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While that might be true that doubling up is keeping the sport running it does nothing to make it credible. without credibility it won’t grow and the media certainly isn’t interested in it’s current guise. try going into your local pub and explaining how doubling up and guests work in our sport. It’s embarrassing

While these 2 and their fake tv programs should not be ignored they appeal to the old generation and they are not the future of speedway, we need to be looking to influencers, now don’t get me wrong imo they are useless twats but for some reason they appeal to the yoof and that’s where we need to be looking

Now you know that's not true Daniel 🤔

Depends what levels you set the leagues and how many riders in a team I guess. doubling up is killing the sport in this country. We have to either limit it to uk residents first and then get rid or the whole system in say 5 years time. for the sport to grow it has to have credibility.

Instead of doubling up and down why not double the fixtures instead like we used to have. a meaningful league with promotion and relegation settled via play offs while the team who tops the league are crowned champions would mean every meeting meaningful.

The impression I get is that, at the club I've had conversations with at least, there just isn't anyone who has the capacity, contacts and experience to set that kind of thing up. I know that certain major cities have police initiatives focused on bike crime, not all of those have speedway but Manchester is one. I imagine that when it comes round to noise complaints or fending off developers, being the in council's good books would come in handy. As you say as much as anything that kind of project is about building good relations with the local community and local government, rather than directly attracting fans or even riders (although it might do those things too!). This is obviously massively important for speedway, because fundamentally, the thing that separates British and Polish speedway, and the thing that has secured Belle Vue ther stadium, is local government support. But I can imagine how these kind of long-term, diagonal strategies might seem like luxuries if you're flat-out fighting crisis on all fronts. One angle that has only just occurred to me, and could well be a good seller in the current educational contexts, is that I've got a little hunch that both in terms of spectators and participants, speedway might be a sport that favours neurodiverse people. The connection to ADHD is obvious: massively intense, massively sensory, short bursts of violent action; impossible to ignore; regular hits. I think there are connections to some points on the autism spectrum too. All the numbers, the averages, then the physics, the immersion again. As a spectator it's a very attention grabbing all-senses experience (apart from the food). I would imagine it's exactly the kind of job for someone who needs to be in-the-moment. Speaking as someone who has these conditions. So... this line of argument could be used in schools and universities to students. That is a growing proportion of students (up to around a quarter in some universities) who might respond very well to a welcoming community that invites them in, especially if they've got a mega-exciting entertainment at the centre of it. But again developing these kinds of projects and arguments requires a certain kind of mindset and experience which, if you haven't worked in those kinds of areas, you might not have. Which I imagine is the main reason they haven't happened. Certainly to actually get funding you need to be able to speak their language. From the perspective of speedway it would be about: how can we solve a problem for someone else? That's basically how you lever them into being willing to solve yours. Once you get started down that path there's all kinds of places you can take it though. Arts council? Performing rights society foundation?

The chosen level doesn’t really matter as there are insufficient numbers available of any section of rider ability to offer equality across the current number of teams. Doubling up isn’t actually killing the sport, after all it’s keeping clubs alive due to the sharing of riders. It is however removing any real opportunity for growth because as you say the sport needs credibility and doubling up acts against that concept. For speedway to grow in the UK, what’s needed first of all is some pruning to give eight full time professional clubs with the remainder running on a (lower cost)semi-pro basis. Unfortunately there’s too much self interest involved by promoters to make this an immediate possibility hence unfortunately the demise will in all probability continue.

In a word, no! 99% of the population would not know the name of or recognise any speedway rider if they stood at a bus stop. This is why I have previously said that if British speedway were brave enough organise an affordable sport structure without trying to retain certain riders as a top priority, the current so called stars will not be missed in a few years time. Being blunt, get rid of doubling up. If riders can’t afford to stay in the sport, go part time or quit. Targeted new followers of the sport (which are vital) will not give a damn, so long as racing is competitive and their own new hero’s will emerge. Common business strategy I would have thought.

Round 2 result 1st Svensson 20 2nd Bauer 18 3rd Haarahitunen 16 4th Koivula 14 5th Niedermaier 12 6th Zorn 11 Cumulative after 2 rounds ( final round to come) 1st Haarahitunen 36 2nd Svensson 34 3rd Koivula 32 4th Bauer 30 5th Niedermaier 23 6th Huusko 22

Who runs this forum these days ? Maybe there should be a Nora section so people could keep up to date with what’s on !!

Redcar council own the whole site , Speedway, Moto X , the Go Kart track, its the ‘ South Tees Motorsports Complex ’, the car park is a shared space between them all and is supposed to be maintained by the council. The last time it had any work done on it was in 2018 when I asked them for their insurance details as a fan had fallen over in the car park due to its treacherous condition . The whole area was regraded the following week !

That is 100% true, his “proper” suit is going to be used by the mascot. Technically it was Ryan giving the wrong measurements to the manufacturer so they did nothing wrong whatsoever.

Totally agree with you regarding Henry. He gets bikes on the telly and has introduced the genius that is Allan Millyard to a new audience. Without him, there'd be no bike programmes on TV, simple as that. Numpty? Nope.

I see it stated often that "doubling up is killing Uk speedway". But whilst the 3-tier league stucture is in place (like it or not), what other workable alternatives are there? Ive not come across any except reductionalist ones, or magically producing a new crop of riders. How is it killing Uk speedway, when it looks more like it's keeping it breathing? And if this life-support is to be removed, like any dependency it can only be done by longer term planning and sticking to the plan.

Leaderboard after round 1 1st Haarahitunen 20 2nd Koivula 18 3rd Huusko 16 4th Svensson 14 5th Bauer 12 6th Niedermaier 11

Maybe by the 25th April the daylight could be enough to have a 6 o clock start time, to avoid a clash, I'm sure the reds will have a bumper crowd for a possible last match at the original borough park.

100%... And the vast majority of 80 million people have never heard of the sport, never mind any rider... What an opportunity for a reset... 5 rider teams, and play with the heat system so the disparate levels of ability, from one to five, race more against each other of the sane level.. Or six rider teams with both reserves very much "junior level"... Drop the level, drop the price... If a track does a "special" the crowds rise significantly, with those extra people being fans who no longer rgularly attend, but come back for one night only, thus suggesting twenty five quid per visit isn't seen as worth paying... But (insert price here), is....... Reduce costs, and invest the money in price reduction.. And start UK Speedway again, from scratch... But don't do the same thing you do now because it clearly isn't fit for purpose....

It may be the case at this time and the situation will only get worse until those riders starting out and those still learning their craft are given more track time. To continue to deny those on the bottom rung of the ladder the opportunity means the sport will end up with the self fulfilling prophecy of of end of UK speedway as it was once known unless the intention is to get the overseas nations to train these riders and bring them to the UK to fill team places at higher costs and result being you maintain the status quo of not enough British riders coming through the ranks. Something has to give and people need to look elsewhere if the ambition is to watch world class riders week in week out, UK speedway cannot afford to entertain these guys or continue to use doubling up as a long term option.

Not sure the size of track makes for good racing,, it's the room on entry and exits of the corners that make for good or bad racing.

With regards your reference to Linlithgow, this is what Next Generation Heathens are attempting to do with Cradley Heathens, however whilst the local farmer has agreed to them having a field, the relevant local authority are proving to be rather more difficult with regards to giving the PP, I would think the chances of them progressing have very little chance of succeeding, Councils simply do not want Speedway.

We are dealing with 3 separate councils over many sites and so far no they are not despite what they say in public, I can’t say too much in public but some of the stuff from the councils sometimes borders on a Monty python sketch.