George Dodds

time for Britain to get more involved in staging SEC and GP qualifying rounds in addition to age group championships

Don't give up the day job

or encourage those already coming to stay at home, watch it for nowt and save £17 - at least until the speedway stops running and then they wonder why there's no free streaming for them. Because something can be done doesn't mean it's an easy way to make money. Because it isn't being done doesn't mean nobody has thought of it. Probably that it has been considered, all the options properly costed and it would not only not make money but would likely add to the losses. No-one would argue that Glasgow isn't a leader in the use of social media, streaming, advertising etc. Let's not forget that before Covid their owners warned that the six-figure annual losses incurred on the back of that could not and would not be sustainable. There is no quick, cheap fix.

I think for once there is a bit of long-term planning in the TV deal. If technology costs continue to fall there could come a time when streaming is viable - or someone may come in with a financial deal which underwrites its cost (unlikely but lots of things that were unimaginable two decades ago are now commonplace). In an ideal world a broadcast partner would be recording all meetings and then the stream would be available at no additional cost. But you have to laugh that many on here who claim that streaming is the future are the same that tell you that people won't go to speedway if they can't pay cash on the gate. If you're too doddery and internet inept to buy a ticket then what chance buying a livestream?

Because it's £7 a meeting cheaper to stay at home. I don't know the cost base of ice hockey and, more importantly, do not know if the model they follow is designed to break even/make money. Perhaps they have a demographic which attracts sponsors to a level where they can substantially subsidise costs. Perhaps some of the club owners own streaming platforms/productuoin companies, perhaps they are able to use internal filming systems used by the venues for concerts etc. Does it make money or run at a loss? I know when I was involved with ice hockey in east London in the 1980s the rinks ran professional teams at a major loss because they were ways of attracting fans to the rink, in the hope that they could attract them back for public sessions, to use the bars etc. I'm not arguing that streaming is useless; simply that because one sport does it that doesn't mean it's a cash cow for every sport. Football, rugby, cricket all struggle to make streaming profitable. What I do think too many people who argue that streaming is the future ignore/don't understand/couldn't care less about is the idea that every stream sold is profit. That's just not the case. It only becomes profit once you've covered the cost of providing the stream in the first place. Otherwise it's just another loss-making element to a sport already living way beyond its means in this country.

Because it barely made enough money to cover the streaming costs on two occasions when it was the only live speedway - indeed live sport of any description - available to watch in the world so there is little reason to genuinely think that on any normal night that enough people would pay for a stream to generate the profits need to cover the costs of team racing (bearing in mind the profit must be enough to pay rider's wages for the reverse fixture too). The three livestreaming clubs mentioned all currently have crowd capacities restricted to less than they would normally expect to go through the turnstiles in "normal" circumstances thus, theoretically, creating a demand for streaming. According to the on-screen counter of the Poole v Berwick livestream a "high" of 290 tuned in at £9. Less than £3,000. Can't imagine there was much left over once you've paid a production company and a screening platform. Bradford City's CEO said that when, during Covid, they offered streaming to fans the take-up was such that they took around half what they would expect to get from selling burgers at a normal match - and that was providing a Sky-quality multi-camera stream and for one of the better supported lower league clubs. Also a genuine question. Why would anyone pay £17 to watch in person when you could buy a stream for a tenner? Streaming might provide an alternative (lesser) source of income for clubs; I really don't seen how anyone who genuinely takes the time to balance out the costs/returns of staging meetings can see it as an untapped source of extra income.

It isn't a case of not interacting with fans on social media simply requesting that questions for the club are directed through club@berwickspeedway.com where they will be always be answered promptly rather than left hanging in random threads across the internet where they may not if no-one from the club happens to stumble across them.

... because Glasgow remains in Scottish tier 3

https://www.berwickspeedway.com/tickets/

Because there is no reason to think that will change.

At the moment there is no option - other than running without crowds.

