Shale Shaker

I recently watched the movie documantary "Senna" and after seeing the lamentable actions and attitude of the FIA at the time, there are undeniably similarities with the current actions and attitude of the FIM.

Precisely

So that's basically admitting that he's picked a poor team and is now stuck with it, then

It's not so much the fence itself which makes the track safe or not, but the likelihood of going into the fence in the first place. Having stood on the second bend at Workington, it looks scarily tight to me, and I'd say if 4 riders were going in there together, one of them is going into the fence. A bigger, wider, open track such as Sheffield, or Peterborough makes this scenario less likely, I think.

Maybe it's you who ought to re-read the thread. I can't see any of your "ideas", or any real reasoned debate.

So how is a £10 entrance fee going to help them? Sorry if you're getting bored O saviour of British Speedway

Hang on a minute. You are advocating a £10 admission fee to only maintain the current fanbase. Surely if the turnover is lowered, then more fans need to be attracted to balance the books. Why knock things even further down if your plan is to build up? Why not invest in the sport and improve the product so that it's worthy of a £17 or even £20 entrance fee. People will not turn out to watch a shoddy product, no matter how it's priced. Will your £10 product subsequently only be worth £5 or £6?

But if we accept that, then where are the new fans going to come from to stop the whole thing going completely down the drain? What you are saying is that British speedway is effectively finished.

Most "new" fans I have come across recently have been turned on to the sport by watching the GP's on TV. Having been exposed to that level of presentation, excitement professionalism, imagine their disappointment on turning up to a crumbling stadium to stand amongst old men watching lacklustre racing. Now imagine lowering the standard of everything even further by going down the £10 route and it's not difficult to see how the sport becomes even less attractive. British speedway should be aspiring to the levels attained by the GP's, not further degrading an already shoddy product. Otherwise what future is there?

I'm not really too upset about the current situation with guests, but then I'm not a particularly partisan supporter (although I do follow Sheffield mostly). To a large degree, I quite like to have the opportunity to see a selection of different rider's in action. That's just my view, and I do see that it would be unpalatable to some people.

Eight "Ace" £1.49

Eurosport show the SGP despite having no filming capabilities. There's no reason why the EL could not be filmed by one of the many sports coverage outfits and the feed sold on for broadcast by Eurosport.

Didn't a British fellow (used to post on here I'm sure) try to set up a track somewhere in Southern Spain a few years ago. I seem to remember it never really got off the ground due to lack of Spanish interest.

That's exactly right. Investment is what is actually needed, not reduction in revenue and lowering the quality of the product. Any new track (let alone something like the new Belle Vue Stadium) would never get off the ground with a business model with a £10 entance fee.

"A hundred ways" - really, You quoted 3, where's your other 77 ideas. Bleating "It's not good enough" is not facing the economic realities.

As SS said, the overheads involved mean that speedway as we know it will never be a £10 sport. That's just the business reality, Speedway will not survive as a £10 sport.

Perhaps we can get Zagar in as a guest?

I always thought it strange that Speedway touts itself as a family sport, yet I can't think of a single track I've visited which provides any specific facilities for families with children or kids clubs etc. Most of the time, kids appear to be fed up by around heat 5 and end up running around the terraces annoying people trying to watch the racing.

I'd be surprised if Andre isn't without a bob or two. However he must have named a pretty good price to be lured out of reirement??

Sky are already showing both leagues this year so surely there must be some Sky money going to the PL already??

I strongly suspect this is a move to standardise the safety fences across the leagues in preparation for the big merger next year.

Do they use the scoreboard at Cardiff for displaying the match scores at the GP? If so then why bother with a program at all? If they don't,then I think we could guess the reason why.....

One wonders that if a deal done with Sky on a merged EL / PL leauge would including financing of the Air Fences which will be mandatory for all clubs next year. Or maybe this requirement is already pre-empting the merger of the leagues.

Careful now, or you'll be getting sued.

So, you would stick with a crap meeting as long as you could hear the bikes? And yet you switch off after 20 mins when the world's best riders are on show? Sorry, I still don't get it.