mike1944

The is more info on that link you gave, does not initially look good though. Translated by the website not by me

People may blame TV coverage but that is only one meeting a week and how many times in a season is a club televised. What about all the weeks TV is not there? The biggest problems I can see is that there is a large number of riders who have other commitments, especially the foreign riders, this limits the choice of days when speedway can feasibly be run , so we see a hotch-potch of riders in a team, there is not a team any more to support, with guest riders in abundance. Last year I remember Chris Harris guested so many times he must have appeared in about ever team in the League. Then we look at value for money -- working out at £1 a race, plus programme, sometimes parking and travelling make attending a meeting making attending a meeting way beyond what they can comfortably afford. One can easily do a round trip of 40+ miles, or a few quid to travel, to attend a meeting, get there, and find at the last moment it is rained off. Not very encouraging, is it and can hardly be called good value for money and with more and more people having to watch their pennies speedway will take a hit if they do not soon do something about it.

Well so according to him if nobody turned up for meetings that would be no problem. I know that I would rather set my sights on crowd of 2000 + than an empty stadium.

Isn't the interval just an excuse to spin the meeting out longer so it implies the punters are getting more for their money. There are enough long gaps between races as it is, more than enough time to go to the loo or buy a hot dog.

Poland appears to get decent crowds on a Sunday afternoon and they are really enthusiastic too. I like how they put the 2 minute timer on when the bikes leave the pits and the gates go up 2 minutes later, getting to the starting gate and any gardening, clutch adjusting or goggle adjusting all takes place within this 2 minutes. How is it that Polish supporters can show so much enthusiasm for their sport when the Btitish looks like they are the congregation at a funeral. This showing of Polish speedway on TV just highlights how pathetic the sport is in this country. Very sad I find it. I remember many happy days at Norwich Speedway at the Firs, before they sadly closed, when the riders did a lap of honour when the crowds could wave and cheer their riders and the chanting of the supporters before a race cheering the riders on all added to the atmosphere. We would meet the riders at the pit gates as they arrived at the track as they parked their vans and trailers , unloading their bikes to push them to the pits. They were ready to stop for a chat and sign autographs. A great family atmosphere. In those days our regular night was Saturday with the occasional Wednesday night but the Saturday crowds were always the best attended of the two.

Looking at the few meetings that have been on FreeSports TV this year I could not help but notice the enthusiasm that the Polish supporters have compared to British fans. How refreshing it is to see supporters actually enjoying themselves, cheering their team on and dressed in their colours. That just shows how dire British speedway is just now, it needs a big kick-up the backside and sooner rather than later. It would be interesting to see what admission price these supporters pay to watch their team allowing for cost of living, etc.

What station is it on?

Now on FreeSports this morning was also on late last night and the same meeting Polish Speedway Round 2 is scheduled to be onthis Wednesday night at 11.30 pm for 2 hours so FreeSports are giving it a good airing Polish Round 3 scheduled for FreeSports Sunday at 6pm for 2 hours followed by what looks like a 10 minute filler promo ad in case it overruns

Strange the Sky epg says nothing about this -- Rugby League backchat 3-4pm and then IIHF UI18 Korea V Gt Britain at 4 -6pm

Speedway on FreeSports April 9th from Poland 12pm to 2pm according to their schedule not live but probably the meeting which is scheduled on Premier on the 8th. Will need recording for some as it is on at midday https://www.freesports.tv/. Looks like it will be whole meeting if it is on for 2 hours

Sky still not updated but that is up to Eurosport to change their epg, they might do it overnight. Thanks Racers for claritying it Sky up-dated now

Looks now from the Sky epg that we shall only get 90 minutes on Sunday from 1.15 pm to 2,45 pm at least that's all we will get at the time of posting unless they change it

Yes I remember the second halves at Norwich in the early 60s, many a youngster rode in them and soon became reserves for the team or even full time riders. The racing was usually quite entertaining although speeds were slower. In those days the team did not change every week, with riders having commitments all over the place like they did now. A shame Norwich was closed down just to be replaced by yet another 1960's housing estate.

