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We don't just need April 1st for fools on here, there's plenty to go round for the whole year really

Correctomundo...and exactly the sort of open-minded approach needed. The product has been utterly geared towards 50+ year olds for yonks and here we are. I think by general consensus Belle Vue Speedway currently has the strongest offering of all the venues in the UK at the moment. Good facilities, great track with excellent racing, city location in the top league. Yet, as I understand it, they are operating under break even levels using the outdated midweek speedway model. If Belle Vue can't cut it, what chance have other tracks got of a long-term future?

Exactly the problem. Speedway is trying to please a dwindling hardcore. Trying to please 70% of 400 people then next year trying to please 70% of 350 people is no way to run a sustainable business. If speedway is to have any successful future, it needs to consult with and tailor its product for those people it is not attracting to the stadium, not the shrinking hardcore it is. Do you think cricket came up with Twenty20 by consulting with the few hundred who bother with county cricket? Not sure where the standing around comes from. Think of it as a festival, you pick the bands you want to see, those you don't and after you have seen what you want to see then go home. No one's forcing anyone to stand around?! The starting point has got to be the target market. Who does speedway want to appeal to? And then create the experience from there. That's why Twenty20 is a success. That's why UFC is a success. It's also why horse racing has thrived..it has become a much more family friendly experience. That's why I put forward the multi sport weekend festival model, to appeal to the young family market. It's far from a personal wishlist of activities, because its not about me and its not about you either. It's about getting the sport a new and bigger audience to give it a fighting chance of survival.

Which Reading Racer testimonial was best attended (relative to normal crowds at that time)? Not the stars like Jan Andersson, Dave Mullett, Armando Castagna or Jeremy Doncaster, but.... .... David Steen - who ran an event that containing mixed disciplines and promoted it heavily. So it can work, but I fear UK speedway lacks the promotional and commercial skills to make it work.

With Wimbledon being latest event cancelled pretty sure we wont be seeing any speedway now for 12 months.

And there was me trying to be nice to you, ya wee #######! If you’re not careful I’ll demand my money back for your book (available now in all good charity shops )

Agree with you I’m a regular attender at BV and the track racing etc are the best in U.K. by a mile But think you are wrong about ‘break even’ as I were told by an insider that they have lost 100’s of thousands pounds. And that was before this virus crisis. How clubs can survive this disaster is looking increasingly difficult.

That's because McDonald's gear their products towards appeal to children. Bright colours, tie-ins with kids films and TV, toys in the Happy Meals. As I said, speedway could do this but it would require a complete revamp of how the sport is presented today.

Sadly I think you are right in some respects there but I do think that running on a weekend would make a difference my daughter (30 yrs old and loves her s/way) can't go in the week as she is often at work till 8pm after a 5.30 am start .Week nights are more for the empty nesters and the early semi or fully retired I do think if you want a family sport week nights are a non starter .

Because the roads are gridlocked and most tracks are in out of town locations.

You certainly won't find many of the current promoters implementing the changes that you want. New blood is needed on both sides of the fence. Maybe the sport can rise from the ashes at the end of this crisis, but I'm not holding my breath.

Don't promote it to kids, promote it to the parents as something to take the kids to. I never understand this thing about not running on an evening when there is school the next day. When I was at school my parents took me every week to Wimbledon which ran on a Monday evening and there were lots of other school age kids there. Why are today's families unable to do what families happily did in the 50's and 60's?

Especially when clubs run on a school night and many do not have public transport that runs past the track, so unless their parents take them they cannot get to and from a meeting.

Again, proof that speedway doesn't understand its target market. Why promote speedway to kids? It makes no sense.

Speedway isn’t a big enough concern that people with little to no knowledge of the sport will attend on “name value.” To the uninitiated it wouldn’t matter whether Bartosz Zmarzlik or Ben Woodhull were doing a few laps around their local track, if it isn’t promoted properly nobody will bat an eyelid (or attend). To my mind, there are four main groups of people that promoters should look at. The die-hards - these people will attend week in, week out even if a steaming pile of turd is presented before them. The issue is that they are advancing in age of course and won’t be around forever. The floating fan - they pick and choose their meetings. Perhaps their club has folded but they’ll still attend 10-15 meetings a season, not necessarily at the same track each time but where they deem a meeting to be worth travelling to, be it for entertainment or value for money reasons. A lot of these floaters will perhaps go to watch meetings specifically because a rider who used to represent their club is riding. Those links to the defunct club will eventually disappear as riders retire and those floaters will drop into the next category. These fans already like Speedway, they should be the easiest for their local track to turn into regular attendees. The “oh they still do Speedway?” - Personally I attend 1-3 GP meetings a season now and that is it. I don’t attend domestic Speedway. I reckon there are a lot of people out there in the same boat as me. I would push such people into this group. Those who know about Speedway but haven’t been for a long time or attend very rarely. Harder to draw in than the floating fan but their interest could be piqued with the right promotion of the product because at the very least, they know what Speedway is. Finally, the uninitiated - anyone who doesn’t know what Speedway is. This is the group of which there is the largest number of people to target but also the hardest to draw in. Ironically they are probably the easiest to win over with the correct promotion strategy. We all love the product of Speedway, which is four riders going hell for leather round the track. That is a bug that bites hard and is later ruined by overcharging and politics among other things. It may be a cliche but they say if you throw enough s*** at the wall some of it will stick, if you throw enough people into a speedway meeting, some of them will stick. The key is to getting them into the meetings in the first place and this is where we currently struggle without a doubt.

