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The future of the EL & the PL go hand in hand & so in turn does the future of league racing in the UK. Yes the EL is broken but so is the sport as a whole in this country!!!

Bottom line is Gents that no matter what you think speedway has massive problems as the crowds get lower & lower each passing year & the product gets worse & worse..........................now us old fans who used to go & no longer go give our views as to why that is and get shot down in flames when maybe the powers that be should be taking note & as I said in my last post I'm 36 so not that old. Using me as an example I attended speedway for over 20 years & could count on my fingers how many home meetings I missed in that time then I became fed up with the rule book guest riders being used in ever increasing numbers etc etc etc & started to miss meetings to a point that I no longer go. So my local track as lost me as a paying customer who could well have been supporter for the next 30 to 40 years. it doesn't stop at that because of the fact that as I no longer go my 2 kids will most likely not get introduced to the sport so that is another 2 future supporters that the sport has lost . Now take that model & multiple that over the UK speedway tracks for the last 20 years & you will see the true cost that speedway has paid,

Well we all have our own idea's & yes I prefer the old ruling. The current state of the rule book inc the joker tac sub rule guests double up double down riders etc etc etc are the main reasons that I have walked away as paying supporter & now get my fix via tv and before you ask if there was no speedway on the box would I return to the terrace the answer is no. As for being an old fan yes I am I supported my local team for over 20 years but stopped going as a regular 6 years ago & have seen two matches in the last 18 months. The age of this old fan who liked the old days well I am 36 so not an old fuddy duddy!!!!

Well if nothing is done to save the sport in this country then we can all sit on this forum & have a discussion about what killed off speedway..... the bottom line is the endless rule changes most of which have turned this once great sport in to a micky mouse side show have done nothing but damage to league speedway & driven away the crowds. In my collection of old speedway videos I came across a programme that channel 4 did on the sport in around 1993 mainly centred on Gary Havelock & a couple of quotes from that programme shows how little things have changed. On the issue of money a young Dave Norris said he was braking even & Eric Boocock said he could not see speedway dying but something had to be done as the sport was down to its diehard core fan base. So over 20 years on the costs to the riders are higher than ever so nothing has been done about point 1 & nothing has been done on point 2 as the crowds are at an all time low. I would suggest that the crowd level's at most tracks have halved since that programme was made which is evidence enough that the powers that be have got it totally wrong over that time unless you have rose tinted glasses then all is well & the leagues will still be running in 5 years time. The old rule had its faults but the bottom line is nothing is more crazy than double points it turns the sport in to a joke. That's what happens in Poland & Sweden & what used to happen in the old National league in the late 80's & early 90's so guests were not used. The rider replacement rule & naming a number 8 to cover for short term injury I have no problem with. I well remember 1990 when Ipswich lost Dave Norris & Dean Standing to injury we used rider replacement to cover one & a junior to cover the other & yes it made us weaker but the team was still an Ipswich team. But today when at times you have a 'team' that has 2 guests & is also using rider replacement to cover for riders who are riding elsewhere that is just ridiculous!!

Just seen a you tube clip from British League 1983.........................................50 point team building limit!

In any team sport you have subs & they can turn a match. In football you could be 1-0 down with 10 to go & a star striker comes on & scores 2 & you win 2-1 not fair on the other team but within the rules & the rule is sensible. Now if a goal that was scored counted for 2 that would be crazy & remember the stick that Fifa got for the golden goal when they tried it the rule was dropped as a result. The problem that speedway has is its rule book & those crazy rules within it have without doubt driven many away myself included. What has speedway done to stop the rot & try to win back people like me well in short nothing other than make the sport more of a joke!! For me to spend my hard earned cash going to speedway I want to see two teams with 7 riders of their own who feel a belonging to the teams that they are riding for. That means riding for one team and no guests................it has been proven that this can be done in the past. I want to see team managers managing so allow the team manager to name his top 5 in any order to try & outwit his counterpart allow him to pick which gates his riders go from. Now the tac sub I would like to see the old 6 point down rule brought back & the joker done away with. I would go as far as say that if the sport wants to be seen as a sport & charge as so then the daft stuff needs sorting out but if the powers that be want jokers guests & riders riding for 3 teams then scrap speedway as a sport & market it as a entertainment & charge about £8 to get in.

