RobMcCaffery

I had no doubt that was the case. When trying to analyse reasons for speedway's decline you can't escape the major factor of cost. Operating costs have soared - paying riders enough to pay the tuners and sustain a full-time racing career being a major part, I would suspect. The cost to both promoter and supporters has become too great to sustain and is at the root of speedway's problems, apart from any internal matters such as guests and weak management of the sport. In say both because I suspect in more than a few cases gate money is only a contribution to cost with the promoter and any sponsor plugging the gap. I well remember at one track the promoter dreading his visit to the bank with the takings the next day because he had to add at at least £1000 of his own money to it. You do get to feel what promoters go through. It costs too much all round. From the supporters' point of view they see a ever more expensive sport in real terms which has become unaffordable to too many. They then see the utter contempt shown to supporters by some riders and management with walk-outs and dubious postponements, before you even think of the rider absences and it's a toxic situation. Sporting inflation, fuelled by football's greed and Sky's ability to feed it has seen sport admissions rise way beyond the level of inflation. Football can take it. Although it is traditionally like speedway a working man's game it has a huge support that either can or will find a way to afford it. Speedway doesn't have that. A Newcastle fan observed that local non-league football clubs played to gates similar to the Diamonds' they at lest were not flying in talent from all over Europe to perform in front of those crowds. Importing foreign talent to perform in front a few hundred people is economic madness. Put simply, speedway's too expensive all round, needs its costs cutting severely to survive in a professional form in Britain and needs to convince a hurt and sceptical following that it remains value for money. Showing respect to customers not just by promoters but as proved at King's Lynn as the latest in a log line of examples this year riders as well is vital. Speedway in Britain won't die - the National League or an equivalent would always sustain it. Speedway is still a great sport at heart. British Speedway is not, but it can still be. Give supporters value for money, beyond providing a winning team, otherwise you're just a couple of defeats away from bankruptcy. I believe that the Isle of Wight could be a lesson to the sport, based on reports I've heard. I just wish I could have sampled it myself.

Using an online inflation calculator, it shows £7.50 in 1999 translating to a purchasing power of £12.15 now, a 62% increase. I suspect if you took a comparison between 1980s admission prices and today's the rise above the rate of inflation would be quite frightening across the sport. In a way the modern price means that today's fans are having to compensate for those that have gone missing - fewer people contributing to costs, let alone profit.

if Bjerre were to be prevented from riding in Manchester on Monday due to him having signed-in to the SEC meeting then surely the same would apply to those riders also signed-in who are due to ride in Poland today? #Letsmakeirrelevantspeedwaythatgetsintheweayoftherealsport

He seems to think that we are all sitting here distressed with our heads in our hands because Polish Speedway is so successful and so stupid we have to have some goading moron tell us so. He certainly has no understanding of British people in general or British speedway supporters specifically. He's irritating but his trolling really is quite amusing - to think that anyone could be so stupid to think that their behaviour is appropriate outside kindergarten. We know internationally we're weak. We know that our top league's a mess, but we also know that these things are cyclical. We had eighty years as senior speedway nation in terms of our leagues and attractiveness to overseas riders. We had many years dominance of international speedway. We've seen it all. Now we have to accept that the wheel has turned. Poland are on top currently but this dominance has pathetically still yet to produce a third world champion and has the sickening need to segregate supporters at certain matches because they are too stupid to be trusted to behave themselves in the company of opposition supporters, like some cheap, imitation football hooligans. The Polish troll should have been evicted and blocked a long time ago, if only to stop him making a total prat of himself

They may be known about by a few thousand Poles and a couple of dozen outside east Europe but that doesn't mean they're known for the right reasons instead of for having moronic, thugs as supporters.

I think Smederna was the first Swedish club I'd heard of. Back in 1973 I was watching my first season of division one racing in Britain, at Hackney where the star was Bengt Jansson who also was riding for Smederna. It was only my second full season watching the sport so I was avidly learning about the international side of the sport. I never heard of Falubaz Zielona Gora though.... Across London the star at Wimbledon of course was another Smederna star, the late Tommy Jansson so it was a club that was noticed in London. Benga/Banger was wonderful to watch at Waterden Road, especially to a 15 year old watching, learning and diuscovering a thrill that 44 years on has still not been lost, despite the antics on the BSF of so-called 'fans'. Good luck in the final.

Another great commentary Dave. Thanks for mentioning the Rayleigh again. The plaque went missing :-( They'd put it in the wrong place - the Sainsbury's is on the land before the stadium ....

Must be your most successful defeat in years Ghostwalker. Congratulations.

Dave - another vote for Rayleigh. You never forget your first love ;-) By the way, it's a trading estate not a leisure centre now.

I think we have to take FreeSports' schedules cautiously. Digiguide is still showing other programming tonight and their website STILL doesn't have formal listings. So, we have to rely on the Sky listing or electronic programme guides or advice from Dave Goddard, the commentator. Until things settle (*) we have to be prepared for last-minute decisions and changes. Apparently they keep changing their football matches. Well, it IS for free.... (* we were saying that about Eurosport in 1989...)

