bellevueace

Ive often wondered about this group when riders have been refused entry due to problems with their visas, surely this is another area where some influence could be wielded?

Sad news he transformed Cradley from a Cinderella club, if only the sport had more promoters of his ilk today, RIP.

Well its their business,s that stand to go down the pan and with the gaps on the terraces becoming more and more each season surely even the goons at the BSPA can see the need for a radical change to breathe life back into the misnamed EL? If not the sport at the top level is finished.

In all my visits to Somerset ive seen nothing but excellent racing, every track has good and bad meetings but as a general rule tracks like somerset. kings lynn etc tend to provide mainly better meetings to watch, in all my years watching the Aces at Hyde Road I saw some duff meetings but the vast majority were top drawer.

I still enjoy the mag theres some good articles especially during the winter months, for me theres something about settling down with a read instead of staring at a pc screen, in an age where people are obsessed to an extent with technology (look how many people walk about engrossed in mobile phones) print media is certainly starting to become a second choice. I will certainly renew my subscription.

Perhaps the Aces should have just moved into the velodrome

I was under the impression that the local council were right behind the Heathens search for a new home?

With Kurtz fit i believe the Rebels would retain their title, they have some bad luck with injuries come the play offs as the injury to Jason Doyle no doubt cost them too.

RL awards a shield for the team finishing top of the league so why not speedway if we have to have the play off system?

Why should the people who were critical go onto moan about another stadium you ask? Because thats what a lot of posters on here do, they appear to delight in negativity, yes the sport has massive problems attracting crowds and some of that is down to ramshackle stadia that are really past their sell by date, BV by providing a new facility have made a step in the right direction in trying to appeal to a new fan base, yes of course the main ingredient is the quality of racing but people nowadays tend to want more for their money and at least some degree of comfort for their hard earned. Also why the obsession about a GP? no doubt something else to be negative about, its a stadium for BV not a replacement for Cardiff, as for 15,000 capacity we have seen GP,s run to crowds of this number and even below. We keep being told by people on here obviously not in the know as to how much debt the promotion are in but as for making the stadium pay its not just going to be speedway events held here it will be more multi purpose. At least the promotion are trying to do something for the whole of British speedway with their aims of a facility to help and nurture young upcoming British talent, but lets overlook that positive aspect and continue sniping. The stadium is going to be built, it was always going to be built the doom mongers were wrong simple as, if its going to be the new start the club desperately needs who knows but one thing is for sure there would be no future at the current dump so it gives us more than a fighting chance and for that reason alone I welcome the project.

Yeah aussies like the danes always seem to up their game when competing against each other, hope our new track provides the entertainment value seen at the OTA, mind if as reported its based a little on Hyde Road it wont go far wrong.

I always believed this stadium would be built despite all the negativity that people had about it, now the green light has been given perhaps the naysayers can target the supposed new stadium at swindon, coventry too could be looking at a new stadium in the not too distant future depending on the outcome of brandon, some people i think should be more concerned about their own clubs.

Despite the result there was some decent races Morris hunting down Grajczonek round the boards being one. Is there a bit of needle between these two as they were both going for it and didnt see any acknowledgement between the two after the race? Klindt was a superb guest for the Rebels and Allen looked really fast too, great to see Charles Wright doing so well always thought he was the better of the two brothers but a few early injury niggles in his career held him back a bit, Starke has also made progress and for me but for the injury to Kurtz i would back the Rebels to retain their title, they seem to have a bit of bad luck in play off finals (Doyely) so good luck Somerset hope you go on to win the play off final, always enjoy my visits down there, and not just for the real ales in the crossways.

Again a great event and a great atmosphere what was lacking though was good racing, for a showcase event the main ingredient failed to deliver, far too processional. Earlier in the week on talksport one of the presenters was commenting on the speedway gp and stated whats the point, whoever is in front going into the first bend will win, last night did nothing to disprove his arguement. I also thought the fan zone wasnt as good as in previous seasons, far too cramped up in the wood street. Gutted Tai didnt finish the night on top of the podium but the important thing is he finished the night leading by three points, hes looking good and hopefully he can nail back to back titles.

RIP Super Simmo, a great rider outspoken and made a lot of sense, sad to hear the news.

I always remember learning about Tommys sad accident, the Aces were down at Newport and i had got up early to travel and my dad told me there had been a serious accident concerning Tommy, what a shock that was, he was a superb rider, exciting to watch and for me he would probably have gone on to be a world champion, a great rider and a sad passing RIP Tommy Jansson.

