mikebv

Surely the compromise is two tiers, with the first one being a Championship level, and the second one Championship Lite...? That gives riders a chance to DU... Two seven team leagues to add a bit of synergy... Try and get a seven team top league riding on any nights except Tuesday and Sunday... Meaning GP riders can still ride but those teams will just need to balance the team using a Championship average. (Max 12 for any rider average upon conversion).. The Championship teams currently can "move up" but still keep their same cost base as the team average used will be the one they are using to plan for next season, and they keep their best night to bring a crowd in.. And the current top tier clubs will spend less by not having two "top level" heat leaders at one and five.. The second tier then becomes a league with at least one experienced rider as a DU and the bottom two positions very much being development two point average ones.. The standard being lower than the Championship but overall higher than the current NDL Top tier have five rider teams so 35 riders needed... Second tier run with seven rider teams, with all seven teams using at least two DU's I would think, (a HL and a SS from tier one as their "top two"... That would mean 35 more riders to fill the seven teams, less if (as would be likely), more riders DU, and, if not, that leaves 21 places needed to be filled if fourteen places get ring faced for RS development... Ticks a lot of the boxes that currently seem to be left empty... Those desperate to still see the "top stars" on a Monday and Thursday (ie. Ipswich fans), still get to do so... The current Championship teams don't get any major increase in costs (as using their own averages), so maybe will be tempted to come up, and will get the novelty of a GP rider visiting their track so might get a few more in, (until the novelty wears off like it has now in the top league, obviously!).. And the 2nd tier is developing riders of the future at reserve, whilst still having several tier one riders on show, with, I would suggest a cost reduction overall... A 3rd tier can then be very much, as is now, a development/old hands league with the reserves from tier two Doubling Up/Down..... For any fixture clashes then just use guests like happens now. As long as the home team are at "full strength" that will protect the crowd numbers... Home and Away twice would mean a minimum 48 matches for a DU rider, which would mean a decent income return...

He was meeting up with the Stock Car ruling body to do a press release about how he used to love watching Stu Smith, Len Wolfinden, and Frankie Wainman Snr....

A shame to lose all that encyclopedic knowledge.... A huge blow to the sport.... Maybe he could still go on Celebrity Mastermind? Specialist subject? "Speedway from the 60's to the present day"...

The ones the AGM didn't need?

And why not? By the law of averages... One day it must work!!!!! As that saying goes.. Give an infinite number of monkeys a typewriter each and let them bang away on the keys, and one day, one of them, will eventually, type out a whole page of Shakespeare..

I really don't understand why some teams should "move up" for the "good of the sport"... Which basically translates into "so my team can ride on Monday or Thursday meaning I can watch some GP riders".... Why don't the Prem teams "drop down for the good of the sport"? Not enough riders? Then run in a reduced level top tier, with five rider teams, at Championship level, "for the good of the sport"? They can still do it on Mondays and Thursdays if certain teams want to.. With GP riders too, using a Championship level team average...

Then the Championship teams you mention just stay as is.... And the top league goes down the pan.... And as for clashes, just use the guest system like they do now for a myriad of reasons... The sport has very little credibility meaning any title also is tainted the same... So just put out Speedway, to a decent level, on any night that your punters feel is best. If their team wins then "Yay"!, and If they don't then "Frowny Face"....

We have fixture chaos and dozens of guests now, so how will we spot the difference? A top league of eight teans will need forty riders with five to a team.. And, if all run on every night apart from Tuesday and Sunday all will be available for their HOME meeting and some/most aways... If there is common sense, then anyone 8 points and over from last seasons Prem should get their average capped at 12, so that team can keep a "top rider" if they so wish, and still build a decent five rider team... A couple of my mates retired before me and got bored... So now they do Amazon drops... 7am to 3pm, earning around £120 a day.. Meaning if they did five days they get £600.. Circa £30k a year. A Championship No1 will be on around £2k a night if the Championship was the top tier... Eight teams in a league home and away twice as a minimum is £56k... Add in an Amazon job, with decent hours to still do Speedway ,and that is circa £86k a year. (Other jobs are available).... Comfortably in the top 10% of UK earners.... Or they double up for around £1k a night in second tier at Champ/NDL level... Or ride in Sweden, Poland and Denmark. (For one season at least)... This obsession with high earning GP riders who restrict teams to Mondays and Thursdays baffle me... Especially as they don't generate crowds which justify their expense... They have, sadly, outgrown the UK version of the sport...

