enotian

In one sense that's the ethos of sport. Doing everything you can to win. But you're right it has to be something worth winning. Modern audiences and importantly sponsors are no long impressed by a title alone. Many sports now think about the product. They realise the sport itself is in competition with other sports and other leisure activities so it has to be entertaining. It's all sports entertainment now not just wrestling. I don't think UK speedway has caught on. Win at home and everything will be alright is some of the most short sighted strategic choice of all time. Set the track to benefit the home team doesn't matter if it's entertaining the masses just need to see the home team win. Then rules which favour teams who can afford the best riders then complaining about how much the best riders cost. Of course they do you've made them invaluable. Of course home spectators want to win but if there's no jeopardy where's the joy.

Ask the broadcasters what product they'd be willing to pay to broadcast or what would attract sponsorship/advertising and try to provide that. I suspect it's not a league of less than 8 with half the teams uncompetitive/made of guests and loads of meaningless fixtures. I suspect less is more in terms of fixtures. 8 teams (say Belle Vue, Glasgow, Ipswich, Kings Lynn, Leicester, Oxford, Poole & Sheffield) facing each other once home and away. Top 4 play off semis and Grand Final. With two race nights (Monday and Thursday) it could all be wrapped up in two months. Those sport channel summer schedules are thin with no football and rugby union in June and July. They should easily have enough slots to show two matches a week, cost of doing so permitting. Maybe that level of fixture commitment over a short time span is attractive to more of the worlds best riders? Use rankings for the top three for each team. There's about 40 riders you could consider or at least market as world stars (current, former or future GP riders) can you attract 24 of them across the 8 teams (there's already about 14 this season)? To do a maximum 18 fixtures over a short time span? The other 4 made up of 'domestic' 'doubling up' riders with the reserves 1 U25 and 1 U21 British riders. Should allow enough surplus of riders to avoid the use of guests. But how can a club run on only 7 or max 9 home fixtures a season? Some might prefer it, say a Bradford? I suspect most wouldn't. So why not have a 2nd tier tournament. Akin to the championship level, sustainable providing a pathway for younger riders to progress and to make it worthwhile for older domestic riders. Add 8 teams (the current 6 stand alone Championship clubs plus two new/returning clubs) gets you a 16 team league. Once home and away. On their preferred race night. With the top tier teams fielding 2nd tier standard teams. ie without their top three from the top tier. Here's the clever/controversial bit. Maybe the top league teams don't want 22 home fixtures (7 top tier + 15 second tier) so let their top tier results count towards the 2nd tier league table! A bit daft but who cares at that level? Maybe the attendances for a top tier team at home to a 2nd tier team (ie Belle Vue v Plymouth) are much lower but so should the cost base. Of course the current problem with a 16 team league is where do the riders come from at present? In the interim 6 or even 5 rider teams might be necessary. Although as a side point there's a load of Polish kids who get shelled every year. Not good enough to keep place in the Polish leagues but could be used to make up the numbers? Or has Brexit scuppered that? Surely if there's not enough riders there's a reason for issuing work permits? I wouldn't know. It's a hybrid solution to ensure a televised product is attractive to broadcasters, sponsors, fans and riders alike. Hopefully the success of that filtering down to help grow the sport.

Inevitable when there's no pathway in which you can progress sustainably. If you're in a Championship team you've got to invest as if you are riding in the Premiership because you're mostly up against riders who are riding in the Premiership and so on.

