Halifaxtiger

I have referred to my view on this before and apologise for repeating it again. The thing is having a budget team can, in the end, result in a worse financial position than spending too much. Many speedway fans are horrendously fickle and want to see the team win, especially at home. If you start with a budget team, fans will see it and think hard about coming. If you hit the ground running with that team, you'll be OK. If not, the floating supporter won't come and you will lose some that gave the club the chance in the first place. You then have a most difficult job to get them back. The best example is Sheffield 2011/12. In 2011, the Tigers finished second in the PL with a heat leader trio of Parker, Auty & Ashworth but lost money. To try to remedy that, for 2012 they started with Franc, Hall & Wells as heat leaders. They ended up second bottom and losses at least doubled. A budget team doesn't necessarily mean survival. On the contrary, it can mean financial disaster. I very much respect your optimism here. The reality of the situation, however, is made for me by Brummie Kev's honest post above and given that he has stated his continuing loyalty despite being critical it would be most foolish to ignore him.

Not surprised. He hit the bikes rather than the fence.

Horrible for Doyle. Hit the bikes rather than the fence

Perhaps the question is whether you can afford not to get a No 1 (and indeed a no 2). I did say back in February that putting out a team that costs less than others can actually end up costing a lot more. People aren't fooled by a weak team and unless initial results are good (or at least acceptable) they not only won't come they will leave in droves. Sadly, it seems that is happening. I have some sympathy for David Mason, Laurence Rogers and everyone else at Birmingham but I did predict this possibility some months ago. You simply have to get the balance of the team right and, to me, it wasn't clear they had done that. The worst bit is that this has happened at the start of the season. Even if Birmingham can get some heavy artillery in, getting fans back who have walked away is difficult and definitely not guaranteed. That could leave them with increased costs and no change in income. Eastbourne are a decent side but I suspect most believed they would be nigh on unbeatable at home but indifferent away. They were certainly unimpressive at Somerset. Workington's success wasn't substantially due to their track (although they certainly prepared it for their riders late on in the season). The likes of Ostergaard, Newman, Thomsen, Morris and Wajtknecht simply don't compare with Proctor, Klindt, Bach, Bewley & Jensen and the Comets had a 6 point reserve (Campton) to start the year.

Me too - all being well, against Kent on 12 May. I'll see how much they have improved - that is a 3pm start.

I'd heard one or stories about the losses Somerset were making in the top flight so I wasn't surprised when they went into the Championship. In truth, I can't blame Debbie Hancock for that. Having said that, its all about how it is put over to regular fans. If it is a case of arrogance and hostility, then I wouldn't blame anyone from walking away. For years fans have been taken for granted, and its one of the main reasons why speedway is struggling. Any paying customer should be treated as precisely that and while you can't always meet their expectations, you can have a good shot at it. What I will say is with people like Barry Bishop and Adrian Smith getting involved, the attitude is changing. Plan is for me to go to Stoke on Sunday week, a track I haven't been to for several years. The reason I didn't go is no longer there, so I'll give them another try.

As I said, no-one should have a problem with a one - off. Problem is Sunday wasn't a one off where Sheffield's track is concerned this season. As to that final comment, that really is scraping the barrel. Two things. Sheffield can be a fine race track.....and I would be hugely pleased if it got back to that (and I might attend a bit more, too - if I don't get barred, that is).

You maybe right. However, the point remains : the get what you are given and be grateful, if you don't like it, don't come attitude remains a reason why speedway is on its knees.

Posts like this make me Basically, get what you're given, pay up and be grateful for it. People who attend speedway pay for the privilege, so they have every right to complain if things aren't up to reasonable scratch . Lets face it, we would about anything else. As to putting the club for sale, that's a bit like a butcher being forced to sell up and pinning the blame totally on customers for refusing to buy his rotten meat. One other thing : all those being critical on this thread should beware. SKJ and I know only too well what can happen to a fan who complains about the state of Sheffield's track.

I think most people accept that things can go wrong occasionally. Lights blow, tapes don't work, ambulance doesn't turn up, a good track is suddenly rubbish. We are, however, talking about once or twice a season. Sunday was Sheffield's 5th home meeting. Damian Bates commented in the Redcar programme that the racing 'wasn't what we wanted'. You can probably tell what it was like from that. Reading the threads on here, Scunthorpe was decent and Redcar nondescript. Leicester & Top Gun simply attracted angry and disillusioned comments. Once or twice a season, not 4 meetings out of 5. Sheffield can be a fine race track. They need to get this sorted, and soon.

Me too - I'd buy a season ticket. As it is, I'll do all the bank holiday meetings......and the Thursdays. Later in the week and with just one working day to go (for many) that night for me is far more preferable and it will be interesting to see how it affects attendances.

Adrian Smith said at the pre season fans meeting that in school holidays gates were bigger on Mondays than Fridays. Surprised me, but he did. That can be the only reason why a lot of the Colts meetings are now on Monday nights. Its not always the case, then, that weakening the product damages attendances.

12pm start admittedly, but Andy Meredith told me he started at the NSS at 6am on Bank Holiday Monday.

Belle Vue had two meetings over Easter, both 12pm starts. It was hot and breezy on both days yet with the exception of one race on Monday there was very little dust. Same at Scunthorpe on Good Friday. If they can do it, so can Sheffield.

