mikebv

I really do think that the 'penny has finally dropped' with most (if not all) Promotions, that collectively they are as close to rock bottom as they ever have been.. Even the most myopic now can see that without other teams to race against their own business isnt worth a jot... Necessity is truly the mother of invention so I can actually see them (for once) working together... Without sounding too cold and calculating the demise of Rye and possible closure of Lakeside (and maybe others?) will actually release riders to be shared around the rest of the tracks which can only help the credibility of the Sport as guests shouldn't be needed as 'subs on the bench' will be readily available awaiting team places.. More riders and less team places can only help in driving down salaries too as supply will actually be more than the demand required... And then who knows? Maybe admission costs will come down to a level that reflects the Sports standing rather than trying desperately to cover it's frankly ludicrous salaries for such a tiny minority Sport..? Surely, the only way is up from here? Let's hope those who run it can be radical enough to deliver the required improvements..

8 - 10 points that may ultimately help knock his own team, his own fans, and incredibly HIMSELF out of a chance of being a League Champion... To be fair though.... Max Fricke did his level best to do the same on Monday.... No Promoters (or fans) should ever moan about why stadiums are empty, and the mainstream media persist in completely igoring the Sport, whilst such nonsense is allowed to take place... What you got away with years ago simply doesn't wash anymore in the glare of the 24/7 public scrutiny of Social Media... "Arrr, but this is Speedway". Is the stock answer from those who bury their head in the sand and collude with the promoters by attending and pretending that it is a 'real' Competition... (Those few who still attend that is)... Those many more thousands who have given up ever hoping it may one day gain credibilty to make it a bona fide 'proper' Competition, have a somewhat different view I would suggest.... And have 'spoken' loud and clear through their continuing absence....

Also all four riders line up and not allowed on track till the pits Green light is shown... No drip feeding... All come out together and have two mins to make their way to the tapes.. Every race so far I have seen has had 'tapes up' (at the very latest) just seconds over two mins from the Green light, with the vast majority starting well under 2 mins from it... It all looks very professional.....

I would say technically you are correct.. As him being in the team gives the only chance of winning....

BT now lost the rights to show UFC and NBA... Coming on the back of losing Serie A maybe a chance for the BSPA to negotiate a better deal? Won't be many Sports left on BT so maybe Speedways stock can rise..?

"A Five One-er"... "A Four Two-er"...

Exactly... Ipswich for example must be better off surely riding twice a season at home, in a bona fide League competition, that has credibility, against 'local' rivals such as KL, Peterborough, Mildenhall, Rye House and Lakeside than once a season against Glasgow, Edinburgh, Berwick, Redcar, Newcastle, Workington, Sheffield and Scunthorpe?. (Ten matches against 'local rivals' rather than eight against teams a minimum 3 hours plus away MUST deliver better crowds you would imagine) You can still race once a season against the teams from 'The North' to add variety to the competition but race more often against your 'Southern' neighbours.. Getting the team strengths right would be important to encourge teams to maybe leave the NL and five man teams may facilitate that... 'Championship Lite' would be the standard I would think that possibly could be affordable maybe? No1. Current Championship No.1, 3 or 5/Premiership No.3, or 5 (many are the same rider!!) No2. Current Championship No.3 or 5/Premiership No.2 or 4 No3. Current Championship No.2 or 4/Premiership No.6 No4. Current Championship No.6/ NL No.1, 3 or 5 No5. Current Championship No.7/NL No.2 or 4... Grade riders for each sector of the five team places and use an overall mean average of all the riders within the Grades to deliver a team total that teams cannot go over (ensuring no team can pay out more money to entice the best riders out of each Grade)... Affordable to deliver one bigger league of say 16 to 18 teams split into North and South? And all teams race on nights they feel with deliver their biggest crowds, with the caveat that if you want to use a GP rider (or ones with GP/World U21/SEC/Overseas Leagues intentions and ambitions) then you don't get to use guests to replace them should you decide to run on Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Fridays/Weekends... (If GP riders ride for the money on offer obviously) which would be a fair few quid less than current I would suggest... £15 admission (tops), £5k per team per night salary cap.. 'Stars' may be lost. (And let's be honest, not many generate 'extra' on the gate now anyway)... But 'new Stars' will be found.... And a British League with a heavy majority of GB riders can only help the National Team in the long run too surely?