Who wins? Rams: Bartosz Zmarzlik; Jack Holder; Kenny Carter; Martin Vaculik; Matej Zagar; Nicki Pedersen; Per Jonsson; Peter Collins; Robert Lambert; Tomasz Gollob; Bulls: Andrzej Wyglenda; Antonio Lindback; Bjorn Knutson; Bruce Penhall; Dan Bewley; Darcy Ward; Greg Hancock; Leigh Adams; Max Grosskreutz; Pawel Waloszek; Twins: Anders Michanek; Billy Hamill; Jack Milne; Jeremy Doncaster; John Boulger; John Louis; Les Collins; Mark Loram; Ove Fundin; Peter Craven; Crabs: Arne Pander; Bernt Persson; Bjarne Pedersen; Chris Louis; Gote Nordin; Krzysztof Kasprzak; Pawel Przedpelski; Sandor Levai; Scott Autrey; Torbjorn Harrysson; Lions: Dennis Sigalos; Edward Jancarz; Graham Warren; Igor Plekhanov; Jason Crump; Jim Airey; Maciej Janowski; Split Waterman; Tai Woffinden; Tony Rickardsson; Virgins: Andreas Jonsson; Billy Sanders; Bluey Wilkinson; Brian Crutcher; Frederik Lindgren; Kai Niemi; Kelly Moran; Nigel Boocock; Terry Betts; Tom Farndon Scales: Andrzeij Pogorzelski; Boris Samorodov; Chris Holder; Eric Langton; Erik Gundersen; Ivan Mauger; Jack Parker; Jason Doyle; Ray Tauscher; Vic Huxley; Scorpions: Artem Laguta; Emil Sayfutdinov; Gary Havelock; Jan O Pedersen; Louis Lawson; Ole Olsen; Olle Nygren; Reidar Eide; Shawn Moran; Tommy Knudsen; Archers: Egon Muller; Geoff Mardon; Jim McMillan; Lionel Van Praag; Michael Lee; Peter Karlsson; Sam Ermolenko; Soren Sjosten; Sverre Harrfeldt; Tommy Price; Goats: Anders Thomsen; Arthur Forrest; Barry Briggs; Bengt Jansson; Hans Nielsen; Jerzy Trzeszkowski; Konstanty Pociejkewicz; Marian Kaiser; Zgigniew Podlecki; Zenon Plech; Waves: Antonin Woryna; Charlie Monk; Eric Boocock; George Hunter; Jack Young; Jerzy Szczakiel; Kelvin Tatum; Martin Ashby; Phil Crump; Ryan Sullivan; Sharks: Brian Andersen; Dag Lovaas; Dave Jessup; Freddie Williams; Malcolm Simmons; Norman Hunter; Ray Wilson; Ron Johnson; Ronnie Moore; Wilbur Lamoreaux; Which star sign has the brightest stars of all time? Feel free to suggest squad changes if there are bigger stars missing. Make a case for your own sign or wonder why some signs are more prolific than others? Is it all in the stars? Or is that mumbo jumbo 😄

Rather than run the same meeting twice why not use the Friday night as a qualifier for the Saturday GP? Would be a good way of increasing the number of countries involved rather than dilute the field to facilitate it. Would add some jeopardy to finishing down the order in the GP as well. Bottom 4 (or 8 ) have to qualify from the Friday night meeting at the next round. Increasing the total number of GP riders to 28 ( or 24 ) One bad GP and failure to qualify at the next GP and you're totally out of the points for that round and having to qualify again for the next round. I enjoyed the double rounds during Covid but there was nothing else to do so not a good benchmark. Interestingly though I've been to a couple of gigs recently where there have been two shows in one night. One way of maximising sales at smaller (less costly to hire) venues.

it's a no brainer isn't it. The top two get an extra ride (nominated heat 15, plus a potential TR) and they're in all bar 6 of the 15 heats so you need two top riders otherwise you concede 8 points across heat 13 and 15 and can't get a heat advantage in 7 of the other heats. arguably you could go for strength in depth to secure an 8 point advantage across heats 2 and 8 but as soon as you have a 'rising star' restriction or whatever it's been over the years, you nullify the strength in depth option. I've said for years, if you restrict the reserves you got to restrict the top two, i.e. only one rider averaging over 8 or 9 whatever top men average these days. It makes complete financial sense as well, as demand outweighs supply but clubs that can afford two of them will never vote for it as it's a huge advantage. The heat format is so regulated these days there's basically no point in turning up if you've not got two top riders. Especially when you can have guest riders for missing top riders so there's no jeopardy in putting all your eggs in the top two basket. Although Ipswich would argue that point as they'd have walked the title this season if they'd been able to replace Doyle and Sayfutdinov satisfactorily.