The bspa presenting UK speedway??

For as long as I have been a Speedway supporter (the best part of 30 years) the BSPA or at least the promoters of the top league have always been more interested in in fighting & self interest. The most professional league this country has had in that time was the old National League of the late 1980's which was broken up to try & save top flight speedway in 1991. I think I missed around 10 meetings in 22 years at Ipswich I think I have been to about 6 in the last 6 seasons & before anyone asks it has nothing to do with the drop down my interest started to fade as more & more daft rules came in the last straw was the change mid season to change the playoffs from the top 6 to the top 4. Until the powers that be sort themselves out the future of the top flight in the short term & speedway as a whole in the mid term is in danger! Just a question not really on topic but does however sum up this country why do we not hold a round of have anyone in the European Championships?

The biggest problem speedway has is the equipment & rules both of which have played a major part in the sport going downhill in this country. If UK speedway had been run correctly in the past & the equipment used had aloud good racing the crowds would still be present to support paying for top riders.

Speedway has Image rights they must be worth the grand total of f##k all!!!!! the sport has no image!!!!

If a rider can not earn a living from riding in one league then you have answered a key question on the future of speedway in this country. The sport can not survive with the costs that are involved so the costs have to brought down & the riders if need be have to be semi pro.

Now a lot of people on here will disagree with me on this. The last time Speedway was run in the UK along the lines that I should be was back in the late 80's when Mervyn Stewkesbury ran the old National League. That league had if I remember 18 teams meeting once a season knock out cup best pairs & the fours which had a proper qualification system. All the clubs ran a junior league team. If riders were missing from the first team then either R/R was used & a number 8 was named or a junior stepped up the key thing no guests as these were banned & the league was a good standard & well supported. I also seem to remember that If you had a rider out of form he could be dropped & replaced by a Junior so in fact you had a mini squad system. It was just a shame that it was sacrificed in order to try and save the British League & that was Stewkesbury's downfall. So what has changed since 1990 well not a lot the top flight is still in a mess for many of the same reasons as it was then and the second division suffers as a result. The big thing is though the sport appears to have learned nothing in the last 20 to 30 years the number of clubs are decreasing as is the fan base as is the pool of riders that the leagues can use. The sport needs a bloody big shake up & it also needs to wake up before it is too late. In my mind I think the way forward is to use the blue print of the old National league in terms of guests & R/R rules & that clubs have junior teams then you might start to get some new riders though the system as the track time would be there for them.

Tonight was all about the result & us Ipswich fans should be pleased........the racing was not the best but it was great to see all 7 Ipswich riders turn up at the same match & they were so quick from the gate well done!

Tonight at Ipswich being my first visit for a while showed up the one huge problem that British Speedway has yet again the rule book! The double point or T##t hat rule as it is now know within my circle was brought in if I remember to keep alive meetings that could be a whitewash. So tonight we have A KO Cup match with yes different rules to a league match no double point tac subs are allowed ok fair enough I thought as the rule is daft anyway. But hang on the powers that be excel themselves by not allowing tac subs of any type so we have a match that was a complete white wash & the visiting team manager had no power to do anything about it. So we now have team speedway in the same country with the same sides & 2 sets of rules crazy crazy crazy!!! Please please please can we make speedway simple & easy to follow with out the crap rules & regs!!

Most forms of motor sport have reduced the costs involved but at the same time they have mid/long term plan & not speedway's lets make the rule's in November for 4 months time.

Well written & spot on.

