mikebv

The unavoidable problem is.... A select few can afford to run a top tier team to contend for the play offs.. But most can't.. And without the TV deal I would suggest the select few would struggle too... And ultimately it is..... Hundreds of thousands spent to achieve... (?????) Answers on a postcard to win a "Happiness is 40-38" sew on badge...

Some of the many possibilities have been on here ad infinitum.... And its a lengthy random list... Would they work? Who knows? However, given the current challenge facing the sport, it is crystal clear that the current operating model and business plan doesn't... Mark Lemon in the Speedway Star pretty much outlines what they haven't done well, and the opportunities that exist, yet you do have to ask, why has it taken so long to spot when the fans could point the inherent flaws out time and time again... Let's hope those who have got the sport in the UK to where it currently sits, can move it forward... Doing the "same old/same old", once again though, wont deliver it, given the past many years of evidence available..

A blank canvas. And build it from there, using all the experience gained from what hasn't worked.... Bottom line is barely 25,000 pay to watch each week, with literally millions of people living within 45 mins from tracks... Suggesting what has been done, (over the past two decades in particular), clearly hasn't worked... So... Try something different...

Due to the current operating model, they both need each other, to help subsidise one another.... For me, it is time for brutal honesty and that brutal reality is that the GP stars and the likes of Emil, Chris Holder, Magic and Tai (if not injured), will have taken between them all, circa seven figures in combined salaries... Paid for in the main by the TV money and a significant number of well meaning sponsors putting in high five figure numbers.. Those seven figures would have been far better used as prize money for winning the top tier... Shared amongst the seven teams last year... "A Million Pound Premiership" would have given those who run the sport something to "sell" to bigger, more well known, potential sponsors, advertisers and mainstream media.... The "top stars" were almost "heralded" as being vital for the growth of the sport in the UK, as they would "bring crowds back"... The reality was they were "heralded" by pretty much the same number of fans who were always going to attend anyway, and didn't nationally after the initial novelty wore off, increase crowds across the country, to make these "truly high quality riders", anywhere near even "cost neutral", never mind "profitable", as the vast majority of those potential circa 80 million potential pundits in the nation have (still), not even heard of Speedway, never mind any of the riders who "came back"... For me, we are at ground zero and the sport should "start again"... And not miss (once again), that opportunity... Let's face it, if you were launching a brand new sport this Monday, and someone suggested, at the planning stage, using the current UK Speedway operating model, they would be laughed out of the room... The promoters are well meaning enthusiasts rather than tough pragmatists, and the sport desperately needs, (and has needed them for years), cold, hard, tough pragmatists, that let their heads rule in decison making, not their emotions.... We all would love to watch the world's best each week, and rub shoulders with them in the pits, taking selfies.. The bottom line is though that their combined costs dont, (currently) make economic sense... If the AGM is delayed you can only hope it is because negotiations are still taking place about a TV deal, (as that will be fundamental), however, let's be honest, every TV Company over the past decade, has dropped the sport, so its "stock" may not be running that high... Surely time therefore for a total, well planned, reset and relaunch in the new year... A few steps back to move, hopefully, forward over the next few years.. . Using whatever operating model, and standard of riders, that it can afford to bring growth......

However ... The Championship only pay rates they can afford due to doubling up.... Championship HL's will want (at least), double if they only have one job... Would the Championship stlill be "OK" then?

Is that 2026 or 2027?...

£3.60 for the Speedway Star.... Less if you subscribe or go digital... Still a fantastic publication... Raised its game given most news is now instant on the internet... Lots of articles and discussion points.... Spot on re the current plight by the way, YOPG...

Just read the article and you cannot argue with anything he says... Because, it has all pretty much been suggested on here in the past!!! Almost every sentence I read, I thought "No s**t Sherlock!".... Where we are now has been inevitable for many years, and, (forever it seems), forecasted on here, yet "Mike" seems to have had some kind of epiphany and realised the sport is in serious "you know what"... Even suggesting plenty of things that could be done to get more riders into the sport!.. (Obviously no one, apart from the fans, have noticed exactly the same lads, (getting older), turning up each week, at all the tracks in both divisions, for the best part of a decade!)... The sport, like all sports, needs an "Elite level", however, it seems unaffordable to do it in the UK for enough tracks... And "one big league" will mean riders losing out on the money that doubling up brings, so will want more from their one team, and the league will have plenty of "good" riders missing on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturdays as they race in Denmark and Poland... A right (self inflicted over many years) schemozzle... Magic wand time at the AGM? If so, maybe we need Harry Potter rather than Harry Redknapp!!!

Only in Speedway....

There is a minimum earning level you must show you can achieve to get certain tier level visas .. I presume that is why some riders get/need guarantees? (And double up?)... Before I retired one of my team needed to show he earned (if I remember correctly) £41k to stay in the country... It had increased since his last visa got granted... So I put up his hours and let him work each Sunday for premium time... I then printed and signed copies of his contract for him to send off to the Government depts ..

Correct ... But... Bringing over a plethora of Szymon Lambertski's, and Simon Lambertsen's, to take places UK lads could have taken, was obviously too good an opportunity to miss...🙁

A bit harsh.... 'Arry, in that article, seemed to have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the sport from the early 70's to the modern day...😉

Imagine trying to run 1095 meetings now with such a small pool of riders? It would be three riders per team....😄

Of course you wouldn't... But, the sport clearly isn't at the same level over here. That is why Poland can pay £50k plus a meeting to certain individual riders, using massive TV money, massive national company sponsors and five figure crowds... If the UK had the same income you wouldn't need part time riders... However, by the same logic .. If my Auntie had, had bollox she would have been my Uncle..

