mikebv

Teams come up and bank the cash... No point spending several million to be last... Bank the money and help put together a good 2nd tier team the following year to come back up again.. Good crowds guaranteed to watch even a losing team at Rybnik...

Buxton will be back... BZ and Artem signing for them... Edit. Dean is going to be the RS.

No! No! No! If you ask everyone again.. That you have already spoken to before the season started... Who flatly turned you down.... Or wanted "stupid money"... Hence you ended up with the riders you did... Then, I am sure they will now say yes... (But. Very much on their terms now they know how desperate you are..!)..

BK winning a World Championship would get him a few hundred thousand extra in signing on fees, and major sponsorship in Poland... He might even get a nice watch manufacture sponsoring him... Leading the Aces to the title, and being rider of the year, over here, (like he did last year)... Wouldn't get him a free fish supper every week from "Bob and Elsie's Chip Shop" in Gorton..

There will always be team Speedway in the UK... They might need to make up teams on an adhoc basis... Borrowing riders from each other on any given night to cobble teams together... Hoping fans can collude with the promoters that what they are watching has some resonance, value or kudos... Oh, Hang On, just realised... That is the current operating model.... As you were, its working well.... "Give us yer 20 odd quid, and shut up"....

The major stumbling blocks to one league (which is the obvious option given the nunbers next season), are the TV money going far more ways, and the riders not being able to double up... The guestfests too that will happen, if the GP/Polish Top League riders remain, (I cannot however see how they can given the TV money drop), on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, also won't do the sport any favours, given these lads could have conrtacts across Sweden, Denmark and Poland... It will very much be a "Championship Lite" level of competition, which, personally should have happened well over a decade ago when Poland took over, and the Sky money stopped, and pretty much all the "top riders" all elected to clear off... However, instead of ploughing their own furrow and being in charge of then own destiny, they restricted their own businesses by working around other countries, especially Poland.. Worked well didn't it?

I remember being in a 25,000 crowd when PC won one year, (it said so in the programme the week after).. I used to go with my Gran and she got the tickets in March each year, the very day they first went on sale.... "Otherwise we wouldn't get our seats Michael".... E block... Had a wall with a ledge in front of it to rest your programme on, no one sat in front of you, above one of the tunnels to the bars.. The queue at the ticket office on the first day was in the hundreds and constant for several hours.. The nights were electric and, as a kid, I was literally sick with nerves, wanting PC to win... And when he did, I cried like a baby!!!

The promoters will also have a lot more time on their hands to do something else, and money to do it with... A "super" win/win for everyone...

Hamilton Accies?

They will bring their Polish Jet Ski's...

Don't give up.... Keep positive... (Mike will just sign Robert again if he needs to)...

Keep that track soaked....

1993..... One point. .. I can still see the lady's face in the "Megastore/Tent with a wallpaper paste table with a cloth on it", when I asked her if she had any "Wolves Champions '93" car stickers I could buy, as we left... There must have been around four boxes!!!! Happy days. . Great racing, great atmosphere, great rivalries.. Where did it all go wrong?...

Fell off a motorbike a couple of times and got home both times... Hardly felt a thing... Ended up in bed for 3 days on the first occasion as did my ligaments in my left ankle and couldn't walk the next day... The body is very unforgiving when you cause trauma to it...

"Polish Speed" as Jason Crump used to describe it...

These lads race over here because it is much less pressured and they can earn a decent few quid most nights, riding against lesser opponents... No full on, 20,000 fans in the stadium, demanding success... No chairman paying them hundreds of thousands demanding success, with clear consequence if they fail.. No national media showing your work and publicising your performances, with a magazine programme put together specifically to do just that.. Why bother with league racing at all? Over here? A good question, as it certainly hasn't been working for a couple of decades at least has it?

Many fans have now got into the habit of giving a few "dead rubbers" a miss, and saving a few quid... Or have took the stream package so won't cough up twice.. And then turning up in numbers for the play offs.. "Run of the mill Speedway", like tonight, doesn't, unfortunately, float the boat of too many... And the lads who will race in front of large five figure crowds 24 to 72 hours later, must also feel that lack of consequence as to the result, and the lack of a " decent crowd", which can only impact their performances...

Not at all... BV will still be around next year... (Probably)... In fact.... I would suggest Birmingham are the new Wolves....

Other leagues... I think n the GP's you are OK... It has cost Doyle money and Woffy got special dispensation from his team this year, given he was riding in a "sparring meeting", and not an actual league match.. Technically they could have withheld his up front fee but felt it the wrong thing to do....

What will UK Speedway look like next season?.. Doof! Doof! Doof! Doof! Doof!

Peter Collins broke his leg, days before the World Final in 1977.. He had over 300 stitches in the wound... He had to be lifted on and off the bike before and after every race as he couldn't put any weight on it.. The track was not far short of a swamp.. And his doctor told him not to ride.. He came second... Speedway riders are quite a different breed to most... Edit. Just seen Ouch's links... Bloody selfish riders....

Poland have ran restaged meetings on Thursdays... Part of the agreement to get top riders over was to give them Thursday's as and when they need them... The UK gave up Thursday priority which they held for several years... It doesn't matter how it is "flowered up", if Poland want to run on any Thursday, they will... Or do you believe the UK has some influence over them?

Maybe stop running meetings on nights the FIM run theirs? And maybe don't run Thursdays before a GP...? However. The UK gave up Thursdays to Poland, so its not like they expect every rider to be available every week on a Thursday anyway... Any Polish restaged meeting takes place on a Thursday and takes priority, so every chance "top riders" will be missing... The Promoters of the UK made that decision... Mind you, they also sign Danes in the Championship who cannot ride over here on Wednesdays... Best Wishes to Brady for Saturday, hope he makes it... He would have grown up like so many other young riders, dreaming of being the World Champ... He probably didnt grow up dreaming about riding on a big cycle Speedway track in Leicester...

Great post, And should stop any further debate full stop... (But I bet it doesn't)...

They should ban him for being injured... So one of the few genuine World Class riders willing to ride over here, misses even more meetings, so even more fans can not see him ride... I am going to become a BSP consultant with that plan...