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Ipswich is certainly more of a community club. They get decent coverage on both local radio stations, Louis or Hawkins are normally on there at least once a week, also BBC Suffolk usually have a recap on the speedway during half time on their live ITFC match commentary. Louis has also done well in not only keeping the locally based sponsors but attracting new ones this season. I think it also helps that Louis is local so understands the town & the Louis name is still well known. As a local lad Ipswich legend & his main income the guy is passionate eats & breaths speedway. Above all he is very approachable. If only we had more like him.

no, we go to watch belle vue win first you clown, i wish you would shut the hell up sometimes

Various reasons... The SGP cost many Aces fans a fortune, (about five Aces matches worth if you went both nights)..., You also have the two major football teams, but also have many satellite towns who have their own pro teams who can deliver five figure crowds... The non league scene, below the Conference, is also very well attended with my lad playing in front of four figure crowds regularly at around twelve quid a pop... Rugby League is also a factor, as, once again, many satellite towns have their own team, with the likes of Wigan having 20k... Sale Sharks deliver decent crowds too, in RU... IManchester Storm Ice Hockey get a couple of thousand and Manchester Basketball and Netball get decent numbers... Add in Lancashire Cricket, with T20 and The Hundred generatng five figure crowds, (during the Summer holidays, with loads of families in place), and you can see that there won't be much left for Speedway from a family's disposable income... Admission costs arei mentioned on the socials by many... If you already attend a "bona fide" pro sport then your money wont stretch too much further, (especially for a sport that has such credibility issues), and also the socials will state that many meetings are "meaningless" given the Aces recent history in reaching the Play Offs.. The City's demographic is also completely opposite to the traditional white, middle aged, male and female follower of the sport... 35000 students live in Manchester from all over the UK and World, and the ethnic diversity numbers in the City are huge... With both sectors having zero interest in watching something your Dad and Grandad go to, or your white middle aged colleagues from work attend... But will pay big bucks to watch some world famous bands and singers, with two venues able to handle over 20,000... And then you can obviously add that hardly anyone below 40 in Manchester has heard of the "World Famous Belle Vue Aces", let alone what they do... 2.75M live within 45 mins of the NSS which does suggest a rather poor marketing campaign doesn't it? Taking all the above challenges into the mix, a decent marketing company would still surely jump at the chance to get 2500 of that 2.75M there each week? The reach must be enormous if done properly, and this is still but a tiny, tiny portion of the local populace..

Did the administrators take the 'nd' off the end of your forum name? As you just seem to only have 2 answers "best track" and "won the league" in every discussion and you think other people are going to look silly. Perhaps a little quiet personal reflection time might help you!

I'm no Belle Vue fan but, to be fair, nobody brings it up more than you! And a pretty poor choice of video to highlight passing last night. Weird how the argument has developed, we've even had some fans suggesting there's too much passing at Belle Vue lol

As a lifelong Birmingham supporter, I wish Swindon folk every possible success in their efforts to revive the Robins. I have just been shown a copy of the leaflet beind distributed by the "opposition" and fully agree that it contains a great deal of inaccuracies especially the noise levels ("Can be heard from 10 miles away" "As loud as an aeroplane" etc) which are patently untrue, and which will need to be challenged. I'd suggest forming a group to formulate an alternative leaflet which could contain all the true facts - noise testing will disprove the "excessive noise" claim. Speedway bikes do not use petrol or diesel - they use methanol which is non- polutive, non- toxic and emits no smell. Speedway matches would be limited to once a week starting at 7.30pm and continuing until 10pm with 15 one-minute races of o ly four riders. etc. etc. etc. It will be a mistake to try to belittle what the Nimby's are claiming. We have to remember that the vast majority of the people living within the vicinity of the site will know little or nothing about speedway and will find it difficult to distinguish fact from deliberate fiction. so the more information that they can be provided with. the better the prospect of getting a planning consent. I was heavilly involved with the battle to obtain a planning consent at Birmingham in 2007, and know from experience that the hard core opponents will never see reason, but on the other hand, the majority will tend to be reasonable if they are civilly approached. The very best of luck to you. T

Catalan, Same Start Marshal maybe sporting a new diguise. There I've edited for you.