It is a strange buisness plan isn't it? With the ultimate result of course being that not many people actually really care who wins a Speedway title in Britain, as a) the sports following is very small, and b) given the often contrived way the comps are ran there is very little kudos in 'winning'.. Yet promoters, in their own bubble, seem to take things very seriously and expect riders to have the best kit available to help their teams win the leagues... Kit that costs many thousands of pounds... Which means many more thousands of pounds need to be paid to the riders to pay for the kit and then maintain it... Kit they all buy from pretty much the same place, and then buy upgraded parts from pretty much the same places, and get their bikes tuned often using the same tuners.. Meaning very little advantage for anyone as they are mostly doing exactly the same thing.. Hundreds of thousands of pounds each paid out by riders and promoters.. With all effectively running to stand still... All to win something hardly anyone gets excited about, and hardly anyone outside the sport will even notice.. A true race to the bottom isn't it?

That crowd. Blimey!

Dont think anyone is having a go at '50 somethings' or even older fans to he honest. Being one of the 50+ brigade myself that age group is the life blood of the sport and pretty much keeps its struggling heart beating.. However, 10 years ago it was us then '40 somethings' that were the life blood of the sport and it's clear to see not all have continued with it since then.. Me included.. And those of us who no longer bother with domestic league racing, but still attend around 10 meetings a year (domestic FIM events, some overseas trips, and never miss a TV meeting including every Polish top division fixture), simply haven't been replaced by any demographic.. And that is the problem the sport in the UK has.. Personally for me I now get my 'live' Speedway fix at bona fide meetings which actually mean something, and then watch the domestic league via the TV, not ever caring who wins but with an attitude of "its Speedway racing so I will watch it" and I can watch it with zero emotional attachment to the outcome.. I wouldn't pay £18 quid a meeting to watch it live though..

Sorry I should have been clearer. I too have heard the same. Rather than "under break even", I meant "less than break even".

Well said Brian. Some people think the older fans are holding the sport back. I think the blame lies squarely with the promoters. They feathered their own nests when times were good, with no thought for the future. Visionary promoters like John Berry were allowed to leave the sport, and a lot of good ideas went with him.

Like I've said in the past Birmingham are rubbish with their web site never really keep fans involved unlike eastbourne, redcar ect. Mind you with your team manager, promoter what do you expect?

Pipe down baldy

In the good old days, riders would just have got on with their day jobs, and survived If and when this is all over, perhaps we all, riders in particular, can get back to basics

There are some tough decisions that need to be made regarding the future of the NL. Will the current clubs that run two teams, still have the finances to do so. Scary times for all levels of the sport.

Yes, but young fans are needed to perpetuate the sport. In the seventies as a 13 year old I was more interested in Pele, football, girls, flairs and cowboy boots, but I loved speedway as soon as I went and the interest has remained with me for 45 years.

Promoting to young families is a very good idea in my opinion. The young adults will hopefully become lifelong fans and their kids become the next generation to take their kids and so a production line of new fans is created. My grand father took my father who then introduced his girlfriend to the sport. He married that girlfriend and they introduced me to the racing at a very young age. If you can introduce under 16's some of them will become lifelong fans some will drop out but possibly return later in life and some will not like racing and will find thing they enjoy. The important thing is to maximise the number in the first two groups and to do that you need to attract the 25 to 40 year old with their families and friends.

"I wont be watching this pyjama cricket" was an often noted quote from 'the dinosaurs' who liked to watch the dying County 3 and 4 day game, with around 50 or so other die hards every day, in a 20000 seater stadium.. And also 20/20 over here doesnt market itself or pay out the same cash against the mega league of the IPL, or even the Aussie Big Bash.. Instead it uses a "good standard" of player, (mainly UK lads), paying less, but getting healthy attendances.. The same way that British Superbikes use a lower level of rider (again, based on UK lads in the main) than the WSB, yet still get very healthy crowds.. Both know that when the "big boys" come knocking for their best talent they will lose them to the higher standard. However they have a pro active plan to bring in replacements as they know it will be inevitable.. What they dont do is let their business plan be impacted by other competitions in the same sport.. Needs a complete re think and refresh British Speedway.. Get a brand identity, get a clear business plan, and then build a fit for purpose operating model based on its affordability and resource capability.. And then market the s**t out of it!!!

