestic) "armchair sport! by John Aizlewood(award winning writer). Decent article, he obviously did some research about the history of the sport. couple of quotes With BT Sport`s coverage seducing a new audience, it`s ticking over very nicely , thank you. Dirty ? yes smelly ? yes loud ? yes. And rather wonderful ? oh, yes