mikebv

A "perfect scenario", I 100% agree.. However, some promoters pay for their lifestyle, and pension, off what they make from running a Speedway Team, (and fair play to them).... (And you can do that, just as well, in the 2nd tier, so why "move up"?).... Some promoters are quite happy to just be Speedway Promoters, running in front of any number of fans, as long as any losses are within budget... The bottom line is the operating model is now ran for the riders to earn money which justifies a significant outlay... Winning any of the competitions has very limited reward, either financially or publicity wise.. So why would I tender to, ultimately, increase my costs, if my business was sustainable, or even, very profitable..?

Of course.. However .. Being profitable down to having great sponsorship doesn't help when developers move in... Having thousands in attendance every week does make a difference when you want to influence a local authority and, possibly even more importantly, having the local councillors of those thousands, having to listen to them and support their views... Or they get voted out..

The developers moved in because they could... If those clubs had 5,000 a week then that would have been a very different scenario played out... I remember a photo of about 30 Swindon fans stood by a gate with some badly hand written signs... This was a "protest", and didn't "look good".. 5,000 fans, plus friends and acquaintances, walking through Swindon on a Saturday afternoon doing a "proper protest" and what has happened since might not have taken place... 5,000 fans and the landlords would get much more rent too, so maybe not so quick to "cash in".. Sadly, it took a long time for the custodians of the sport to "get it together" to try and defend the tracks, as a collective, against fhe developers.. The cynic in me could even think that some saw a closure as an opportunity to gain certain riders for fhe following season.. So many tracks lost in the past two decades, and, even now, 14 promoters seemingly cannot agree on how to run the sport, with some more clubs closing being a possible outcome...

But that is one of the major problems the sport has... They are all "minnow clubs" in the grand scheme of things... Do any average more than 1800 a meeting? Many seem to average less than 1000... It must be so difficult for those working hard to bring tracks back, and make out the local community "wants Speedway" that, when they ran, hundreds rather than thousands, regularly visited those tracks....

Maybe, but there is still the fundamental question of.. "Where would the riders come from?"... If fhe likes of Swindon, Coventry, Wolves, and Peterborough came back over the next couple of years, all the tracks in the sport would need to use a level of rider that it appears some fans don't want to see used now.... So many issues to overcome, sadly many of which are down to a lack of providing young UK riders with plemty of ring fenced opportunities... With many of them being "victims of fhe numbers game" in double changes, even when they increased their averages.. Maybe going forward you should only be able to replace a 2pt rider with another one, and not be allowed to make them a makeweight in any double changes?

Is there really a need for these tracks to reopen though? Where would the riders come from to fill the teams? Forget guesting, some would need to sign for two teams in the same league!!! Isn't the cold hard reality that these clubs closing has actually helped to keep others going?

The sad reality is not many in the UK will even notice, nor care, if five teams don't come to the tapes next year.... It's been ran like a private members club, with, for a good many, a hobby rather than a sport, for so long, to become almost irrelevant... Eastbourne, Somerset, Peterborough, Coventry, Swindon, Wolves, Stoke, Exeter, Reading, Newport, Lakeside, Newcastle, Hull, Rye House, and the IOW have all closed since 2005 from the top two leagues.. Hardly been a ripple from outside the sport has there?

We even have Sunday deliveries now to "catch up" and meet their agreed contract with the Government... Luckily I have three Supermarkets and an ex WHSmiths, who still stock it, within 10 mins... Every Thursday on sale in each...

Not as simple as that... Some Double Uppers may get their best individual sponsorship from someone who follows their Championship team... Eg a new bike paid for... To presume those already signed for Championship teams would "jump ship" for "more money" should one league happen, and that be the only option, is too simplistic... Especially as signed contracts hold people to account ..

It is doomed whatever they do, given the lack of teams, the high average age of the HL level of riders, and the lack of riders of the required level being developed... Keeping the patient on life support in the hope a miracle cure is found over the next two or three years is probably the best all can hope for.. It shows just how much the sport in the UK is just set up for the riders to earn as much as they possibly can, rather than being set up to be seen as bona fide team sport championships..

The rules are set... Hence the Championship are planning for next season... If the Premiership cannot come to the tapes then those clubs will need to put out teams together from riders who haven't yet got a team place, "if" the Championship let them in...

They will be holding the launch in the telephone box outside the NSS next season...

For me, it was when England stopped dominating... You could watch PC winning races for England in incredible fashion on regular Saturday afternoons, and the country was the best on the world... A good news story... Then the Yanks and the Danes were trained up by the UK, and took over, and much wider public interest was lost... And then World Of Sport disappeared... The domestic leagues backed onto the England teams success hugely at the time... Then they started to import journeymen after journeymen, short term, instead of developing UK riders for the longer term team place requirements.. And, sadly, it has been a constant stream of "no plans, no vision, no strategy" other than "the next season will be like this, (hopefully)"...

You do get a sense that there is a "civil war" in the offing...

I think for the nine Championship teams it is probably "business as usual", and they will have their teams sorted... Anyone they allow in later, (should they even do that), will just have to put together who they can...

Another excellent read... I would skip page 33 though if anyone is buying it...

Lifeguard at the GP's?

