Vince

Most businesses reinvest part of their income for the future in one way or another. Quite likely the best investment for the future of British Speedway is to increase the amount of local riders and therefore reduce future costs. It seems logical to me for clubs to cut costs to a level where this can be achieved rather than continue to run at a loss until everybody gets to the point they can no longer survive. However it is easy to see the temptations for Promoters to spend money on top riders, the expectations of their customers mainly.

Just like British Superbikes where the top 6 go into the 'showdown'

I don't think you can count having an accident as failing Marcus. What you do for these kids is a huge undertaking and greatly appreciated, one year of unavoidable cancellation has to be taken in the context of the years you have and will run.

I can't imagine that anybody would listen and take advice from somebody who called them an idiot. That sort of language is common on this forum and therefore breeds resentment rather than respect despite the fact that the majority are able to offer an opinion in a proper way.

Put me down as one against any tactical changes. I would be happy to see every race run to the programme and if a rider is withdrawn from a meeting injured his remaining rides taken by R/R rather than only a reserve. To stop cheating any rider withdrawn injured has to also miss the clubs next meeting. To me Speedway should be all about 4 lunatics racing not a management game.

Being old I can remember the helmet law coming in, what I can't remember are examples of riders being badly hurt because they were wearing them rather than the previously accepted safety equipment. That argument could only hold water if there were previously no fences in place. The arguments against introducing helmets were all based on individual freedom, there was never any dispute about them being safer. However riders like Chris Holder and Luke Priest are there as examples that all is not right with the air fence and both would very likely have received far less serious injuries with a solid or mesh fence. To my mind there is absolutely no doubt that in the majority of cases an air fence provides increased safety for riders, however there are also circumstances where other fences are likely to be at least as safe and quite likely better. Air fences at their best are brilliant, poorly installed they can be bloody dangerous.

Depends whether the air fence stays there or decides to jump out of the way and reveal some sharp objects pointing in my direction!

You called somebody else cynical then make a crass comment like that. There might be riders like that but there are also many more who will take huge risks to gain an extra point for their team and not even think of the money. If they only raced for the money they would never take the risk of hurting themselves or writing a bike off at a cost of dozens or even hundreds of points.

Apparently he has already offered to do it for free but nobody took him up on it. Perhaps if he worked on his own customer relations skills instead of telling them how stupid they were for not doing things his way they would be a little more keen. I think he has some decent ideas but some unrealistic expectations of the results. As for his saying that anybody is getting personal he really needs to go back through this topic and see how many times he has called people fools and stupid. Perhaps this IT expert could work for a percentage of the gate increase compared to last year, if Synalikes got it right they would be on a decent screw.

The main protection is offered by under-suits with armour anyway, I only know 2 people who make Kevlar suits and have to say that the idea they are uninterested in rider safety is nonsense in both cases. I personally believe that leather offers better protection but then I generally wouldn't be riding more than once a week, for Speedway riders the option of being able to chuck a set of kevlars in the washing machine several times a week while you work on the bike must seem unbeatable.

I find it difficult to imagine that somebody completely new to the sport gives a toss about guests, R/R, riders racing elsewhere. After all unless somebody tells them they wouldn't realise a lot of this for a while, explain that guests and R/R are a necessary evil because of the extreme danger of the sport and it would probably become an attraction! The only real exception being the joker in the SWC which is so blatant and even has a silly name to make the sport look bad. In my experience newcomers either love or hate Speedway within a couple of heats and it's little to do with anything other than their personal opinion of seeing four blokes flat out. In the long term all those other things may start to grate but not for newcomers in my opinion.

So despite the sport in this country not being good enough for you to watch you are still able to guarantee to market it more effectively than anybody in the past 60 years? Perhaps some are sceptical because they have dealt with marketing and business consultants over many years and have yet to find anybody capable who would make such a guarantee. However I should imagine that with your marketing ability there must be enough money in your kitty to allow you to invest in Sheffield and/or Peterborough and demonstrate how you can turn the sport around with your own business at risk. You make a lot of good points but they will always be overlooked because of your 'know all, everybody else is stupid' attitude. If you really want Promoters to use your services recognising their abilities rather than insisting that their knowledge and experience counts for nothing compared to your superior intellect would be a start. Telling everybody about what you have actually already achieved with your marketing strategies should be the clincher.

To be fair a lot of us thought we knew it all when we were young!