An eight team "top league" racing on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday depending on what is their best night to deliver the biggest crowds... The level being very much Championship standard, but if a team wants to run on Monday and Thursday so they can use a GP rider with a "high average" then they do so and just build the rest of the team around them... Five riders per team, no rising stars, use the Danish model so plenty of rides per meeting for each rider... Anyone riding in Poland or Denmark may miss away meetings from time to time so just use a guest. Like happens ad nauseum now... As long as they ride at home then, "where the money is made", is protected... Second tier, six teams, seven riders per team ran at a hybrid Championship/NDL level, (the current stand alone clubs and the NORA ones may also be interested)... Riders can double up with, again, a high average for the better ones, with the rest of the team built around them.. Two, two point reserves in every 2nd tier team, a) to give those starting out track time, and b) to help offset the costs of a DU'ing No1... Each club to run at least a 9 heat second half of those needing development....

Jason Pipe in last weeks Speedway Star says that since 2021, 53 British riders have stopped racing... 20 more stopped in 2019, and 23 stopped in 2018... Seven seasons, 96 riders . Many of whom will have stopped through a lack of a clear development plan and opportunity, and an insistence from NDL promoters that they have two bikes of a standard, and maintain them to that level, that wouldn't leave much change from £10k... And all to try and win a competition that even close followers of the sport would struggle to name the winners of... Hardly anyone outside of Speedway followers could even name who won the top two league competitions, never mind the 3rd one... The whole operating model is inherently flawed and needs a complete overhaul... They could start with every track running a 2nd half of say two groups of four riders, all getting four rides minimum each (from every starting gate), and then the top two from each group have a final... No teams, just individuals in "glorified practice" but with a competitive edge to it.. Hell. There could even be expenses paid to the eight riders and a modicum prize for the winner... Maybe even a national trophy award running through the season with a full final for the top 16 scorers? There has to be a line drawn in the sand now.. And everything then reset from there...

Two decades too late. But 100% the only way forward...

With the biggest mistake being "if we bring back the top riders the crowds will come back too"... Obviously forgetting that the crowds were dropping annually when pretty much all the top riders rode over here on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday... With the year on year inflation busting admission increases needed to pay them certainly not helping the crowd numbers at the time... I would say crowds overall in the past decade are pretty similar, given such low numbers, and, as the sport is now pretty much bomb proof from the die hards support for it, any drop is mainly down to an ever ageing fanbase for the most part, rather than "who is riding".... With not enough "newbies" to replace that ageing fanbase... To choose vehemently to run in the entertainment business on a Monday and Thursday night only, is a strange hill to die on...

They could all race at Oxford ...

Bradford were Champions and closed... Workington too.... The top tier simply isn't fit for purpose in its current guise... (Nor has it been for well over a decade)... An Aces team, riding in one league,on a Friday with the likes of Charles Wright at No1, would, for me, deliver (at least) the same level of crowd that they get on a Monday with the 2nd and 3rd best riders in the world in attendance... And would be significantly cheaper to run, thus hopefully, significantly cheaper to attend... I actually think the crowd would increase due to "no school or work" for many the next day...

