StarBoy

I'm not saying a crowd of 900 is good, but even considering that I still wouldn't say that should put us in the financial hole Buster claims we are in... I agree a total reset and overhaul of the system could have and probably should have happened after Covid, however it still returned to business as usual. Given the financial impact this has had on many people's live, I can understand the apprehension in spending what disposable income they may have.

Doesn't mean that the speedway riders wages are any cheaper... The business model works, lower prices for a more entertaining product. Polish speedway is a much better value proposition for the consumer. Every SGP rider is in Poland. How many are here, 4? 6 if you take into consideration Artem and Emil. That's the problem if you want to be recognised as a leading speedway nation which SGB does then you've got to go full guns blazing on it. There is no point getting the top 1% of riders over here if you're just going to back it up with utter tripe. I know we should appreciate the riders whilst they're still here, but long-term it isn't the solution. You've either got to balls to wall and invest some serious cash to actually motivate riders to want to actually commit to the UK, which I could justify paying the £22 on, or focus more on developing youth riders and making GB speedway about GB riders, which should command a lower price, say £15 for example. This in-between that we are in is no good for anyone connected to the sport. Look at heat 8 last night you've got Artem Laguta 2021 world champion racing against 2 'rising stars'. How are these kids going to become so called stars when they're a lap behind a former world champion? How does that benefit their development, confidence, motivation to want to actually race professionally? Either some serious money needs to be pumped into the sport to try and increase the calibre of rider all round or a complete overhaul is needed to get the best out of these kids who actually want to do it.

The problem with Lynn is you're in a league against teams (towns/cities) with a much higher population who directly or indirectly have a much larger audience as a potential fan base. Belle Vue (Manchester) - 552k / urban 2.7m Ipswich - 133k / urban 639k King's Lynn - 47k / West Norfolk 153k Leicester - 368k / metro 836k Peterborough - 220k / no information available for urban/metro Wolves (Wolverhampton) - 263k / Birmingham metro 4.3m Just makes sense that crowd levels are significantly lower than other teams competing in the league. We have a population similar to teams in the championship, so realistically based on crowd numbers that should be our level.

I will say he did look uncomfortable during the rerun though.

Don't know if anything official has been said regarding Artem's injury, but I can't envisage it being a long-term layoff. Sore, definitely but speedway riders have got up and cracked on with a lot worse

I understand what you're saying, everyone has different circumstances and that's the great thing with speedway you get people from every walk of life, which should be celebrated. Obviously my comments were generalised and stereotypical which probably isn't the best way to go about things, but if ticket prices all round were cheaper then this could drastically increase footfall. Take for example Poland you can get a seated ticket for the equivalent of like £8-10. You can pay more if you wish, but that is for a bog standard ticket. Yes, I understand that the sponsorship money and overall wealth of the sport there is higher than here, but if you're still not getting people in the stadium that business model stills fails.

Maybe it's 600 who pay by card (obviously they all have to be declared) and the remaining who pay by cash, (200-300) taking us up to the grand total of 800-900 which seemed more realistic for the Wolves meeting

I always thought Brady and Klindt got on. I'm not aware of all the ins and outs around the pits though

You're unlikely to see any changes Flappy unless your boy MT starts pulling out his sizeable wedge. Buster was playing on the heartstrings last night how woeful the financial situation is at KL and we currently have 2 holes in our team. So, you guys with a "full" I use that word loosely 1-7 now have got no chance in making unnecessary signings

Well just in general really to attract any fresh blood through the gate. I know from first-hand experience that my age group - the one mentioned above - is severely underrepresented at speedway. However, there has never been any incentive to get people my age in the stadium. I'm not asking for free handouts, but we are typically the demographic that has less disposable income, but somehow the older generation who stereotypically have higher disposable income pay less.

The 600 crowd for the meeting against Wolves surprises me. I know we're not crammed in like sardines at the AFA, but there certainly did appear more than that. I would of said 800-900

I can never understand why there hasn't ever been a big push to get younger, paying crowds through the gate (16-25 year olds). All the clubs say it's about getting the next generation interested in speedway, but there has never been an incentive to get them in. It's all well and good letting U16's in for free but if there was a promotion to get (16-25's) in, say £15 a ticket surely that would attract some interest. Especially when you've already got your core demographic - the older generation - having reduced prices

Klindt has scored 45 points from 19 heats the last 3 meetings (9.43 AVG). Previous to that he scored 34 points across 7 league meetings... I don't know what he has changed, but the man seems to have some fire in his belly. He had a column in the programme last night that mentioned after the BV home meeting he was very close to quitting. Thank god he didn't as seems possessed currently.

