Chris116

My grandfather always said that the best committee had two members and the other one was a silent partner!

I would sadly have to agree that there is no chance of car racing returning to Oxford due to there being no space for the pits. Speedway has a chance but without Greyhound racing will have a problem of the facility being underused and as others have said Greyhound racing is under threat from animal rights. So with no cars and dogs having an uphill battle any future speedway promotion will need to find other activities to help pay the costs of the stadium.

I would add Stock Car, Hot Rod and Banger racing to your list.

Only thing I can think of is that maybe one or more of the meetings were Play-offs and therefore do not count to the GSA and therefore one or more earlier meeting may be involved. The other alternative is that the BSPA cannot add up, which is rare but not unheard off.

So the GSA will also cover his last 5 meetings from 2018 to make up the 20 meeting rolling average.

The GSA are the last 20 meetings. The maths you have quoted may be for more than 20 meetings.

I agree that with hindsight knocking the old long bar down was a mistake but if they had got the motorcycle dealership up and running quickly it could have brought in a lot more profit 52 weeks of the year instead of 16 to 20 home meetings. With that profit they could have built a new and more fit for purpose stand and bar to further improve the stadium, instead all they did was knock things down and never finish them.

A building site never looks smart so let them finish the work before we complain about it. The old stand was not suitable for purpose and I always feared someone falling and getting badly hurt. While I have no objection to a gym, I do think they need a stand with seating both outside and behind glass. The problem with BMR was they started a rebuild on a number of areas but never finished any of them. What has happened to the motorcycle dealership that BMR claimed would be the saviour of the stadium?

The NDL has been a good training ground because it had a mix of young riders learning their trade helped by the old hands who knew they would probably never move into the higher leagues but enjoyed racing and passing on their knowledge to the youngsters. Maybe there needs to be a limit on over 25 or 30 year olds in the league but they are an important part of the development of the young riders. The older riders also improve the standard of racing and help the stand alone clubs provide a spectacule that is worth watching on a regular basis. Making the NDL into a juniors only league would see it vanish faster than a GP rider after he is told how much he can earn in the Premiership.

It is probably known by the promoters but just not published for us yet!

A problem that NIMBY's vote!

While I share the worries that others have following the announcement which I quoted above, it is possible that things may be a lot rosier than we fear. Maybe some new to NDL tracks were present and having found out how many teams could be in the NDL they have gone away to consider if they can run that many meetings (if they are running NDL as a second team) or to work out how to pad out the fixture list (if they are a new standalone team). The current teams also have the same considerations to think about so it is possible that the meeting was positive but all parties have gone away to consider the best way forward which they did not have time to do on Tuesday. Time for everyone to keep their fingers crossed and hope for a positive outcome.

Statement on BSPA site says:- NATIONAL Development League clubs attended their AGM at Rugby on Tuesday.The meeting was adjourned until December 16 when clubs should be in a position to finalise their declaration of intent to participate or otherwise.The format of the competition can then also be finalised.We thank everyone for their patience and understanding.British Speedway Promoters' Association. We have a little longer to wait for the news!

Got something right for once!

Until the AGM has sorted out exactly which teams have entered the NDL and then the format of the league no one knows what is happening. The AGM is on Tuesday (I am led to believe) and then I look forward to seeing good news about the NDL. UPDATE:- Statement from the BSPA NATIONAL Development League clubs attended their AGM at Rugby on Tuesday.The meeting was adjourned until December 16 when clubs should be in a position to finalise their declaration of intent to participate or otherwise.The format of the competition can then also be finalised.We thank everyone for their patience and understanding.British Speedway Promoters' Association.

Maybe that is what he is hoping!

I think he is too busy learning to ride his keyboard!

Telling the truth, maybe!

I have to say that it worries me that we seem to have total silence from the most forward thinking promotion in the National Development League! I just hope that the NDL AGM produces a positive outcome. I only got to two meetings in 2019, both at Smallbrook Stadium to see the Warriors, and both were very entertaining although Warriors suffered a home defeat in the first. If Buxton can return to action that would be a big positive and if Rye House are also able to run it would mean I could see a lot more meetings in 2020.

Hopefully the referee will hit the red light button quickly. I do think that we could get even more injuries and that many riders would avoid a league with races of more than four riders. I know that Ipswich had the 16 lapper and Arena Essex had their 12 lapper but both were once a year events. If we are going to have more than four riders then I would suggest six riders over five laps with only one or two such races in a meeting and the number 1 and 5 riders each having one race from a 10 or 15 yard gate. Something like 1, 2 & 3 in the first race and 4, 5 & 6 in the second race. Knowing how the handicap league racing in the 60's was hated by the riders I don't think today's riders would be willing to take part in such events.

The easy way to curb doubling up/down would be to only allow a team to have a certain number of riders who are in two British leagues. Maybe make it 5 for 2020, 4 for 2021, 3 for 2022 and 2 for 2023 onwards. Teams would not be allowed to sign a rider in a team that had already filled their allowance (could be a real can of worms I realise).

On this thread and in others many posts have said that they want to see riders staying at clubs for longer and not having the annual 'all change' that we get at present. Maybe a way to encourage clubs and riders to stick with each other would be that for team building purposes riders who were at a club the previous season would get a 4% reduction with riders who had been at a club for two seasons getting a 6% reduction. I know there could problems with this idea that I have not thought of but hopefully something could come out of it for the 2021 season.

There are many threads saying that Speedway in this country is on a down hill slide. I would view the destruction of the NDL as the biggest threat to its continued existence in a form that means rebuilding is possible. You have to have the lower level leagues if you are ever going to be able improve what is above.

I find the comments about young people not being able to attend midweek meetings due to school the next day interesting as throughout my school days I went with my parents to Wimbledon Speedway every week and they used to run on a Monday evening in the early days which then changed to Thursday evenings. My parents had a strict rule that I had to finish my homework before we went to the meeting. If truth were known it was the one day in the week when I did do my homework properly as there was no way I was going to miss the racing! Are today's children really so soft that they are unable to have one or two late nights during the school week?

Sadly I have read it all and have nearly lost the will to live!