waytogo28

I still support the Stars and look for their results and want to gather up all the news that I can about them. I am a member of the Supporters Club ( and will re-join for 2019 ) I attend some of the matches and cheer them on but I do not like the way the club has been run over the last five years. Especially since Buster became The Main Man at the BSPA . His interest in what the broad spectrum of Star's fans think seems to have withered away ( unless you see things only through Buster coloured glasses ).

Did I miss something and Buster is intending to sell one of his clubs imminently ( or during the 2019 season)? And hopes for offers next close season on one of the remaining two? I am genuinely interested. Quite honestly I prefer it if he did own all of the "top" league clubs. It would present less uncertainty. that's for sure!

Unless .... in 2020 Buster owns 4 or 5 "top" clubs and in 2021 owns the 6, 7 or 8 of them that make up the then creme de la creme ( enough to satisfy BT which seems to be his Holy Grail ). How does he find backers for his acquisitions?

That is now the dominant feeling I have when attending Stars matches. The excitement of close racing, the possibility of passing or even some passes ( after the first half lap ) is what I crave and used to get. In the last two or three seasons that has been so eroded that if you get five minutes of pulse-raising excitement from an evening at Saddlebow Rd, you've done well. Not much of an enticement to go is it?

That was my guess after I gave up on the possibility of NKI returning. Thank you for confirming it. If the PL is a little weaker ( yet again ) the Stars may hold it's own but it's weaker unless they all can keep up their averages.

Yes please, IF you do know them all for certain, why not let us all know? Or does Buster have a gagging clause on some of his supporters?

We now have been told that we have seven super fit riders, following their training camp and that they will be having on track opportunities before the April 8th opener. But we do not know who they are. A terrific publicity machine in action. Our enthusiasm will know no bounds when finally they are all revealed!

Another problem of how the BSPA has evolved is that the better quality Promoters became disillusioned and walked away. Only the stodgy - "it's alright as it is " & " I agree with you, you are right" promoters stayed on and this is one factor in the strangulation of the sport in the UK. The Emperor's New Blazer syndrome.

Sadly my head believes you are spot on but my heart still dreams that Buster might be holding back the best until last ( early March ). Without Iversen the Stars team will not hold it's own and my enthusiasm for the upcoming season will dip further. Even more importantly I dream that the KL track would be much improved and offer up better racing ( but that is another hope from the heart ). And my hope that doubleheaders V the same team will not be seen again at Saddlebow Rd. is quite likely to be dashed ( "in the best interests of the sport" ). Not much to look forward to for me.

So 2020 is now out of the question as a stadium share, even If the necessary funds could be found to restore the Comets?

100% agree with you. Especially the conclusion as to why people don't return after being let in free ( to a taster/trial ) match. They Do Not want to but that product which they sampled. And mostly for the reasons, you have listed. It's like trying a new flavour of crisps and if a new one launched fails to sell, it's withdrawn. The tracks and modern bikes do not combine to provide much in the way of exciting racing ( on a consistent basis ) . Another alternative to improve the racing as a spectacle ( because when it's good it's very good! ) is to have standardised lower capacity bikes ( 250s are now just as powerful ). Perhaps someone more technical than myself could comment on the use of a sleeve to take current 500s to a 350?

I will be hugely surprised if there any rabbit's in hats at KLS to be pulled out for 2019. No fresh faces I feel sure. Sadly.

Sidney, you are much too revolutionary - such ideas as even contemplating taking up fans ideas ( even the inexpensive or free ones ). And we now know from Philip Rising that Chapman and Godfrey are really only "good old boys" deciding things with their speedway business pals. They are not to blame ( even after promising before they came to positions of "power" they could orchestrate a return to the glory days with their sound ideas ). Ah well, that did sound too good to be true. Only when the UK sport is prostrate ( having fallen from it's knees ) will they try one big league as many fans have proposed before Chapman & Godfrey were other than "rebel" voices inside the BSPA. Some do like to claim that no-one is too blame. Perhaps poltergeists in old stadiums?

It certainly isn't at King's Lynn where I have been so turned off by the poor quality of racing over the last three seasons ( except for Robert Lambert - the only rider to make me want to go and watch there ) that I am unlikely to attend, on other than the odd occasion in 2019. Gate and Go, all over by half way round the first lap, Riders chasing ( with little hope of or interest in catching the man in front - processional mostly ). And I have watched at Saddlebow Rd every year since it opened ) For me the racing in recent years is not a patch on what was on offer 10 - 40 years ago.

