mikebv

Far too deceptively clear and comprehensive.... You can see where so many sponsors could get a bit confused can't you?!!! (Where's the bit at the end that states 'NB. Ignore all the bollox above, this is speedway mate, we just make it up as we go along)!!

hard to see what they can do 'if' the bspa have been knowingly flouting the employment laws over the past few years... looks like the 'aaaah, but this is speedway' catch all excuse for any farce that occurs, doesnt cut any ice with government agencies trying to uphold the law of the land! maybe we should ask them to review the guest rider rule!!! given british speedway's slavish following of averages wouldnt it be ironic if grading these riders in such a haphazard way over the years has delivered this scenario? maybe that is why other sports highly reliant on non europeans such as both rugby codes, ice hockey and basketball have not been challenged ie they dont grade them against british competitors performance levels..? chickens coming home time for the sport... (for the umpteenth time)

anyone know if basketball and ice hockey have similar issues?? presume they must as the law is the law...?? they do all seem to have Yanks and Canadians, however they are certainly not 'elite' as they would be playing in their own countries surely?? to be honest its a shame that the same doesn't apply for many European riders, ie the many journeymen who arrive through a revolving door and apply their trade in the PL taking the opportunity away for a Brit to improve his career whilst never getting any better themselves.... still 'rules are rules' let's hope that promoters look to fill any void with British lads rather than more 5 point (at best) European non entities...

burn him!!! burn him!!! buuuuuurrrrrrrrnnnnn hiiiiimmmmmmmm! or at least put him on a ducking stool to see if he weighs the same as a duck..... seriously, let him get a job but not a 'nice one', that would be 'ok' and will let lots of people sleep better in their beds, feeling justice has been done (again in his case)and we can all self righteously move on..... no maybe not, changed my mind, because he's a 'role model' his actions could warp the fragile minds of the yoof of today, yes that makes sense, if my son behaves the same it is down to evans not me as his dad who has brought him up so..... let's buuuuuuurrrrrrrrrnnnnnn hiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmm

As the band play on, the Captain of the Titanic orders his men to (once more) rearrange the deckchairs....

always worth a read, plenty of content that is relevant (even with t'internet to contend with) ... as professionally presented, if not more so, as any sports magazine available.... in fact, the irony, sadly, is that the professional standard it delivers isn't reflected the same in the sport it covers.....

a great website,....

Not to many of the promoters who own clubs it isn't.... And therein lies the problem.. To many of the promoters it is a 'winning at all costs business' as they incredibly still see winning trophies as having some 'kudos'.... Hence the minute any new rules are ratified, many will go through in fine detail what the rule 'doesn't say' to gain an advantage.. Hence meetings are called off for 'fictitious floods'... Hence meetings are called off due to inclement weather when no one else in the locality has suffered any, yet coincidentally the teams' No1 got injured the night before... Hence tracks are presented, in the vast majority of cases, to provide the home team with a huge advantage rather than be conducive for close racing... Hence 'new' riders' averages are often 'surprising', FTR levels are changed, and sudden illnesses take place to enable 'guest' riders who ride a specific track better to ride in a meeting.. I do know of a conversation with a promoter re the lack of entertainment his track threw up every week and he flatly said entertainment is a bonus, as winning is the aim each week with the ultimate aim being a trophy at the end of the season... Two diametrically opposing requirements from the sport,.. One demanded (and delivered) by those who run it... The other (and often ignored) is demanded by those who pay to get in to watch... The ultimate irony of course is that winning with someone else's riders is usually the outcome so how can anyone get any real 'kudos' from that?? Simply no one out of the (ever dwindling) 'Speedway Bubble' will ever care.... And until entertainment becomes the key watchword from a night out watching the sport, Speedway will continue to disappear off even more people's radar...

