moxey63

Perhaps they haven't attended the best part of 5 years because they don't like the Play-Offs and therefore were provided with just another opportunity to become disillusioned with current speedway. Although I neither like or dislike the Play-Offs, I do tend to believe they allow a fair bit of gerrymandering leading up to them. Teams can afford to lose early matches, introduce better riders, just in time for the Lord Mayor's show. This gives a fair whack to speedway's already tested credibility and may have even marooned once regular supporters to the comfort of their couches long before the X-factor type Play-Offs fall upon us. Of course some may be airlifted from their comfy seat at home and be persuaded to attend the Play-Offs, but what cost to the league programme of matches that preceded the lure. I laugh at Speedway Star's pre-season prediction list... because most teams play a bit of musical chairs even before the easter eggs have been sunk. Wolves did it this year... showing a fair bit of tinkering in the practice matches in the six months before we gulp the Play-Off shot.

Correct. I guess since the Play-Offs, the anticipation, that churning feeling as a fan for that top of the table clash between your side and fellow title chaser must have been lost, as teams can afford to lose such tussles and still make top four. Also, if you don't make the top four, your club must feel like the poor kid who didn't get invited to the party and doesn't know whether he'll actually get to play again for that year. The last week in October was always the end of the speedway season. Now it's a month earlier. All that comes afterwards seems to go unnoticed. They are great speedway, but I feel they for just a couple of matches, they take something away from the pull of a seven-month season.

Bumper crowds in speedway terms for the Play-Offs can't disguise the glory-seeking angle of some fans and those who stayed away from the less-mouthwatering matches in the league campaign, which really means nothing other than to find the four (often obvious) semi-finalists. I think the Play-Offs have devalued the league programme and think some fans will stay away, so the turn out for the Play-Offs might not even make up. Often I think the season is aimed at the Play-Off Final and then what happens after that is of no importance. They ruined the KO Cup and deny most tracks that definite end-of-season finale that the old league programme, pre-Play-Offs, used to give.

The worrying thing is... where will we be in 10 years' time? The SKY cash has been chucked in the wind and, in a way, can count our selves grateful that BT jumped on board and gave it half a season coverage. Obviously the ones that still attend and will probably ridicule this post and feel that speedway is as good as it was 40, 30 and even 10 years ago. Promoters need not fear for their loyalty. It's the ones who have spent their lives working their way towards their next live speedway event and are now getting out of that habit... that's a worry. Another winter nears, another five months speedway's problems must be addressed. We don't need GP stars... do we? Just look at the racing from Poole on Monday, in the main from bread an butter guys. It is still thrilling, no question about that. But it's like a board game bought from the carboot sale right now... all the pieces are there but it has no rules as such.

I thought exactly that... So it isn't just me that's cynical. Great racing it may have been, but you tend to get a feeling that it's sometimes stage managed.

1997 and 1998, Steve....

When six-man teams were introduced in the late 90s, sides still had a tendency to rely on guests and rider replacement.

Of course the racing is important, but without decent rules and the serious make up of teams, we may as well have individual competitions every week like grasstrack. Racing and rules are equally as important. Are crowds dropping because of the quality of racing or because of the rules? Speedway Star hasn't asked about the racing, but has about the rules.

Please... Jim... people are trying to discuss serious things. Can't you go and have your early afternoon nap or something? Not being horrible, but people don't want to read this. Respect.... my friend.

Then I forbid you from reading my posts. If I'm a dullard, please do NOT (DO NOT) reply to my posts. At a time when British speedway is in crisis, you'd rather choose an argument with me. For god's sake man, concentrate all your energies into steering the ship away from the iceberg. Some people eh... it's like calling a loved one of theirs. Either the problems are with your sort, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who'll put up with anything and stand on the terraces watching anything that allows them to wield pen on programme, or the ones who have stooped attending... who the World's leading Speedway magazine sort of siding with.

The article is excellent, echoes my views entirely... so why the insults? You either agree with the article, as I do, in which case you must agree with me. I need a sat nav to see where you're coming from.

When the World's Leading Speedway magazine carries an article about British racing being at a crisis, you can't blame its problems on one troll.

Easy pleased then? Without strong and stable rules, a firm foundation, just how real do we know the racing is? We've all experienced races in which the leader suddenly drifts wide without reason, then is overtaken. Great racing or a more sinister reason?To allow a tactical ride for his team or deny one for the opposition. A sport that allows this to enter a fan's way of thinking has to ask itself why most - even its fans - think its a joker sport. The fans who will accept anything will no doubt be glad that the X-Factor entertainment season is upon us.

Exactly! I think the BSPA website should have a feedback forum or something, try and plug the hole that the silent disillusioned leak through. Do members of the BSPA ever come on these sites... or are they content to just increase admission for the loyal fans to plug every lost fan? Just thinking back, one of the reasons I'd had enough was the double points rule. Not that I felt it silly, but it did take some of the interest away from seeing the opposition throwing all their big guns at you for the next few races to try to reduce the deficit. To me, seeing a programmed rider with a black and white helmet colour on for double points isn't the same. The destination of the match seemed too predictable.