I would love to see an independent body run the sport as I have already stated however even I will admit that it won't happen! But you do need to make the sport better run so I would suggest the following & yes it might cost a few quid but years of cut backs & doing things on the cheap have only given us lower & lower attendance figures so this is what I think. Each Elite & Premier league club to have a junior side that races after each match. If a club is missing a rider for what ever reason they can promote a Junior rider into the team or run with rider replacement but must name a number 8 no guests. Yes its going back in time but if the National league could run with no guests in the 1980s I sure we can now. If the Elite league is to be a true Elite league then it can only run on one day a week to try & bring back the star names I would allow Elite league reserves to double up with a Premier club & by having the Elite one day a week those rider could ride in all there clubs matches in both leagues although in time I would do away with this double up rule. No more double points go back to the old tac sub rule. Team managers would be able to have there top 5 riders ride in any position within the top 5 this & the tac sub rule would mean that the managers can manage the riders they have to get the best out of them. League points scoring 2 points for a win 1 for a draw & a bonus for winning over the home & away fixtures More over the same rules to apply over both leagues & a 45 point limit for team building as that is what is required to draw a match & that limit to be fixed year in year out. So that's it back to the future!

I've been thinking about this over the last couple of day's and the way forward seems clear. If you want an Elite League with Elite riders then you have to go to one night a week for Elite league racing with say 8 clubs & then let the rest form there own league set up where they can ride on any night apart from the night that the Elite run on. If not keep the 3 league set up but do away with riders doubling up & down. They key to the survival of the sport is first off attract new fans & sponsors & I am sure that you can only do this once the power of running the sport is taken away from the bspa & all the rules that we the fans & the outside world see as daft ie golden double's guests etc etc are gone. If the sport was well run then and new people got involved then more young kids would see it & maybe want to become riders then the more riders & fans you have the stronger the sport becomes the eaiser it is to fight to keep stadiums open & the more money you have to invest. I have just woken up & know that we shall just carry on the same path until speedway is a once a month sunday afternoon jolly up in the middle of know way for a few to watch.

While the sport is run by the idiots in charge (bspa) you have little chance of drawing in the punters full stop.

Umm far more Elite riders than our Elite league & no fairground rules. I would say with good weather it would have been far better & lets be honest any speedway that is not run by the bspa will always be better!

Bydgoszcz!

So who is worried now? Off topic but one thing that seems quite odd is that the Witches dropped down because of a lack of funds but now a local Ipswich company sponsors Darcy Ward & Chris Holder to help fund there GP team.............

I agree the crowd at tonight's Swedish match looked low but my understanding is that the track is close to a village with a population of about 2000 so not a bad attendance for the area. The European Grand Prix seemed to suffer due to the weather from what I have read & I think it was also stated on the night. I'm not sure about the Polish league as I haven't seen any coverage from this season. It seems that at least the Poles are investing in the sport ie stadia etc.

Having watched the Swedish league match on Euro sport tonight did kind of show where speedway in this country should go. No daft joker rules Kenneth Bjerre missing though injury and no Guest so just 2 full teams of the clubs own riders using sensible rules to score 2 points for a match win 1 for a draw & a bonus point for scoring the most over 2 matches. Simple! As for the top flight over here then maybe the time has come to run 1 night a week..........

Interesting topic! Having been to Foxhall today I have to say I am concerned for the future. A 'bumper' crowd with large gaps on the home straight & first second bends these would have been packed 3 or 4 years ago for a bank holiday meeting in fact I think it would have been a average Thursday night gate a few seasons ago so concerned point one crowd level. Second point from today the 'blue grove' on the inside line. Now speedway is supposed to be a dirt track sport & the dirt provides the grip well today the bikes were spinning up on the inside so very little grip I suspect! Speedway as a whole needs to look at the bike & track set up & get back to tracks that provide grip & allows the riders to race but I guess you need bikes that can run on deep grippy tracks todays bikes I don't think can. British Speedway needs a complete make over new governing body new rule book & riders riding in one league for one team.