You are comparing apples to oranges .. To watch that standard of Poliish racing over here would mean an enormous admission fee to get in.. More than Premier League football... Meaning crowds wouldn't increase, but actually drop... They pay circa ten times the money, so you would need ten times the current money through the doors...

100%... You could have a very decent season of racing with "14 Simon Lambert's" riding each week...... And have a very similar crowd level, (after the initial novelty has worn off after about four weeks), that "14 Robert Lambert's" would deliver.... With one being very much more costly than the other, for very little difference in both the entertainment level and the size of the prize in winning.

The frustration of course being it has had the finances .. Just used wrongly.... Simon Lambert? Robert Lambert? Neither known outside a tiny circle of followers but a big difference in earnings I would think... Using just a few millions of the many the sport has taken in and laid out to riders over the past 3 decades, and, instead using this money to market and promote the sport, or subsidise admission costs, and many more would be attending now given the public awareness would be much greater... "I need a GP rider!, I need a No1, and they don't come cheap"!! And all to "attract" the current crowd levels...?

Hi Bartek .... Do you know the GP's will probably be cancelled next year? You don't? Are you not on the BSF? No? Get yourself on there mate, the breaking news starts there... So... This means you have plenty of meetings less next season so how do you fancy riding in the UK? You do? That's brilliant! The fans will love you... The Zmarzlik name alone will pack the stands. How much do you want to ride? (Bartek answers. Long Pause)... You haven't got a brother that rides Bartek have you? Bartek? Hello? Bartek? You still there?

Those teams with Danes have had riders missing.... However. . For Poole, Wednesday is clearly their best night to run, and their crowds would suggest the odd missing Dane makes zero difference to the amount of people turning up... From "the outside" the optics of employing riders you 100% know will be missing some of your meetings, so you will use a guest/possible ringer, looks somewhat ridiculous for a professional team sport... Not many from "the outside" take any interest though, so it largely doesn't make any difference...

When Plymouth changed nights from a Tuesday to a Saturday, their crowds increased by several double digit percentages .. Mainly families... Which suggested these people knew about Speedway but were not prepared to have their kids (and maybe even themselves), out late on a Tuesday... There is a reason Poland use Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the vast majority of their meetings, and it isn't to allow all the GP riders there, as, if they ran on Monday and Thursdays only each week, the GP riders would still be there due to the money... However... The fans wouldn't be there in the same numbers, especially the kids who make a up a decent portion of each crowd in Poland.. UK Speedway simply cannot be ran like a "proper team sport" so why keep trying? (The evidence even suggests they don't)... The 2nd tier ran a semi final in their flagship competition, with one team having three guests, yet I suggest the crowd wouldn't have been that different if Glasgow turned up with seven of their own riders, therefore just try and run as many meetings on whatever your "best" night is... The Aces for example would 100% get more fans on a Friday or Saturday night than they do on a Monday, given more families would go... Long gone are the days when you could take what you are watching "too seriously" in the context of a bona fide team sport, yet the raw material of the racing is as good as ever for me, (from Div One to NDL), so just run on nights you find most of your customers want to attend... The Entertainment Industry lives or dies by what it takes at weekend, not what it takes on Monday and Thursday... Plymouth changed nights, not riders, and their crowds have been quoted as doubled, with not one GP rider in sight, and often not even all their own riders there!!

But we have "RR and guests all over the place" now... So, no real difference other than running on nights that could attract a better crowd level...

Wasn't the Thursday changed so Sheffield came up, and Swindon were also pretty much Thursday only? And Poole dropped out as Wednesdays were no longer part of the UK's 2 priority days? Given Denmark had that day... (Even though the UK initially went with 3 days, not 2 ).. One thing is for sure... Those nights perfectly fitted around the 2nd tier who ran Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat and Sunday.. (And did one (not Sheffield), race on a Thursday and have to change their night? However it certainly perfectly fitted many of the riders need for two incomes... With each league helping to subsidise the other as these riders had two salaries, and, as they couldn't be in two places at once, it was a perfect scenario to allow clubs to share them... Everyone was happy....

Because most of their sponsors are not Speedway fans who fancy giving their favourite rider/club a few grand a season.... Instead, they are major companies who only want to associate with ventures that have similar values and professionalism to themselves... With, in Poland, it being very much a commercial decision to have their name shown rather than a "oh look my company name is on the telly!"..

Rents won't come down though, neither will the riders costs of those who do get a team place, (of all levels)... And if no TV deal, it will remove a huge amount from the budget..... Even "staying the same" might just be a pipe dream.. Which isn't going to help move the sport forward in anyway, shape or form, is it? The hole they have dug for themselves over the last two decades is certainly a very deep one to climb out of... Unfortunately those who sleep walked themselves into it, are also, in the main, the same ones trying to get themselves out of it...

It's because there is no coordinated follow up plan... It is just "Build it and they will come".... The reality is you need to get people attending at least three times to get engaged and (hopefully), see at least one decent meeting... To make a fundamental change to your life you need to do something consistently for 28 days... Speedway need to get people attending regularly and it starts with those vital 28 days... Email and Mobile details, free family tickets, constant communication, feedback from their first visit requested, etc etc etc... Expecting them to return after one visit, even if free/discounted, and pay full price next time, is asking a lot... But, that often appears to be "the plan" at many tracks... Glasgow, and Plymouth, showing what can be done...