Six man teams? Clubs buy and maintain box standard bikes making them club assets, only spare parts registered and approved to be used, machine examiners to review? Salary cap of 5k a team per meeting? - anyone found contravening gets points deduction or even thrown out of the league? Advantages. No big tuning costs, economies of scale when purchasing bikes/spares, clubs increase asset value with bikes to sell on 'used', just a 10k revenue from the home meeting pays for the home and away meetings - at 15 quid its an attendance of just 800 after VAT paid.. 800? ridiculous to even discuss such low numbers but that is the reality of the sport's position, (with many not even getting that), hence to carry on paying up to 3k a night for EL riders and PL riders on well over 1K a match is simply business suicide... yet it doesn't seem to be sinking in too quickly does it?

If Team racing is to stay AND be seen as a vehicle to drive the sport forwards in this country then for me the following could be the answer.. One Elite League of 8 x six men teams, meet once home and away, same night racing, all riders graded A - E for team strength planning, team strengths to be high enough to include two 'A grade' riders per team'. just 48 riders needed leaving plenty of riders to be drafted in to cover injuries - (A league basically built to showcase the sport on TV) - NO GUESTS One Premier League based on the SWC with 4 teams per meeting, 5 riders per team (4+1 reserve), 16 teams all regionalised with the top teams in each region going to a 4 leg semi/ final, all riders graded A - E for team strength planning, No 'A grade' riders to keep costs down/lower team strengths, 80 riders needed so again plenty of riders to be drafted in to cover injuries and NO GUESTS!! The Elite League teams can enter the second comp (if they want to) as long as they comply with the competitions team strengths, oh and NO GUESTS... All other clubs who don't go in the EL or PL can run National League, configured any which way as basically it will include a mixture of riders who at any given moment can replace unavailability in the PL or be complete rookies learning their trade, the planning of the heats should reflect this difference in standards to ensure competitive racing.. Probably bollox, but at least its a plan to improve what we have, something I sadly don't have any faith in the current sports' rulers having.....

Team racing in its current guise isn't worth carrying on with as it is simply now a farce.. When 50% of the competitors in a play off semi final are guests it really is time to give it up.. Maybe tracks running individual events once a month with big prize money is the answer? Maybe run once a month, charge £15 and see if you can get 2000 there with a months worth of advertising/promotion... Prize money of 25k (or maybe more) would be achievable I am sure with a 2k crowd and meeting sponsorship, and maybe the sport should do what many other motorsports do and charge the competitors to compete? (16 riders at £200 quid would generate the rent money surely?) Stock cars pack crowds in due to not racing weekly and has even less of a public recognition than speedway.. The sport needs to go very much back to basics and given the embarrassment of team speedway nowadays in relation to credibility and integrity then maybe some high profile individual meetings will once again put the sport back in the public eye and if successful after a couple of years maybe restart team speedway again? And this time try and get it right..!

I believe that at least 12 promoters cannot make those dates so the BSPA have drafted some guest promoters in for 10 of them and 'Promoter replacement' is being used for the other two.....

Or teams go to six men a side and omit the big names, ?? for what some GP's No1's get in salary you could pay three 'good riders', (or half a six man team)...

I can watch a football match between two teams I don't care about in the hope I may get some satisfaction/excitement generated by great goals or bits of skill from one or two players.. The same can be said for my cricket, rugby, baseball, American football etc watching The difference though, watching these professional sports, is that I don't need to 'put their problems aside' when watching them as they don't have the glaring 'self inflicted ailments' speedway has. (and surely any sport that needs paying spectators to make 'allowances' for what they are watching is, by definition, on a pretty downward spiral?).. With speedway, many fans seem to want 'Utopia' ie a winning team and great entertainment, which isn't ever going to be achieved, however what can be achieved is four riders in each race, racing for 'their' clubs only, of commensurate ability, in a competition that has 'integrity' as its fundamental foundation.. I still watch the EL on TV similar to how I watch the sports mentioned above, and make a point of watching the GP's in particular as they often provide great entertainment, however... In any team sport (let alone one that is allegedly professional) there has to be 'integrity' of both competition rules and regulations, and participants eligibility.. Speedway has no 'integrity' of either hence so many no longer pay good money to attend.... You may be happy to 'forget those problems' and enjoy just watching four lads compete in each race you see(?) However, thousands of fans, who have simply 'voted with their feet' over the past decade or so, would appear to want some 'integrity' with their racing... One thing is for sure, 'if' the sport does eventually 'die', it wont be the fault of those who decided to leave it behind and stopped paying their money to attend 'live' because they got disillusioned with it... Because quite simply if you 'go to the wall' failing to provide what your customers wanted, particularly when you have had so much direct and databased feedback from them, then you clearly have no one to blame but yourself....