Already taken 😂

I think when you consider he knows a lot of the Grand Prix riders and tracks a lot he can see the good and bad of speedway and what not to do, he used to ride in Poland so understands their model, and he also runs the club very well… I haven’t really heard of many if any riders moaning about the club and how it’s run, it’s much the other way round and people really want to ride for the club and to be chosen. I think the fact the crowd is always good and probably the best attended in Britain it brings riders too. Ipswich has always been a town passionate for football and speedway and backs them very good… like Louis said, when the football team prospers so does the speedway.

Surely the 'world famous BV aces' aren't a secret!

Anyone know what the tides are due to be like in Plymouth tomorrow night? Hopefully have plenty of straw to burn if it's high!

Vuolas has been a major disappointment this season IMO.Tate very hit or miss not a lot of progress.

Zmarzlik should go for that.

Zmarzlik should go for that

Passes on Bends 1 or 2 on lap 1 for me are FTG, not passes. Anything after Bend 2 can be classed as a pass. That said there can be still some great races that are FTG.

there are three things you can guarantee you will see when Gavan has posted, either the Belle Vue track, how under appreciated Danny King is, or it will be a reply to Shovlar who he follows around like a puppy.

And the huge shift, since fhe 70's, in the demographics of those who live in the cities..

No they don't thanks very much

Perversely, it may be because they are the two biggest cities that they won't have a team between them - land values are so high and suitable sites so rare that to get a new location is very difficult, even if the demand is there

GP, deffo affected the crowd this year. most speedway fans dont have a pot to piss in so when it comes to paying £150 at start of season alot would have had to give up league racing, cowds have improved after the GP. Was a fairly big crowd last night which was good to see, but it wasnt 3k, no chance, more 2k, maybe slightly more Belle vues last 2 meetings have drawn in big crowds and one of them was a TV meeting suprisingly

Your lack of comprehension and failure to grasp context is hilariously sad.

To earn more money?

This is sadly true, each to their own as they say but having attended many sports ovet the years, Cricket, Ice Hockey, Rugby both codes, Football, Athletics, Basketball , Horse racing - i can honestly say speedway is still my favourite - the thrill of a great speedway race beats all of them!

To be honest I don’t go to watch rider mistakes either, can you tell Tate not to ride straight into our air fence next time on his own accord.

Should be punished with promotion to the Premiership 😉

Is Jacob an Edinburgh asset? Thought he looked brilliant tonight tbh and i'd happily take him back if that's the sort of performances he would turn in. Always felt he was a little unlucky to miss out on team spots over the past few seasons.

Not my mistake- you obviously didn’t read my post fully- BSN isn’t TNT TV !! I will accept an apology for smearing my good name lol

Box office

Jesus that was a ruthless 2 laps from zmarzlik

Absolutely NOBODY has said that.

Better result than I expected, Aces will finish 4th, lets see what the playoffs bring, but as Phil the Ace says, Brady could be 1 meeting away from being World Champion, and i don't care who you are, you are going to ride to protect that.

Does that really constitute a pass?

That can be for a number of reasons. H&S might do spot-checks, but it could be the rental is based on attendance levels

FTG is no longer a derogatory term as many fans have expressed their liking for this kind of heat and find the passing at some tracks boring. There is no need to defend FTG anymore, nevertheless this defence goes on with some examples being plain daft. If you can’t fathom the intricacies of the first few seconds of a heat and the impact a riders start position has then you need to rewatch some televised meetings. The commentators discuss at length the options open to a rider over the first part of a heat or more importantly options not available. Any passing up to the exit of B3 L1 is almost exclusively influenced by the start position and this is why I call a heat at that point then compare the order come the checkered flag. This is by no means an insult but yesterday only heat 3 & 15 saw a change in order after B3.

