mikebv

Like a cycle Speedway "nudge"... Those moaning never obviously watched Alan Wilkinson and Chris Pusey... Edit (When UK Speedway actually meant something)..

Cant believe Ipswich have signed him...

Great to watch.. Ten years, at least, and never been any different.. Box Office..

Third prize? A free entry into every single UK Speedway meeting...

48..... You're just taking the p*ss...

Racing at the very top level... Kurtz would do exactly the same to him.. As it should be..

Some good racing already...

Our very own Michael McIntyre.... As Bernard Manning would have said.. "About as funny as a burning orphanage"..

He should not have signed for a UK team knowing he would inevitably miss meetings... Thank goodness that Richard is there...

Maybe, therefore, less is more?.. I remember the Stox at the old place, they ran around 10 meetings a year, and got 3500 to 4500, depending on the meeting level... The Aces ran around 3 meetings a month and got the same number as the Stox did with one.. But the Stox atmosphere and "experience" felt more like an "event".. Maybe less, but better promoted Speedway meetings, with tangible decent prizes, is the answer? Something to look forward to?... The reality is, if team Speedway ended tomorrow, by next Sunday, hardly anyone will care, and those 80 million or so who don't attend, with the vast majority of them not even knowing of its existence, won't even notice it has gone..

I won't buy the stream then....

Was it the Leicester TM who said July was the aim to get next year sorted?... I suppose given the fact announcements like the one Workington's manager has made, it results in plans getting made, unmade, made again, and then even unmade again if another track says they won't run, or decides to change Leagues... With so much uncertainty, (even without any landlords suddnely pulling up any drawbridges), it must be hard to make too many commitments.. Add in chasing a TV deal, and how the impact of Poland's "one extra League" hits, (should it happen), and I would think it will be another "let's see where we are come November" before any firm plans are made..

The GP's in Manchester showed you can get a good crowd, paying top dollar, if speedway is "done properly"... And has something worth winning, with jeopardy, consequence, and credibility.. A large amount of those fans being ones who don't attend domestic UK Speedway.. Keep putting out the same old/same old thing, ie dozens and dozens of meetings with the kudos level no higher than that of a testimonial meeting, and you simply won't ever engage enough people to buy what you are trying to sell.. You can only hope that radical and progressive change has been planned with a major reset and relaunch... And that, at least the top tier, has been able to get some decent sponsorship, a TV deal, and a prize size that creates interest...

The plan has been leaked already?...

It all goes back to the size of the prize... Crap racing or great racing? Both would get crowds if the competitions themselves held some enticement... Running a team sport with minimal jeopardy, consequence and rewards just gives an impression of going through the motions to put "some/any Speedway out", regardless of relevance, or credibility.... Promoters will then scratch their heads as to why fans (many of whom still closely follow the sport), are not engaged enough to bother visiting... "If the fans don't come then I will have to close" isn't a threat nowadays, given so many haven't got any emotional attachment to teams anymore, and what is served up isn't being missed one iota by these people...

Some riders just seem to get more grief than others... Which is strange, given these riders take up two team places that, otherwise, both their teams would struggle to fill with someone of their capability...

It says 3pm on the Official Speedway GB Website... An amazingly ran sport... Lets play "Who is right?".

The kind of rider that the sport's success and development relied on during the 60's, 70's and 80's... Then from circa the 90's onwards, so many more riders became "Full time Professionals".. In a sport that couldn't afford them to be... Which also meant many left the sport given they couldn't make it pay to the level they wanted.... Leaving what we have now, a lack of riders, particularly for the "engine room" of teams... A couple of "supestars" and five "Richard Lawson's" per team would be utopia I would suggest...

I was a bit disappointed he didn't do a "John Terry" and just turn up for the medal ceremony in full Leicester Kevlar's...😁

And the common thread through decades of decline has been?... Self Policing and Self Governance... Resulting in short term sticking plasters continually being applied to wounds, which were getting more and more dangerously infected as each season passed...

