mikebv

No, they don't care... Ipswich has "decent crowds" (v the rest)... 1500 or so, week after week for a POQ, isn't anything at all to shout about though in the bigger picture of things... My lad plays North West Counties Football (semi pro amateurs), often in front of bigger crowds... And none of then get paid more than £200 per game... That is the size of UK Speedway... It is tiny in the grand scheme of things...

"Big League Clubs"....??? There in those three words is the issue.... There simply isn't a "Big League"... Hardly anyone cares.... If every track rode one home meeting in the same week last year in "The Big League", there would barely be 10,000 there collectively watching all the meetings... It is finished... Not enough fans will pay circa £25 a pop to watch it...

I agree... Using riders, and paying them circa six figures, who can earn £400/500k in Poland, is nothing more than an ego trip for promoters in my opinion... And adds pretty much zero to the attendances at tracks, zero to wider media coverage, and zero to public awareness... The bottom line is ... Millions have been spent to regress .. When will the coffee be smelt?

100% Correct.... The whole shebang needs a root and branch review... And then clear recommendations that get adhered to... PS (Will never happen)...

Stockport has plenty of rooms... The council has brought in tens of millions of investment over the past five years or so... About £15 in an Uber .

Fancy this one too... A decent race track as well....

As it doesn't revolve around Mondays and Thursdays...

No! No! No!.... Danny must stop being so selfish and "move up".. (If indeed that is an accurate description)... Father Christmas, The Tooth Fairy, and The Easter Bunny will cover his losses...

Their fans dont want Monday or Thursday Speedway... Simple as... Maybe Ipswich and fhe other Prem teams could ride Wednesdays? Just dont sign any Danes... The top tier is finished at the level it wants to run at... It simply does not work to deliver enough teams in its current guise...

Nor does the green starting light... At least., That's what Emil said...

And be 100% correct to do so..? A business is only successful when you meet what your customers want.... And isn't, when you don't listen to them and ride rough shod over their wishes... A sport is only successful when built on crowd sizes and atmosphere... So run it when the most people want to be there..

Two teams moving up will be like two Turkeys voting for Christmas...

Plymouth truly is a "blueprint" to follow... As is Poole who used to have Jack Holder and Brady Kurtz riding for them... With the crowd levels today, I would suggest, not any different (and maybe even more), than when those excellent riders rode for them... Now. It would mean many, many thousands of pounds to pay them for the home and away meetings... With their fans paying, at least, a fiver more to watch them... You can also add Glasgow... Riding on their "best night" with a promotional idea that let's people try/go back to Speedway, for a few times free of charge, and then, hopefully, getting engaged, either for the first time, or once again.. There is a "sweet spot" for the sport that can see it grow... They just need to use it more...

I suggested on here, (what seems a lifetime ago now), that the BSB model was "perfect" for UK Speedway.. I think It was around the time that Poland basically "took over".. I worked with Cadbury at the time, promoting their products in my stores, and got free passes to Oulton Park to watch the BSB and could see how professional and slick it was ran.. Shane Byrne and Leon Haslam were among the main men at the time and both went on to "bigger things" but left with the blessing of the BSB as they "knew their place" in the hierarchy of motorbike racing.. And ensured that they had plenty of "Shane Byrne's and Leon Haslam's" lined up to replace them... With both having good careers elsewhere before coming back to end their careers with the BSB... The UK promoters need to accept their place in the hierarchy and stop wasting "huge" resources for such a small sport, paying out up to £5k a night to a "World Star" and instead pay a grand a night to five young UK lads who just may come through and progress to a level on the World Stage, and then ensure they have another five to replace them when they move on... They "brought back" "World Stars" to "Bring the crowds back", without, (as far as I can see and know), any market research at all as to why crowds had dropped... And, once again, used a large chunk of TV money to do it... And all to deliver the current situation.. Truly. Incredible...

