cowboy cookie returns?

But what team do we have if the EL & PL join up?

I'm not sure where all the fuss about Danny King comes from. I think I would stick with Tungate over King & I think Rohan has improvement left in him & King is at his level & could easily see his average drop. Other than that Gino & Cam have got to stay I'd go for Rohan Richie W Gino Cam & Ruml as a top 5 but not sure what that would leave from the bottom end.

What direction shall they go after tonight's farce!

Well tonight was almost my first trip to Foxhall for a long while I'm now glad I stayed at home!!!

Well as we have one Yank I'm gonna throw in Max Ruml for a ride!

Never said no one would get injured but the chances of riders missing because of other commitments would be far less and I think most sensible people would know what I ment......................I mean comparing Speedway to a dark day in this nations history The fact of the matter is far more people are walking away from the sport then are coming into it so regardless of your view point or if you think I'm wrong the clear thing is something needs sorting...........now I would suggest that teams missing riders so much of the time crazy rules etc etc are a large part of the problem & I remember Eric Boocock on the C4 documentary that was filmed after Gary Havelock won his world title stating that the sport was down to its hard core fan base then & needed to grow.............whats happen we have had 20 years of in fighting watering down & fans walking away in ever larger numbers.

That is true as I followed my team all over the country & have seen many meetings on main land Europe too.........funny thing is the 1000's like me who used to follow the sport get shot down in flames by the few rose tinted its all ok gang when quite clearly its not if it carries on then the sport could be finished in a few short years over here.

I have put my brain in gear and I've been saving £16 a week for the last 3 years....... The sport has been in decline for well over 20 years & in the most part the only thing that has been tried is daft rules & cost cutting this approach as only ment smaller gates & more cost cutting & we now have now got the stage that its almost like 2 select teams riding at times. It would be far better to only meet once home once away & have the clubs own 7 riders on show.

It must be boring if it wasn't the stadiums would be jammed.............................rose tinted glasses need removing!

Form is looking good going in to the last month or so..................................how many will be around in March 2015!

The old system was 2 for a win 1 for a draw with a Bonus point for agg win. The most basic thing that needs to be got right is 7 riders 1 team!

What was the crowd like? Saturday night speedway used to get good gates

I've put my views forward within this topic & on many other topics over the past few years and its not so different to many others.

I'm looking forward to winter 2014/15 its gonna be the big wake up call to UK speedway bosses & the steps taken to kick start a bright future shall be taken.......

Well one thing is for sure the sport I think will only get this winter to sort its self out or its gonna be a death & not a slow as some people think!

As a result of that amalgamation the old NL was killed off which is ironic as in my view that league was the closest that this country had to a well run league oh and no guests. Looking through my old programmes on 89/90 I see the only time Ipswich had a guest was for a challenge match v Kings Lynn & we had Andy Galvin replacing a reserve.

The problem is that no longer are loads of people going I can only use Ipswich because that is my local track but I would suggest that the crowds have dropped by 50% in the last 25 years this also takes away enjoyment due to lack of atmosphere! The reason that I no longer go & others that I know is down to the rules in the main.

Four guys racing on the track is what it should be about & the sport should be simple & inexpensive to follow because of that.................the problem is that the many rules & regs that surround the sport are just crazy & that is what makes myself & many others no longer willing to pay the price that the promoters are asking for what is on offer. Why not bring the two leagues together & split the clubs into two divisions with no crazy rules & do away with guests & take the sport back to basics & try to bring some credibility back to the sport in the hope that this will holt the slide in attendance figures & overtime see them start to rise & yes this means using riders who are based & will commit full time to UK speedway. Each team would meet once in the league & the KO cup would be run involving all sides from both divisions each round over two legs & try the dreaded promotion & relegation would all so be tried again. That's one option but if the BSPA & sky really still believe that they can make a proper Elite League work then they must look at Indian Primer League Cricket to see the way forward. That would mean trying to find someone to bank roll such a league maybe Monster? having 8 tracks with top line riders in all sides & just have a league programme of 14 meetings per team either run over a couple of months mid summer or on the dreaded fixed night idea.

I am not sure how many extra bums on seats the big guns bring in but the big problem is that in the last 20 years I would say that crowds have halved using Ipswich as my guide.

Does anyone know if people in power reads these forums or are we just seen as a moaning bunch of has beans?

The compound of the Golden seems softer so gives more traction I am led to believe.

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!!