HGould

What planet have you been living on???

Comments from various CL Promotions on their websites, social media and Speedway Star indicates either no such directive from BSPA or some Clubs ignoring it. Most likely no such BSPA directive. Kent - Len said weeks ago he will refund all season Tickets, no messing refunding all. Redcar - announced they will wait and refund on a pro rata basis once more known re Fixtures but fans can contact them Eastbourne - said will review in June but anyone wanting refund due to hardship to contact them like Redcar. Every Club is a separate Company. They are governed by BSPA on Speedway' matters but surely can't be instructed by BSPA on a business decision like this. Those 3 Clubs and probably others certainly aren't listening to alleged BSPA comments It's between you and your Club!

Star is excelling in the lockdown well done to all concerned. Best it's been in a long time. I fear though that at some point the Best Programme of the Year Annual Feature will be Best Website of the season, and that the Positives and Negatives of the Season will be who's had a Good Lockdown and who hasn't. Fingers crossed neither are needed, although might be fun Features at some point.

What happens when they get to hospital A+E. ??

Basic economics Polish Speedway can survive in this mode for 2020. It appeases TV / Sponsors / Public and allows riders to "earn" 50% of Polish earnings are still 5 times what they could earn elsewhere. They will spend LESS with no GP or alternative meetings / travel and will spend 4 months in a speedway form of Japanese Sumo enclave. You can't knock the Poles. What are the BSPL/SCB doing, other than working day to day with no clear plan or strategy other than to play Quizzes on a Friday night, give caps away as prizes and allow the Dominic Cummins of UK Speedway to flog off cheap publications to dormant Clubs, that they won't allow to race any more but are happy to rip off.

You're not joking are you???

Still missing are they??

Be interesting to know average crowd figures at IOW 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 - is the hard work paying off in tangible numbers Also be good to know if any supporter of any other Club has actual evidence of crowds increasing / decreasing / static; not bravo my Clubs better than yours etc but an honest assessment. To loosely quote a Covid 19 theme, are we still approaching going down to peak lethargy or we on a plateau and going nowhere or are we seeing increasing numbers in places and if any of those apply are they regionalised / specific to Clubs or Areas? (unlike Covid going up is Good, going down is bad and plateau is probably betetr than many think) Is Scotland thriving, how about the North East, are East Anglia / Midlands overloaded; how is the South doing, is suggested progress of BV purely down to their isolation geographically etc My perception with the Midlands is that Wolves are stagnating feeling and looking old and tired, no disrespect to CVS/Peter legends in their day but has that day passed? , Brummies are holding their own thanks to some good work from David and Peter, and Leicester are progressing but having found a race-day and level that suits and mostly down to recruiting Stuart Dickson.

I dont think the Poles will see living in Poland as a pre-requisite beyond 2020. What we may see is an insistence that they have to be there on a Friday and remain til a Monday. That helps Sweden more than UK.

I can't see Cradley ever coming back. The fan base has dwindled due to age and apathy. If the outstanding Tony Mole could not find a track location for them between 2000 and 2010 and make it work, then I have to ask "who can"?? The Money raised to support the Cradley Planning and set up was then squandered and used by Patchett and Pearson who have piggy backed on to the Cradley name for a long time, creamed money off it and done very little to actually support it. Now they have "run for the hills" as the money pit has run dry. Its 25 years since Dudley Wood closed and I fear Cradley will never return. Birmingham and Wolverhampton are barely viable, so where is there room for another Club in the midst of that as I see very few Cradley fans (30-40 in 2019) at either track and Cradleys gates last year were probably below 500. The horse sadly has bolted.

Spot on Crabba. So Stoke Potter (how ironic) would close any track with a dog track as dog racing is in a worse place than speedway??? Maybe he'd like to visit Perry Barr and Monmore Green and see the outstanding Spectator facilities, add Sheffield and a few others. Then he might like to enquire what % of the income of those tracks come from Dogs and Speedway. I'll give him a clue, Speedway is probably less than 10%?? Has he never heard of Betting turnover? Then he might like to go to Mildenhall, Ipswich and Eastbourne and a few others and ask them what % of income comes from Stocks v Speedway. I would estimate 70-80% is from the Stock Cars. Stop talking baloney about Tracks.

I think that you are spoiling what could be an interesting thread by living in cloud cuckoo land. 90% of tracks are the shape and size and have the dimensions they do out of decades old necessity. You write off one track based on a video clip and have an obsession with another. Any rebirth or renaissance has to be practical possible and sensible. I'm out.

