JamesHarris

Oddly enough a few years ago I was chatting to a few Polish lads and asking them of cause if they were into speedway or Zuzul as they call it. They were also shrugging their shoulders but one of them had heard of Tomasz Gollob. So even in countries where it is one of the biggest followed sports there are some that have hardly heard of it.

Lack of general interest or just promoters stuck in the past? I work only a mile or so from Brandon stadium and when I mention the speedway to some of my younger colleagues they don't seem to know what I'm on about. Most assume it's some sort of car racing. Most folk my age or older have been or at least know of the Bees. Even when on holiday I have been talking to fellow Brits and they come from say Poole or Sheffield and I ask them "ah I bet you know of the speedway track there then" most look bemused and again car racing is the first thing that comes to mind unless they are speedway followers of cause. Don't even go down the route of asking if they have heard of Tai Woffinden. But another major factor in this debate is do most promoters simply still live in the 80's and just assume all they have to do is open the gates, charge top dollar and a few thousand will turn up to watch?

I would offer the job of GB team manager to Scott Nicholls if he wanted it. Highly respected by his peers, still in touch with modern speedway and still has enthusiasm to win.

Very fair point. No disrespect meant to Harris but I wouldn't say that he is in the top league of riders anymore. I understand Woffy is injured? Rosco should have gone with selecting another youngster in place of Bomber. Nothing to lose but everything to gain had we done well.

Not watched the GP or World Cup for a while so just hooked up to a stream of the new World pairs champs after reading rave reviews from last year. Just turned it off as well. What a bore. Rider touches the tapes - they spend ages getting ready for the re-run. Is there really any need for 5 mechanics to attend to the bike on track while they are waiting to re-start. In between heats drag on. Then after the round of heats have concluded we have 20 minutes of boring studio talk. Sorry for the rant but the presentation of the racing and studio coverage is like watching paint dry.

Whats the latest update on the all singing and dancing brand spanking new Swindon stadium folks? I've noticed it's all gone very quiet again and nothing recently as such on their website. Do the stadium owners still think its viable? With all those new housing developments creeping up around it maybe they are waiting to be made an offer for the land they can't refuse. And one other question - Will Mr Russell be staging another Farewell to Blunsden haha.

I've not read the Speedway Star for a good 5 years now so I can't comment on it's current format. I found it to be boring, repetitive and not worth the £2.90 it was back then (sorry Philip Rising but that's just my honest view) What I can say about the development league from my time running it is that you have to rely on the guys that run those teams to feed you back the results, heat details and times etc so you could submit them to the star on time for it's next publication. At times it was difficult getting the results let alone heat details without chasing but that was just a minority and most of the team managers/organisers were spot on. Of cause I can't speak for now. There is a facebook page for the MDL (MSDL) so maybe that's where the majority of people look nowadays?

To be honest we are going on about the best riders giving "One league" a miss but the truth is we don't really have the "best" riders here anymore to begin with. I really don't mean any disrespect to the star names we already have here but they are no where near to the high standards (maybe a couple of exceptions) we were used to watching on the terraces in the 80's and 90's. Maybe a few of the modern star names are charging top dollar for their services? You can't fault them for doing so if promoters are daft enough to pay what they are asking but does the standard of racing reflect that? I Know people will come back and say "No - we saw good racing last night" but come on lets face it, it's probably once in a blue moon you actually see a decent meeting these days. I could be wrong of cause, but the last few meetings I have seen on BT sports including the GP's I have turned the channel over after a few heats. That said, I also recently watched a Swedish league meeting on the Free Sports channel and that bored the hell out of me so maybe the standards have dropped in other countries? It all comes back again to asking does the punter get value for their money? In my opinion NO. British Speedway needs to re-invent itself fast. Let it be run by the organ grinder not the monkey.

One League - Future of British speedway. This subject will never go away. In my honest opinion like I've said before, Speedway in the UK in it's current form is falling flat on its arse. The people who run it are still living in the past and the whole structure is completely mismanaged. One league would be a benefit as it would mean an end to riders doubling up which has made the sport a joke. Admission prices are also a major factor. I don't believe that the punters are getting value for money. The quality or racing now in the British league is nothing like it was 25 years ago.

Wasn't on Eurosport. It was shown live on a German Sports channel was was available in the UK on the old Astra satellite.DSF rings a bell. Egon Muller was doing the commentary. It was certainly not shown live on any of the UK sports channels. I don't recall it being shown on the BBC. Maybe they would have shown a short 10 minute feature on their Wednesday night sports highlights show? The beeb did show highlights though of the British Grand Prix at Hackney the year Jason Crump won.

Well done Sir, Very well done. I take my hat off to you for finding that one. I bet you got a little stiffie when you came across that page and had to sneak into the kitchen for a crafty pocket shuffle. £2 a year - what was I thinking??

Hmmm! Unless I've been suffering from dementia for the last 10 years I seem to recall that the Mercia Vikings were in fact the Coventry "Mercia Vikings" hence they were Coventry's junior/MDL team so I'm not sure where you get the ghost team idea from? This may help you ... http://www.coventry-speedway.com/news_mdl.php?cat.5

I have not been to a speedway meeting since 2014 so I can't really comment on the current standard of the MDL but as a marker when I ran the league between 2011-13 the standard of the average rider then was between NL reserve and Open (A) class riders from the Scunthorpe amateur meetings.

