moxey63

I did a sort of yearbook for 1930 and Michie appears in several British meetings. Appeared twice for Rochdale in the Northern League and was active mainly on Northern circuits.

Good point. Football is widely supported, there are more people to fill the stadiums and the odd 100 that stay away aren't really noticed. A crowd of 54,600 is pretty much the same as 54,350. It's 250 down though. A crowd at speedway, say 900, but take just 50 people off, it is more harmful. In saying that, some soccer places don't sell out, and I know of many who watch at home rather than spend half a week's wages for the one afternoon or evening. Speedway is wall-to-wall from May to October, but I can't be bothered even finding it online. The ease of access makes it less appealing. Only my opinion. But do others feel the same? Live speedway coverage isn't the only problem. It is one of many that sees attendances gradually declining. But did copied videos in the 80s that your mate did for you, or dodgy dvds in the 2000s, stop people paying the full whack of going to the cinema? If it's the choice of getting your fix for next to nothing online, or shelling out next week's food bill for a couple of hours track-side in person, sometimes the choice is easy. Take a handful of speedway supporters away from their local track each week, and it adds up. The fact that speedway is so easily to find online, it eases the cravings to actually want to travel, pay to get in, and spend the time away from your family. No matter how marginal, if it's only a handful of people that stay away because of live speedway, it adds up. It's possibly one reason why admission prices rise, forcing others to stay away because of costs.

.. and, just for those people who feel internet speedway or satellite speedway doesn't actually impact on speedway at the track... just remember how popular internet shopping is now and how some stores are actually closing. Some are quite happy to shop from home and can't be bothered actually leaving their armchairs.

After months of having no speedway, no live streams etc, there is a thirst for speedway early on. The real test comes when fans are able to access stuff live on the internet again. If you can sit indoors and watch in the comfort of your own four walls, in your boxers, why bother to shell out cash and time down at your local track? There's stuff from all over the globe now, live racing, and this must impact on the need to actually attend in person. Also notice that a few fans are putting races on the likes of Facebook just moments after they've finished, which may damage the sport in the long run.

Perhaps it's been a sneaky way to avoid paying all that tax, purposely trying to reduce crowd figures these past four decades. I knew it!

That's one of those sites that's like that gleaming car on the forecourt that catches your eye and you're initially smitten with. You've found a real find. Doors open cleanly, nice smell inside. But it's only when you take it for a test spin that the bolts start falling off. So many errors, which is a shame.

I always state that I followed speedway, not because of the fancy-Dan bikes they have now, the gleaming clean Kevlars that get as dirty as your Whit-week clothes, it was because it was different. It was not your normal motor sport back then in the 70s. There was the team thing, the bit on the side of individual racing, but the team was my pull. Proper motorbike nuts kept away from following speedway. You never saw a motorbike near the stadium, and I always used to get annoyed when someone said they didn't watch speedway because they don't like motorbikes. But the sport has now gone more individual than team, and it is team speedway that keeps the sport going. To reinvent itself, then stamp down on the multi-league riders, the boys who can't really ride to their full effort every race because they simply are doing too much and for too many other teams. They must forget where they are sometimes. Saw an interview with Matej Zagar after the Peter Craven meeting last week, when he acknowledged he didn't have much time for the interview, he had to be somewhere else the next day. When riders show commitment to fans, perhaps some fans may think about showing ti back and actually returning to the terraces. Waste of time trying to drum up a feeling for a bunch of fellows that are as committed as zero-hour staff.

There are many ways to go... but I'd say getting the product right and credible, cutting costs, and trying to tempt old fans away from their home PCs, tablets and mobiles, where they demand live streams and then complain that the sport deserves bigger media coverage and support. If old fans can't be attracted to leave their comfortable armchairs and pay at the turnstiles, we really are losing the battle.

And all that SKY money... modern promoters haven't really learned.

What has changed is that Grand Prix racing has become more important than the league, whereas back in 1981 it was the other way and riders put in a good shift for their respective teams before starting on the road to world title gold. You could go to a match, see your local side that you'd travel home and away to watch, because they were your boys. You'd even travel miles to see one of your boys in a world championship meeting, even an open meeting somewhere. They were a member of your team, they pulled in your direction as a unit, so it was only right - it felt right - to support them when they went all individual. Only a handful of riders back in 1981 expected title gold... but the GPs, most are battling to either win, gain rostrum spots, or just qualify for next year. It takes so much energy, league racing isn't the goal. It is a full season, not the one night. As we near 40 years since the last Wembley, league speedway has allowed itself to become creaky and old looking, merely surviving. In Britain we have sunk to a poor third world sort of set up where riders sort of feel embarrassed to own up to riding. It is much better for them if they gain gigs in Poland and Swedish leagues. It leaves the crumbs of what's left to fill our summers on the terraces... and it doesn't feel like a team sport anymore, as it isn't just the GPs that dwarf domestic racing in Britain, it is other leagues in Europe. To help compensate a short fall in quality riders, promoters who merely exist to run a track once a week dabble into each other's riding stock, to fill a side to get one fixture out of the way and we can all turn up again next week. Our love of the team ethic has sort of vanished and fans that are left just use speedway now as a reason to get out of the house and fill in a programme. Like the supporter stood right beside you... many of the side you think are riding for your club may not be in the line up the following week, never mind the following season. It has got that bad now, riders are given testimonials for 10 seasons in the sport, and not a decade for one team. Their loyalty to the club naturally isn't as strong as the fan. And that's a major shift from all those years ago. Says it all. In 1981, the 70-plus thousand which watched that world final were supporting men who had carried their league team dreams all year. It felt like they were part of them, had celebrated a match-winning ride... and were worried by a uncharacteristic poor display. It was their rider after all, the rider earned his main crust for their team. They were one. Now, 36 years on, riders have their fingers in too many pies, too many other distractions home and abroad. It is hard to form any bond between terrace fan and racer. It is a team sport still... but not as we knew it. The riders seem to have lost all concept of what team speedway is. They probably know... points limits and square pegs in square holes will cement their immediate future for the next year, and not whether they break sweat chasing every point.