There's obviously a desire for Discovery Sports to have a wider range of nationalities represented to appeal to a wider audience. The top 16 riders in the world arguably come from only 6 countries. That doesn't feel like a World Championship. Trouble is how do you spread the allocation without watering down the standard? One obvious solution would be to increase the number of competitors. I enjoyed the covid double header Friday and Saturday night rounds. Why not have at each round 20 permanent riders plus 4 wildcards (or variations on that). Top 8 in the previous GP qualify for the next Saturday night GP, bottom 8 and the 4 other permanent riders plus the 4 wildcards enter the Friday night GP qualifier. The top 8 qualify for the Saturday night GP. Arguably the top 20 riders still come from the same 6 countries but as long as you have the top 16 riders in place you can offer the other four permanent places to a Latvian, a Czech, a German and maybe an American?

I just watched Vojens GP this morning and was of the same opinion as you, don't know why. Just checked the original thread about it on here and it was only ever the two events. I was thinking there was a possibility of Zmarzlik being crowned Champion as a result of the 'sprint' qualifying in front of a mostly empty stadium. Which is maybe why there isn't one. For some reason I was sure there was. Quite bizarre so really glad at least someone else thought the same.

It was. Fired his bike right into the side of Kenni Larsen, outside the pit gate. Banned and never rode again I think. Maybe there was a similar incident elsewhere.

I passed Cleveland Park on Sunday via the flyover. It's now a school/academy and five aside football pitches by the looks of it.

Mark Thorpe for me. Was dropped at one point during his first two season's with the Diamonds despite showing glimpses of potential he was ordinary in some not very good Diamonds teams. As I understand it he wasn't in the promoters thoughts for a third season but the numbers worked and he found himself starting the season at reserve with newly signed Scott Lamb. Probably the best 2nd tier reserve pairing ever, Thorpie was like a different rider going straight from reserve to heat leader and staying there. Even become Commonwealth Champion (I think) at one point. Statistically speaking it has to be Berwick's Wayne Brown.

excellent point hopefully discovery will read it and abandon the idea. my take on 'sprint races' in F1, Moto GP and WSB is that they're required because the full length races are dull and they need to fill 3 days content. Only in speedway could the sprint race be the same distance as the normal race.

I recall a stunt rider at Brough Park, probably during the 90's. Evel Kinevel style he jumped over some vans or something. Just about 20 years behind the zeitgeist

Wasn't he on First Dates as well??? I look forward to Alan's business partners examining his proposed investment into BSPL So you don't own any stadiums, haven't got enough riders and the average age of your customers is 88..... .....you don't need £250k mate you need a miracle. Nice pies though.

without a home team to follow? or at least one that would get smashed after being seeded to the final?

I'd imagine that your problem is, as ever, an economic one. League match pay rates are across a range of rider standards as defined by the points limit. I imagine the expectation of a Test Match is always the best seven riders from each country. Now that probably isn't seven number 1 heat leaders nowadays but you'd still expect the pay rates to be higher than a league contest. The crux is would a test match attract more through the gate to cover the increased costs? Or would points limited (or graded) international teams be a more economically viable option?

Something to rattle the purists but with Poland likely to dominate any world cup in the future and the unsavoury jingoism of international competition would the speedway world cup be better made up of twelve teams representing each of the star signs (or calendar months if you don't subscribe to that type of gubbins). Might bring the sport some notoriety and even up the competition (unless all the best speedway riders were born at the same time of year?) After all everyone in the entire world has a star sign so you could naturally migrate to support your own team even if none of its riders were from the same country as you. Afterall if you believe in star signs then you probably have more in common with someone of the same sign that you do with someone from the same country With nationality becoming increasingly more fluid anyway would you support a twelve team star sign world cup? Who'd you support and who'd be in the team?

