Byker Biker

If you look at the medium term plan to increase the conversion rates and the natural aspirations of riders to move up creating a situation where there is no safe haven (not a good choice of words) in the NL then the reliance on overseas riders will diminish. It's not my plan but it has been mooted before when the then PL was the well paid hiding place for many riders capable of doing a job in the then EL. The compromise then was to protect their PL averages for 2 years so that if they didn't make it at the higher level they could resume where they left off in the lower league. That didn't work either and it gave some riders a taste of big money which escalated their demands to come back in the lower league. What you have to remember with the BSPA is that the Architects are rarely the Labourers

So they can staff the top 2 leagues and fingers to the NL, the first serious attempt was to try and stop NL clubs having their own assets on the basis that these youngsters would like to progress and inevitably ride in the higher leagues, paying a fixed formula training fee to NL clubs was a compromise until some "development payments" were made to some NL clubs before some of these kids had turned a wheel. The senior clubs were investing in an "option" to secure the youngster in the fullness of time.

Plenty of Spawt in Basildon and Harlow town centres on a Friday or Saturday night, Sarfend on Sundays

I'm very sad to see Buxton leave the league every professional sport needs to provide grass roots access for newcomers and Buxton have consistently maintained this ethos by encouraging youth and sharing the facility for newbie track days. Some of that will no doubt continue but a league profile helps although at what cost? If the top two leagues had merged and CL clubs had "dropped" to the NL there is no doubt other clubs would have had to exit. The win at all costs mentality and some of the absolutely outrageous pay rates in all leagues being discussed right now tell me that after the leanest season in decades the operators and participants of the sport have learned very little, if anything from a horrendous 2018. Keith Chapman saving the top league has probably prevented Speedway's Armageddon but for how long? Good luck to everyone at Buxton

I've got Tippex all over my screen now!

They tried really hard but in the end local relationships held up. It's the military way, if you cant win the battle up front then de-stabilise the enemy until you can overcome them..

Whoever the signing is I think it's absolutely magnanimous of you to fluff up the club's press release, well done !

not according to the man who was paying, Reading had already advanced him money for equipment and wrote that off, your man was topping up the points money and paying the air fares on the occasions he flew up from Heathrow.

That Sponsor just happened to be one of the club's shareholders

You are, significant losses !

For the life of me I just can't understand why you're not the BSPA Chairman!

He has, astutely in my opinion, kept a top league in business thus avoiding an amalgamation that would have wiped out many clubs in both the Championship and NL. An amalgamation would have done irreversible damage to the middle and lower divisions

Don’t be fooled by the past PR the acquisition of these clubs will prop up the league and all of those clubs in the Premiership that are haemorrhaging, it will retain tv coverage and create an opportunity for new Promotional blood to come in to that league in due course. He isn’t gonna make out of this but it will keep his own club in business too. I couldn’t agree more with some of his critics but all the harping and carping will not help one iota. Keith has taken decisive action to protect the interests of the sport as a whole. Nicely and politely give him a break ffs!

Does that mean that Cookie is a done deal?

and I'm sure you're not sure which is why you aren't certain. The Speedway contract was paid up because Sky had committed themselves to significant expense with Football, by paying the contract up they saved the production costs for the outstanding term

Think you'll find you're mate Robin has his eyes on some of that

Which is why they don't take notice of what's on here, anything worth considering get's lost in all the pizz taking

Keep you're eyes on the Swindon Advertiser for leaks, Rosco just can't keep his gob shut for 3 days!

What isn't being recognised here is that Glasgow have put there money where there mouth is, on all threads everybody's solution to the sport's ills has been to "Promote" the sport. Get involved with the community, posters, radio, bus backs mailshots, kids clubs and more, Glasgow have done that they've tried to grow their attendance to a sustainable level and they have taken some very good riders to Ashfield. It hasn't worked and they now find themselves in the same difficulties as everyone else with no clear solution, for me the writing has been on the wall since the beginning of 2017 when crowds dropped back to the previous promotion's levels and that is when the cloth should have been cut accordingly IMHO not 2019. They got it wrong as far as managing their costs are concerned but don't be harsh on them for trying and next time somebody posts all the answers to getting more people through the turnstile point them in Glasgow's direction, there is no magic formula all the advertising posters in the local chippy will not save Speedway.

Except the lease may require cross guarantees to a holding company or personal guarantees from Directors, we're talking Laura here and whilst she has had cash flow problems she always gets settled up. She would have her whole future to lose if it went wrong but it is unlikely her trustees will allow that sort of commitment and she doesn't shirk her responsibilities.

British promoters pioneered it! The Poles are working with Marcel Gerhardt so the project isn't dead yet.

Because they are prepared to enter into a 50+ year lease and have no conscience if they go skint after 10 years.

There is an obvious solution to this bit it would just be facetious. Realistically British Speedway ought bite the bullet now whilst the European leagues carry on until their sponsorship, civic grants, sports association funding, tv rights and intellectual property rights dry up. Poland is already working behind the scenes on standardised equipment and hopefully they'll make a better fist of it than the BSPA. At one time this country was working on the development of rev limiters that would only have reduced the hammer on the engines at the starts, some riders refused to test them in after meeting rides and some promoters had no belief in them whatsoever. The guys who were developing them got binned by the BSPA who 2 years later threw six figure sums to launch the Gerhardt project! Rev limiters would have cost about £180 a bike less for some depending on the ignition system already in use, £40,000 would have got every rider 2 each instead of hundreds of thousands on new engines at £4500 + vat. The BSPA could have committed itself to a development budget of less than £20k and an ongoing subsidy for 2 years of 50% of the cost of replacements for existing and new riders. The argument "why should the UK be different" has been used against carburetors, tyres, silencers and upright engines over the years so we have the same equipment as the rest of the world with significantly (in most cases) less revenue to support it's introduction and maintenance. A bit like the Concorde, magnificent engineering and technology but a revolutionary disaster.

They're racing on a Friday ???

I think you will find that in typical journalistic style they answered the questions they were asked and with editing/sub editing the copy is presented as if it was an open conversation, not unusual.