IainB

But do the Foxes and Tigers outsource their merchandise? As for Jaybea the only League Championship winning merch that I could see was a badge... or a scarf that can be pre-ordered with delivery from the 24th of November!!! That in my book is rubbish!

I haven't but I will do... Anyway I thought that's what these discussion forums were all about. I'll let you know what the reply is and we can discuss it some more. Blimey... this sounds like a coup I just wonder why the Bates got involved with Leicester (Don't get me wrong, I'm glad somebody has) when they already had an interest in Sheffield... was it to give Josh a team place? Isn't Damian Bates also on the BSPL Management Committee? Maybe he's got too many fingers in too many pies to give them his full attention, a bit of plate spinning going on maybe?

Yes, you can certainly tell that Dan & Joe have done a lot of laps around the track when you watch them.

You can suggest all you like... can you tell me what I am allowed to comment on, on this discussion forum? Should I run my posts by you first for moderation? You're not going to like this but what a ridiculous thing for the club to do to just sell the merchandise rights with no say on what is or isn't produced. In most other industries that produce merchandise this is a major income stream. Interesting what you say about the club not being the main source of income for the promoter at 90% of Clubs, that is probably one of the main reasons why the sport is in the state it's in. I wonder what the game plan is for the promoters of a club? Is it benefactor, self satisfaction, play thing, profitable business, love of the sport? I've always thought that some kind of fans cooperative would be a better operating model for minor sports clubs. I've been attending speedway since the late 70's and have watched it deteriorate year on year for every year since then. I was at BP on opening night and have watched the crowds decline since then. The current promotion will inevitably leave the club at some point in the future along with the messiah. yet I'll still be there... undoubtedly with less people standing around me.

100% agree, I thought the racing was far better when we were in the top division and put this down to the quality/skill of the riders on view. Scott Nicholls departure has been of severe detriment to the entertainment value on offer so far this year imo. There's only really Bomber and Scott that I have seen pass with any regularity around BP in the middle tier league.

I do accept it, I have no choice other than to I just don't get who decides that we (most teams) aren't going to put our strongest line-up out to try and win the event. We've not even treated it as a development opportunity by sending Chris Harris out and only giving Tom Brennan 1 ride. Is it a matter of the federations are told what the pay rates are for the meeting and then each federation approaches the riders to see which ones will accept the booking?

Why on earth would you sign a rider for £10k, nobody buys riders any more, that's just money going out of the club. Clubs need to be bringing money in. Making and selling your own merchandise shouldn't be astronomical you can get a custom t-shirt done for around a fiver and sell them on for £20, that's a healthy profit by my reckoning. Not to mention exposure for the sponsors and some promotion/publicity as people wear them around the city. You could probably get them done cheaper we do live in a city with many hosiery factory's. Why would a club sub out their merch and have no say in what should be produced and when, perhaps they do have a say in which case Jaybea should be doing more. They even sub out some of their production of team shirts to a Polish company by the looks of it. Why wouldn't you as a club be saying, right we need a load of League Championship merchandise to cash in? I comment as and when I see fit both positive and negative. Just recently I have praised the signing of Ans Andersen, the speed at which some of the matches have been completed and even acknowledged when there have been some good races. In fact I'm the ONLY one on here singing the praises of the club actually winning the bloody LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP... while the rest of you want to keep it a secret!!!!!! I support he club by paying my £17 week in week out, I follow the club away and was there in Glasgow on that historic night... with about 40-50 others. But no, let's keep the double a secret, let's not make any merchandise, let's not promote the club, we don't need any more fans, we've got a nice comfortable amount coming through the turnstiles that does us just nicely thank you very much, even though 75% of the stadium is empty. Everything in the garden is rosy. A lot of the problems I see are sport wide, it just happens that Leicester is the track I go to most often, so it gets mentioned on the Leicester thread. I have criticised the track in the past, as many many people have, I don't think I've ever criticised any of the staff. I will openly admit and it will come as no surprise that I am no track preparation expert, I have never prepared a track in my life... I have though, seen hundreds of Speedway meetings over the years and know what a well prepared Speedway track looks like. We could probably go on for pages discussing track preparation, all I know is from my experience, is that generally what the riders like and what produces good racing for the fans are often 2 very different things, most riders would love a track that enables them to make a start and clear off at the front, why wouldn't they, it's easy money. Imo the track has not been the same since Glyn Taylor's services were dispensed with. I have no idea who does the track now and what their credentials are, where they have come from and how many tracks they had prepared before they came to Leicester. I will continue to make posts, both positive and negative, you may agree or disagree with them, that's fine, it used to be a free world. ATB Iain

I remember the admission being around 75p in the late 70's at Leicester, there's been around an 8% increase year on year to get to today's prices... which would have made it a better investment than property

I'm not mechanically minded at all so a lot of this talk is going over my head regarding compression and fly wheels etc. If methanol has been used as the fuel since Speedway's birth, which I assume it has, hasn't technology caught up now to provide the same effect/power from petrol engines. Doing a quick google search it says a Speedway 0-60 is 3 seconds, a Superbike 0-60 is 2.5 seconds. Probably a lot more to it than that...

