mikebv

Surely more meetings will ultimately mean more guests? Top riders sharing positions is fine until inevitably they are both missing as riding in the same Polish league match (planned or rearranged) during the week. Or racing in the GP qualifying or racing in the SEC or Euro Pairs etc etc etc... Eg which of your two/three GP squad riders would want to race on the Thursday before a Friday GP practice? "He's not riding so why should I?" would become a common situation I would imagine.. And is it really worth planning your whole seasons fixtures around ten or so riders, racing on nights when if you could get a crowd that night, you would surely be riding on that night now!? The sport over here as a whole, would be better off running on nights when each track feels it can generate its biggest crowd level.. If that includes 'superstars' then fine. If it doesn't then also fine.. Fans may want 'superstars' (although the crowd levels falling off a cliff in the last 20 years even though the majority of 'superstars' did race over here in this time may prove otherwise), but fans want consistent teams more, seven, six (or even five?) man teams who are available EVERY week except for when injured. THEIR riders, riding for THEIR team. Use that rationale as a starter for ten in team building and build the rest of the details on race nights, team strengths etc, around it.. The tail is wagging the dog in British Speedway. The promoters should start to take back control of THEIR part of the Sport..

Clubs often run two meetings in a week when one of their meetings is on Sky with often an (understandable) dreadful crowd attending the TV meeting... Yet will plan in to have weeks and weeks and weeks without a match.... More self inflicted pain that really shouldnt be beyond sorting....

That thrown away 5-1 comes back to haunt them now..

Do them 'bunny ears' again Gary... Go on.... It was hilarious... Do it Gary... . Please.... Your team need you to be so funny.....

8-1!!!! The crowd goes wild......!!!! All twelve of them......

That is a 'live shot' taken at the track.... Topped himself rather than watch anymore!!!

Any watching local councillors will be very impressed with the level of 'Save Our Speedway' support tonight.... The Cov fans have turned out in their 'tens'..... (Or is it their 'ones')....? A dying club I fear looking at the apathy on and off track.....

But he's warped my 13 year old son's fragile mind..... (Probably).... etc etc etc.......

Great meeting..... A truly Great Sport when done well.... Some proper 'old school' handlebar bashing too, well done to the ref for allowing races to continue.... Unlucky Woffy, superb riding from a genuine British all time great Speedway rider.... Lindback probably deserved it though (just)... What was the crowd? About 45000?? Think I may have heard about 5 not cheering for Woffy.......!! On another subject.... Should the Brazilian Antonio Lindback ride for Sweden in the SWC......? Tee hee.....

A similar story is sadly often told at these 'special offer' meetings... When three people have paid thirty quid, getting them to see 50 odd quid for the same product as 'good value' a week later is asking a lot... A shame as it shows that there is a huge untapped market out there for the sport... It is invariably though the 'price point' that is the key determinant whether these people attend or not.... Last night saw a 'top of the table' clash between BV and Wolves and delivered what looked like the Aces' worst gate of the season as the match was on Sky, football on the box, and full price charged... What should have been a showcase for the sport looked sadly nothing of the sort with the gaps in the stands... You would think, especially for the clubs who get the bar and food take, that getting as many punters in as possible would be the aim, lose a bit on the admission, gain a lot more in the bar and food outlets... And probably more importantly, let a full stadium show the wider TV watching sporting public that your sport is worth a visit....

Maybe, as it is Speedway obviously, he could 'guest' at other venues should a fan of another track not be able to attend...? His feedback and input could be invaluable to the incumbent promotional team I am sure.....!

Pretty basic but dont know why Periscope for instance isnt used to do interviews during breaks between races with managers and riders... Couldnt the dvd company provide the feed? BV has its own wifi (great idea by the way), so it would be accessible to the crowd.... Doesnt need fortunes invested to bring the sport into the modern era... Just a bit of thought...

Don't understand the EL v PL racing debate to be honest... Virtually every EL meeting has the majority of its riders from the PL so surely the two leagues' racing cannot be that much different as its delivered by mainly the same people..?

KK the enigma... Truly great to watch at times.. Truly awful at others.... A strange character, never seems to be any in-between...!?

