bellevueace

Cardiff holds 75,500 how would that look? Given the crowds and cost of putting in a temporary track you can see why they pulled the plug.

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No keyboard warriors in those days

I dont get why so many non Belle Vue fans are bothered about this if Doyle had done the same thing it wouldnt bother me and really British speedway has fallen so far now there really isnt any point mithering, speedway in GB is what it is.

Cant argue with Doyles committment to British speedway, ive always been a fan, stop having a go at Belle Vue remember we signed him from Poole that rule breaking is firmly entrenched 🤣

Even that didnt stop us 😀

And that after 29 barren seasons, the club doesnt have a bad history does it? Even beat Hitler 😀

We wont get past the semis with Brady, too inconsistent in the middle order and weak reserves, that we will walk into the play offs though show how weak this league is.

I totally agree ive followed semi professional football for years and have a season ticket for Ashton United, travelling around grounds in the Northern Premier League and other leagues around the country attendences at many grounds are better than the reported numbers given at a lot of speedway tracks. I also think the Championship is a better product, more tracks suited to good racing Scunny, Redcar, Workington, Glasgow for example, more variety not seeing the same team every other week, and as we saw at the British Final you dont need a GP line up to produce good racing. Where Premiership speedway goes from here is anyones guess.

I think we will qualify for the play offs but we wont get past the semis.

Every club is woefully attended to what it used to be and it gets worse every season, i started at Belle Vue in 68 so have seen good and bad times(29 years with no title), the GP certainly had an influence in matches leading up to the friday and saturday, what has also caused a fall in attendences nationwide is clubs streaming along with BSN, much cheaper for people to get their speedway fix, myself i prefer live meetings and did every home and away meeting when every league meeting had something depending on it, with the regular season being just a qualifier thanks to the play offs it just doesnt have the same appeal for me, still do home meetings and some away but prefer to visit Championship tracks for some variety. Just think we had 2 leagues of 18 teams now we have 15 teams nationwide. How can the so called Premiership survive? Personally i wouldnt mind BV going Championship but many probably wouldnt support it as Aces have only ever been in the higher leagues duing their history. Lets see what next season brings.

So did we when it actually mattered in last years final, regular league matches are now meaningless as the play off contenders were known before a wheel was turned. Reason why meetings are woefully attended, give the qualifiers a miss and come out when the meaningful meetings happen in the play offs.

Isnt there more pressure for riders to come back when not ready in Poland? Isnt there a rule where they have to pay back a chunk of their signing on fee? I dont know but im sure something about this was mentioned in an article i read, if so its no wonder riders will come back when not 100%.

Looking on the bright side its saved me petrol money, should be a comfortable home win i would expect lions to hit 52+

Good post, its amazing how those in charge are so short sighted not to see they are going to actually destroy their own business, but back in the 70,s when crowds were large and teams numerous nothing was reinvested back into the sport. Just to think then Poland wasnt even on the speedway map in comparison to today, surely British speedway should look at their model and how they grew it, its probably gone too far here so no big business would come onboard as a main sponsor as speedway as nothing to offer and can you imagine councils here getting behind their local clubs with the backing they get over there, at least Manchester council got behind the stadium here or we wouldnt have a club let alone a GP.

I suppose the authorities are so desperate for tv coverage they sell themselves short.

I totally agree with you i remember hearing the powers that be saying the sport needs more tv exposure to make people aware and get crowds up, the opposite has happened and especially with clubs now doing their own live streams, its far cheaper for people to stream than attend, you cant beat being in the stadium, i wonder if clubs make enough to cover the loss of footfall into the stadiums thanks to TNT and their own streams?

Yes thats what its all about for them viewing figures will always be the deciding factor.

Thats what i mean by a realistic option Alexandra stadium is really no different to BV as regards to its location and would be a temp track, many football stadiums host concerts, boxing, american football but would all be out of reach of speedway cost wise and also said stadiums wouldnt open the doors for the crowds a speedway gp would pull, id love to see speedway in a stadium like Tottenham Hotspur, but as in Cardiff in the latter years the crowd would be swallowed up by empty seats, cost of hiring would be prohibitive, the days of the Wembley finals with 90,000 crowds are long gone and even the reported 100,000 that was quoted for the 1976 final in Poland. Do you think this is why the current rights holders seem to be taking speedway away from the big stadia? When they came in it was big plans for major stadia and to expand worldwide, perhaps they have seen it to be not worthwhile. Strange really as today younger generations are all about extreme sports but the majority dont even know what speedway is and you cant get much more extreme than racing 5oocc bikes with no brakes.

I get your point but moving the center of the event a quarter of a mile away is only 440 yards surely that wasnt the cause how long does that take to walk? As you said earlier "All I’ve said was it shouldn’t be at BV" Where else could it realistically be in the UK? Its here or no British GP, if they had put a large fan park next to the stadium how many more would it really have attracted? And lets not forget Parklife was on too.

Wembley attracted massive crowds far greater than anything seen in Cardiff for the world finals and the stadium was in the middle of nowhere, no big fan parks not based in central London, for me i stopped going to Cardiff quite a few years ago when the novelty of the stadium wore off the processional speedway did it for me, i like Cardiff as a city, i can spend a weekend there enjoy it without having to sit watching poor fare ontrack or being ripped off in hotels. Im just a speedway fan who puts the emphasis on the racing, you cant compare speedway gp to F1 for example how many people attend Silverstone for example, thats completely different go there its like a small village, speedway isnt on that level, even in Cardiffs heyday i used to note in the mainstream media when all the important sporting dates were given for the year the speedway gp never got a mention and that was in the days when it attracted 40 to 50 thousand, instead of people pulling it to pieces lets enjoy it for what it is, a minority sport event, the comments about catering are valid though.

I think the novelty of the stadium played a large part in the early years

You are either clueless or are begrudging of the track or both seeing as your a Coventry fan you should concentrate on getting your own club back.

At least he keeps reminding us who the world champion is

Some people are so eager for it to fail mate.