sparkafag

Wow you can read! I literally said that exact thing in my post, move along now and stop wasting my and everyone else's time.

It is, and I don’t mind a decent bickering session myself but every single Coventry, Poole, Team GB thread as well as a few random other ones…gets a bit repetitive more so when it is just the same 2 or 3 posting the same point over and over.

Get a bit fed up reading Ellis or Bates debates to be honest, they are both British and could both be quite good…should celebrate both rather than constantly doing most readers of this forums ** in. What does Nick Morris do to resuscitate his career….went a bit pear shaped for him this season.

It’s absolutely ridiculous to compare attendances at Speedway now to the 70s and mention things like Second Halfs as the reason for it…wait scrap ridiculous, it is hilarious.

I appreciate Speedway cannot always be compared to other sports for a number of reasons, but….there aren’t many sports offering the actual event, and then another event on top of the event, if that makes sense, even in events like Stock Cars, it is all leading to a “final” as such, or a “demolition derby” a conclusion that night, an event the meeting builds to. Speedway’s USP should revolve around 15 heats IMO, that’s what the sport is, that is where it should be asked the majority of people attending invest their time, energy, passion and money. The majority of advocated second half events already take place and are far more advanced than the majority of suggestions. A case being, there is already events at the end of the season for the best performing riders, already development leagues for riders to learn their trade, already 250cc Speedway events taking place that are more advanced than a few second half heats. If anything I think you could argue Speedway has too many additional novelty events, introduction more only further serves to dilute the nature of the events already in place, and this would be done while hand in hand diluting “league” racing. The “big race” where the “top riders race” is Heat 1, 13 and 15, that’s fine, that should be enough, it shouldn’t be those heats and then another one at the end that means more. I personally find suggestions like this indicative of the muddled nature of speedway that has seen the horse turned into a camel. I actually think additions to a meeting in terms of added races, cheapen both the match and the proceeding events slightly. A second half, should, at best be novices or team riders practicing I don’t think there is a second half needle shifter personally, as all it would be at this moment in time is a slightly different version of the main product.

True, next time Newcastle might go back with their best rider and give them an utter skelping. I am quite happy with the theory that Newcastle scoring more at Somerset than Glasgow suggests Newcastle are more likely to push Somerset than Glasgow though Well, that and there is Glasgow’s general performance level on the road loosing at places like Redcar and Scunthorpe which suggests a weak underbelly to me.

Newcastle hitting 43 there without their Number 1 makes me think it is probably them who are most capable of doing that rather than Glasgow who could only get 37.

Newcastle or Edinburgh. As impressive as Somerset are I am not entirely sure they will thrive “Up North” which is where the majority of Play Off Speedway is likely to be raced.

Bash on…was just a word of warning, you might be getting a shower of abuse for it though.

Awww ok, well when you put it like that....no wait that's trolling.

Should watch with the trolling.... big bad Gresham doesn’t take kindly to that - he will be along shortly chucking around f bombs and dropping the c word like a young Marshall Mathers and even worse sticking you on the block list, which to be fair is where everyone on this forum should aspire to be, that list is the BSF’S Top Gun, the best of the best. If you aren't on there you might as well be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog sh*t out of Hong Kong.

Both. GP averages about 160,000 attendaees across the year, there isn’t a stadium going that could accommodate that kind of crowd for a one off Final. As well as the increased attendance for a GP season it gives Speedway 6/7/8/9/10 weekends a year prime time coverage on a Saturday night on top sports channels (rather than one), in top stadia and in the media. You then throw in replays and reruns, multiple sponsor opportunities - it is hours on end of coverage for the sport it wouldn’t get from a World Final (which by the end was starting to die on it's arse a bit). The fans and riders also win as we get to see the best guys racing more often, the riders get a better chance to become World Champion, it is more affordable and more accessible for fans as there is always the chance to see the meeting locally rather than having to travel. There was a justified demand for a Grand Prix season. League and Play Off Final – despite what naysayers might say it is still a “league” the league part does still hold importance as you actually have to qualify for the Play Off and gain position - it increases interest across the league rather than for a couple of clubs going for a title.

Your post….I was answering the question you asked. You asked if a change of race format impacted attendances, no, not really. If a parent is going to speedway without their children they should do a bit of research because generally the majority of tracks don’t even charge for kids as it is. If you shave £10 of the price what you would end up doing is charging an adult who has been paying £17/16/15 £7/6 or £5 instead, clubs wouldn’t be able to sustain on that, the shock factor over the course of a season would kill most clubs. Just to reiterate, again, I haven’t once said people would stay away as a result of two less heats I have said it wouldn’t make new people attend or is the kind of thing that will shift the needle because the majority of people aren’t educated enough on the sport to know or care how many races there were before or are now. For instance, if you had a conversation with somewhere where you said “two less heats at the speedway now” if they knew what speedway was in the first place, they wouldn’t be wowed by it. RE price reductions and Sky, people generally attend events on TV, or they tend to it is the spectacle of TV that often sells it to people rather than the price as has been shown quite often with other sports and Speedway. For all the clubs are mocked re the way they go about their business, they clearly do research prices and their market place, if it was as simple as £10 less = more people every club in the country would do that, most sports would do that even Rugby and Football

So by your own admission a change of heat numbers makes little difference to attendances and thus you would simply be charging the fan base less over the course of a season?