If the Colts at the NSS were the "only ticket in town" for Speedway they would get very decent attendances... When they started at the NSS they got 800 and sometimes more at a tenner a time... And that was with the Aces getting around 1700 on average.. The sport is down very much to its "die hards" who will attend "any" Speedway locally... Oxford have shown by choosing to run in the 2nd tier, rather than the first, that the cost v return of the top riders doesnt make for a great business decision... And Plymouth have shown that running on a Saturday, with all the same riders in attendance, can circa double their attendances from a Tuesday night... Workington also changed their starting times on Saturdays and saw a significant increase. Same riders, just a more convenient time for fans to attend. I notice they didn't try and run Monday or Thursday afternoons... The Peterborough team involved in any possible comeback have said crowds were similar for them whether they were in Div 1 or Div 2... The unpalatable truth for some is that paying £20k out for two heat leaders for two meetings from your home meeting, (regardless of whether sponsors pay it or not), is simply ridiculous for a sport that, even in the top tier, can often deliver crowds of less than 1000, (and that alone shows their presence isn't pulling too many in)... It also massively reduces jeopardy in the league as those "few" who can pay that kind of money will always be in the play offs... (And that level of sponsors money would be better used marketing the club, and nationally, the sport)... Poole are the perfect example of a team that simply haven't missed the "top stars" and run on the night they need to, to deliver their best crowd level.. Speedway is a tiny, tiny sport, with my lad playing amateur/semi pro football in front of bigger crowds than many Speedway teams get.. You can see by the fact no one is willing to move up that the top tier operating and business model is not fit for purpose... To keep flogging a dead horse is madness...

And both will be as well known as each other to the vast majority of the local population... Watching Dan Bewley fly around the fence at the NSS is great, however, watching him cross the finishing line as two rising stars are still getting around bends three and four doesn't make for much of a spectacle... Even four "Superstars" in a race, most times, ends up with the winner being half a straight ahead of fourth... At the NSS. You can basically pay £25 to watch the "Superstars" on a Monday or Thursday, deliver similar racing to what you can see the NDL lads do, for £15, at the weekend... With the vast majority of the local population not knowing their "Dan Bewley's" from their "Will Cairns'".. Or even who Belle Vue are, or what Speedway is... With any title victory for the Aces or the Colts meeting a similar level of recognition locally from the vast majority of the 2.75M who live within 45 mins of the track.. In any business, if you can find a way to deliver a similar standard of product, but for less cost, and then pass that saving onto your customers in a lower price point, then surely that has to be good for your business...? Or even use some of the cost savings to invest in marketing, to get what you sell out into the consciousness of those living within your catchment area...?

Six teams? Five teams? Four teams? Won't make much difference will it? If they go with six teams, as soon as the riders are confirmed on here, the two missing out on the play offs will be as clear as day for all to see... Just like every season... The top tier in its current guise simply doesn't work due to the lack of riders of the level required, and the money those who are top level, and ride over here, take out of fhe sport. . Ultimately, doing the sport no favours.. I would suggest £20 to sit, and £15 to stand, is the sweet spot for Speedway in the UK... Away fans in for a tenner max, and free if travelling over 50 miles... Start from that and build your cost budgets around it accordingly... And get as many teams in one league as is possible to bring some variety...

Is there a "guest migrant" policy. ?

You would also have a potential issue with which teams promoter has sponsored the overseas riders visa.. Some double up but one team will be the sponsor... You can imagine that the team sponsoring the visa would claim the rider...

When I used to sponsor workers, for "some" overseas workers they now have to show they are guaranteed to earn £41k a year as a minimum.. There are EU and Commonwealth differences, plus different tiers... £41k will be "there or thereabouts" for a fair few overseas riders if only riding in Div 2 I would think... Maybe sone clubs will need to up their deals by a few quid?

Monkey Tennis!!!! Or... Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank.. A Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

When I went to Hyde Rd in the seventies, they had several turnstiles that didn't count the "click".... When I first went to Old Trafford in the late seventies and eighties, you paid the attendant and jumped the turnstile... I got all my money back for a Cup Final ticket, several times, by passing it though the stand to those queuing outside to use it again in the 80's and 90's.... .

He would make a perfect advisor for the BSPL..... In fact. . Has he been doing it for the last two decades?...

Speedway? And Kabaddi?

Aldi Gold Blend...