woodenspoon

As Belle Vue now has a total electronic ticket system, with no cash at the turnstiles, they should be able to produce accurate crowd figures for any home meeting. As to why none of the speedway clubs release figures, accurate or otherwise, I will leave for you to reckon why. At best at this time crowd figures can only be a guestimate.

Considering at Belle Vue you can pre-book your tickets on line, there should not be delays due to queues of fans buying tickets at the stadium on the day. It has been common practice at Belle Vue to delay starts due to crowd numbers , or at least that is the excuse they usually trot out. Do not forget you poor folk already in the stadium who have probably planned and got there in good time, that the promotion have already got your money, so they know there is little chance of you being so annoyed that you will walk out, and they are frightened of loosing potential paying customers if they do not delay the start. It is laughable at speedway when you consider that Old Trafford with its many thousands of fans on match days rarely ever delay the kick off, yet speedway has problems with just a couple of thousand fans. It will be interesting to see if Kings Lynn carry out their policy of no more delayed starts.

Glad to see the back of that naff shield design, which I believe cost a packet to design. As a thing of interest for the young supporters, as we have not had a colts badge for a few years, could not the design of this be put out to the young BV fans and a prize given for what is considered to be the best design, and the possibility of that being produced as a badge for sale, and any profits going to the Colts. A project like this was done many years ago I believe.

They should not then be allowed cover for him when absent . The same should apply to all other clubs that sign that agreement.

I wonder what Go Speeds cut will be, probably far more than the clubs will receive, do not understand why the BSPA still goes along with them.

Sad to see Coventry not running 2017. but does this mean a rethink with BV 2017 likely team ?

Is it not possible to move this topic forward, to discussions re the New Promotion & the season ahead, instead of keep going over the same old ground re the last promotion. If members wish to discuss Belle Vue and the old promotion, cannot it be done under a new header. Lets move on and talk about the possible exciting future ahead, for Belle Vue.

I think they should rename the NSS Stadium " Gordon's Folly"

Unfortunately for Ritchie he is handicapped by having a 8.49 average due to the mess made of the averages with protected heats, and the change in that the riders Premier league average from 2016 would be used in team building in 2017. It has always been the case that rule changes brought in by the BSPA have resulted in riders having to move clubs, with the aim in mind to equalise team strengths. The new promotion must be allowed to build the strongest team, in their opinion, under the new regulations. The one thing that appears not to have been done is to inform Ritchie if he is not required this year, by Belle Vue.

I believe there are two sides of a balance sheet. So far we have only seen part of the expense, and outgoing side, of Belle Vue's problems for 2016. What about revealing the income side of 2016, ie Gate Receipts, Sky Money, Sponsor money, Programme sales, Car Park revenue. Track Shop, etc etc. Then we would have a better overall picture of why they went bust.

It appears to me that a lot more is to be revealed about the happenings at Belle Vue 2016. The Forum seems to be split between the members who think that Gordon and Morton are totally blameless, and others suggesting the total opposite. Interestingly the British Final venue for 2017 has yet to be declared. The big problem with calling the Stadium the NSS, is that it works fine in football where all the clubs are quite happy to have all the big matches played there, whereas Speedway promoters like them shared out amongst them all.

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall that the permanent terracing on the South Stand was to be put in over this winter, along with toilets etc. I assume the original plans included all of this, or didn't it ? I suppose the question is who is going to pay for it. As without the extra capacity speedway would hardly be viable at the NSS, and without the cheaper standing viewing a lot of fans could not afford to go.

If there is an agreement with new promoters I do not see it being under what we assume to have been between Gordon & Morton & the Council with BV buying the stadium. I would think it will be an agreement for simply the hire of the stadium and the new promotion just paying a rent, say for 1 year and then see how this turns out, and whether it was economically viable to run speedway at the NSS. The Council will also want cast iron guarantees that any rent will be paid on time. How much revenue can be made from bar & food outlets, and who it will go to is debatable, they could end up like the dog track apart from takings from the car park. BV could also do with attracting other sponsorship, unfortunately in these times that is easier to say than get. It also has not been made clear yet as to whether or not the South stand and its facilities will be completed as per originally planned. Whoever does take over will need deep pockets.

I have just looked at a programme and George Carswell has Promoter against his name, the BSPA have not said that BVs assets have been taken by them, so unsure of current position.

