mikebv

At full it's only around 4500 isnt it? At 50% that would be 2250.. You would be looking at circa eighty quid a ticket I would think for BSI to make anything like the money they would want to make out of it... And plenty more if you have to pay BSI a fee to run it instead of them. Even if they could add a couple of thousand to the allowed crowd level, there is surely no chance of this happening...

Speedway's answer to Football's "Carlos Kickaball"... "He's comes from a country that's really good at Football/Speedway (delete as applicable), so let's sign him"... Watching lots of Speedway on YouTube it is incredible how many riders appear for so many different teams down the years (not guesting either, actually contracted for that year).. The same "journeymen" foreign riders going on the club "merry go round" hitting five to six point averages year in year out, never improving by much, never decreasing in standard by much.. Almost as if they realised hitting a certain average would get likely get them a place the following year, whilst hitting a higher average would possibly leave them out in the cold...

A mistake repeated time and time and time again over the past 20 to 30 years or so.. Simply Rinse and Repeat when the journeymen you spend lots of money on, and change fixture lists for, (which impacts your customers), dont come up to scratch... "Lets bring Anders Karlsson in and if that doesnt work we can bring Karl Andersson in instead".. And all to try and win competitions that even Mickey Mouse wouldn't admit to being in charge of.. A very strange way to run things..

For me. 100%... The sport is down to its very hardest of hard core support so is pretty much bomb proof from any more "walking away".. Therefore, keeping the same numbers (or even a 'natural' reduction in punters), but removing thousands from their costs, has to be a good thing for the future of the sport... "Never waste a good crisis" is a term often quoted in business.. Speedway should take note......

Or maybe it has THJ? A bit of short term pain for long term gain? Flying in and out hundreds of journeymen foreign riders over the years and planning fixtures around these riders agendas, regardless of whether a good night to run or not, whilst at the same time reducing the places available to UK riders could now be a thing of the past... Those who run the sport have steadfastly avoided "the bleedin' obvious" so maybe the pandemic has forced their hand and it will be for the best in the long run?

Start Heat One bang on the start time advertised. And then have every heat starting 3 mins from the last finishing.. (A 3 minute warning goes on as soon as the last rider completes the circuit in the previous race).. At most tracks, a race is around a minute so that's circa 15 mins racing and 42 mins of gaps between races from Heat One finish to Heat 15 start. Ten mins interval and ten mins of post meeting laps of honour and interviews, and all done and dusted in just over an hour and a quarter... Follow the Polish starting rules to ensure each race starts on time.. You may have delays obviously due to crashes, but given a clear run, no meeting should "over run"...

Another great issue... Very interesting report on Somerset.... Well done to all...

Spot on... It's been ran to Mickey Mouse rules for donkeys years so one more (wishful thinking), isn't going to make any difference to whether fans attend I would think... Pretty much a 'free pass' this year as fans will just want to see some racing.. Which riders make up the teams that race in front of them may differ from 'as advertised', but that's pretty usual even in 'normal years'....

Heat leader trio of Wroclaw should keep them in most meetings this year... Anything around five or six a night from Bewley and Chugunuv and they will have a very decent season... Chugunuv may need to watch his place if Dan makes the U24 spot his own, several Poles looking in from the outside who could do a solid second string job..

Great night for Nicki P.... No "match over" in his mindset.....

Sound and vision out of sync for me but that's what the mute button is for... Hearing bikes rev whilst watching riders gardening is a bit off putting... Ht 14 Ouch!! Thankfully up ok.....

Some start that from Zagar..... Fricke looking fast.....

Now it's a "Limited Company" maybe they will work collectively to purchase/rent land to build some tracks on? Especially in areas that are reliant on Greyhound racing to provide them with a track... 20 or so BSPL share holders sharing the initial start up costs for a new venture must be a better bet than just one promoter having to go it alone... If they can buy land outright then they will have a permanent asset and any promoter promoting at that track could pay rent to the organisation rather than a third party non Speedway landlord.. Rustic Speedway initially I am sure but longer term it must be mean a more certain future by having less reliance on non Speedway landlords..

