marko

I started watching in 88 and I would say it wasn’t exactly thriving then so the fall probably started before then, Arena did have some cracking seasons in the early 90s but it wasn’t the same elsewhere where clubs didn’t have very good teams. we have seen tracks close but also new tracks open or resurrected after years away (Leicester, Redcar, Scunthorpe etc) so it’s never been all doom or all great, just going through the motions as best as it can.

What ever the model the Isle of Wight use, then copy that! They run tons of meetings outside league ones and despite on the face of it getting very few fans, still seem to be financially solvent. Amateur doesn’t mean it has to be a complete mess, non league football is amateur but still run in a professional way, speedway should be classed as an amateur sport apart from the Grand Prix system. Been saying it for years, costs are out of hand, need standard bikes, cheap to maintain, get it home, give it a clean, change the oil every few meetings, job done. spectator pricing should be no more than an average National League North/South Football club, £10-13 and kids for free.

Hackney 96! Yes what a disaster that was from the word go, countless issues with the stadium, the back straight stand never once opened, we started standing by the pits area but then suddenly after a few weeks got told we can’t stand there anymore, the general viewing was rubbish, one evening there was a power failure and even though there was a enough light to race they had to abandon because the main stand was air conditioned as it’s only source of proper ventilation. Over the years I have often grown tired of dry under watered slick tracks, poor presentation and sloppy time keeping and a hugely irregular fixture list, but even then I still kept going because so much of my life had revolved around the sport, I was at Arena Essex every season (not every meeting but 90% of them) from 1988-2018 the only season I didn’t go was when they went into the NL because I remembered the disaster of trying to run a Hackney side a few years previous along side the main Lakeside team, and if Arena was still running I would go, even if it was NL because for all it’s ills I miss the good things, the noise, the smell the sheer sight of bikes being thrown into corners sideways at speed.

Flying Shale is quite good, you can input gating and passing values as well as home and away averages, play it yourself or let the CPU play it through for you.

Many years ago I ran a speedway sim, sadly I no longer have the spreadsheets for that to reference, all lost, however from what I can recall each stat has a multiply factor, gating was times 5, passing was times 4, team riding was times 1.5 or 2, I think the rest was straight numeric value, I can’t recall the calculation though of how I used to get the number down to a base figure that could then be used as a final result, I used excel and used complicated formulas which took a long time to refine and there was a percentage chance built in to allow for some leeway in results, I also used formulas to determined chance of falls, speedway scene was a big help in this as I used a lot of how that worked to determine percentages. its a complicated as you want to make it, spreadsheets can do calculations in milliseconds, you just have to know what you want it to do to give you the set of outcomes that best simulates what you are after.

I think it might be Ricky Sanford? It’s a long while ago but I am fairly sure Roland Pollard used to have dark coloured leathers so I ruled him out, both rode as junior for Arena but I can’t say I ever saw what they looked like facially.

Seating? I attended speedway for 30 years before Arena closed, did go to other tracks, seating was the last thing on my mind, as was covered areas but I get that older folk would required that, be it speedway or football I can't watch it live in person sitting down, just don't feel right.

I would take speedway in that guise if needed but I must say there were it feels, many occasions at Arena where the track was not up to normal standards when a match followed an afternoon of practice, it was smooth and safe, just really slick and it did affect the quality of racing on those evenings, especially in the warm summer months, but Rye is a different track and will hopefully more workable as regards proving a track that is not too heavy for practice but can still be tailored to provide plenty of grip for the evening.

RE Sunday, absolutely, the A414 you have the North Weald market traffic as well as the horse boxes to deal with, like Arena Essex, it really comes down to one true option, Saturday evenings.

Absolutely westhamboy, I wouldn’t likely attempt travelling on a Friday night for the reasons you give.

It was great to see some positive news in the star around Rye, fingers crossed this will happen, if not this season, at least 2021

Back in the original NL days they were a Sunday afternoon track, I think it might have been something to do with lack of lighting at the time? But I certainly recall visiting Rye many years later for evening meetings on a Sunday ie 6pm

Well I did hear some time ago a rumour that Pete Sampson and Martin Hagon wanted to run Rye House in the NL, but alas the AGM came and went and nothing was said, I hope either those two or someone else who is passionate about getting a club back will take on the challenge, for me living in Chelmsford a weekend (Saturday night) would be much better than a week night, especially Friday, traffic is just crazy and I am not even talking about the M25, the M11 and A414 is more than capable of causing enough mayhem on their own. I would certainly support Second division racing at Rye even though Arena Essex is technically my team.

Gutted for the second year on the trot there will be no speedway in either Hertfordshire or Essex

Race night made a big difference to Rye House, for me going there on a weekend is not too much trouble, but during the week I wouldn't want to go anywhere near the A414, M11 or Harlow.

The experiment at Rye didn’t work because for many Hammers fans, the club died the last night we raced at Arena Essex, and the Rye fans had no interest in supporting another team at their old home. I don’t think it cost Rye the chance of a comeback but it did cost the Hammers because the record will show that they went bankrupt regardless of wether they had a track to race on or not, if Arena Essex had a late reprieve and been able stage racing in 2019 after all would we have seen speedway? I doubt it, with Stuart Douglas out of the equation, it would have required a new promotion to step in and probably pay the outstanding fees.

Its a bit of a double edged sword though, if you make signing a Brit a big advantage then some of those riders might raise their wage requirements on the basis of demand, but if your a two pointer you will naturally want to be reasonably compensated as your points potential might be limited to beating fellow reserves.

Surely someone must know what clubs have declared an intent to run? And was one of them Rye House?

I really hope Rye House comes back, if IOW (yes I know they lost money in 2019) can make it pay, there is no reason why Rye cannot so the same.

I should have asked where the source was from but the guy who told me, I have known for over 25 years and used to be on the track staff many moons ago, it would make sense though for someone like Pete to want to help get speedway back into Hertfordshire, they could start in the NL and maybe work up back to the second division or maybe it will be one big league by then, who knows? Mayne this is all a bit of pipedream right now and we have to wait for the annual conference before we hear if there is anything to this, personally I would love it to happen, the more tracks we have the better, especially at grass roots level.

I heard yesterday a rumour or talk whatever you want to describe it as, that Rye House will be back in 2020 racing in the NL under the combination of Pete Sampson and Martin Hagon, be great to have some speedway in the Herts/Essex area again, Arena Essex will never return, that's for sure.

It could indeed but at the same time you can look at it and say, well now we really have to up our game to get people to come and pay to watch it in person rather than sitting back and taking fans for granted, The whole it’s on TV debate no longer holds any water as look at the play offs finals over the years, played on a Week night, school the next day, live on TV and yet still the places have been packed out, fans will come if it matters enough and you make it come across as a must see in person event, for the rest of the campaign, it’s not and that’s why terraces are near empty.

Individuals used to be good but then promoters butchered them by only running them with 12 riders and over 15 heats and of those twelve riders 8 or 9 were home team squad riders with 3 or 4 very average away riders to make up the numbers, it’s no wonder fans stopped going, it wasn’t long after this started happening I refused to go to such meetings.

I would prefer the more raw type of footage you get with premiere sports showing of the Elitesiren, minimal hype just show the action and have the basic commentary, if there was an option for switching off the comms on sky and by sport I would, not that I always hate that, just that I prefer to listen to the raw sounds of the bikes and atmospherics.

I think every promoter and co promoter should have been at Swindon last night as a group and for someone to sit them down and say “look at this! This is what you have to aim for every week, every match should matter, every match should have the fans feel it’s a must see event”