The short answer is no because there isn't anyone who has said they would stop attending. Some are saying a change to 13 heats wouldn’t shift the needle, have a huge impact attendances or merit a £10 decrease for a family. Is the marketing line “two races less” really the thing that is going to get non-attendees/newbies out the house…

A system like that run by the Aviva Premiership would be worth looking at IMO, in that league you basically earn more salary and credits on the basis of meeting different criteria such as growth of business and promotion of players from academies. While Speedway doesn’t have the funding in place Rugby does to reward clubs with financial credits when academy graduates progress when criteria is met eg rewards if player plays International, World Cup etc it could possibly be the case that more “points” for team building were rewarded to a side if they are packed with “academy” projects and thus encouraging the idea sides are built for the long term with local talent and a higher points limit to allow them to be supplemented with a Lindgren, Holder etc. So say for example Joe X starts as a second half rider for Poole and then races in the team and achieves a 4.00 average Poole are given .5 that season for team building, the season after Joe X races for Team GB Poole are given .5, Joe X then races for a World Cup winning Team GB Poole are given +1.00 The tricky part would be finding a way to regress back from that stage when Joe X moves on or Joe Y doesn't progress or is dropped.

Sad, this really isn't this kind of forum or community Folk on here just like talking about the sport as has happened on this thread only one person on here making a show of themselves

Aa glory days again darling, you stay classy now Conduct on here is down there with anyone that's ever graced this forum

Aw boo hoo

I find claims such as “saving speedway from the grim reaper” quite hyperbolic in all honesty, it is the kind of phrase often used by some on here as some sort of way to add validity to their point when they attempt to impose the sports ills on others. I also wouldn’t attempt to try and know the ways to “save the sport” and claim that changing the race format if the way to do it and we “all know it” because I don’t believe that to be true. I do find it slightly fascinating when people attempt to impose such strong views and then get slightly uppity when questioned on them given they feel it is the kind of thing we should all know. I do think the sport has probably managed to find its place in the market and mostly sustained it for about 20 years now living on attendances in the 600/2,000 range on average most weeks and most tracks generally survive on that, it is a while now since we have had closures for things other than idiocies surrounding stadium locations/owners of stadia. In an ideal world attendances would increase but I doubt that a sport like speedway is ever going to see a huge shift in its core audience and I honestly flat out refuse to think things like the number of heats in a meeting or tape exclusions are the kind of things the vast majority of people who aren’t attending either know or care about, why would they? I do accept there might be a niche “older” audience who feel these changes would reignite the sport or bring back a generation of fans, in my opinion though that’s an audience that shouldn’t be pandered to now as they have either shown little loyalty to the sport or simply aged to the point they aren’t the target audience any more. I feel the “rules” that need fixed are teething oddities such as FTR in both EL and PL that generally only bother hard-core fans rather than the kind of things likely to save the sport. The best thing the sport could do is enforce more stringent rules re how clubs promote and portray themselves on social media and interact with their audience, the actual product is speedway that’s what it will always be, has been for years and will continue to be, the main changes should be around presentation and image the rest such as rules and regulations is allowed of humpty that doesn’t really impact people. I would also say I find it pretty fairly prices as it is, speedway is cheap and isn’t IMO, in anything like the position to take the decision that charging a family £10 less will shift the audience to make up for that of loss over the course of a season, if anything I think that probably would lead to serious issues re clubs short term future let alone long, it has been proven many times now charging less doesn’t instantly mean more people attend in the long term, and that doesn’t just apply to speedway. The key word re the people you are imposing the sport panders to is “left” they have “left” the sport and the sport has actually done ok without them, in the last month the general vibe has been healthy attendances up and down the country, thriving meetings well attended such as the PL4s, Pairs, GP and SWC, it might not fit narrative but that’s not the activity of a sport on it’s arse. People would have more time to do things after….what family is going to travel to a meeting that ends at 8 and then go and do something after it, what are they going to do? Go to the Cinema as well…..they have already consciously chosen to attend their evenings entertainment. You reference tracks might be closing, the tracks that might be closing are generally in bother because of stadia issues rather than as a result of dwindling crowds Do I think things are perfect, no, do I find some of this a bit doommongerish, yes.

The vast majority of people wouldn’t know they were getting “value for money racing” because they aren’t familiar enough with the product to know it or that there had been a change. I am also curios to know how 13 heats at £14 is better value than £15 for 15 heats, for example In addition to that it is a 13 heat meeting that should be run in about 25 minutes? I appreciate they are your views but you have said we all know, which means you are sort of imposing your views on everyone else and to be honest you aren't really clarifying this much, if anything it is getting a bit muddled. So, you think the removal of two races merits the reduction in price of £10.00 for a family? I am sorry I still don't see how this is either saving the sport or making massive savings for promotions.

Emm yes they do, it generally boils peoples piss when meetings are called off after 12 races when they have paid for 15. Does it not slightly negate reducing the cost paid to riders if you are also reducing the cost of admission? Could argue it also cheapens the perception of value for money in most peoples psyche that they are now seeing less of what they have been used to for a long time now.

I need to stress this isn’t in anyway “having a go at you” just a question given you have consciously chosen to post your thoughts on a forum… How would that race format save the sport, because I genuinely don't know..

So ideally you would run a meeting in about 30 minutes and would encourage tactical tape touching?

What else…..