mickthemuppet

Surely the most improved stadium this season is at Ipswich. There are now 1500 seats on the back straight and new food outlets on the second bend with hoptitality suites above .there are also wheelchair access areas. only problem is no extra punters this season

It's a shame that you do not take into consideration that it costs about 10 times as much money to put on a Speedway Meeting than in does a greyhound meeting so their loss is even worse. East Anglia roughly has one greyhound tracks left at Yarmouth. and from memory gone are Raleigh,Southend,Clacton,Ipswich,Bury St Edmunds,Norwich Boundary,Norwich city,Cambridge,Swaffam . So with even with 10% of Speedway expenses they still closed.So there is more Speedway tracks in East Anglia than Greyhounds if not in London Most of the bigger tracks ran three meetings a week but you also have to remember that all greyhound stadiums ran trials where there were more races that there than an actual meeting.so they were used a lot more than you say. I think you will find that gradually sand replaced the grass as to reduce the injury to the dogs not because of the wear and tear which was very little on a track surface.THe main problem with grass was if it froze but even sanded tracks have the problem as well although not so bad. Because the tracks take so much money out of the totes (30%) people will see they will be lucky to win in 1 meeting in 10 and and will stop going eventually You will find at least another six tracks will close in the next 5 years. Take its from me Greyhound Racing is in a more perilious state than Speedway.. The bookmakers levy has gone down from £12.5million to $8.5 million.

THey did but only mid afternoon

If Greyhound Racing is so far ahead of Speedway as you say , why are there only 25 greyhound tracks left in this country. When Greyhound Racing and Speedway were at it's peak in the 1940-50's there were over 120 licenced tracks in this country and over 30 in London. alone. Back in the good old days the tote only took out 5% of the take so it was quite possiblr to win. Now it is 30% which is probably higher than any other sports betting. So how can Dog Racing be ahead of Speedway when Speedway now has more tracks than Greyhound racing. In addition to the licensed track there were over a hundred unlicensed tracks as well. This total is now down to nine

Why would Ipswich want back Ben Barker after his non show in the 16 Lapper. How can you rely on riders who commit to a meeting then just do not turn up.. I think Ipswich will find another number one next season and it will not be Ben Barker will probably be back at Plymouth

Rather a silly post as the promoters /owners are Speedway. If there were no promoters /owners there would be no Speedway Could not imagine the UK local authorities taking over the tracks like they did in Sweden to stop them closing.

It's news to me that Skybet's sponsored the Elite league. I dont think they have done so for the last 5 years . Thet used to lay odds on every Elite League match until they were taken to the cleaners with the infamous Ipswich v Reading match.

Not true . A Wembley World final made no difference if there was a Wembley rider in it or not.. It was nearly always a full house. Four Team finals at Peterborough always had more away supporters than home. I seem to remember the Inter Nations Championships in 1972 that matches like Australia v Sweden at Hackney and Denmark/Norway v New Zealand at Wolverhampton drew excellent audiences. Then again in the Daily Mirror International Tournament in 1973 Russia v Poland at Halifax and Sweden v New Zealand at Swindon drew excellent crowds. And so did the final at Wembley.

Of course the play offs are a brilliant way to finish off the season. and anybody who does not think so does not fully understand speedway. Speedway is a business and as in all businesses you have to make a profit. The play offs generate more money than any other six matches through the whole season. If some of the critics of the play offs were promoters they would soon change their mind.. It might not be the best way to end the season but great for the teams and riders involved Then all the teams that are in the league know what the rules are at the start of the season . the play off will be here forever , Sky or no Sky unless a huge sponsor comees along or there is a huge injection of money

How about Adrian Miedzinski as a wild card , after all he won as many Grand Prix's as Tai Woofinden did this season

Foxhall to Poole 199 miles Foxhall to Belle Vue 224 miles Foxhall to Scunthorpe 178 miles So the furthest away from Ipswich in EL is Belle Vue and yet the 3rd nearest in PL is only 46 miles less

Plus moving back up to the Elite League again would at least half the travelling costs around the Uk for riders and even spectators. We all know in the Elite League we would have near local derbies with King's Lynn , Peterborough,Arena Essex. How many people can name the 2 nearest Premier League after Rye House. Conversely the longest trip for Ipswich in the EL is to Belle Vue. Yet the majority of the PL teams are further away than Manchester. Then multiply that by 7 riders and that if one hellava lot of money during a season.

All sports boomed just after the war. Even Football crowds are way down today than they were in the Fourties and Early Fifties. Mind you the entertainment tax helped to kill Speedway as it was nearly 50% cost of the ticket which made it too dear so people stopped going.

It does seem a shame that we still do not have the world championship as it used to be with qualifying rounds and a final like at Wembley /Cardiff and alternating with Sweden and Poland. This would be in addition to the Grand Prix. It could end up that the European Championship which we had this year shows that you can have two top competitions at least like many other sports do

I would think that Jarek Hampel,Scott Nicholls and Danny King plus four others will make up next years team in the Elite League. What possible other thing could Chris possibly mean!

So why has the ELRC at Swindon on a Saturday night and not their usual Thursday night. Do you really think they would get more on a thurday night than a saturday I rest my case

Phil , I was told by sombody in the BBC that they would not allow Barry Briggs to win and I think Bob Nudd the Angler polled so many votes that the BBC were so embarrassed they would not allow it. . So now they have a closed shop, so if you wanted to vote for Tai Woffinden you will not be allow to. What sort of competition is this.

The BBC changed the rules for SPOTY so you only can now vote for about a dozen people . How democratic is that. This was done to stop Barry Briggs or Bob Nudd the fisherman from winning. The Speedway Star and Angling Times asked all their readers to vote for these two which they did. As BBC did not show these sports there was no way they were going to let these contestents win. . It's great with all the sports people that play in Britain you cannot vote for 99% of them .Well done the BBC. Ryan Giggs won SPOTY yet he only played 11 full time matches for Man Utd that season Philip R it would be interesting to hear your views on the Barry Briggs stitch up in the 1960's

It has destroyed the British league. The best night of the week for Speedway racing is Saturday night . Since the GP's started how many meeting do we now have on a saturday. For teams like Belle Vue their gates on Saturday's would at least be double than the coffin night of Monday. Same would apply to all the other clubs that used to run on a saturday (or even Friday ) nights. Take the GP's off TV and the crowds would be flocking back to weekend racing. On the occasion when Ipswich raced on a saturday night they always get a better crowd than a Thursday.

Sir Ben Ainslie has no chance. If you tthink he ihas, you can back him at 440/1. The SPOTY is a foregone conclusion . It will be Andy Murray. The rest nowhere

Nevertheless Chris Harris and Tai Woffinden have only won one grand prix each

Daily Telegraph had a bigger write up on Saturday than today's DT. There was about 8 lines today. Sunday Telegraph yesterday had nothing. GOOD INTERVIEW ON THE Chris Evans show. How he has improved his image and media skills this year. Well done Tai

3.30 PM and no betting up anywhere on tonight's first leg final. I would think the handicap will be in the region of plus 8 for Birmingham.

Heat 18. Pedersen fails to make the start on gate 4 and falls. how many times does this happen to Nicki

So where is it that Premier League is getting bigger crowds than Elite League?Did Ipswich get bigger crowds from last weeks play off against Workington. No they did not Compare that to the Elite League play offs on Monday night.at either venue.