When it is about the "invisible" UK sport of speedway racing, the readers would not know it from the KL tiddlywinks team or carpet bowls. Michael who? Where does he play and in what position, the vast majority were likely to have commented.

Neither Godfrey nor Chapman have the necessary "people" skills ( other than to collect "yes" men and women ). Neither of them is prepared to listen to views other than each other's and both see feedback from fans as an irritant. Cleary they are NOT "right" as both believe themselves to be. If they were, speedway would be capable of attracting - however slowly - a new generation of fans, There was little mention of marketing or promoting the sport and it does not seem important enough to either of them. They are woefully bereft of positive ideas of where to go next or how to achieve growth. Masses of words but little of value and very little decisive analysis of the real problems of UK speedway at present. The only part of this overlong outpouring I could agree with is that the future of sport here, is as a semi-pro - one big league and that is something that many fans have seen as inevitable for quite a while ( as long as Chapman and Godfrey have been at the helm! ), The silence of the Chairman is deafening. he failed to respond to the SS "crisis" issue, pre the last AGM and has said almost nothing else since.

One problem is that they nearly all, after a year or two, believe that they are "international star motorcyclists" even if they have only ever practised abroad. They are brave jockeys of high powered bikes who need only to battle for the first half lap of a race, before waiting to see if they can start better next time. That skill must be worth £100k a season they believe, but sadly there are so few paying punters interested in their gating ability that if they get 25% of that in future they will be lucky. Part-time semi-pro status for those who race on in future. Bog standard 250 cc bikes would produce better racing despite Rob Godfrey's declaration that racing is better than it has ever been. Were that so, the terraces would be heaving instead of being almost areas of empty silence.

Kennett will certainly be Top Dog around Eastbourne but for him to dominate the league, he would need to have undergone a huge transformation with a sports psychologist. He holds the unenviable record of having the worst away average - compared to his home average.

Nothing to do with modern technology or it's "mastery" of it. Much more about "I know best and "I'm in charge". The second part of that is the truth. You have to make your own mind up about the first part.

He has not lost the plot, more that he now dreams BIG. Empire size BIG, the would be overlord of UK "top level" speedway. All in the best interests of the sport I am sure he would claim. The PL is now 'saved for a few months and the TV contract too. What of beyond this season? With his able deputy Rob Godfrey acknowledging that the most likely future of UK speedway is part-time semi-pro in one big league. Just what many fans have clamoured for. But we do know now that Promoters are the most passionate of fans. The mob on the terraces are also-rans it seems.

If it was a six-figure sum then you are right. It never was worth anything like that for the assets she acquired ( basically the right to promote speedway there and a few riders - which are never really viable assets ) . It was at the start of the terminal decline and Laura put her money where her heart is to sadly only see it slide into a sinkhole. Even though crowds were only just viable then, all new promoters believe that they can stimulate new interest ( or bring back those who have walked away ).

Colin Pratt is a widely respected and very experienced organiser within speedway but not someone who is bringing the younger dynamism with marketing knowledge that is likely to bring in a new generation of fans. In fact, he has been at the core of speedway administrators who have allowed UK speedway to dimish and dwindle over the last twenty-five years.

He is certainly better than anyone yet named as a Star's team member this year - other than Robert Lambert.

I think the majority of supporters can see things clearly, only too well. It is the BSPA"s members who just won't face up to the reality of where UK speedway is today. Look at the negative point of view that Rob Godfrey displays - over and over again, in today's Speedway Star. Blaming everyone else for the steady decline and "proud to be a promoter who is saving speedway" . Dragging out the last days more like it. Even he says it will have to end up as semi-pro sport where the riders will have to get a job to supplement what they can earn from the sport in the UK. Did they really think of re-branding it once again as "British Speedway"? Fantasists.

There have been plenty of rogues involved in running speedway over the years ( and there seem to be now ). One of the perennial problems in speedway is the secretive nature of any information released to supporters. It would be very easy for the current company to identify itself as previously NOT being the one under the Rogue Traders spotlight. Why leave the possibility open that they might have been?