Saw a young lad wearing one last night funnily enough... he was with his dad, I thought to myself I wonder if you realise you're dad is a cheapskate lol

Nobody has mentioned that about the merchandise. Why on earth are the club not responsible for their own merchandise? Why would they not be interested in promoting their success? I have no vendetta against the club, don't be so melodramatic, I just point things out that I think could and should be done better. Hoping that somebody might take the ideas on board and start promoting the club. But all I get are responses from people on why stuff can't or shouldn't be done. I don't know if you've noticed but there's room for another few thousand people in the stadium but I suppose you enjoy it there being only 25% full? What I don't understand is why a certain number of people on here think the club is totally beyond constructive criticism.

And built with no thought as to where the sun would be setting lol

Just like British Speedway

They should give Chris Morton a call... when you're starting off from such a bad base that turd needs a really good polish, there's obviously a fundamental problem with the shape/ track proportions at Leicester but the surface and preparation is all they can realistically work on. In the last week I've been to Peterborough, saw a track record but not 1 good race that I can recollect, been to Birmingham, watched the "racing" through clouds of dust, watched the Sheffield match on TV, absolute garbage... and Leicester last night, 2 good races out of 15. As for Morris, he's plateaued and got as good as he's going to get for me, which is OK, not everybody is going to be world champion and he still does a good job.

Just like they do for Longtrack/Grasstrack

Of course it wouldn't... Even if that was the case why wasn't there a range out for Christmas 2019? Or ready for the 2020 season? The club did nothing! I've seen people walking around wearing 2020 GP T-shirts with the original (cancelled) calendar on the back! In fact you can still get one for £4 and they're probably still making a profit. https://speedwaygpmerchandise.com/2020-helmet-tour-t-shirt/

Moonshine

So who decides that it's going to be a "mickey mouse" event? With all respect to those that turned out for this meeting they are hardly their nation's strongest line-ups. If GB were serious about winning the event surely Woffinden, Lambert & Bewley would have been selected. Zmarlik, Janowski & A N Otherski for the poles. As it was an FIM(E) (whoever they are) event surely the riders would have been compelled to ride. Or was it down to the host club promoters to assemble the field? In which case should it have been FIM(E) sanctioned? Somebody somewhere has decided that this event should have a weakened field, who and why? Adam Ellis missed the match at Leicester on the 10th of July as he was riding in the semi. Was he compelled to take part by the FIM(E) or did he miss the Leicester match because he'd been booked for this meeting first?

His fall in Heat 15 was because he was busting a gut to get by Worrall to salvage a draw. They could still be racing now and he still wouldn't be able to get by. I thought it was a good match score wise but the racing was almost non existent! Heats 9 & 10 were quite good tussles. Otherwise everything was settled after bend 2 of lap 1. Unbelievably the announcer was yet again blowing smoke up the messiah's bottom during the interval when trying to get positive comments about the track from Kennedy. It maybe very nice to ride on, I don't know, but to make a pass on it's almost impossible, or was last night, that's why Morris had to pull his kamikaze move in the last "race". Still at least it was all over quickly... another 92 minute meeting. Well done to Poole.

It's just a point I'm trying to make that the club are doing nothing to "cash in" on their success and get a bit of extra money in the coffers... you generally see quite a lot of folk at Leicester wearing other club merchandise, so I would suggest there is a market for it.

And people are paying £22 for it... compared to, erm, nothing. There is no comparative commemorative shirt (or any league title merch for that matter) available!

Would you pay £20 for example to goto a non league football match if you'd never been before? It's the only equivalent I can think of

I disagree... there's quite a good mix here at Leicester. What I would say is that £20 is quite a lot to pay out if you were taking a punt as a newcomer. I'm not sure I would.

Was looking at the prices for "The Hundred" earlier... which no matter how much they try and hype it is still cricket. Under 5's free 6-15's a fiver Adults from a tenner At least there's always something going on at the cricket... I'm typing this as the tractor is doing its umpteenth lap at Leicester!

Is there any qualifying limitations on the riders participating in this event? If not why is the line up "mickey mouse"?