Never been personally abusive on this forum and never will be. Criticising - sometimes strongly - someone else's opinion, however, is something that I do on occasion. Every single speedway fan that attends a meeting will check the forecast before they leave their home and what it says will often determine whether they go or not. We see that on countless occasions on threads throughout the BSF. No-one would deny that forecasts can be contradictory, changeable, inaccurate and even bizarre. But to suggest that they should be treated as irrelevant or ignored in a sport that depends so much on weather conditions and to run meetings regardless of what they say when a postponement at the track is financially ruinous is ridiculous.

Undoubtedly one of the most stupid comments I have ever seen on this forum. Ignoring weather forecasts means that you go ahead no matter what - even if it is almost certainly the case that the meeting will be postponed or abandoned, costing the staging club thousands. One NL promoter told me he lost £4,000 when unpredicted rain washed out a meeting with riders at the track. He went on to say that another would endanger its very existence. Clubs simply have to have regard of forecasts, no matter how contradictory or subsequently inaccurate they might be.

Does anyone know what the start time is for the Sunday meeting against Kent ?

Looking at the forecasts for Scunthorpe last night at 4pm, Met Office said heavy rain at 6 followed by heavy showers at 7. XC said white cloud with no rain for those times. Met Office changed their forecast to white cloud at 6pm. As it happened, there were a couple of sharp showers between 6 & 6.30, but no rain after that. What this illustrates is that any promoter is making a decision on the basis of weather forecasts from different sites that are entirely contradictory and, in the end, were both somewhat incorrect.

Good description. I thought the referee's control was poor and I think Rob Godfrey did too. The racing at Scunny hasn't been quite up to the usual consistently high standard this season and that maybe due to the absence of track grading. I have said before and will say again that Rob can't do the mic and the track and he needs to get someone in to do one or the other.

What did them in the end was injury, not Eastbourne. The loss of Ayres, in particular, was a disastrous blow from which they never recovered. I think with a 50 point limit Mildenhall wouldn't have built a team like that again. It was just superb and viciously cruel the way it was cut apart by the loss of riders. It must be said that those RR choices on Thursday night were bizarre. It would, however, be harsh to write off Wallinger's season on the basis of one poor meeting.

I once went to Stoke (many years ago) and on a freezing cold night March night there was a chap next to me in a T shirt drinking pint after pint of cold lager. He must have been on drugs Stoke have been (usually justifiably) battered for the poor standard of speedway at the track for years. If they are improving, it is right that they get the credit for that.

Its very easy to be wise in hindsight. A rain off with riders at the track costs thousands and no promoter can afford that. As such, they simply have to trust weather forecasts and we all know how unreliable they can be. There are a few occasions when the weather is used as an excuse to call off a meeting, but most of the time no club should be blamed for postponing a meeting on the strength of a forecast that turns out to be wrong.

'Plenty of dust' is what they had at Poole on Friday and Sheffield on Sunday. It means that spectators clothes were covered and viewing was obscured. With the possible exception of heat 15, that simply wasn't the case at Belle Vue on Monday where it was minimal at worst. It is certainly indicative that there is not one single post on here, the Belle Vue facebook page or anywhere else complaining about it. As a hardened speedway fan, I think meetings should be finished in two hours. Had this been a midweek match on a freezing night with work the following day I would have been the first to complain, but it wasn't. The thing is the time taken to run a meeting is only relevant to the sport if it deters any paying customer from attending again. Given the overall package offered by the Aces on Monday - the quality of the racing, the superb presentation, pricing etc - coupled with the excellent weather, I don't think one single person would have been put off. In fact, I'd say quite the opposite. Taking also into account the excellent Colts meeting on Friday, I'd say Belle Vue are getting close to Isle of Wight standards for customer focus and that's a massive step in the right direction. All this compares sharply with the comments on facebook about Sheffield on Sunday (a meeting that took 45 minutes less) and the anger displayed on the 3rd/4th bends where I was standing. The dreadful standard of that meeting plus the appalling state of the track will be a disaster for them where future attendances are concerned.

Scunthorpe didn't have rider replacement, an interval, a heat 14 vote or an argument over riders. Had that been the case, they would have been well over 2 hours and had a dust bowl, and as Bewitcher has accurately stated delay is often substantially down to the referee. The racing did improve later on at Sheffield(if you could see it) but that hasn't cut much ice with those who have stated they will not go again due to the state of both the track and their clothes. I doubt that anyone who went yesterday and saw an excellent meeting with no dust will have the same thoughts.

I'd certainly usually be of the opinion that two hours is the maximum time for a meeting. Yesterday, though, given superb weather, good company, a cracking meeting and absolutely no reason to get home promptly it didn't seem to matter much. Better than a freezing cold midweek meeting when you have to get up for work the next day. Having said that, the delay at heat 15 - which caused much of the damage - was apparently due to a squabble over the line up. Given that Belle Vue's place in the PSC final was assured by then, it should never had happened because it made no difference who was riding. There was a lot more watering than normal. Andy Meredith told me that he intended to water after every two heats (he did the same at the Colts meeting on Friday) and after heat 4 did just that. If he hadn't, we would have had a dustbowl and it was only because he was unaware of the daft heat 15 delay that we got the dust in that race. Better a few minutes more on the clock than being covered in crap and unable to see the racing (that's precisely what happened at Sheffield the day before and they have been savagely criticised for it). To give Belle Vue credit, Neil Drummond did announce why there was a delay and Chase the Ace was thrown into the breach to keep the crowd entertained. At many places, neither the announcement nor the floor show would have happened.