Perhaps, the NSS is just too good for speedway, with its expensive overheads taken into account, and with speedway at its current crowd level. I believe speedway will always be a minor sport and has its own level of followers, which in these days of competition from other events is unlikely to increase. I do really fear for the continuance of speedway at the NSS,. Unless the council is prepared to write off the outstanding arrears, I cannot see any other promotion picking up the tab. I do wonder what happened to all the money that did come in though, and how this state of affairs came about, as it has been suggested that the debt is a lot larger than you could guess at. It was always really the NSS in name only, conveniently to get the place built in the first place, as no way were the other promoters going to allow it to stage the majority of the bigger and more lucrative financially meetings. Sadly some of which used to be classed as the big meetings have diminished in status for example the ELRC that was. The problem with open meetings with a big cash prize, has been that in the past the riders have agreed to share the prize money between themselves, which spoils the whole thing. I prefer team meetings, the only individual meetings with any bite to them are the GPs, and possibly the British Final. We can only hope that the new league structure will help all clubs to survive and attract the fans back in larger numbers.

It would help a great deal if the BSPA produced a set of averages, based upon the last green sheets from 2016. to be used in the respective leagues for 2017 The other thing is what are the assessed averages of new to the UK foreign riders going to be. I can see a lot of team changes after about a month.

It seems to have been bad planning to expect the Stadium to pay its way with just speedway, which only runs 6 months of the year, as you said Phil we need another sport to fill the gap. The centre pitch looks quite large, but is it big enough for a football or rugby pitch, without having to compromise the track corners. Does anyone know if the stadium hosted any other entertainment this year, as without being fully utilised it will never pay its way. The one thing we must all be grateful for is the support of the Manchester City Council, who despite the goings on, are still looking for speedway to continue. Swindon fans take heed, I hope your promotion make a better job of running a stadium than our departed promotion did.

The problem is Phil that the Elite League is stagnant, apart from Leicester, no other teams in the lower league, (and we are likely to lose them in 2017) are exactly queuing to come up. This combined with meeting the same teams twice, means that fans will pick and choose when to go. Also there is only one competition, and if your team looks as though it is not going to make the Play-offs, your season interest could be over by the end of June/ July. The only thing against more teams and fixtures is that they struggle now to get even 14 home meetings over by the time of Sky's deadline.

Even less of a percentage voted to stay in the EU.

I would let Zagar go, he is too hit & miss for my liking as a No1. Scotty has given good service but not fast enough around the NSS, we need to get younger riders in, a young Pole (if they are allowed) would well be worth a try. All wish list, until we know what the promoters decide for 2017.

I didn't see much wrong with Lindgrens overtake of Cookie, hard yes, but have seen worse in the GPs. Looks to me like the handbags were started by the pit crews, nothing wrong in Cookie letting Lindgren know his point of view. From what I have seen, this track is better than the old Hyde Road. A good interview with Adams, talked sense without the bragging. Could be because of the meaningless league fixtures until the play-offs, that crowds are poor during the season. The Elite league needs more teams in it, just stagnating the way it is.

As the final result could all be over by heat 10, will they run the meeting until the end of heat 15, or will enough be enough. Afraid I am going to have to agree with S.S. just too much to pull back. I cannot see Woofinden & Lindgren both doing a Zagar in the meeting. The galling thing for the BV fans will be having to watch the gloating Wolves fans after their team has won.

Yet another shocking first leg in the Play Off final for Belle Vue, we now have the unenviable record of raced 5 matches in the final and never won one. The Wolves fans can get ready to celebrate, baring a miracle, I cannot see Wolves having as many last places at the NSS. A bit premature, but Congratulations Wolverhampton.

If you take the EDR averages from the Elite League latest greensheets, the order they come out at is, 1) S Worrall. 2) K Newman. 3) A Ellis. 4) K. Howarth. 5) L. Rose If on the other hand you take the EDR Averages from the Premier League greensheets, the order is, 1) S Worrall 2) K Howarth ( A Ellis rides in the National League at 10.93 ? what this converts to) 3) J Auty 4) P Starke 5) C Wright 6) K Newman (last three years his Premier average has always been below 7.00) They must not use Premier League averages for EDRs in 2017.