Best wishes to Ivan and his family, a few years ago when he attended the BV meeting at Gorton Monastary it appeared he was starting to suffer with this condition. The man is a legend, his professionalism and consistency was absolute top drawer. Today sports people make a big thing of the importance of psycology in attaining their goals, Ivan recognised this many many years ago and had many opponents beaten in the pits before a wheel was turned. Very shrewd and a fantastic influence to all those around him as his record with his various teams show. The early seventies BV team was a powerhouse unit and that was in no small part to Ivan Maugers influence, it was a privilege to have seen him in his prime.

Because the product was far better than it is today, even though 30 years ago not everything in the garden was rosy the sport held more appeal, even today people I work with can name Mauger, Briggs, Collins etc, ask them who is world champion today and no one knows and that with a british world champion. The sport needs to find a way of reconnecting with the wider public, silly rules like the double tac and joker have the opposite effect likening speedway more to its a knock out. We can debate forever but the one fact that is beyond discussion is the terraces around the tracks today very sparesly populated, TV was seen as the big breakthnrough its not happened, hopefully it will this season. We can only go off figures quoted at the time and none of us know for sure the exact figures but one thing is certain Wembley for instance was never raced in a half full stadium well not the times I attended, even take 80,000 and nowadays the flagship event is under half that

That's five out of the sixteen GP riders, riders themselves have actually stated they would ride in the EL if it wasn't for the amount of league matches considering their schedule as regards to the GP so I would say it does have some effect, likewise the falling crowds for league meetings prove that television exposure is not having the desired effect on the sport that some thought it would, as for Cardiff released figures have shown a drop off on attendances from the first time the event was staged, for a one off meeting in a state of the art stadium with all the worlds top riders I don't think under 40,000 is impressive at all, a half full stadium when you take into consideration the attendance is made up of every team in the country be it EL,PL,NL, a far cry from when these kind of meetings were into six figures, apart from disrupting the bread and butter of league the GP hasn't really made that much impact at all with the wider general public, in fact the sport is losing support.

Whilst Cardiff is the biggest day out within speedway circles how many people outside of the speedway bubble knows the event is taking place? I notice every year in january in the express theres always a double page sports calender pull out, under the motorsport section the Cardiff GP is never mentioned, people i know and who i work with are oblivious to it, so how effective is it as a marketing tool for the sport in general? Also the crowds at the actual event itself seems to be on a bit of a downward spiral, whilst the GP,s have taken the sport into big stadia in capital cities the league structure in the UK has certainly suffered with the loss of the majority of top riders.

An excellent article and i have to admit i didnt realise the actual severity of his injuries, the seperate article where he speaks about elevating NL riders straight into the EL is spot on. I hope gary gets a position within the sport, i think hes a lot to offer.

Hans Neilsen

Its always easy to delude yourself that facts and figures that you dont want to acknowledge are sad, whats not sad is the fact that the cardiff spectacle is down on numbers, league speedway only for the real deluded is down on numbers. george likened my opinions to jackanory as we dont have official attendances published, well going off that his own opinions are hypocritical as he himself dosent have said facts to support his view. People like you will always bend statistics to suit and as long as the minority stay deluded everything in the garden will be rosy, if official stats were produced there would be the blinkered that would not believe it, but when your at KL have a look round and tell me that crowds arent what they were, this used to be a decent forum but now is populated by people that cant debate without being agressive(not you) and those who view the sport through rose tinted specs to be honest im glad to be off it, can you produce official stats to show sky EL meetings and GP,s are up on viewer numbers? I very much doubt it. Good points well made but many far older sports have also gone through the same upheavels and prospered support wise, both rugby codes, cricket, darts, and snooker to name but just a few.

Aimed at the post not like you at the poster theres a difference. Well you have some official figures you were so keen on, no comments? I await your input with official figures showing a rise in viewing figures, we all know attendance figures at tracks are down as some promoters were quoted in the star as saying they were running to under 1000 paying fans last season, i think Eastbourne quoted 600 for one match.

At one time on this forum people could debate in a freindly manner, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. I follow a non league football club with average gates of around 140 last week we played fc united which pulled in 1008 do you seriously think anyone with half a brain cant see the difference? Anyway the this shows how productive tv is http://www.methanolpress.com/catastrophic-further-collapse-in-cardiff-speedway-grand-prix-viewing-figures-contributes-to-dramatic-further-decline-in-overall-british-audience/ Can you provide factual figures of skys audience rising year on year?http://www.methanolpress.com/tag/sky-sports-speedway-viewing-figures/ As you are so obsessed with official figures heres another