Berwick have a great one. Made of wood Teams names and scores updated after every heat bit like an old cricket scoreboard.

may be you should go and read last weeks Speedway Star. Nicholls / Harris and King review various Tracks, looks like they are going to do an A - Z. All Class riders and all saying the same thing broadly. There is a place for all types of track, the ones where you stick you backside on the back guard and throttle full on (often boring and processional in my opinion as there is only 1 line) and the ones that are far more technical and require throttle control and rider to turn the bike (can be equally boring as the riders who have the ability to do that are often head and shoulders above the rest and a dying breed) Converse thinking is you can and do have great racing at big fast and technical tracks. I've seen great racing at most tracks and equally boring racing at those tracks, Generalisation is easy. If every track was built like NSS which I think is a good track but over-rated wouldn't racing be boring in general as the vast difference in types and skills required would be nullified. The greats could ride anything, from Crayford to Crewe, they never moaned and complained. Look at the 10 point average riders in those days, cream rose to the top, look now, there aren't any basically, as all much of a muchness. We have a generation of riders (those that came after Nicholls / Harris and King who can ride anything) who only know one way to ride, very few have actually learned proper throttle control and the engines are revved to destruction. De-tune, limit revs, bring onus back on to throttle control not throttle bashing and the sport would improve overnight. I did Trials and Road Racing, I learned how to ride fast and how to ride the bike properly. I didn't have the natural ability to excel at either but I'll tell you this, anyone can ride a bike flat out, takes a rider to learn throttle control!

Some of the more progressive Promotions have already announced that this will be the case. I highlighted last week a few who have already made announcements with Free Offers and significantly reduced Admission Rates. Other Clubs will no doubt follow once the actual position about chances of Racing in 2020 are known. It's not all doom and gloom out there far from it. The biggest danger as I see it are the dinosaurs amongst the current Promoter population just carrying on regardless and killing the Sport in the process. A breakaway of the progressives at some point might be the best solution and that takes us full cycle back to the 60's.

Mike, I love reading your posts and respect your views very much. To consider though that any but a handful of CL tracks would break even let alone make money for such an event would be more accurate an assessment. I don't get the obsession with finals at the NSS either?.. I think a lot of promotors with a September start will be thinking 2 local derbies home and away to cut costs optimise crowds and make few quid for the long winter as season tickets and sponsorship next winter just not going to happen.

With age dynamic of supporters and cost of modern electronic boards not sure how either are going to have any impact at all. Standard engines are fine as long as a single manufacturer can make enough. Jaws who supplied ice racing engine to IOW Nice Challenge would struggle to make enough available. Could be real milage in R2 and bring mainstream manufacturers in to the sport. One big regionalised league, set pay rates per win, 2nd, 3rd 4th like the 80,s, and a max admission of £12 with Clubs forced to adhere to pay rates would be a start. Abolish BSPA and create a new independent body.

I made this point precisely during the winter when teams were announced and at which point there was only 1 team in the 19 Clubs in the PL / CL with 7 British riders and a couple with 6 British riders and a smattering with 5. The issue though for Promoters is that the richest Clubs will sweep up the British riders, especially Clubs like Wolverhampton (2020 team not a single British born rider), who will suddenly seek to do something they have rarely done and be interested in British riders. For many of the Australians in the CL though Poland/Sweden are NOT an option so there would have to be some non UK born riders allowed to race here as they would base themselves for 6-7 months in the UK.

Mine not arrived yet but arrived Saturday last week so fingers crossed...sounds very positive feedback from all who have read.. Great news.

Don't think Belle Vue is on a par with some of the Polish Tracks. There are some exceptional races there but many is who gets the dirt line first and very spaced out Racing. There is a space in our sport for that type of sit on the dirt and just screw the throttle on, just as there are for some of the more technical throttle control tracks like Cardiff and plenty in between. I've turned off matches at BV as just down to horsepower and turned off Cardiff as too rutted. Of all the tracks I went to in 2019 the new Swindon shape is exceptional and will provide even better racing when it matures and Glasgow is also now excellent track and hopefully Berwich being similarly widened can provide some great action. CL wise the 4's at Peterborough and Pairs at Somerset were as good quality as BV.

Need some reality I think. Why would BBC / ITV want to or have the need to show Speedway at this time when they have tens of thousand of hours of 50 other far more popular (to mainstream TV Sports). The 3 obvious Sports exclusive channels we could expect to see Speedway on are Sky / BT Sport / Eurosport. As we all know though as usual fate has not landed kindly for Speedway! Sky gave up the ghost a few years ago and is now apathetic at best. BT Sport got the product on the cheap, very cheap, only upped the ante when they realised they could lose the product, have lost UK rights now and lose GP rights from 2021 Eurosport gained UK coverage but not yet any to show and have access to some recent Swedish / Euro Champ if they want to use it. Devil and Deep Blue Sea seems to be the best description. Sky won't be bothered, BT Sport toys out of the pram can't be bothered and Eurosport can't really help very much at this time. Meanwhile all 3 show other forms of 2 wheel and 4 wheel motorsport highlights of the past. No blame here just fate!

Great news thanks

Too many Clubs are still in dark ages of Cash only.

Countries will slowly you would think slowly relax social gathering and start to define numbers. What will constitute a "large gathering" and when. So it's currently 2! At the point it becomes 1000 or 2000 and at the point at which the significant majority of people are prepared to be in Crowds of 1000-2000 then in the UK we have Speedway (subject to Medical Cover). When that is ??? The Government will dictate the ability to stage an event by numbers that's the easy part, the general supporting public being convinced it's safe will be harder! NOBODY knows. I am now reconciled to it being no sooner than early 2021.

I'm hoping to see some Brummies Away matches down South at some point in 2020. £19 at Kent and no concessions for OAPs like me! Poole and Eastbourne letting my NHS working wife and daughter in for free and Poole offering me concession price and Eastbourne reportedly £10 for early meetings or a concession if not! Bit of a no brainer for us!