I think the speedway promotors believe that returning to the pits at every available oppotunity is part of the exciting evening's entertainment. Speed up proceedings too much and it could result in the meeting being over in 45 minutes tops or maybe even, faster making it appear poor value for the £15 or so admission charge

Let's face it well over half the meeting is all about time wasting. How often do we see 4 riders coming up towards the tapes when one will turn round and do a scenic tour of the track often back to the third bend only to see him return and then another will decide to turn back. As they finally get in position at the start after much faffing around the tapes go up -- a false start they call a rerun and then the pit gates open and the whole saga starts once more. Often rain is forecast later in the evening and with all this time wasting the rain eventually reaches the track, eventually after more time wasting the meeting is either called or postponed, then they wonder why the crowds get smaller. I realise that without all this time wasting the meetings would be over in 45 minutes, but sometimes this time wasting get excessive and it just becomes one whole farce, at around admission for around £15 a head this does not appear value for money.

I think you will find that Freesport will be broadcasting on COM8 which is an HD mux even though Freesport is at the present time only broadcast in SD. Around May Freesports is scheduled to broadcast in HD. At the present time Freesport will only be available if your TV is capable of receiving an HD broadcast. If viewing via Sky it is ch 424.

When there was no BT Sport coverage last season before June/July did the tracks notice a huge resurgence of supporters returning to see meetings live in the previous months?

Well rightly or wrongly I have recontracted for BT sport again I am a BT phone and Broadband customer so get it for £7.50 a month to receive it on Sky. If they do show the League I may consider upgrading to HD. OK it seems a lot a month but then BT sport do at last show other motor-cycling and motor racing as well as speedway. I may consider even ditching Sky Sports as they are just ball crazy and dumped speedway last year and did not even bother to update their website and no longer even mention speedway at all http://www.skysports.com/speedway/news

Please give it a rest Baldyman this thread is supposed to be about BT tv sport

BT sport do at least show other motor bike racing as well as speedway which is a damn sight more than BBC does apart from F1. Sky Sports are only mainly interested on games played with a ball. I cannot ever see Sky Sports taking speedway back. Speedway does need to get its act together and make speedway attractive to TV at the present time they do very little, year in year out, to make it in any way attractive to anyone whether it be the TV viewer of the spectator who attends the meetings

They just love keeping us waiting, probably doing some gardening or maybe the tapes have broken

The problem speedway has right now is the image it portrays to the casual TV viewer or someone who goes to a meeting for the very first time. I have seen much speedway live and on TV and I must say the image it portrays is dire. I have seen meetings ruined with riders messing about time wasting "gardening" then they all get to the tapes and one will decide to pull back and go for a ride way past the fourth bend on a "scenic tour of the track" while the others wait at the tapes then another and yet another will decide to follow. The starting marshal keeps calling the riders to the tapes, with no control over them whatsoever, the riders go forward nearly stretch the tapes to breaking point, then go back then go forward and back a number of times, with the starting marshal who might has well not even be there keeps indicating the riders to get in line with frantic waving of his arms Tapes get broken or a false start and more time wasted when they open the pits gate and a 12,000 mile service takes place to the bikes. even the crowd appears uninterested a few cheer on but many looked bored to death as they stand in the cold watching little of interest, watching riders just faffing about, eventually hoping to see the next race. Then with a few heats to go it will start to rain and then more delays will commence usually with more "gardening" and more "scenic tours" as the track gets wetter and wetter, instead of getting on with the meeting to get a decent result. Added to all this we often see unbelievable decisions made by referees. What a sad fiasco this all is. The image that speedway portrays these days if not a good one. I love speedway but am not happy to see the sport decline in this sad way through lack of decent management on how it is run as a spectator and supposedly entertaining sport.

This is what they built in place of the old Norwich Speedway site at the Firs https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.6664092,1.2723313,3a,82.5y,223.28h,88.27t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPwepnI6Vwp9HK2jiMCPsxQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DPwepnI6Vwp9HK2jiMCPsxQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.TACTILE.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D175.1288%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 If you swing the picture round on the opposite side of the road you can see the old Firs pub that Gordon Parkins the Norwich Speedway manager used to run. The pub kept going for a few years after the speedway closed but has now fallen victim to a Tesco Convenience Store

Anyone here want a job as TV speedway coverage advisor?

Sky did have quite a few years experience with filming speedway, if BT does show speedway again this year perhaps they will learn by experience as they progress through the season.