Read the "Years Ago" section in the Speedway Star each week... All the issues we have today are often mentioned by some promoter or other, particularly in the ten and twenty years ago sections of it... As the GP and Poland landscape changed... Yet, absolute nothing was done... Hence, here we are, at an inevitable conclusion... Does anybody really feel that the completely needed radical change, that is well over due, will ever be delivered?...

Turkey's don't vote for Christmas!!! The BIG difference now though, is that rather than one league always having significantly higher numbers, like over the last couple of decades, (ie tier two), if just two teams "move up" then tier one will have the majority of tracks... The tail no longer will be able to wag the dog... It hasn't been by chance I would think that most BSP Chairmen have been tier two promoters over the recent past... Poland's "one other league" (not one country and two leagues), if they get their way, will be a game changer for UK Speedway... DU riders, who choose the UK, will have a clear decision to make... And, tier two in particular, will be a very different landscape than what we, and they, have been accustomed to for (probably), far too long, particularly as so much DUing has hugely contributed to the current paucity of riders.. Colemans vision of greater demarcation between the leagues over here will organically happen if Poland get their way... And, personally, if I was him, and I had his wider influence, I would definitely be encouraging it to happen. As that would mean the much needed radical change of direction for UK Speedway, would inevitably have to happen, (and I would be able to blame someone else for it!!!)..

He is another in an ever growing list of "outsiders" to come in to Speedway and see potential.. Similar to John Postlelthwaite in that he has feet in both GP and UK Speedway camps, (someone who has continued to be very successful in his own post Speedway career).. Postlethwaite, however, sadly, didn't get listened to with his vision on how to deliver the huge potential the sport has, and neither did those others who also came in from outside the "UK Speedway Bubble" since.. The Speedway Stars "x years ago" section is very telling, almost every week, as they cover off what was being discussed from decades ago, and, almost every week, the same issues that we still discuss today get mentioned as something that "desperately needs sorting"... Meaning many from inside the sport have spotted the clear and obvious issues, (and it isn't just the moaners on the BSF), yet, their view on things obviously fell on deaf ears... (Or maybe not deaf ears but ears with fingers stuck in them and the person going "LA! LA! LA! I can't hear you!!")... Coleman reminds me of Postlethwaite in that politically, and emotional intellectually, he is of a much higher level than many within UK Speedway, and, regardless of whether he gets listened to, will personally be a success in whatever he does in business going forwards... It is a huge opportunity for the sport in the UK to use his capability, contacts and acumen... The, "quite content with their lot, Hobbyists" may not concur though!!! Let's, as fans of the sport, who can also see its obvious potential, (if only just down now to its low point currently), he can deliver significant progress and growth...

I thought his full name was... Justin Elkins EF..... Given it was written so many times in the Speedway Star...

I can't help thinking that Matt's vision was for every team to run a squad system... Rather than UK Speedway itself running a huge one!!! Just think, this was TEN years ago, therefore, given Matt's thoughts wouldn't have been a knee jerk one to a sudden issue, you can only presume it was several years of issues leading up to his thoughts... Which shows, there was obviously an acknowledgment by (at least some), promoters, that the sport needed a better strategy and operating model... Instead, Doubling Up became the game changer that allowed tier two teams to keep riders they had developed, as the riders remained affordable as they got subsidised by tier one teams.. What started out as a laudable development tool, (and had been used for decades successfully in developing UK talent), then became the "go to" strategy for the sport... One rider, two teams, both sharing his salary... Resulting in. Two places for some riders, meaning no places for others.. The even bigger result? Even more Double Up riders being needed, one, due to the lack of riders caused by the lack of development opportunities, particularly in the second tier, and two, an even greater need to share costs due to the ever dwindling fanbase their strategies created... A quite brilliant plan and one that is now fully being felt in all its glory!!