Im with you i go to football etc but speedway has always been my favourite sport. Belle Vue lost a lot of fans with the closure of Hyde Road, a lot of fans didnt take to the dog track and just drifted away. The amount of people i speak to who say i used to go the speedway at Hyde Road and who didnt even know about the NSS is unreal. Also we didnt just lose a speedway stadium when the Belle Vue complex closed there was the fun fair, zoo, kings hall where all the top bands played, the ballroom, beer keller, the suites etc, i think thats where the sport lost a lot of fans.

The whole sport is a secret Lisa.

Honestly we couldn’t care less ! Bet we are one of the most progressive speedway clubs this year.

Who'd blame him have you actually been to the Plymouth polo mint track ?? 😅

Just think there is far more alternatives tbh, United, City plus lower and non league clubs, cricket, rugby league/union, ice hockey, loads of top gigs, etc etc, theatre shows among all that speedway is a well kept secret.

barking at the moon that one!

We saw proper racing tonight … even Mulford made passes Emil passed your top two easily … Ellis then did the same to Bewley ….. must be so difficult when you haven’t got a huge fast track to stick your rocket ship out in the dirt and play catch me if you can my bike is faster than your bike Fact is your team is made up of one track ponies who haven’t got the skill to adapt ….. Kings Lynn ride Foxhall better than your lot lol

I genuinely believe Ipswich is more of a community and the surrounding area backs its team, same with football ATM. Manchester is just another overloaded city with probably more to do but also not as dedicated to its local club, obviously some die hards but I mean when you look at population Manchester should be able to draw massive crowds. This isn’t a dig at anyone from Manchester by the way! I’m sure you’ll come back with “because you have nothing to do apart from farm” 😂😂😂

From what I’ve seen at belle vue this season if the crowd at Ipswich is correct then Ipswich get more for one match than belle vue do for 2

That can’t be real ….. the current world number 2 being overtaken by Emil and then the current world number 4 also being overtaken But your honour I was told Ipswich was a track you couldn’t pass on especially riders as good as Kurtz and Bewley I think you should take this video off because how can the Belle Vue fans stick to their agenda that every meeting should be at the NSS There has even been a Sheffield fan complaining lol .. a track that has one line that even the home team don’t like lol

Great meeting & a great result enjoyed by a large crowd. What more do we want. The move to number 2 seems to be paying dividends for Ellis but has he also had a change of equipment? The form of the reserves is a little concerning at the moment but overall we can’t complain.

Given I was there I can tell you that the updates got heat 9 wrong - it said FTG - the reality was Brennan clamped Bewley on the inside on 1st / 2nd bend whilst King roared round the outside for the 5-1 - great riding and the crowd sure liked it 😉

Also tough on the fans travelling to support the comets 😛

Without credibility, no business can hope to prosper... Or maybe even just survive... UK Speedway is a classic example where that lack of credibility has slowly, but surely, eroded the fan base... The Poole v Oxford was a semi final of one of fhe few competitions ran, and was planned in knowing one rider wasn't available as he rides elsewhere on a Wednesday... It's telling that the sponsors of the comp, like so many other sponsors of the sport, are "in the Speedway bubble", as "outside money" would be more than a bit cheesed off with the lack of respect shown to it, and them, by such decisions.. As I said previously the Mickey Mouse guest system allows such things to happen as it can even deliver an advantage.. The sport needs to take a long look in the mirror, and deliver an operation where it stands on its own two feet, with riders giving equal commitment to it or face a lengthy ban.. They coped without Nick Morris for two years, so I am sure those three mentioned, and others, won't be indispensable... Especially if they match team numbers to availability commitments... In short, they set the sport up so supply exceeds demand... Whether they have the will, or the capability, is another matter...

And with Birmingham closing, an invaluable section of speedway racing will disappear: reducing the ability for new British riders to progress!