tom

I think both of these points are really strong, but flip me if I would know how to set it up. Maybe it should be pitched to Phil Morris directly? Part of the problem is that there's different sorts of very specific expertise required, legal/planning stuff is one type, setting up business partnerships is another, digging funding out of public bodies is another. As you both say, some kind of central team or even just a deposit of information and strategies that clubs could draw on would be ace. Do you know whether the campaigners at Peterborough and Coventry are in touch? And the people trying to restart Cradley, and the various others? I mean I assume they will have at least waved at each other, but maybe there might be a way of banking the learning of every project so that even the ones that fail (ie most of them) still contribute something to the next? This might mean a person having a job. It might be possible to part-fund this by setting it up as a PhD research project, for a clever and business-minded young[-at-heart] speedway fan. Or participant, or former participant. Pop quiz! Has any speedway rider had a PhD? And which current rider is most likely to be able to do one? Just from the amount of stuff he's involved in, I can imagine Dr. Lemon. I would also like to second or third everyone who's said speedway should target media colleges. It works for everyone involved in loads of ways. But also might be worth business schools, maybe even local history departments. Basically any way you can think up building a PhD out of speedway. I mean physics! Or engineering. And with all of these wacky ideas, the main, sneaky, round the back benefit is that you're introducing more people to speedway who will probably never have seen it before and really ought to love it because it's brilliant.

The impression I get is that, at the club I've had conversations with at least, there just isn't anyone who has the capacity, contacts and experience to set that kind of thing up. I know that certain major cities have police initiatives focused on bike crime, not all of those have speedway but Manchester is one. I imagine that when it comes round to noise complaints or fending off developers, being the in council's good books would come in handy. As you say as much as anything that kind of project is about building good relations with the local community and local government, rather than directly attracting fans or even riders (although it might do those things too!). This is obviously massively important for speedway, because fundamentally, the thing that separates British and Polish speedway, and the thing that has secured Belle Vue ther stadium, is local government support. But I can imagine how these kind of long-term, diagonal strategies might seem like luxuries if you're flat-out fighting crisis on all fronts. One angle that has only just occurred to me, and could well be a good seller in the current educational contexts, is that I've got a little hunch that both in terms of spectators and participants, speedway might be a sport that favours neurodiverse people. The connection to ADHD is obvious: massively intense, massively sensory, short bursts of violent action; impossible to ignore; regular hits. I think there are connections to some points on the autism spectrum too. All the numbers, the averages, then the physics, the immersion again. As a spectator it's a very attention grabbing all-senses experience (apart from the food). I would imagine it's exactly the kind of job for someone who needs to be in-the-moment. Speaking as someone who has these conditions. So... this line of argument could be used in schools and universities to students. That is a growing proportion of students (up to around a quarter in some universities) who might respond very well to a welcoming community that invites them in, especially if they've got a mega-exciting entertainment at the centre of it. But again developing these kinds of projects and arguments requires a certain kind of mindset and experience which, if you haven't worked in those kinds of areas, you might not have. Which I imagine is the main reason they haven't happened. Certainly to actually get funding you need to be able to speak their language. From the perspective of speedway it would be about: how can we solve a problem for someone else? That's basically how you lever them into being willing to solve yours. Once you get started down that path there's all kinds of places you can take it though. Arts council? Performing rights society foundation?

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Mike I’ve sent you a PM. I agree with everything you’re saying.

Schools maybe would have a problem, many parents would *^%# themselves if they thought their kids were being encouraged to take up something as dangerous as speedway. God forbid anyone did, the first time they got injured the headteacher loses their job. However, in several cities the police have projects going on trying to counter youth offending involving motorbikes in urban areas. These are the only group o people who would become safer by being involved in speedway. They probably have the right personality type to enjoy it. Speedway is a way they carry on doing what they like, but legally, more safely, in a context with supportive positive role models, with a potential job at the end of it. And it’s drug-tested, so if they abuse substances they’ll have to stop. This gets you a pipeline both for fans and riders, and improved relations with the council and potentially the neighbours if it reduces crime.

Sod off back to your greyhounds forum

I fully applaud the introduction of Shakespeare to this topic. Although A Comedy of Errors, his iconic farce, is probably more appropriate. For me it’s not unreasonable that the riders want enough money to make a living. It’s a dangerous job, they could be paralysed at any moment, and there are costs. The basic problem here is NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE GOING TO THE SPEEDWAY. If there were more fans, there would be more money generally, more interest in TV deals, more ability to fend off developers trying to build on the stadiums, more justification for asking for local or national government support. Just more people, through the gates, that’s what is needed. In particular young people, since they are less likely to die and thus more likely to keep coming to the speedway. And maybe even allowing their kids to do speedway. Big name riders ain’t gonna do that if nobody’s heard of them anyway. What speedway basically needs is to hook in whole new categories of people, if necessary for free. The single thing that has allowed me to get my wife into speedway last year has been the matches showing up on YouTube for free. note that this is already happening. Nothing extra needs to be done to facilitate it, but if for example BSN decided to make one full match per week available on YouTube for one week only, for free, consistently, and publicise that, that gets somewhere. the other half of the strategy is an energetic social media campaign to push this free footage to people who haven’t seen it before, using mostly TikTok and instagram. Once a buzz starts, that will wake up monster and other potential sponsors. Potentially it might be worth the clubs giving out bucketloads of free tickets to neighbours and local colleges/universities - because none of those people are going anyway, the clubs would lose no money, but gain some in merch/bar revenues, and a stronger argument when negotiating with the local council next time round. And sponsors and tv revenue. look, it doesn’t matter what form the league takes or how many teams there are. It could be the same opponent every week, it would still be a much better sport than football. If they run out of teams belle vue could hold a Peter craven series, just doing open individual meetings every week. Whatever. All that matters is getting young people to go to the matches, which starts with not taking down the naughty YouTube videos but instead pushing them. The sport itself is good enough that once we get it alight the whole thing will catch. But if we just huddle in the corner waiting for the killing blow to come, then it’s all over sooner or later.

Removed this post for reasons of tact.

Brilliant, thanks both of you. I'll see how it goes this week. Sounds like there's a good chance of the first train, definitely the second one. (I haven't been on Facebook for quite a few years but I'll bear that in mind too, thanks). Cheers.

Hi, this is my first post here, and this is going to be my first team speedway match for about 25 years. Just wondering if anyone can give me a bit of travel advice - I'm trying to get back to Liverpool on the train after. I'm planning to come to as many as I can this year so I'm trying out ways of doing it. 7.30 start What sort of time is it likely to finish? 25min bus journey to Picadilly there's a train at 10, last one at 10.47 Do you think this is feasible or ridiculous? Cheers!