I understand where your'e coming from but "mature riders" are nothing new in the MDL. If you go back to the first couple of editions of the MDL a good number of the riders were over 30 but thankfully league developed into what it was intended and the majority of riders are now under 20. Sadly though with the league now combined with the southern tracks, teams may have to rely move heavily on the over 30's to travel down to the likes of Eastbourne, Isle of White and Plymouth as midland and northern based youngsters will struggle to do the journey in the week if their dads can't get time off. Lets not forget they are not paid travel expenses, etc at this level. Someone has pointed out on another thread that it won't be a problem as lads want to race regardless of where in the country it is. True, but its not the kids that are having to take the time off work and drive them around. I do hope the S+MDL works but I do fear it will put too much on the Midland/Northern based riders. Hopefully this is just for one season and next year more tracks will come back into the fold so the leagues can be regionalised again.

Whilst I'm pleased that development league speedway will continue, Is it not a little unfair to expect lads (and most likely their dads) from the Midlands and the North to travel all the way down to the Isle of White and Plymouth at their own expense? Will their be sufficient sponsorship to cover their costs?

Just watched the highlights of the Kazakhstan round of the Grand Prix and must admit I was very impressed with the quality of the racing. I've never paid much attention to Ice Racing before as I've always thought of it as a Russian dominated procession where first out the traps always wins but I will be watching more from now on

Dick Barrie (press officer at Berwick?) may be your best bet. I'm sure he was the one running it from 2010 - 2012. After that Jamie Swales took it over for a bit.

Thanks Mike, The 2011 edition was known as the Midland League but came to be known as the MDL half way through. It was an unofficial league as the MDL was not sanctioned by the BSPA until 2012 so I doubt any results for 2011 would be listed in their archives. For the record 5 teams took part - Halifax, Long Eaton, Scunthorpe, Sheffield and Team Viking Academy (based at Sheffield). Long Eaton and Viking Academy then raced in a 2 leg Grand Final. Unfortunately I dont have the scores anymore as my laptop from that time has died. I will do my best to dig any info I can out though. I would have a good bet on Connor Dwyer being up there. In the meantime this may help http://www.spensites.co.uk/mdlinfo11.html

Hi Mike, Just out of interest do you know who is the all time leading points scorer to date in the MDL since its debut in 2011? Cheers

I wonder if the embarrassment still lingers from that "Goodbye to the Abbey" meeting a few year ago.

The reality is who in their right mind would want to invest thousands of pounds into a business that is probably not going to make any profit? It would be risky enough buying an existing team/promotion but having to start from scratch with having to pay for a new track to be laid and renovating a stadium that has not been used for years is financial suicide especially when the future of Speedway in this country as we know it is starting to decline before our very eyes. I've seen a similar thread on here about the future of Coventry stadium. One must admire the enthusiasm of these people but I'm sorry to say it is just fantasy. Unless you have got endless pockets of cash to spare why would you take such a huge risk?

Some good views on here. I really do like the idea of a Euro Super League. Could it work? In current circumstances probably not. But maybe, just maybe. It would have to be franchised and administered and marketed by an independent body affiliated to the FIM. The BSPA or other national bodies would never be allowed to run it. I like some of the comparisons to Rugby League which now has French and Canadian teams involved. Before Super League and Sky Sports investment, RL was a rough n' ready northern sport played in the middle of winter and followed by a die-hard fan base. Pretty much could be said for speedway these days. However since Super League was launched, it's franchising and marketing has brought a whole new fan base to the sport and also enjoys huge media exposure. So how about if for Speedway? Such a competition could still run alongside the domestic leagues and most importantly the Grand Prix series. There would have to be brand new teams (or in this case franchises) set up to successfully market such a competition to a wider audience. 8 teams - say 2 from UK, 2 from Poland, 2 from Sweden and 2 from Denmark. You could possibly make it 9 by inviting a franchise from one of the other main speedway nations on a yearly basis providing they meet strict entry and financial criteria. So that would be 8 home meetings over the year and of cause probably 1 more depending on a Grand Final play-off series. As someone has rightly pointed out I don't think fans would mind spending £20 admission to see 15 action packed heats featuring the best riders in the world (I love the idea of Woffinden, Cook and Lambert as the heat leaders). It would also have to do away with stupid team points limits. Some will say what about the away fixtures? - Nobody will want to travel over? Wrong. Not every meeting no, but some fans would want to travel over to say Poland or Denmark and make a long weekend out of it. I remember going over to Perpignan in France a few years ago and the city was rammed with 3000 Leeds Rhino fans there to see their team take on the Catalan Dragons. Broadcasting rights and big sponsorship deals would be key for such a competition to work but if left in the hands of the right management this could be done. Maybe such an idea is just a fart in the wind, but if Speedway is to generate a new fan base with a new exciting future could such a competition be the cure? Cheers

A random thought I had the other night was if I was a serious promoter with a business brain would I consider purchasing a track/franchise and by-pass the British league and instead enter a team in the Polish League? The BSPA wouldn't like it or probably do their best to block it but would the benefits be for the long term good of the sport in this country? Think about it. Sunday fixtures, Television exposure and having quality riders at every meeting providing the paying public value for money. There would be the logistical problem to deal with but what about striking up a commercial partnership with a low budget airline like Wizz. Probably a crap idea but I must admit if I was a speedway enthusiast with a business brain and a few grand to invest I would be looking at the option.

Hello Simon