Top 2 teams qualified direct for the semis. The next four raced a preliminary round with Dackarna and Lejonen losing. So six teams qualified for the finals and four matches had been raced before tonight.

There's nothing like a fight for survival to make moments like this so precious. Enjoy.

There are now virtually no evening papers left. One of the last, The Oldham Evening Chronicle went bust last week. Most papers switched to overnight printing some time ago, which is why these 'evening' papers have largely dropped the word and are now available first thing in the morning. It's cheaper that way. The biggest selling 'regional daily' is not from Manchester or Birmingham (The London Evening Standard is free) but the Wolverhampton Express and Star, as a regular Wolves supporter on here will confirm ;-) It was one of the last to convert to overnight. These changes make it remarkable that many still carry that night's speedway report. Out here in the west the Western Daily Press report on Swindon matches doesn't appear until the Saturday edition! This is the effect of free news on the internet. Local newspaper sales are slumping even more drastically than speedway crowds with many that used to sell well over 100,000 copies now struggling to get over 30k. Several below that figure have been converted tp weeklies. Regional printing centres have long since dominated and few papers are now actually printed on their own 'patch'. One, the Manchester Evening News isn't even written in its own city - the newsroom's in Oldham! The spiral gains momentum and standards disappear. Remind you of a sport?

The most important meeting of the year and probably the last - and the supporters don't turn up. What's the matter, does the loyal, fanatical support only work when you're guaranteed a win you can boast about?

Think of them as Premier Sports 1 & Premier Sports 2. Some of the sport on PS is repeated on FS, sometimes it's on both at once. Occasionally, as in tonight the sport's on FS first when there's no room on PS. As an example of what's happening regarding other sports, PS have the rights to 15 NHL ice hockey games a week. They only have room for 12. In the past the other 3 weren't shown. Now they'll be shown on FS. It's rather like Sky being able to show every Premierr League football match but dumping all the Bournemouth, Brighton and Crystal Palace matches on their free channel, Sky Sports Mix. There will be cross-over between the two channels but from what's been seen so far they will be running very different schedules. Tonight's speedway (and tomorrow's) were last minute changes. Originally they were just going to show repeats at 10 tomorrow night and during Thursday afternoon. It's NOT a case of running two identical channels but charging a tenner a month for an HD version...

The Laguta hearing was today and lasted five hours, Sporftowe Fakty has reported. . Laguta has been suspended for two years from 11th June 2017. His points have after all been deducted from his final two matches for Rybnik so ROW lose five match points and thus finish last in the Ekstraliga, sparing Torun from automatic relegation. It scarcely seems fair to punish the club for the stupidity of a rider. No doubt the Polish version of Sue, Grabbit and Runne will be wanting some of Rybnik's money back from Laguta in part-compensation. Full story: https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/710466/jest-decyzja-w-sprawie-grigorija-laguty-row-poleci-z-pge-ekstraligi (EDIT: Tarkens hit send just before me!)

Excellent work Dave, I really enjoyed the commentary. Looking forward to tomorrow night. (At least they let me go to Sweden to commentate ) Congratulations to Ghostwalker on Smederna's remarkable win, After all he and the club have gone through that must really taste good.

FreeSports launched on Freesat 252 today. Glad to hear both days' matches are being carried. For those complaining I think the idea was that you got a little more than speedway for your £25.

Yes, this is Free Sports on channel 95 who have made a late schedule change, and a very welcome one too. They second legs are tomorrow night so hopefully we might have good news then as well. Free Sports has launched on Freesat today on channel 252. Still no news on Virgin Media.

I believe Frank's day job was as a restaurant owner. I expect people didn't have to wait long...... He was an absolute delight to work with, even though he banned me smoking in the box. If only I could have put him on the mic when he explained the reasoning behind his decisions. While supporters were baying for his blood his explanations were clear-cut and expert, but private. He was certainly one of the most intelligent men I've ever known to referee. Frank's early years as a supporter standing in the freezing cold explained his rapid use of the two minute warning, often while I was still reading out the result of the previous race.

Do they not have mental hospitals in Zielona Gora or do they give them Falubaz season tickets instead?

Hypocrite.

Anyone who uses Digiguide TV schedule system might like to know that FreeSports' schedule has now appeared there, up to October 1st. There are plenty of repeats of the Swedish racing scheduled but not so much Polish. You can scroll through the guide here https://digiguide.tv/

It is not just one person causing the problem. For goodness' sake look at the damage you are ALL doing to what remains of this forum. It has been said by you many times, and guess what, nobody's taking you seriously. Wonder why? Now will you all start thinking about others and take your moronic squabbles elsewhere and let the grown-ups talk! There, it's set up for you. Off you go. http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=85241

Reserved for the morons ruining almost every thread with their childish squabbles. Do it here instead and and give us all a break. Now, you can start off by having a stupid row over who belongs in here while the rest of us talk about speedway. Have you heard of it? It's quite good you know - a few serious problems that need sorting out but still a good idea. You should try it.....