buxton.....

not read the whole thread so it may already be covered but.... with melbourne now being the final gp and the possibility of the gp winner being virtually known before the meeting (similar to this year), will bsi do a 'double points' final round like F1 are doing?.. If its a foregone conclusion who has won, it will I am sure adversely effect the crowd so anything which prevents this will I would have thought be considered. ?.

really?? a business can get too much free of charge, unsolicited, databased information to improve its performance and you think its a bad thing? it should be manna from heaven... if they so wanted, any promoter spending say just an hour on here would see more than enough clear common threads running through it to guide them in sorting out 'the key issues' which have driven so many fans away... alternatively, they could simply cut through all this crap on here and do some professional market research as to what the fans really want...? neither I would suggest will happen..

no need, so many of the reasons why so many people no longer attend in the numbers required to make speedway viable at so many tracks are there for all to see having been well documented on here, the speedway star, and virtually every unofficial website which covers individual tracks over the past decade or so... those that run the sport have decided (as is their wish) to ignore the feedback they have been given from paying (or should that be no longer paying) customers and are now reaping their rewards for their 'we know best/you take it or leave it' attitude,,, I suppose I could 'enlighten them' by saying that 'when running a business, listen to your customer's feedback to help you grow' but I would suggest any business man or woman who needs someone to tell them that, shouldn't probably be someone running a business in the first place..

Yet another track biting the dust.... Can't understand it personally. ? Especially given the way that the promoters of the sport do such a great job in running it..

3 guests and rr for one team? 1 guest and rr for the other? the PL is becoming the same sad joke as the EL.... did a farce like this generate a decent crowd?

Lots of sports use 'seedings' to try and set up the 'perfect final' therefore speedway should look at doing the same...

FFS!!! Now we finally see progress and all of a sudden the soddin name becomes an issue to some!!! It will be the largest purpose built speedway stadium in the country therefore calling it a 'National' stadium is both apposite and gives the sport a definitive arena with which to promote itself to the outside world.... For me, well done to the managment of the aces, truly a heroic effort to get where we are, however as many have said, no point having a nice new stadium to stand or sit in which showpieces the sport wonderfully and then see Wolves turn up to race with five guests.....

Why when there is no 'TV pressure' (unlike in the EL) does the PL have to put the cut off so early? Seems barmy..... But then again, what's one more barmy decision. ?...

F1 tnis year are having a 'double points' race at the final GP, presumably to contrive the fact that the title can still be won on the day.. You can lose at both cricket and rugby yet get 'bonus points' for doing so... Football teams in European competition can draw over the two legs of the tie and win! And horse racing deliberately contrives results by making some horses run with more weight on their backs to slow them down All 'credible' sports I would say yet with rules that do appear strange..

Some suggestions for next year? Try and avoid running meetings during the summer school holidays, much better to leave these weeks blank and then try and cram in loads of outstanding fixtures into the colder, darker nights when the kids have gone back to school. Make sure your number of meetings ran by the end of august results in loads of double headers being required to complete the league before cut off dates. Ideally these double headers will be advertised as starting a half hour earlier than a normal meeting, but will only start in reality about ten minutes before the usual single meeting start time. This should result in both meetings not being finished but at least ten races completed in each will provide a result (and save ten races worth of points money). Team strengths next year shouldnt be used, simply clubs should put together ' select' teams on a week by week basis using up to five guests, one rider of their own and rider replacement. Riders should be allowed to pick and choose their meetings and then get paid ridiculous unsustainable salaries when they do deign to honour us with their presence. Finally admission charge increase should be inflation busting and programme cover prices should have no correlation with what the true value of the programme actually cost to make... There, some mighty fine original ideas I would suggest, however I am sure some may say 'way too far fetched' and 'would never be implemented'? Well we will see....