Najjer

You must be one of hundreds of people who contribute to this forum that still has a massive interest in speedway, but don’t attend. There will be thousands outside of the forum that are in the same boat. I just wonder if the BSPA/BSPL has ever even considered doing any form of market research targeted at these people wondering what it would take to entice these people back to the sport? It would be much easier to get these people back than to try and entice new fans with no interest or background in the sport. I don’t know the answer to my question but I would be willing to stick my neck on the line and say NO they haven’t, because they probably don’t want to know the answers... I’ve said many times in the past Speedway is marketed wrong on so many levels. It should be advertised as an extreme sport not a nice night out for the family sport. Very good point - The possibilities are endless. I myself as first port of call always used the ‘Premier League’ app for my football news, fixtures, results and most importantly fantasy league on a daily basis. There is no reason why that same model couldn’t be adopted for British Speedway. The comments about “spending all night at the speedway looking at my phone” are pretty short sighted.

You’ve missed the point - if the list isn’t confirmed and it’s still being worked as has been said on this thread, surely that needs to be finalised before riders can confirmed? Orrrrrrr maybe the list is confirmed and sorted and is just being kept a big secret until the mere minions that follow the sport need to know?

I haven’t stopped reading, but thanks for being patronising. Thanks for also confirming... team places and riders are being signed before the list has been finalised by the powers that be. So the rules have been bent and created to suit certain teams? Because Newcastle, Poole, Redcar and Edinburgh are going to have to make changes to their teams. Funny enough Scunthorpe don’t and have even confirmed their ‘rising star’ before the list as Tsunami has said has even been sorted or confirmed.... it does make you wonder!

So you’re saying that the list hasn’t been finalised and teams are signing riders without the grades actually being finalised? That probably makes it even worse!

Good post - one alarming point though that maybe I have missed but I had just assumed that the rising star would stay in the no.7 berth all season no matter what? Otherwise I’m not really sure how the graded ‘rising star’ is any help to the progression of British riders. How many RS will make a good start to the season, see their average rise and then shafted to sign someone else once they have a couple of bad meetings? Maybe they should rebrand the RS name and call it BS instead. Obviously standing for British Star and not anything else

I don’t think that would be possible, as it would go against the rules set in place the league organisers - who aren’t just some promotors thrown together thinking about self interest either!

It’ll be interesting to see what happens when/of say a rider really over achieves and scores highly. Do they move into the main body of the side? Do they stay at reserve? Do they get regraded at the end of the season? Do they end up no longer being a ‘rising star’? Is the 5 year plan for the current crop of riders along with additions or is the 5 year plan for the teams meaning that riders could be removed from the system after say 1 or 2 years once they reach a certain level? Or more importantly... Are we just going to be making it up as we go along?

Why haven’t they published the list on their site to stop any speculation, or as you put it ‘arguments and negativity’? Teams are signing riders so the list must be finalised.... why the secrecy again?!

Why not say that after a week then? It’s treating the fans with utter contempt that after a week a reasonable explanation couldn’t just be given for the delay - it the BSPL who set the week announcement themselves after all, when knowing about the Somerset/Plymouth situation. It’s the typical “ahhhh say nothing, they would of forgot we said a week” approach within the BSPL that pi$$es everybody off and rubs them up the wrong way. Such a simple simple mistake that could do easily be avoided and dealt with beforehand - instead of having to try and cover their tracks when the FIM ‘jump the gun’.

They are tested regularly plus football people’s travelling around Europe are usually flying on their own private planes - not on easyJet or ryanAir flights with Joe public. There is also currently a debate going on about moving Arsenal’s next match in Europe in Portugal from that county to avoid large isolation and quarantine upon their return. I know that Portugal is no longer on the travel list but it just shows that footballers still have to adhere to this.

I’ve said before, why are there even grades for? Because this is the type of thing that will happen. How Anders Rowe is a 4 star grade is an absolute laughing stock.

Riders are being signed and yet the “rising star” list is already a great mystery for the fans expected to part with their cash to see these riders. Why the big secrecy all the time??

Another utter shambles. Draft fixtures or not, if only the BSPL had been transparent after the AGM and made an announcement to say fixtures would be released once confirmed.... why do they have to wait until a cock up has been made and then try to cover their tracks?

I wouldn’t be surprised personally.

There used to be full second halves at Somerset too going around 12/13 years or so. We used to have proper 6 heat matches nearly every week. I would say less than half the crowd used to stay behind, maybe even a quarter. I believe it ended up stopping as the riders became a constant problem with constant withdrawals at the last minute and endless amounts of rebookings.

Brady has a team spot in Poland so should be coming back over to take his team place over there. Whether or not he has to base himself over there again or is then allowed to fly in and out between Poland and Britain without isolation and quarantine remains to be seen.

Again, how hard is it to put a statement out that the fixtures have been delayed due to the possible inclusion of Plymouth? That way then, there is no mystery, no secrets and everybody knows the score. It’s just so poor on so many accounts.

What did he say?

Fans or promotors?

It’s all an absolute nonsense. A good idea ruined by a stupid grading system. Surely averages can’t be used for determining grades, otherwise, why not just use averages and forget grades? There should just be a group of “British juniors” and any team should be able to sign whoever they wish without averages or grades dictating that.

Why is it always so difficult? How about saying... ”It is our intention to get the fixtures released as soon as possible. Due to rider availability and potential team changes within certain teams this might not be able to be confirmed right away. As soon as these are confirmed we will keep you updated right away.” Why are they so incompetent at just the most basic of basic communication? Don’t make broken promises and treat your paying customers like absolute morons.

Other than tying them with some rope to their seat, how do you make sure someone stays in their allocated seat anyway? Speedway stadiums are more than capable of people going in and being socially distanced safely.

As others have already commented, that is incorrect. There may be a maximum restriction but that isn’t likely to effect speedway attendances I wouldn’t of thought.

I quite agree - but not if it means the team won’t be there next season.

Shouldn’t that be no.1 priority at all times? A winning team is a bonus on top of that.