100%.... I stopped attending regularly about five years ago as by Monday I had watched so much Speedway on TV over weekend!!! I can see GP riders riding Friday, Saturday and Sunday if a GP weekend... Dozens of times a season... Therefore, when they appear over here "in the flesh" then the "wow factor" simply doesn't exist... BZ will 100% get me to the two GP's at the NSS as he doesn't appear over here too often.. In the halcyon days of the sport, the likes of PC, Ivan Mauger, Ole Olsen, Anders Michanek, etc etc may only appear once or twice at your track, hence they pulled in a crowd of several hundred more than average... Nowadays that "mystique" doesn't exist...

But where would the 21 riders needed have come from for those teams? Add Coventry and Birmingham and that would be 35 needed... The 2nd tier currently is the "perfect" model for UK Speedway... Like the BSB in Bike Racing... Lots of UK "old heads", who are either "BSB lifers", or riders who have had careers at a higher level and are now happy to just ride in a competitive environment... Some overseas riders wanting to progress up the bike racing level, and plenty of UK young riders wanting to do the same.. With several lower level championships to encourage a pathway for those needed to replace those who retire or organically move upwards into other higher level competitions.. What the BSB never did was to think they were anywhere near on a par with WSB or the MotoGp... And, certainly didn't need their "permission" on when to run their meetings... UK should have ploughed its own furrow when the GP riders pretty much all cleared off after taking the Sky money... Or even when Poland started to take over and impacted directly how the UK should run its own operating and business model.. Or even, even, Post Covid.... Maybe it is finally sinking in that they seem to have at least one league "that can work", and just run on the nights that you get your best crowds... I notice the BSB don't run on Mondays (unless a BH), or on a Thursday.... Missing a trick there aren't they?

The riders can ask for more money but they most likely won't get it... They will then have four options... Give up speedway and get another job.. Keep riding and get more sponsors.. Keep riding and ride in other countries.. Get a job alongside riding Speedway.. I would suggest giving up Speedway would be very much the last option for the vast majority.. There clearly isn't any "best option" for the sport given the state it has been allowed to end up in, just the "least worst"... Having a top league of so few teams won't engage too many to keep turning up In reality, what do they have to offer? At least a six figure increase in costs? Restricted race nights which most likely will actually reduce crowd levels given the change of nights? An increase in admission fees for the fans to pay the higher costs?.. A chance to put an uncompetitive team together as other teams have already sewn up the most wanted "top riders"... "Top riders" who, after any novelty wears off, won't make much of a difference (if any), to the crowd numbers anyway.... Not exactly a "winning formula" is it? There is a perfect example of which level is more suitable for the current UK issues... Oxford.. They had plenty of World Class riders in attendance last season. but have decided to drop the top tier and keep their second tier position...

Ahhhhhh.... But apart from those TEN GP's there isn't any more....

I kind of thought that could be the case.... Don't spoil it for me though.. Let me believe...

I am hoping that they have chosen this date deliberately as a genius bit of marketing... "A moment of sudden and great revelation or realisation"..... Am I expecting too much???

I have read it is the 6th... The Epiphany.... If so... How very apt....

I like the way you clarified the year...

Sod off! I'm getting an Aces Season Ticket for Christmas... Oh... Hang on.....

When well meaning enthusiasts who are happy to spend hundreds of thousands on their hobby get some independent leadership and administrative structure... And when the sport stops getting treated as a personal plaything and starts getting treated as a bona fide team sport by so many... And when £200k is shaved off the riders payments across the 80 or so riders, (on a % pro rata basis).. Riders, who are pretty much completely unknown outside the Speedway Bubble, and bring in hardly any extra bums on seats, and this money is then handed over to a marketing company who just might be able to get these riders recognised, (and more importantly the very sport itself), and bring a few more in.. Sadly, no chance of any of the above...

Putting fingers in their ears and going.... "Laaaa! Laaaa! Laaaa! Laaaa! I can't hear you!!!!