I already know enough see that this is potentially the most positive thing to happen to the sport in decades, only potentially because unfortunately I don't have access to your crystal ball. I am also obviously out of my mind because I believe that if the format is changed so that we aren't seeing reserves out against heat leaders that means we will see more heat leader vs heat leader races. Clearly I don't have the in depth knowledge of the sport that you do but I would expect that to result in closer, better racing more often. To me it doesn't matter if riders are half a second or a second a lap slower than the top guys, if they are of similar ability and can race each other I would prefer to watch them. The very best riders are fantastic to watch in full flight but I mainly watch Speedway for the racing and some of the best races I have seen have been at NL level.

Each to their own but I would much prefer to see 4 riders line up with every one of them having a realistic chance of scoring decent points.

Considering that we don't actually know exactly what has been agreed to at this years AGM yet that is a stroke of pure genius on your part!

With a team strength of 38 points they won't come up against too many top riders at second string.

Was just about to post something very similar. I don't know a great deal about Phil Morris, what I do know and have seen over a good few years is that he is very keen on helping youngsters make their way in Speedway. I don't believe that there is any way he would involve himself in a scheme that would hurt the development of young British riders. If that pay rate is right it may not be a great payday but these are kids who generally would be riding NL at £10 per point (in theory) or PL and not earning any or much more than they are being offered. We don't yet know what the package is but the opportunity is there for a kid to make some big strides if they take advantage of it. As for upgrading to EL equipment that's not strictly true as they will be riding against the same people they would be in the NL and PL. However when the time comes to make the step up perhaps they will be better informed as to the upgrades they really need to make rather than just throwing money at stuff that won't actually make them faster.

You make some valid points but I do think that in some ways you are arguing against something I never actually said. I don't think that the way Speedway is run couldn't be improved and in many things by a great deal. That is a world away from having some ideas and claiming the BSPA as a collective are stupid for not doing things the way I think best. A more realistic shed analogy would be for somebody to assume that a builder is bad because you are told a shed he built for a mate leaks and the builder is going bankrupt. It might be a bad builder but it might be the mate insisted that the shed be built on an unstable base and the builder is going bankrupt because the mate hasn't paid him. The point being that unless you have all the relevant facts it can be too easy to assume somebody is incapable. I am sure there are a great many people on here who's skills could be invaluable to a club. However skilled the marketing expert unless he knows the budget he is not in a position to make decisions rather than suggestions. Certainly they are not in a position to assume that the marketing is not done in a certain way because of stupidity on the part of a club owner, it might be lack of knowledge in that department, it may be lack of finances, it may be lack of will but I still think to assume as a collective the BSPA are stupid is wide of the mark.

Keep up, read the second line of my post again

So if we look at this with a glass half full attitude based on what we know and a lot of assumptions. If the riding order is fixed as regards heat leader and second string we will see no more reserve vs GP rider programmed races. We will see more 'like for like' races which should be more competitive. Better racing at a stroke! The fast-track riders get to race only against one another and second strings of a standard they would be likely to meet in the PL anyway. However if the pit order was 3-6-1-7-5 those youngsters would get the opportunity to learn about set up's and attitude from some of the best in the world. It always seems to me that once you get to the top class set-up's are where the Brits struggle. If, as fans we stop looking for more World class riders and aim to develop EL second strings and heat leaders to populate our own leagues then there is a good chance of success. If that happens the World class riders will emerge in time. Those with the talent and attitude to become world class will succeed in any system but at least this will give encouragement to youngsters to get into and stay in the sport, the more of them there are the more likely that exceptional talents will appear. There is a real opportunity to progress these youngsters if the whole package can be put in place with regard to training in all aspects of the sport. What's not to like

Anybody can have any opinion they like but there are some saying that the BSPA are stupid or have no idea when it seems quite clear that they are the only people with all the information. We all think that they sometimes make silly decisions, sometimes it's easy to see in retrospect that the right decision wasn't made, but very rarely do we fully understand the whole story of why a decision was taken. Saying that in your opinion they are wrong is fine, assuming that because they take a different course to what you would like to see because they are stupid just seems daft to me.

Why do so many people assume they know more than the BSPA about Speedway? You may not like the way they do things but it's fact that they are running tracks while the vast majority of us are looking in as outsiders with varying degrees of knowledge. There are very, very few on here who know even the basics of running a Speedway track and maybe one or two who have the in depth knowledge of the promoters. You/we may not like their decisions but given the fact that they have all the required information to arrive at a decision and non of us do it seems a bit daft to just assume they are stupid. In general they have somehow made enough money to run a Speedway track whether as a business or an expensive hobby, the vast majority of us have been unable to make enough money to consider it even if we wanted to. It's all a bit like the postman telling the bricklayer how to lay bricks because he saw somebody else do it once, or the brickie telling the postie the best way to deliver letters because it's obvious - even though he's never actually done it. Assuming somebody is stupid because they don't do things the way an amateur thinks best seems a bit, well, stupid!