And yet we had two PL meetings on TV last week and Swindon v Cov this Monday coming.. Maybe any of those dates could have been used for what should have been a very attractive fixture show casing two of the top teams in the EL..? Crowd may have been reduced from a 'normal' week due to TV being there but the 'TV payment' would have softened the blow and I would suggest more would still have attended than the level of crowd many say went last night.. Meetings like last night at Lakeside and BV just simply do the sport no favours at all... Yet it appears to be by design and not due to circumstance that these kind of 'select sides' get put together far too frequently.. Which can never be right can it?

We went to Lakeside last year and won with FOUR guests..... Didnt make me as an Aces fan feel any joy to be honest as it wasnt really 'our team'... Still, part of me does get some joy from the vocal Lakeside's promoters getting turned over when (yet again) they put on this type of 'nonsense' Speedway meeting...

To be fair.... When you only have almost a year to organise an event to avoid any clashes, it must be really difficult to remember every little detail (like which riders can be there)...!!! However, just a thought... Maybe matches that clash with FIM meetings when the fixtures are announced at the start of the season should become the 'Sky meetings' on various Mondays..? Everyone seems to move heaven and earth to deliver these matches and many appear to have much less than a years notice to arrange with often 'a few weeks notice' being the norm... We seem to have matches moved from Wednesdays and Thursdays to a Monday from Poole and Swindon so why not avoid those tracks on 'FIM Weeks' and pick a track that races Friday or Saturday..... Maybe BV v KL or Lakeside v Poole could have been this week's Monday offering rather than a PL meeting less effected by 'overseas' clashes meaning these meetings could remain actually credible....? Two PL meetings being shown in an 'FIM impacted' week doesn't seem very well planned does it?

Wow.... Lakeside v Poole and BV v KL..... Two matches..... Four teams..... Six Guests.... Two RR positions.... And Heaven knows how many actual teams represented on the night with the Guests and DU's.. Take it Friday wont be a fixed night in the EL? Still, on the bright side I will save circa 50 quid by now giving this one a miss.... These two matches bring zero integrity in the context of their position within a 'Professional' sports framework.... When will the penny drop with the Sports' organisers that in this day and age people simply wont have the urine extracted...? Not going well Speedway is it?...

Or maybe British Speedway is a total farce with zero credibility? Setting off now from Manchester so I beat the queues......... Dont want to get there too early though as I might end up riding for Poole!!!

One of the fundamental issues with the sport that never gets sorted... ie. Sticking to the original start of season 'theoretical' team average when a 'real' team average has evolved due to 'actual' points being scored... Too many teams have their seasons 'over by July' and suffer poor crowd levels accordingly... A big opportunity for the sport if they sort this... Getting to the end of the season, every team in a league of just eight should have something to ride for to keep their fans, (and when they go away) the home teams' punters interested and therefore still attending... Having teams with 'no hope' does no one any favours...

Still shouldn't ride in the SWC.? Danny King would have been third (at least)... Err... Cookie.... Cookie would have been third (at least).. Err... Scotty.. Scotty would have come third (at least).... Err... Robert... Robert Lambert, he would come third (at least)... Stevie, Richie, Kyle, Eddie, Ben etc etc, they all would have come third in a GP at least... Errr. No they wouldn't..... Well done Chris Harris....

Or possibly the EL Riders Championship fiasco the year before last which he may have attended and he got his timeline wrong...? Let's be fair, it is so very easy to get confused with so many 'British Speedway fiascos' to remember...!

Definitely take a point now.... Wolves very strong at home.... Should be a good meeting....

Surely a Speedway rider without machinery isn't a Speedway rider anymore but a Speedway spectator? Can you have a guest for a spectator now? Or maybe they should!? Thousands of guests replacing the thousands of missing fans could solve a lot of issues!!

To be fair... Looking at todays league table it may be 'squeeky bum time' for the team in fifth... Matches in hand are one thing, scoring points in them are another... Maybe we need an EGM to be called where this year the 'Top 5' qualify for the playoffs??? Or maybe should sudden injuries occur, a few meetings get postponed.. (in the interests of Speedway obviously)....☺