I've worked out averages following last night's meeting, as follows AL - 9.12 (8.00 for team building currently) NK - 7.09 TJ - 5.54 KT - 4.19 = 25.94 (24.82) If Simon Lambert is on a 3.67 that takes us too 28.49 so 10.51 left to play with for a No.5. Think Artem could get one of his Wroclaw boys over (Tai, Janowski, Pawlicki?) I joke, but in all seriousness if we do go the SL & BB route we would be 6.12 under....

Simon Lambert's 3.47 average from Prem is 4 years old. Didn't know if this needed to be updated or not, hence my question

Or is the better question forced to ride in Prem for a club he didn't want to?

I'm not the biggest fan of the idea (believe me). However we can't rely on guests and R/R for the foreseeable future. Riss scored 1 and R/R scored 5+1 tonight, it's just not good enough. If we take a hit to the average to get Simon Lambert in, this should leave us with a decent amount to get a decent no.5 in. I can imagine that Jakobsen and MPT demanded some quite high wages per meeting, especially Jakobsen being an Ekstraliga rider so extra money should be released so budgetary pressures can't be an excuse even with Artem...

Another positive showing from Lynn tonight, but when 3 riders are scoring 36 points and the other 3 are scoring 7 you don't stand much chance of winning a meeting. I feel we are just that 1 rider away from certainly being disruptive to teams trying to get in the playoffs. Let's say for arguments sake we did get Simon Lambert in at 2 or 6, does anybody know what average we would be left with for a replacement for MPT?

Whilst I respect Buster for honouring the Laguta deal, he didn't have to I know and it is a big commitment for him to make, the side now has 2 gaping holes in it, which on a good night and what was expected of them should of been scoring 15-17 points between them, especially at home. If you're going to get a Simon Lambert and Ben Barker type rider in to replace them you're looking at 8 max between them and that's me being optimistic. In what was already a losing side loosing a further 7-9 points a meeting means we will be lucky to score 30 each meeting. I know Buster has a strict budget, but he has called on loyal fans to support the club more than ever, realistically that isn't going to happen if he's stringing together team that is getting pumped by 20-30 points week in week out. I can stand losing, I've become accustom to it, the one thing I ask is that we are competitive. With the greatest respect to SL and BB, both being brilliant servants to British speedway the overwhelming majority of supporters aren't going to pay £22 to see that.

Wishful thinking I know BB. As much as I respect Simon Lambert and can't fault the effort he puts in, seeing 2 bargain basement signings brought into the team for JP and FJ is really going to turn people off even more. The crowds at present aren't sustainable and if 2 lower calibre riders are coming in I can see levels start to dwindle more and more. You know how the saying goes "you got to spend money to make money". I know the season is write off now, but if Buster invested into 2 riders that people could get behind if may place more bums in seats and increase the budget for next season... Similar to last year with Klindt and Jakobsen, I know they haven't necessarily worked out the way in which we hoped/expected but I'm sure they definitely lifted crowd levels...

What was Bachelor like when you had him in 21'? See he had a GSA of 5.67, does that tell the whole story? See he's back in the UK with Birmingham. Just thinking as an alternative to Pickering because as a hopeless romantic Lynn fan I'd love to see him back with us.

That is correct. Lynn has their the same. Riding order has been shuffled. I can imagine they're anticipating having to make a change for MPT as he's likely to be out for around 6 weeks. Could be seeing 2 new faces as it seems like Pickering is back off to Sheffield. I have this as our new rider order with some bargain replacements coming in: 1. AL 2. MPT replacement 3. TJ 4. FJ replacement 5. NK 6. KT 7. JE

Big ask Tarasenko riding at 5 on his debut. However, he should enjoy the NSS circuit. Going for a win for BV 54-36, Tarasenko to score 8+2

If we are going to run RR it has to be for MPT. If it's for Jakobsen again we are so much weaker

2018? Finished top of the league, play off runners up and KO cup runners up. If that doesn't scream competitiveness I don't know what does...