MattB

I work over in Birmingham and I was convinced when I finished at 5 that I would find out the meeting was going to off, so was astonished when I arrived at Monmore to find brilliant sunshine. Nice to catch up with people I hadn't seen in almost 18 months, but such a shame that they couldn't get through it. In truth the track looked horrendous when I got there, and even after a hour of work it looked no better. Gutted for CVS, who sounded absolutely crestfallen when he made the announcement, but with the benefit of hindsight, calling it off before would have been the sensible option.

I've been to loads of meetings where the advertised start time is 7.30, yet at 7.35 they've only just started to wheel the bikes out for the parade. I think there has been some improvement in recent years in terms of getting meetings run to time without messing about, but it's not always down to the promoters. As most of them rent the stadium, they're landlords want delays because they want them to spend money in the bars and burger vans.

Yes. I said I was uncomfortable with it on another and got told to grow up

Looks like they've deleted it from twitter and Facebook now.

A poor idea which has been badly put together

Yes. It's why I say self interest won at the end of the day. The riders saw pound signs and the promoters did not stand up to them. While clearly a portion of the money had to go to the riders, part should have been set aside to lay some foundations in place for long term reward. So many other sports reaped the benefits of TV money because they had vision over a 5-10 year period. Speedway was happy to hop on the gravy train until the novelty (and the cash) ran dry.

We do. And it's fantastic. But it's a case of slamming the stable door shut after the horse has bolted. I've watched some meetings from that 1999-2000 period over the last year. The buzz and the atmosphere around the sport then was huge. Big crowds, terrific action. It was a perfect base on which the sport could have kicked on. A bit of vision and joined up thinking by the promoters? Nope, just go for the quick fix and short term boom.

The biggest missed opportunity British Speedway had was when Sky got involved in 1999. They had the perfect opportunity to put together a proper business plan to invest the money into a proper structure to give it a solid foundation to build on and take the sport forward. But sadly, self interest got in the way.

I can't escape the feeling that a portion of this is driven by jealousy of what the IOW have been doing in terms of promoting "outside the box" as it were.

Definitely at Dudley Wood. We used to call the 3rd bend at Cradley "Sam's Bend", he used to come off there that often.

Am a big fan of Tom Bacon. Very professional and immaculate in the way he presents himself, his setup , and how he talks to people - definitely a CVS type of rider. That said, I would say his chance of kicking on to a higher level has probably passed now.

All well and good, as long as they don't go down the "rip it up and start again" route at the first moment someone moans about it not suiting they're club.

Bradford always had excellent crowds for big meetings, but I'd question the viability of league fixtures there. The crowds were probably decent for smaller venues, but would get lost in the vast spaces of Odsal. Bear in mind that they had strong teams for a lot of the time between 86 and 97.

Streaming is an idea that at very least must be explored. OK its not the same as being there, but its likely to be some time before even a small number of fans can go into stadiums. Charging for a streaming service could potentially be a lifeline for these clubs.

Making it up as they go along

The old saying "Never waste a good crisis"

I notice construction of new stadiums doesn't appear among his many talents.....

Yea was an awful decision in Sweden. Rickardsson wasn't quite at his best that year, though its to his credit he got as close as he did. He really raised the bar in terms of how riders presented themselves. I can remember him turning up at Monmore Green in his enormous motor home (much to Chris Van Straaten's disapproval apparently!) when he was riding for Poole. Such a shame that he was tempted to race on in 2006 when his heart probably wasn't in it.

Absolutely. I remember that final GP in 2000 vividly, and Rickardsson was absolutely superb. He was never headed before the final and I've no doubt he'd have won that final if he'd needed to - he was simply deflated after Loram had sealed the total. It was a terrific achievement from Loram to win a title during a period when Rickardsson was at his absolute peak

A chink of light perhaps? Long way to go, but fingers crossed http://www.savecoventryspeedway.com/_mobile/news.php?extend.4195

Positive news. Still a lot of work to do of course, but getting speedway back into Oxford would be a major coup.

Totally agree. The shoestring speedway runs on makes it impossible to run with no income coming through the turnstiles. The social distancing aspect is tricky as well. It can probably be implemented at some tracks, but not others. Wolves can only accommodate supporters in a relatively small section of Monmore as it is.

Think there's a real element of truth about this. I went to Rye House's first top flight match, and lots of fans I spoke to said it was the best crowd they'd seen down there. Once the initial buzz wore off, it was always likely that crowds would level out (by all accounts they were dropping in the latter years of Len Silver's time). Once they lost Saturday nights, I think the writing was on the wall. Hopefully it can be salvaged. We've lost far too many tracks in recent years.