I will answer despite what it says on the website as we are regular correspondents, almost pals . No. At least while the meetings remain all-ticket it is one price for however many of the meetings you wish to watch. As for meetings after May 22 ... tickets will be released in due course. If future queries could be directed to club@berwickspeedway.com then I can guarantee they will be replied to as speedily as is humanly possible. Any questions left hanging on social media might be answered but it depends whether any of us are reading social media and stumble across them. Better to go straight to the horse's mouth.

it isn't

Some haven't had their capacity signed off yet

... but capacity is set by individual local authorities, some faster to act on government guidance than others. If only it was as simple as pressing a button on a computer.

Trouble is some seem to equate winning directly with entertainment. You can have a cracking race with all four riders going hell for leather and still be on the wrong end of a 5-1. Surely that's entertaining? Alternatively you can have 12 gate and go 4-2s win by 20-odd points but not see a pass all meeting. Victory but entertained? Some argue that some of the best speedway at Berwick in recent years was 2017 - others said they wouldn't watch again because they were getting beaten every week. Opinions - well you know what they say about them. As for double headers against stand-alone NDL. Again you pays your money and takes your choice but, in addition to the obvious VFM of one rent, one set of medical cover, insurance etc I'm not sure (without actually totting it up) that we would have enough Saturdays to stage standalone NDLs bearing in mind that ours and the opposition reserves may very well have other commitments ... and midweek speedway tends to be pretty disastrous in terms of crowds at Berwick, even when it's been a British Final. Time will tell.

still Saddlebow Road though - just happens to have sold the naming rights to Adrian Flux

Out of interest Startrax budgeted £200,000 for the work needed to put in a new track and refresh the basic infrastructure at Odsal - an existing stadium with foundations etc already in place for the actual. Add in the cost of buying or leasing the land, connection to mains services such as drainage and electricals, planning costs and even basic groundworks and I would still argue that there's not much change left from a million - the plural was probably superfluous but didn't Belle Vue end up somewhere around the £5 mill mark?

I think the problem with all these stadiums, and speedway in general, is that promotions are happy to be tenants which means that they don't have to pay directly for stadium maintenance or improvements or general upkeep but they also don't have any say or influence when a developer comes and offers millions for the land. Odsal has reopened for motorsports because Startrax put hard cash into making it happen - full stop. If speedway wants to revive any of these dormant stadiums - Coventry, Cowley - then someone has to come forward with hard cash and make it happen. Leicester and Belle Vue show the way forward for speedway - but also underline that it needs someone with deep pockets to build a modern stadium from scratch ... and we're talking millions.

Thought it was a straight league this season - have they now added playoffs?

The football club was desperately trying to find money from anywhere at the time - developers, finance firms and the usual shysters. I'm sure they would have taken the odd million off the Hams if they'd offered. To try and pass that off as "another huge missed opportunity for speedway" is fanciful to say the least and along the lines of the "John Berry would have saved speedway if they hadn't stopped him". Just good old fashioned bit of idle speculation based on unattributed whispers, tales and hearsay. The only thing missing is facts.

maybe the terms weren't attractive - something along the lines of "you bail out the football club, pay to bring the stadium up to acceptable standard and we'll allow you to take on the financial burden of the lease - and hope that the fans who wouldn't make the short trip to Bradford will pay to watch you in Halifax". Hardly a cast-iron opportunity

Also curious. From memory all terraced areas were closed after The Popplewell Report into the Bradford City fire. Capacity of The Shay in 1985 was under 2,000 so speedway would have been struggling anyway there and it may have had something to do with switching to a stadium which met "modern" safety criteria. Also remember plans to build a supermarket on The Shay and a new ground at a nearby leisure centre. Another was for a smaller ground to be built on the site and the rest redeveloped - a bit like Crayford stadium. The council owned the lease, the football club was a financial basket case. If any offer was made to the speedway I suspect it would have involved them bringing a substantial amount of money to the table - probably a bit like Startrax at Odsal. I seem to recall that there was little change to the stadium configuration until the rugby club sold Thrum Hall and moved in at The Shay in the late 1990s so speedway could have returned, even after it had ended at Odsal. Perhaps the sums never added up.

Replay of meeting now available from www.berwickspeedway.com use the BanditsTV tab to access