I would say not... The inflated money that the GP riders got would have increased the salary expectations of the 'next level' of riders too. (And the same no doubt through all the levels)... And these 'next level' riders have now become the No1's in the main so salary expectations will be higher rather than lower I would imagine... And we still have GP riders Doyle, Cook (would have had Holder), and I am sure NKI who rode during the Sky Money days won't be earning loads less than two or three years ago... The difference is rather than payout the £100,000+ given to them via Sky they now have to find this themselves or to maintain the income/cost balance, reduce costs by around circa £3.5k per team per match.... (I would suggest not too many have been able to do that)... In fact, given the lower attendances reported down to the fixed nights being non weekend I would think even more costs now needs reducing to 'break even'...

Sky pumped in Millions over many Seasons.... This is the first full Season without it... This money would have been very important I would suggest in keeping tracks open during the time of the contract...

A good template to use may be something based on the US Conference system...? Maybe 16 teams, five riders per team? = 80 riders needed.. (Meaning plenty of subs on the bench for injuries).. North and South Conferences 8 teams in each... Home and Away twice in your own Conference (more local opposition) delivers 28 Matches, and then one match home and away v each team in the other Conference (16 Matches)... Meaning 22 Home matches and 44 Matches in Total per team.. A max of £5k per night, per team, salary ranging from £1500 to the No1 to £500 to the No5.. Meaning £220k income needed to pay riders for the regular season. An average crowd of 900 adults would deliver £297,000 (inc vat) at £15 admission... Top four in each Conference play off v the other Conference top four Home and Away, eg First in North v Fourth in South, First in South v Fourth in North etc.. Using the Top Fours should hopefully keep most teams interested for most of their Season.. Finalists would have therefore a total of 50 matches, with effectively Three play off home matches to hopefully generate 'better than 900' crowds... Maybe run each meeting with an advertised £10k Prize rather than just paying out the £10k in Salary to both teams..? Much better for marketing purposes... In fact advertise the Prize Money for the League as the TOTAL of ALL the matches that make the League up, (it will run into MILLIONS)... Not 'small time' that level of Prize Money!... Now THAT would make people sit up and take notice of the Sport!! And more 'proper' matches against local opposition has to be the way forward surely if 'team speedway' is going to continue? And plenty of 'subs on the bench' can replace injured riders or off form riders (just like other Sports do) which can only deliver the credibility oh so lacking when 'guestfests' take place. Two Conferences would bring variety too... Who knows? Maybe the 16 teams could market themselves collectively like the US Conference Leagues do? eg, Sharing all production costs of a range of bespoke branded merchandising nationally and therefore share the sales income too? Producing merchandise for 16 teams will deliver a mucn better purchase cost price and profit margin than each track doing it individually and each product can be 'branded' the same apart from the Club Insignia.... Whatever the way forward.. Each club will need to recognise that their business can only be successful if the businesses of their opponents are at least sustainable, and egos may need to be reigned in somewhat too when it comes to aligning yourself with certain levels of riders. The level of rider YOU may want to have in your team may not be affordable for the collective so compromise will be needed... 16 teams coming to the tapes at the start of the season all with a reasonable shout of the 8 play off places would be the utopian outlook I would suggest... Whether it can be worked out as a collective, honestly and fairly, and without anyone getting 'stiched up' is obviously open to debate...

It would have to be a fan of over 20 years ago I would say... Since circa 2000 many fans have predicted the current situation as simply it was the ONLY outcome if British Speedway followed the same path of destruction... Too many Mickey Mouse meetings which by definition then led to Mickey Mouse Championships eventually eroded the patience (and interest) of even the most ardent of fans.... Quantity of Speedway meetings became the mantra rather than the Quality of them... All to pay for the far too many riders over this time who became full time professionals meaning they needed shed loads of meetings to earn a decent living after paying out 'daft money' on machinery and tuning, all to keep up with those with true genuine talent who would, by natural selection, inevitably rise to the top of the Sport. (Like has happened ongoing since 1928)... The only way of paying for this 'professionalism' was to run more and more meetings of less and less credibility, and charge inflation busting admission fees year on year to desperately try and compensate for the ever growing annual reduction in income, all due to dissilusioned fans leaving the Sport in double digit % numbers each season.. Sky must have pumped in circa £20M to British Speedway over this time with the net result of diddly squat in positive impact to the Sport today... Riders, bike and engine manufacturers, and tuners will all have earned a staggering amount of money in this time (an even more staggering amount given the actual size of the Sport I would suggest)... If only half of that £20M had been invested in proper marketing and advertising of the Sport, maybe used as 'Prize Money' rather than 'wages' to give Championships some credibilty and kudos, or even used to subsidise admission costs, I would suggest the Sport in Britain would be a million miles better off than it is today..... Sadly, when fans the length and breadth of the Country gave the Promoters some excellent constructive feedback in Speedway publications and social media, no one actually listened... Maybe they were genuinely deaf? Or maybe they were just simply arrogant...? One thing is for sure... They need to start listening now, and do something about it immediately... Before it truly is too late...

