mikebv

A 'summer sport' that depends on the weather so much to deliver a crowd, runs well into Autumn..! The League and play offs could easily be done by September 1st.. Maybe then the KO Cup could take place, as well as maybe a one day four team tournament, and a best pairs to bring an end of season finale?. All ran in the months of September and October if there is a fanbase for it? It's crackers to have so many gaps between meetings when the weather is at its best, so if you insist on running it like this then have the gaps on the colder evenings...

Now Poland and the GP's are done and dusted why not run the Playoffs on Sunday's? 5pm ish start would deliver a meeting under lights and bigger crowds I would think.. Oe even, if you can, run your home leg on a Saturday evening..

That's what I meant...

A worthy winner as all are when you win a season long Championship. . Fair play to Madsen, gave it a real go but I suspect maybe he just rides so much better under no pressure so something for him to work on for next year.. Truly an outstanding first go at it though and next year I am sure he won't have such a mid season dip if he finds himself leading... Yet again another very good GP.... Amazing how good the calibre of rider is at this level.. Roll on 2020... (Let's have one at the NSS)...

It would take some leg work but you could pretty much bench mark every rider in the world against their peers.. Maybe therefore they should be graded similar to the way Stock Cars do? There are that many variables due to the various leagues they race in that there will always be an anomaly or two if we go down to the 'nth' degree decimal point, yet most fans could link riders of similar ability just by watching them ride frequently, so use the average's they get as a starting point to determine their grade. A three person committee (independent) could decide on any borderline decisions...

Far too sensible, obvious, and simple, to ever happen....

You think it should be less? Could we say £99 a point? Save another £78 if we could...

Well over 60 riders rode this season and delivered an average of over 4.00 in the Premiership or 6.00 in the Championship.. (Individual riders that is, not the same rider doing both)! Therefore, how about six man teams with eight clubs in the League? 48 riders needed with plenty of riders to come in for injury and poor performance. And no need for GUESTS!.. Maybe also use the Test Match formula of the first nine heats where all pairs race against each other.. Then three races of lowest scorers to highest.. Then one final nominated heat.. Run on a 39 point average so the average rider would be a 6.5 point man (decent level) leaving scope to include some of the higher average riders without needing to bring in 'makeweights' at the bottom of the team to accommodate them.. £100 a point average per rider would mean £7800 in total paid to the riders over the two matches your home meetings cover.. Due to less races than at present maybe charge £15? 1100 adult punters would mean £16500 so £13200 approx ex VAT. Leaving enough headroom to pay all the other bills with programme profit and sponsorship? Maybe run a six heat 3 a side 'junior meeting' each night after the main event too? Or just some junior races? Expenses covered (at best) to give some track time to new riders? That would deliver 19 races for £15... It could even be promoted as "less than a pound a race"!!

Was it? If so, no surprises there then.. I also seem to remember the Aces having two absolute cracking meetings against Messrs Rickardsson, Gollob, Nicholls et al that season.. Played out in front of comfortably the two biggest crowds of the season.. Sometimes having 'the team to beat' arriving at your venue can be truly money in the bank... As a Man United fan who regularly used to go watching them all over, we used to sing to the home fans "you've only come to see United". A reference to the fact that when we played them a sudden 10000 or so above the average crowd level would turn up, (for one week only it seemed).. Speedway needs a level of aspiration be it beating the best to be the best, or moving up the leagues through organic growth based on performance, rather than having "what league do you want to be in this year?" as the measure.. The same for riders too... Too good for the NL? Then you move up to the Championship. Get too good for that and you then move up to the Premiership.. Become one of your countries best riders in the Premiership then you get picked to ride for your country in Test Matches.. Perform well in those and you then get nominated for GP qualification and SEC rounds at individual level and SON/SWC at team level... The bar getting raised through constantly improving, not standing still, or even worse, constant regression..

No disrespect but Poles are highly unlikely to tune in to Eurosports possible UK coverage in great numbers given the amount of top level Speedway they get bombarded with each week, so I don't see how Polish companies will see a positive brand message for themselves by attaching their businesses to UK Speedway.. Bomber Harris v Charles Wright (for example) might mean something to us British fans but won't I would suggest inspire too many Poles to look in on match night.. I would think that Eurosports coverage in Poland would get a similar following like the saturated football coverage does over here for non league football.. eg Torquay v Chorley will get watched as you flick through for a while if nothing else is on, but not many other than the fans of those two teams will watch the whole match with any degree of interest as non league football is dwarfed by the Premiership and Champions League saturation.. And, as quoted often, the scheduling and production of Eurosport is often a shambles at times..

No, if that happens you could still decide it's 42.5 for the League so Ippo could decide to keep their seven or use the extra points available... If though another team over 42.5 wins the league they should be allowed to keep their seven too if they so wish, and that figure becomes the maximum figure.. It's ridiculous that fans become attached to riders who win leagues (especially younger fans who you want to engage more than ever) only for them to be often left out the year after... That simply doesn't equate to a sensible business model... You also have the nonsense of TV mentioning that a meeting involves "last year's Champions" when maybe only four of them are actually in attendance... British Speedway desperately needs some aspirational attainments, and dumbing down the leagues means no team has to aspire to "beat the best" because "the best" invariably gets diluted...

Wasn't it rumoured a couple of years ago that a club got over £20k to let 'their rider' miss a meeting on a Sunday to ride in Poland? If true, that suggests serious, serious money is coming in to Polish Speedway which will inevitably get reflected in salaries.. When TV and Radio Companies out do each other for rights to broadcast your product, then that suggests you have got a very solid operational and marketable model that is very much in demand..

I fear it may be even longer than that.. I believe he is currently in Poole General holding a bed side vigil for Jack Holder... The diagnosis isn't good either.. A specialist was heard to say to one of the nurses that one of Jack's toes had "gone to market", whilst one had "stayed at home", another had seemingly had "roast beef", whilst another toe sadly "had none"... Most worrying though was that it is believed that the smallest of Jack's toes had gone "wee, wee, wee, wee, all the way home"!!!!

Seven man effort from Ippo.. Three man effort from Poole..

Grapes of a certain vintage?

Wonder if he will come on and mention it...?

In all of this piss taking of Poole... Respect to Klindt, Josh G and Covatti.. Not 'superstars' and probably never will be (nor ever think of themselves as such like you feel some would).. Especially Klindt.. An alleged 'gating tart' who seems to be evolving into something a whole lot more.. Including leading a team... Wouldn't mind seeing him at the NSS next year.. Anyway, compliments over.. Let's get back to taking the piss out of Poole...

#prayforpiggy

Have they managed to get the helicopter on the centre green to airlift Jack to hospital?

I hope not... Two of the most over rated riders in the League... Both have had potential for far too long... They need to start to realise it...

Well the tide definitely turned tonight...

Breaking News... A new rule has just been drawn up... In Heat 15 of any play off any team six or more behind the other team can go for quadruple points.....

Who else can we find to interview to mention that the rain is coming...?

Unless there is a crash and your bike gets damaged, the bike you start the race on is the one you start the re run on.. Straight round, no stopping... If after lap one an incident happens then riders can return to the pits gate, stay on track and review fuel only... No messing with anything else... Cant be too difficult to implement..

Not a bad shout.. Especially in a comp with no Tac subs... Cricket has its Duckworth Lewis Stern so not like it would be an unreasonable way to sort a result..