mikebv

The promoters have created "full time pros" with the constant doubling up and fundamental need for guesting... And those who do it the most are the ones who are more towards the end of their careers rather than the start... No idea how they will fill team spots in a few years time, and if those closed tracks ever come back then what will they do?

100%... However... "I want you to spend around £10k on two very good bikes, maintain them using an expensive tuner, and be available at all times as we will have a fixture list but it will change constantly, and you will be needed to guest at a moments notice"... And. If you do that, I will pay you tens of thousands, and we could win something that actually gets us to meet the local mayor of our local town!"...

Again, it goes back to a lack of vision, strategy and direction... Other sports have used the TV money well by ensuring they elected a person to work with them in driving their sport forward... Someone give autonomy by the clubs, to ensure that agreed exacting standards are maintained by the clubs, no "self policing", or "taking your bat and ball home" if you don't get your own way, and no deciding what league is best for me to run in.. But that someone is held to account also to ensure they deliver a sport moving forwards... They should have been "building a brand", using experts in that field, and using marketing experts to attract new interest from Joe Public and businesses, and using experts in event management to deliver a "match day experience" that encourages repeat visits, and targets families... Instead they did.... ?????

It has zero identity, nor brand... It is neither a sport, nor sports entertainment.. The promoters of yesteryear knew some pantomime villains got crowds engaged.. The racing was often just part of the package.. UK Speedway was always a bit made up and contrived, but often had thousands in attendance so the spectacle seemed to have some resonsnce, and relevance... Now its hundreds that watch in three quarter empty stadia, without the same atmosphere, and even more contrived than it used to be..

Speedway, sadly, doesn't often own the land that ultimately can leverage any debt... Debt is actually good if you can make more money using someone else's, and then pay them back... Living off sponsors money, and only renting your track, with assets that only cover tractors, air fences, and starting gates etc etc, is pretty much, ultimately, built on sand...

The sport, sadly, is riddled with ex riders iin positions that just being an ex speedway rider doesn't qualify you for... From Commentators, to CEO's, to Promoters, to Marketing... All require a specific skill set, based on successful experience in that particular field... UK Speedway keeps everything "n house", insular, and "that will do" as a measure of success...

Riding under a flag of convenience for most.... When you can guest for someone else and the points you score ultimately can prevent your own team reaching the play offs, I am not sure how any rider becomes emotionally attached to any team.. I remember Troy Bachelor guesting for Poole in a TV covered match, probably a decade or so ago, quite late on in the season, when they were possibly going to miss out on the play offs... He top scored and was given "Rider of the Night" by Kelvin, as Poole won to keep their play off hopes alive... A few weeks later he was back at Poole riding for his own team in the Play Off semi, and Poole knocked them out!!!! Riders, Fans, Promoters... None can really take it too seriously can they?

Goes back to an independent body Iain... The sport is desperate for a vision, and strategic journey to deliver that vision... Sadly, too many have no thoughts as to the overall growth of the sport, as, basically, they have no interest in growing it... It is just an "affordable" hobby for many.... And, no disrespect to them either, as they are never going to get rich off any financial reward for winning any UK Speedway title.. Three leagues exist, where many have no interest in winning, given the costs of doing so could mean they close down... Not a great starting point is it?.. Too many promoters have far too many different individual agendas, needs and wants, to ever make the sport (in the UK) successful...

Hope it goes well... There must still be many people from that neck of the woods who still would return to support the team such was their local following... Bigger crowds than Wolves at Monmore wasn't it? Which suggests a huge potential.. Loved my visits to Cradley, especially the pork sandwiches!! Watched one of the best races in the thousands I have seen at Dudley Wood.. Jason Lyons led Billy Hamill for two and three quarter laps and Billy went under him on bend four, lap three.. Jason chased him and repassed him, bend two on the outside, on the last lap.. Not many races see a "repass" when a top rider is in front, without him making a mistake.. A cracking race track (even if the second turn had a bit of adverse camber), and always a very big crowd... Best Wishes...

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...