SimonB

Interesting article by David Crane on the Mildenhall website. I wonder what a realistic figure is for a club that according to its riders hasnt paid its riders for three meetings and according to what riders have been told is losing money and has dropping attendences? I just hope they can come to a compromise as soon as possible and get the Fen Tigers back on track.

There were a lot of poles at Peterborough last year so perhaps the crowd wont be as large. Think they might struggle to get everyone in on time if it was the same level of crowd. The showground is pretty good in that respect.

Not surprising that you are mate I would be in your position.

Event 1 1. Poland 2. Denmark 3. Russia 4. Czech Rep. Event 2 1. Sweden 2. Australia 3. GB 4. Finland Race-off 1. Denmark 2. Australia 3. GB 4. Russia Final 1. Poland 2. Denmark 3. Sweden 4. Australia

I hope that is acheived mate, it will have been a month between meetings, for the riders that must be like a new season starting. Which is sucha shame after the way they had been racing up until then.

I always find enough time to devote to the sinking of pints What is the saying "I am a drunk not an alcoholic as alcoholics go to meetings"

To answer you honestly yes I do fancy going back into the sport but no I dont fancy losing any more money, still a while from paying all my debts from the first time I got involved. I think I will look to get involved if and when I manage to sell my other business interests so I could devote the right amount of time and effort that it would require.

I dont know the situation in the national league but I do know, at personal expense, that in the premier league we were losing substantial amounts of money and many of the costs remain exactly the same in the NL, except for riders costs.

I resemble that remark

Throw them away and tell yourself never to buy such things again......

It is on their website for the 25th of June with tickets due to go on sale at 7.30pm tonight

If it was just a bit of pushing through and rudeness I doubt very much that they would be thrown out of a football game. Flags that you can wave and beer would in most cases not make it through the turnstiles. There should be a family area which only sells tickets to families with children which would hopefully separate out people that want to havea real party (drinking, waving flags ect) and those that want to enjoy the speedway in a little bit of peace and actually see all of the racing. Personally I like to party and dont mind my view being occassionally obscured by flag wavers, all part of the atmosphere that I enjoy.

I didnt think that there were as many people there as in previous years but that feeling is based on how I found Cardiff before the meeting, rather than the stadium as I couldnt see many sections from my seat. It just didnt seem as busy on the streets or in the pub.

I had no problem with anyone sitting near me, they all wanted to enjoy themselves as well

Excellent news !!

Drink a couple of bottles of wine early Friday afternoon, pass out about 7pm and wake up fresh and ready to go very early in the morning. Possibly even enough time to have a couple of beers before setting off.....

I am not sure that Promoters prefer to use anyone that isnt British but otherwise I agree with your post. Track time availability at an affordable rate is key, difficult at a track like Mildenhall for example which is rented and needs a significant income just to cover the rental fee let alone any other costs such as medical cover.

If we all went through life not saying things because "we know its never going to happen" nothing would ever change. It is absolutely true that I can not see the financing becoming available for speedway to operate in the way it does in Denmark but that doesnt mean that the approach of Denmark is wrong. Maybe by raising ideas someone could find a solution, stranger things have happened. The national league should be about the financial sustainability of the teams and not specifically a development league in my opinion. Development of young riders needs to start earlier so that they are ready to enter the NL at an appropriate standard.

Oh please no! Recently got back from South Africa and they are the most annoying things I have ever heard, complete drone, no musical aspect at all and people in front of the players get covered in spit.

As I said on another thread we park at Newport and use the train to and from Cardiff. Works out a bit more expensive but there are no traffic jams trying to get out of Cardiff.

Personally I park at Newport train station and take the train to Cardiff, I have found it extremely easy to get a train back to Newport after the meeting and we miss all of the traffic.

I always seem to hold a different opinion to most on the topic of the National League, still never worried me yet All speedway teams are run as a business and obviously need to generate sufficient revenue to cover its costs. As the owners of these businesses are taking the financial risk and often subsidise the business out of their own pocket I beleive they should be as free as possible to put together a team that provides its paying customers (the life blood of any business) with an exciting entertaining spectacle that helps attract / retain the supporters. As an example last season Mildenhall bought in two Aussies during the final part of the season, Dakota North & Taylor Poole. Those riders added great excitment to what otherwise could have been a very dull end to the season and helped maintain the crowd levels with the quality of their racing. The development of british riders is another topic in my opinion. We need to find a way of getting riders into the sport much earlier and a way of making it cheaper for young riders to take part in the sport. This is done in Denmark with junior racing on smaller bikes on junior tracks. That way by the time they are old enough to move onto the 500cc machines they have already had several years experience of competitive racing. That is the way forward in my opinion to producing more and better quality british riders. Then when they are old enough for the NL (15??) they will be good enough to take their place no matter how many Aussies are available. How you find the investment needed to do this is well beyond my ability to answer. I appreciate we have a mix of reasoning behind the teams in the NL, stand alone teams obviously want to be competitive to attract the crowds. Other doubling up teams are perhaps more interested in developing riders for their PL / EL teams to save them future transfer / loan fees. So there has to be some compromise between the two to maintain a viable league. Anyway this argument has been running for a number of years and the NL still seems to be producing a decent product and attracting crowd levels that at least make the sport sustainable. Hopefully answers can be found to ensure not only sustainability but also growth in the future.

No you sound really scary....

I know a pint was stolen that year, doesnt matter how many I drink I can keep count of what I have left

I normally do go in and watch the ahem "entertainment" before the meeting but usually its more to do with enjoying the build up in the atmosphere and carrying on enjoying a few pints This time is does seem particularly weak, well to me at least, definately not to my taste. Thinking about some of the threads on here after last years GP I would like to warn everyone that I will be enjoying more than a few pre-meeting beers, I will stand and probably sing (well try to anyway), drink beer and may even spill some and wave an English flag. In fact generally I will enjoy the event.