Sorry... I'm in the wrong place. Thought the sign on the door read: Bbc Recordings Of The Internationale At Wimbledon I'm off to find that room... before someone accuses me of starting a totally different discussion. Bit like that Monty Python sketch, this is! I WISH TO START AN ARGUMENT!

Typical speedway fans. Someone begins a thread asking one question; another individual throws in his own mid-plot... then we end up with unwinable arguments of what track had the best finish line!

Brian Burford always puts together a well-researched piece. The thing that I don't like... is the front cover. Every week looks like the special effects bloke has had a pill dropped into his tipple... there is too much happening, too busy. What's with all the headlines.... when only speedway people will buy it anyway. Headlines won't sway them. And sometimes you can even see the magazine's title, in spite of all what's going on all over the cover. Good mag though... and well done for keeping it going in such difficult and challenging times.

Or make tracks smaller... the size of my living room, which is crammed with just the two of us in it! They'll be sell-outs every week.

And I bet Speedway Star could have done a weekly supplement with all the letters . Even in the boom times, fans weren't entirely happy with the sport. In fact, followers of speedway love nothing more than putting the sport right and thinking up better ideas. They love the sport but are never entirely happy with what they fell for.

Can't blame the few people on here who have a downer on current speedway. It is not their fault. They (the remoaners) are really the last dregs of that huge sway, the thousands that have already vanished and have no more contact with the sport. Least the whingers who no longer attend, and I am one of them, still post on this type of forum, haven't walked away entirely. After all, it is about opinions It would be a total waste of time if everyone had only positive views... confused why tracks are struggling so much, when they can't find anyone on this forum with anything bad to say. All those years that went pre-internet. If only those who completely disappeared had such a stage to vent their feelings, those in charge may have listened before the barrel ran dry.

Bradford? It couldn't even sustain a speedway even after winning the league in '97. Speedway is often praised as being value for money. So how come, given the chance, many would watch for free on TV, on one of those snide boxes? A chance of actually spending money and frequenting a track or pulling up a chair and watching for nowt in the comfy of your living room - what has best appeal?

And let other fools feed your speedway habit. If the companies have no income from subscribers, where's the money to warrant them existing?

Sad irony if this SKY rumour is true. Wasn't it a certain Mr Horton's antics hours before a major meeting at Coventry a few years ago that had SKY holding on at the track on the morning of the live broadcast, unsure whether it would be on. I've noticed SKY have been less inclined to their previous efforts and that moment could have been a defining one. Good that most on here aren't unduly worried about this, a network that brought regular live coverage to our screens. Fans who a gleeful they'll get speedway on the cheap without paying SKY's outlandish fees may ask themselves - if they don't wish to pay, and they are fans, then what chance have we ever got of attracting new paying fans to the tracks, which ultimately keeps the sport alive.

My records show the name Johnny Rodger appearing in a few meetings during the mid-70s - for Scottish Cubs against the English counterparts at Berwick in September of '74, scoring 5; the 1974 Danny Taylor Memorial at Berwick in May '74 as reserve, scoring 2; and one of Olle Nygren's school events at King's Lynn in March 1975, scoring 5.

There was a time I used to follow stories like the Belle Vue one line by line. Maybe it's age, maybe it's because it happens so much (tracks tightrope walking), but I just can not take anything in. If a track folds, it folds; If it's saved, that's great. I watched Belle Vue during the years of the annual closure threat - the Greyhound Association about to kick us out, crowds dropping because of various reasons - that you could lie awake with worry.You aren't in control of it. It isn't the roof over your head. From about 1994 it was always the same at Kirky Lane, so I just become used to it. Course I worried at first... but a lot of it, as we found, was cry wolf. If things get messed up even when a brand new stadium is handed to you on a plate, as Belle Vue were, then speedway will always be the Frank Spencer of sports. Speedway Star have got the right idea, as they increase articles about times gone. It's the only thing that's certain... apart from the sport falling over itself to create the next calamity. It also keeps most speedway fans happy, as many remember the actual stories.

Too much to do in modern life, too little time, not enough cash. Speedway, a lot because of the way it's run and what you gain for your turnstile cash, it's slipped down the pecking order, like so many other things. Video killed the radio star, DVD did for the VHS.... Technology waits for no man, and speedway just seems a little dated.

Was that the race Lee went the wrong way?

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=15324

Even the way he usually spells his surname!