100% on all points... Unfortunately as they all 'self police' they all know that taking any disciplinary action will set a precedent that each of them will inevitably suffer from in the future... Hence the reasons we have some many 'vague rules' as they all then know they have a collective 'get out of jail free card' to be played when they want to do something alien to any proper Sports administration.. Lift up the carpet, brush (literally in this instance) the dust under it, replace the carpet, and then tip toe away... Nothing to see here, move along please...

Did a fair job i thought... The peg might have been being used to keep the dust out of her nostrils....

Just been thinking the same thing... Maybe it would be better for the GP's on BT, the SEC on Eurosport, and the domestic Leagues of Poland and Sweden on Premier to 'showcase' the Sport? And British Speedway then 'hoover' up any inquisitive non Speedway followers and ex fans who decide to 'give it another go'... Now don't get me wrong. .. Anyone attending for the first time, or maybe after a long sabbatical from the sport, are probably more than likely never going to set foot in a Speedway Stadium again when they see what British Speedway serves up to them, however.., It would at least mean a few more admission fees being paid in to the Sport that 100% wouldn't be there if people judged whether it was worth attending by watching British Speedway on TV regularly.... Incredibly and contradictory as it sounds.... A Sport could actually (and uniquely) benefit itself by NOT 'promoting' itself on TV!!! Instead just live off the backs of those who can do it well and build a business around your obvious linkage to them... "When The Seagulls Follow The Trawler" and all that...

What do BT Sport think? I suspect they must scratch their collective heads and try to work out how what they show on Saturday nights from various parts of the World, can be in any way, shape or form related to what they show on Mondays from tracks around Great Britain.... The last three nights have shown us in one meeting exactly the HUGE potential the Sport has, but in the other, completely why it can never fulfill that potential in British domestic racing.... With such 'raw materials' with which to work, it really is a disgrace, and in equal measure, a travesty, the way the Sport is ran in Britain... It can never change though if the same people, who have 100% brought British Speedway to exactly where it is today, remain in sole charge of the future of the Sport too... Its a crying shame.... It really is..

Exactly... Should have been 'drowned' overnight.... I know the lads at the NSS do this if it's expected to be sunny and hot on the day of the meeting... Then gets another good soaking during the afternoon and finally about 30 mins to tapes up... Result? A grippy first half dozen races then the dirt gets turned over and 'proper racing' takes place...

They definitely won't want one for the Speedway. .. In just 48 short hours you go from Cardiff, which delivered exactly why so many of us fell in love with this Sport... To Swindon, and why so many of us are now totally pissed off with it..... A true microcosm of how to run exactly the same Sport, but with a world of difference in terms of capability and execution.... Maybe it is now time to just be kind and put Speedway (British Speedway) out of its misery? Let's face it, it's not really going to get any better than this is it?

Definitely not when the Boat Race is on. .. Might impact the crowds....

A wee wee would be too much for it to hold..

Batch definitely not impressed. ...

"Adam Ellis going wider and wider chasing the dirt".... to quote Nigel... If he is really chasing the dirt he is going to finish his race in Bristol...

They are all riding it OK until they suddenly hit a nightmare spot on the track...

Good to see it seems to be getting better then?

Heat 10.... Last one out, switch the lights off please.... Be interesting to see what the Polish teams make of tonight... Might find a few lads getting a touch of 'Summer Flu' on Monday and Wednesdays between now and season end... (Oh, and on Thursdays too)... (And some still criticise Woofy for not riding in Britain?)..

Isn't there a duty of care for the riders on behalf of those who expect them to ride? I have said that I think Speedway has to lower it's ability level of rider to keep going and be affordable... However, I am slowly coming to the conclusion that having 'lesser' riders on some British Speedway tracks would be nothing but carnage... If Morris and Musielak cannot ride it then you cannot ever really comprehend running meetings with a much lower standard of rider making up the majority of team places.. Cricket Test Matches would get completed quicker than a Speedway Meeting...