Many of the Clubs in the Championship are attracting new young fans. We certainly are at Birmingham and on Away Match trips to places like Somerset; Redcar; Eastbourne saw plenty of evidence that other Clubs are doing the same and not only getting them in but showing them around and making a bit of a fuss of them. Yet when my Club do that what happens, some of the grumpy old men in the old guard moan about "too many kids", and a new family coming for the first time that may have "knicked my space" get abuse. Hardly welcoming is it?. We have some of the best facilities in Speedway at PB and good to see the work done to try to encourage new blood.

King Jamie is a positive contributor though, the Duchess anything but!

Belarus surely?

Probably running it late winter with 'anyone who would ride' didnt help? Running something similar over the August BH weekend, after loads of advertising to fans during the Speedway season, with some recognised riders riding, would get decent crowds I would think.. If space allows, then have camping facilities, music, bar, bbq etc... Like the old Grasstrack weekends for the big events.. Often wondered if letting track licences get bought for certain dates by 'anyone' would be a possible successful venture? One off big events ran by people who truly know how to promote any event..

I think he had a brother, Punch...

One kiosk for the ref, one for his guide dog.

Quite right.

Now now skidder, you know ALL rules are up to interpretation....depends on how much you can bend without getting caught......LOL

The majority of fans want a swiftly run meeting. Standing around for hours doesent appeal to everyone. That's what i like about football, it runs like clockwork.

Hmm. I think you've added 2 and 2 and got five there Rob. I understand it's practically difficult to alternate sports on the track. I'm talking about 60-90mins slots per sport, then the next sport. Have your pint, have a look, maybe see what other entertainments kicking about and enjoy the atmosphere with a bigger weekend crowd. Of course, I very much doubt any of this will happen, nor even be attempted. Much more likely - almost certain - is we continue to carry on as normal with our 50-80yr old hardcore and keep the likes of The Third Man happy, serving up the same old midweek speedway model and sleepwalk into oblivion.

Whilst team speedway all over the UK attracts a few hundred 50, 60 and 70 something year olds rattling around in a four fifths empty stadium... Its working so well it's probably best we just carry on doing the same thing.... Over and over and over and over again..

Burnt Kiosk - star of Chilton Foliat

I used to live in Frankfurt (for about 5 years) and about 10km outside is a great track called Diedenbergen - its ran as a club and even though it has 365 days a year planning it hosts maybe 10 meetings per year. However, those meetings consist of the main event - league racing plus piwi races, 125 race, 250 races (Robert Lambert benefitted from this massively), class b 500cc and gokarts with nobbly tyres on... all in all it offered more of an event, with the beer flowing, sausage stall all over it really was a afternoon and early evening... totally good stuff and all intermixed. So Martin and I try to introduce a similar format for our meetings, although of course we are not allowed for league or cup meetings so when we have one of our other meeting types we try to stage the Wizards in that meeting so they come out every four race for two of their heats, we also include our piwi/125 riders from My Frist Skid. I am not sure if there is any way to stage this in 2020 however due to new rules about who can be on the track during the time of the referees control of the meeting but we shall see.

Many riders were more than happy to ride Speedway whilst holding down another job.. Riders could earn a weeks money (and even more) from their other job in just one night of Speedway.. Ride for just four nights and you had the same as your months salary from your other job, and many rode four or five nights a week.. But then again, back then, not many spent fortunes on engine tuming, the latest carbs, clutches, etc etc etc, like so many seem to do now for their ever growing stable of bikes that they use in various countries... The costs seem to have grown year on year whilst the income to pay the riders to pay these costs has eroded away almost annually... Higher salary costs to help riders cover their costs, often results in admission cost increases which then means less fans attending, which then results in more admission cost increases to cover the shortfall, which then results in less fans attending, and on and on it goes.. The tipping point can't be far away, (If it hasn't already happened)..

My posts and observations of January 15th......

So not 25% and 75% for each club? Hardly a level.playing field if one club had raced 12 and one 6 when 42 was reached......

Speedway doesn’t know it’s identity and that’s half the issue. It is dirt track racing. Yet the riders expect it to be their full time job. Promoters expect fans to pay upwards of £18 at the top level for less than 15 minutes of action (terrible value for money). Fans expect facilities befitting of the price they pay and don’t get them. Landlords expect their rent and don’t care how much money the speedway makes or doesn’t make. The problems are deep rooted. What needs to happen is a proper reset, if that means going back to being a semi-professional sport then so be it. One constant that I always find is that as fans we seem to be bottom of the totem pole when it comes to priorities within the sport. Realistically it should be opposite. There will always be people willing to race Speedway for the love (granted they may not be of as high a standard as some riders in British speedway now) but there won’t always be fans if the sport continues to be run the way it is now.

Certainly he was our surprise packet in 2010 at reserve. Double figures at hard tracks like Sheffield helped us to get many away wins and to top the league table, only to lose it during playoffs. We had won the two cup competitions so losing the league was a bit upsetting as we were favourites to have a clean sweep. Great contribution from Dakota.

Truth !!!! not sure it`s as simplistic as that- wonder how the question ( or questions) was phrased ?

We know the result but......

The original King Erik Wunder Gunder

I think they should declare this seasons Premier League null & void........... and really p!ss off the scousers!!!