Hit your Century, raise your bat, and then get bowled out!! I think it will carry on in some way shape or form with around ten clubs or so... Those clubs trying desperately to return ie Coventry, Swindon and Peterborough, would/could boost the numbers, ironically though, needing to use a standard of rider that some seem to not want to use now should one league be a possibility next season, given the rider numbers available... A hell of a lot of planets need to align over the next few years to save the sport you would have to think.. There cannot be any other team sport surely that has lost as many teams over the past decade that UK Speedway has...?

And the savvy ones will be doing their utmost to keep them in 2027 when/if the Poland+1 league, kicks in...

Then their £400k to £600k contracts in Poland will just have to do them to "tide them over"... Edit. With a nice "high" five figure pick up from Sweden..

I think you will find that that was all Workington's fault mate... An amazing situation, but, in keeping with so much that went before, and gone on since... The last thing you need is any track finding its "sweet spot", best night to ride on isn't it?

If you had the chance to get Bewley, Kurtz, Fricke, Doyle and Jack Holder to your track for the first time in Donkeys/Ever, you would probably work "very hard" on ensuring the fixture list delivered them, wouldn't you? Maybe, on occasions, Friday night tracks becoming Saturday night tracks, and vice versa, to ensure they could appear at your track...

There is no doubt Chris Louis is/was, one of the most forward , modern thinking promoters... However, you have to say that the bar is very, very low... What did Ipswich average last year for a basic POQ against the likes of Oxford and Birmingham? 1700? 1800 maybe? In UK Speedway terms, undoubtedly very, very good, but, again, as the bar is set so low, it is hardly "Barnum and Bailey" promoting levels is it? (One for the teenagers there) The Hawkins comments come across as almost blaming others for not doing what Ipswich do, however, for many, they don't need to, as their other businesses bankroll their team, or, they own tracks with other revenue streams that can subsidise their teams.. Clubs getting, (and quite happily surviving), on crowds of 600 or so could spend plenty of money increasing their attendances, however even if they got a 25% increase (a huge actual % in reality), it would still only be 750 a night, and nowhere near enough to compete with other clubs getting double... As we have seen, some teams go bankrupt by winning Speedway Championships and close, therefore why would clubs attempt to compete with those who can sustain the costs of more expensive riders, and put their own existence at risk? It isn't the fault, nor incumbent of, the Championship Teams to take (the very, very clear) risks by "moving up" just because a small minority of clubs won't deviate from their own inflexible business plans.. Fair play to Chris Louis for getting out if his expectations and aspirations can no longer be met, and good luck to him, he will definitely be missed by UK Speedway, however, it isn't the fault of any other club that Chris didn't want to ride in a five team league or one "big league".. That was, in his opinion, a business decision he felt wasnt right for him and Ipswich, and he will know his business model better than anyone.. Let's hope he finds a buyer and Ipswich come to the tapes next season..

Against the same four (maybe three), teams ad nauseum all season...? For what? Maybe another year? Two years? It isn't Brady's fault the likes of him and others are not affordabe for more teams to join the "top league"... And it isn't the Championship Team's fault that some in the "top league" have such a one dimensional business plan, that they seem unable to change...

In last weeks Speedway Star, Danny Ford specifically mentioned the tangible negative impact on the crowd level that any home defeat brings to the next meeting... Regardless of how well they are doing overall in the league, it can be an immediate drop... Hence, Poole winning is essential to their business plan, and as they "pay their mortgages" off the profits, rather than run it as a hobby, it has to be profitable... Maybe that is why they see no plus side to "moving up" as they could easily spend six figures more to win less home meetings... Let's face it, they are currently the biggest fish in the biggest pond, given the "puddle" that is the Premiership... So many Promoters want so many different things to ever make it succesfully work I would suggest... Therefore the majority who are quite happy with what they have got, and can deliver, will always hold sway.. Ritchie Hawkins mentions in the piece that the sport needs some "independent" leadership.. Is that a "new thing" amongst some Promoters "all of a sudden?"... However, given so many want so many different things from running a Speedway Team, if has gone well beyond that.. Maybe if an independent person/entity could fully sponsor the league, it could happen, but any promoter bank rolling their teams losses each season isn't going to let someone with zero financial input dictate the direction they should be heading.. Turkey's don't vote for Christmas.. The sport is knackered (over here), isn't it, (from a bona fide "serious sport" perspective)... Far too much to unpick, far too much self interest to allow radical change, far too many different needs and wants to get any general consensus as to a fit for purpose, future fit plan.. In last weeks Speedway Star, Paul Burbidge mentioned the legacy that a previous generation of promoters could have left, as, when the going was good, they didn't invest in purchasing tracks, which has left the sport threatend by land developers... 50 years later, however, these people would no longer be with us, and maybe their families would have taken over, or someone else had bought the track.. With these people possibly quite happy to sell up to developers given they would have seen, and been part of, the allowed, condoned, unchecked decline over the past two decades in particular.. And just imagine trying to deliver enough riders for Coventry, Peterborough, Birmingham, Swindon, Lakeside, Somerset and Wolverhampton today? Each meeting would need to be a "Best Pairs"!! It feels like its almost time for "snookers needed"...