SpeedwaySlider72

As the sport barely runs 6 months of the year now, 'semi-pro' could mean 6 months pro and 6 months working to fund their semi-pro speedway career. Riders may cry about this but if the sport keeps heading in the direction it is then their speedway career will become an amateur hobby. Everyone needs to wake up and realise this. Unnecessary costs must also be cut so that riders and clubs have a chance at survival.

The vast majority of sports are amateur or semi-pro, including olympic athletes. Those competitors make it work but you say speedway riders cannot?

You have posted much recently saying that the Premiership must be maintained at its current level. If these 'couple of Danes' and a handful of GP riders disappear because of this Polish rule then what level is the Premiership left at?

With their new found spare time, the riders can seek additional work outside of the speedway and the sport can return to a sustainable semi-professional level. Full time speedway riders on crowds between 500 and 1000 can't be sustainable.

Maybe financial considerations. Sounds like most teams lost big bucks this year and with rumours of no tv deal must be terrified.

Maybe British speedway can exist without these riders and focus on the ones that want to race in Britain as a priority? This opens up opportunities for young riders to establish themselves and clubs become more stable as they don't live beyond their means by paying riders who don't see Britain as a priority.

Perhaps such riders will need to find a different vocation.

Team building averages balance things up as you know ...and the teams won't be losing spadefuls of cash as many are right now. That's the main point of the shake up.

For a sport that is virtually unknown in this country that looks like a sensible level to run at with guys that are fully committed to riding in UK. Start from the bottom and build it up. Invest in marketing and presentation and watch the sport fly. Joe Bloggs on the street doesn't know Saifutdinov from Simon Lambert but will love Simon's commitment to his team. It's a team sport after all and needs sold on that. Back your team.

It's a catch 22. With riders injured at the last minute would fans prefer a last minute cancellation or for a meeting to go ahead with guests? What about sponsors or hospitality guests? Catering that has been arranged? It is bad enough with rain offs but adding more call offs will soon become problematic. Finding a better system than guests is the only way forward but is a challenge in itself.

There are very clearly a number of NIMBY falsehoods that the speedway campaign needs to meet head on with real world examples from other existing speedway tracks.

All riders who are good enough manage the next logical step into Championship racing without issue. The step to Premiership proved tougher for many, as well as many Premiership clubs showing no interest in British riders beyond the superstar youngsters, so a rising star system helped. There is not one NDL rider who is stuck at that level struggling to break into the Championship.

Well done to all the kids and to Iwade. A great day of racing.

How do you define improve? The sport is restructured into one league at a sustainable level and the clubs make money that can be reinvested into the sport - is that an improvement? Or The Premiership reaches further and strengthens the league but the crowds don't improve and the clubs lose even more money - is that an improvement?

If crowds were good enough to support having the top riders then why would the leagues have been watered down? Do you not think it was that even with 'top' riders they still didn't attract crowds big enough to sustain having them so the leagues had to be weakened to keep clubs alive? The quality of riders on show will have little impact on new fans as they won't know any of the top names anyway.

FIM should step in and ban riders in situations like this

That's the point. To be a fit for purpose entertainment package isn't going to come at £15 a pop. You could price speedway at £15 and still have a queue of current fans telling you it's a £10 sport. That's crazy talk. Every other sport has grown and admission prices have inflated massively yet speedway is left behind. A sport with many of the top 100 riders in the world on display but speedway fans say it's not worth the money. Speedway's greatest problem is being stuck in a bubble where people won't pay good money. The sport has to improve the product and get out into the wider market.

Using your stock cars as an example very many people pay £20 to watch "John down the road" race his stock car at Foxhall. Many more than pay £24 to watch Emil and co. Sometimes they will pay much more than £20 if it is dressed up a a 'world championship'. Most don't know what speedway is let alone the difference between John and Emil. The price isn't the issue, nor the riders on show. It's promotion and perceived value for money. Get them right and the rest takes care of itself.

Why does the price point have to be "around £15 to £20 max"? If anything the sport, especially the Premiership, has held prices too low over many years now. All subsidised by TV money instead of putting TV money to better use to promote and grow the sport. The Premiership right now is a £30 product minimum. Some of the best riders in the world going at it. Price it appropriately as the quality product that it is. Championship at £20+ could move towards £25. What can you get for £15 nowadays in live sport? British Speedway features some of the best speedway riders in the world, even the Championship is stacked with high quality international riders. Price it with enough margin to go out and sell the product properly. Dropping the price is a lazy way to get a crowd and doesn't work.

That's the problem. The sport will need to restructure to be viable to then be able to build going forward.

You must be intentionally looking to be provocative to ask this or not understand the current financial plight of the sport in Britain

is it because you are a negative naysayer?

It is the Speedway Control Bureau that dish out the facilities not BSPL

It may be the same for all 4 in race but only Leon had to go after every track grade so had it 5 times. You say it is hard to read the track after each grade and with the water going down it can be tricky for a rider so not enjoyable draw at all.

The main factor at Glasgow looks like the shape and width. It will always be difficult at Shielfield to replicate this