Similar, apart from the Coventry bit. So long ago I can't quite remember the game play. I'm thinking for each rider you had to decide on their line and riding style (easy or hard) for the four laps.

you're quite right but what else would that incentivise? i'm sure the Torun GP promoters and the broadcasters would all prefer a last round decider for the title. that's how entertainment works now, nobody is bothered about a dead rubber. all feels a bit WWF to me but i'll look forward to the final round

Hi Ben, You're probably best off checking out the official referee scorecard on the BSPA site. Maybe for a match you attended ipswich_21.09.23_res.pdf (britishspeedway.co.uk) hopefully that link works? If not just go to britishspeedway.co.uk, click on results and fixtures then click on the fixture and the official referee scorecard will be at the bottom. You can then see how it's officially done. It's not too tricky and it always added to my enjoyment of a meeting. Hope that helps

same always wondered why team matches are almost always run using the same format within any given season, with the current format prevalent for a number of years now, more or less. in a world of A and B fixtures you'd have thought a different format might add some intrigue. It's no wonder people stopped attending cup ties when its perhaps the third match between the same teams using the same format. Especially when the current 15 heat format can be somewhat predictable. i've said before that if the future is streaming then the events you stream need to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, i.e. more than two teams, so maybe 4TT or pairs is the way to go. basically the more teams being represented the wider the possible streaming audience. include nomad teams from defunct tracks. whilst the affiliation would be tenuous at best I might be tempted to cheer on (i.e. stream) a Diamonds branded pair or team if it was a legit competition even if they never had a home fixture.

you're right. it's a little like when they do team events in snooker and darts etc. it's really just individuals doing their own thing which consequently is added to another individuals contribution. there's no real in game interaction. however, that's not quite true for speedway team racing or pairs. or at least it shouldn't be because in those events the art of team riding on track is one of the greatest examples of team work in all of sports. it just doesn't happen anymore!!! and that's purely down to the pay per point system adopted imo. why would a rider jeopardise being paid for three points by slowing down to help a team mate score more points. there's no incentive whatsoever. just go and score as many points as you can to earn as much as you can. if the team wins great if it doesn't nevermind. what if instead of pay per point each heat had a prize pot? a team who wins the heat takes the prize pot, if it's drawn the prize pot is shared. each team then decides how they split the total prize money. a little like tour cycling albeit those riders are salaried. in reality supporting any team is the ultimate in living vicariously. claiming victory off the back of the team you support winning, feeling superior to the opposition supporters when in reality you contributed absolutely nothing to the victory. you wouldn't claim to be an amazing chef if you bought a nice meal at a restaurant. but there's just something about nailing your colours to a mast and putting your hopes and dreams in the hands of your favourite team. it would be a shame if that element disappeared from speedway in this country.

At what point do Discovery Sports intervene? Or in Lambert and Bewley do they have enough British interest for the duration of their tenure? From their perspective having British involvement in SGP, SON/SWC must be an important market to maintain. Much harder to do without a British supply chain/valid domestic league. They also need content for their streaming/cable channel, Personally I think a Euro League (16 teams 4TT format) where each team has five home and 15 away fixtures. If there were three British teams (North (Belle Vue) Midlands (?) and South (Poole)) there'd be only 15 gp standard meetings in the UK. That gives you space to market these events properly. Less is more so hopefully these events will attract bumper crowds. Which makes for a better spectacle which hopefully attracts a bigger audience. Below that the twelve or so last clubs standing form a sustainable league without the gp stars which provides a career path for young British talent to progress.

Well Discovery have bought BT Sport. Sounds like they're merging Eurosport and BT Sports channels to form TNT Sports. Whereas last season the SGP series was on Discovery Plus Sport and Eurosport, this season it'll be available on Discovery Plus Sport and TNT Sports... ...I suspect. Can't imagine they'll remove content from Discovery Plus and I imagine TNT Sports will be available via the normal platforms. Unless SGP doesn't feature on TNT Sports given they will adopt BT Sports content like EPL and ECL. Gallagher Premiership Rugby, MotoGp etc and might not retain the same number of broadcast channels. SGP might find itself confined to Discovery Plus Sport only.

Not so sure they wouldn't have passed the BSPA fit and proper owners test. Mr Grant might have been a shyster but I'm not aware of him running a tyrannical regime of misogyny and homophobia I know speedway is desperate for investment but you've got to draw a line somewhere. #justjealous