I didn't stop going because the racing was boring, or the presentation, or that the centre-green was a mess, or that the chippy on the way home was closing down. I stopped going because the of the rules and the make-up of the sport. Speedway is still exciting as a spectacle, but when you want a reputable sport that has strong foundations, the racing value is secondary.

Thanks Phil. So your views are in all honesty and they should carry some weight. Let's all hope they do!

It is a refreshing read by Philip Rising, but that because agree with what he says. But you have got to persuade the powers that be and the fans who think what speedway offers today is brilliant. To long-standing supporters the Golden Double is regarding ridiculous; but how will newcomers take to the old tac sub if it is recalled and it is new to them? Fine line here. It would be interesting to know if Philip Rising would still be interested in the sport if he wasn't writing about it. He seems to have the views of many who have stopped attending.

For starters, we need stability - team line-up, rules, knowing race days (Belle Vue, for example, all over the place). Three simple things to begin with. Promoters are damned if he do, damned if they don't. But how many of us have think we have that perfect remedy to put things right? How many would risk their hard-saved nest-egg in the sport to implement their changes? Me neither. And, to think of it, many have even stopped risking that admission fee.

Threads like these come and go, and we never get the real answers, just a list of no-doers and still-doers. But the sport will arrive at the tapes next spring, full of optimism and fueled by remaining fans paying more to make up for the lost fans in what will be another weakened league structure. Another thread asks what tracks have question marks regarding their 2018 plans, and that in itself doesn't make the remaining loyal fans smear those who've become disillusioned. Speedway, as Coventry's demise proved, is about as certain as a Tory manifesto, suppose it always has been, but in 40-odd years I have never seen this. Makes you think whether the BSPA have anything to do with this Brexit thingy.

I think it is more to how the sport is being run, for me at least. Yes, 10 years ago we were still complaining. But since then I for one have stopped attending full stop. Where will be be in 10 years' times? It is about losing fans. The Play-Offs seem as if everything is ok, with massive crowds in speedway terms. But spread over a season, how are average gates? A few Play-Off meetings vs. a 30-odd league programme in which much of the time is foreplay. And don't forget, the season practically ends there and then, with clubs scratching the surface with filler meetings.Take Belle Vue for instance, having to fit two meetings in three days last week, just because of the cut-offs. How did that affect support - two meetings, 20-quid a throw within a few days? The GPs have been good, but that doesn't keep the bread and butter of league racing afloat here in te UK. GPs are a side-dish, like the Friday takeaway. What's happening the rest of the week is what matters.

Agree with that... well, much of!

I was (am) that man. When you dread racenight coming round, a sickly feeling as you leave the house for the track, you know something's not right. Many riders have felt this as they reach the last days of their career. But a fan?. Quite a few attend speedway out of guilt, a haven't-missed-a-match-in-12-seasons guilt. Don't want to break the duck now guilt. But a lot of people follow a drip-drip method. Miss one match and it doesn't hurt that badly, not as badly as you used to have cold-sweats over. Stop reading speedway news in full because it's mostly yawn fodder that also happens. Even the speedway you recorded last week gathers dust and eventually gets deleted. The sport you once wouldn’t miss, you now see it through the eyes of those who often scoffed when they knew you liked speedway. Ex-fans have seen the light. Some, like me, stick with it through forums and because of the time they courted the sport. But today's offering from the sport is as random as the lottery numbers that spew out on a Saturday night. In fact, when the only definite thing is you, the fan, attending the track every week... perhaps the sport plays on the guilt factor of many left on the terraces and the spaces around them are like a receding hairline.

If a team finishes bottom and doesn't want to be relegated, another wins the second tier title (whatever it's called) and doesn't want promotion, isn't that like the Crump v Pedersen World Cup race from 10 years ago when neither wanted to win! I'm sure a team can freely choose to either move up or down a league without even finishing bottom or top of relevant tables.

But we have become to reliant on guests. A club running when one of his riders is on International duty... is it worthwhile putting back the meeting and having the full line-up or just getting it out of the way and making the sport look daft?

But other sports don't have guests, do they? Sometimes these so called promoters should have to look a bit further than another British club to help their business. A few hidings without borrowing someone else's asset would soon make them see there's no other option other than scout the globe for a replacement. Too much reliance on getting the show on, no matter who with, means we've stayed in the same state as we were 50 years ago. A club sending out weakened teams should be charged with bringing the sport into disrepute. And, do you know what... just like last winter... we'll be having another thread discussing where we should go in 2018... and nothing will change. But more fans will see the light and become disillusioned. But as long as we get to Heat 10, who cares?