I am sure whatever the averages end up being it will be definitely "in the interests of British Speedway".... There's nothing to see here, move along now, have you no homes to go to please?

Rory might beat them both to it....

I suppose it's the trade off of paying out say £3000 a night in rental 20 times a year, at least, for the rest of your life... And getting zero money from car parks, bars and restaurants for the whole of that time too... If £300k start up then that's around just five years rent for some.. We have got several examples of "rustic" Speedway tracks that have been developed over the years, particularly ones that "get the track shape right" from the outset which delivers great racing.. The NSS was hugely fortunate to exist and Messrs Gordon and Morton deserve every plaudit they got for it, as without it, there probably wouldnt be an Aces now, as their old track will soon be a housing estate.. A "Buxton" however cannot be beyond the realms of possibility in most places...

I dont think the threat is the standard of the stadiums... It's that they have an ever dwindling customer base and are now in many instances only running due to the money the internet betting can bring.. Add in the ever growing animal welfare pressure and the fact so many could return "millions" if sold due to their locations, and you can't see too much of a bright future for dog tracks.. Which, unless Speedway clubs who rent off them do something different, their future too will be similarly impacted.. You won't get too many NSS's being built maybe but I am sure a 'Somerset', 'Scunthorpe', or even a 'Buxton' could be built in many areas and then get upgraded over the years.. The sport has an ultra loyal fan base who are pretty much the only ones who now still attend with any level of regularity, therefore a move to somewhere in the same vicinity wouldnt prevent most of them attending I would think, and 700 or so punters whereby you keep all the income must be a thousand times better than getting the same amount and not getting car park money, bar take and having to pay rent...

And also mean cost savings I would think by having one man doing two jobs.. I am sure there will be some crossover of contacts that will benefit both clubs at certain parts of the season..

Two days too late with that one... No one will fall for it....

I think it will need that virtuous circle of more publicity, meaning more fans, meaning more large sponsors, meaning more money to spend, meaning more high profile riders coming back, meaning more publicity, etc etc... A long way off but that surely has to be the overall master plan going forward hasn't it? Or maybe every track getting a 100 or so more a night which delivers in lots of places double digit % growth, will be seen as a measure of success, and therefore means everything is rosy and the sport is booming again...?

Especially when the operating and business model that they have ran now for so long was/is so clearly, glaringly unfit for purpose if you want to make a success of the sport..

Rugby Union and Cricket run their leagues with the best players expected to be missing for a good portion of the season.. What they both have going for them though is the fact that internationally both sports have done "pretty well" over the past couple of decades which then allows their domestic games to feed off their success.. And media coverage and sponsorship filter down to their level too... A very successful "Great Britain" in Speedway is really the only way the sport domestically will get interest and prosper again..

Tai Woffinden would have been better.. Although given the way the rules over the years have got changed and adapted to suit any scenario, often at a moments notice, it may not have even registered as ridiculous... We would have just assumed it would have fallen under the "In the interests of Speedway" 'rule'...

When Speedway was "booming" in the 70's, it was invariably only individual and world team/pairs events that got shown nationally. . The regional ITV stations were the ones that showed 'team racing' with it only being syndicated to the home teams' area, (or sometimes both home and away teams' areas)... That national TV coverage being beamed into literally millions of households several times a month during the summer had a huge positive knock on impact to domestic Speedway... You could watch Peter Collins beat the world from the back just after 3pm on a Saturday, have your tea, then go and watch him do it live that evening... People are invariably sheep like in their decisions as to what is 'cool'... Which is why it's always baffled me why the BSPL allow matches to be shown live in front of "one (old) man and his (nearly as old), dog".... A two hour advert which will get shown several times more.... Crackers...

Possibly explains the lowering of standards... The loan will allow them to start the season, then the TV money will help pay the loan... The last time they had a decent TV contract the money just got 'frittered' away.. Maybe this time it will actually be invested in ths right places for the future. .