topsoil

pardon

Of course, if you believe other parts of this forum, it could be part of David Icke's conspiracy theory?

PMSL

the truth and nothing but. czestochowa have made an absolute mess of track preparation for the second week in a row and as a punishment the fixture has been reversed. no need for a cover up.

Absolute embarrassment

Money will talk I suspect

That's just this year. There has been instances in the past and there will be in the future. Ekstraliga bosses want riders to commit to Polish clubs and nobody else.

Poland couldn't give a idiot about any other country, they are just a nuisance. Same as the GPs. It won't be too far off where they insist riders commit solely to the Ekstraliga.

£35 each or 2 for £75? Okay Arkwright

I would like to see the BSPA use some of the money received from Eurosport to put together some sort of package (I'm thinking simulators, bikes to test gating times, Go Pro videos, race videos, I'm sure better people than me can come up with other ideas) and give this to teams to take round schools. Like the England Rugby World Cup winning team did years ago. Clubs could even use these as pre-match entertainment? It would also help if clubs could also somehow get kids to see a bike in action up close. To see the power, noise, smell, danger of a bike, would be a massive draw I think.

Berwick did it two years ago. A couple of local riders went along, took a bike, one of them did a few skids on the grass, got their photo in the local paper. They allow under 16's in for free every week. They do great work with children, trying to get them involved in supporting the sport.

Basically the sport just needs people who are enthusiastic and positive. I've witnessed it with a local non-league football team. They were relegated and last season finished the season in their lowest ever position. A new board came in, showed that they were willing to work hard, brought a bit of enthusiasm and as a result, sponsorship from local and not so local businesses has exploded, which is no mean feat in this climate. And all this despite being in a lower standard of football than ever before. It's like the Premier League football on BT / Sky. We are constantly told it's the best league in the world, the players are made out to be superstars and the games are hyped up. As a result fans lap it up. But if we are constantly told the sport is dying / dead, we will believe this as well. I often think speedway fans are the sport's own worst enemy.

I hope they don't follow the Czestohowa model when it comes to track preparation. If British riders want to sign for Polish clubs, fine, let them, but why would you want to base a Polish 'franchise' in Britain and have the chance for more British riders and fans opt out of British speedway. If Polish speedway is 'where it's at' and you want involved, move to Poland. I would rather have the British riders and fans concentrate on supporting British clubs, trying to grow the product here. I would also rather British clubs try and bring on British reserves, rather than import riders from abroad, even if they are subsidised. Look how it's worked out in the past.

I would far rather the SCB / BSPA concentrate on British affairs. Why should they be interested in Poland?

Funnily enough I am also a member of a rugby league forum, which seems to be mainly populated by fans of a certain age. There are a number of similarities between the majority of threads on both forums:- There are no characters left in the sports The game isn't what it used to be The authorities running the sports don't know what they are doing The sports are dying out Is it an age thing? There are certainly plenty of enthusiastic promoters out there who are itching to get back to racing next season, if not trying to fit in some meetings at the end of this year. No deaths yet I'm afraid.

This is exactly the kind of post I was hoping for when I started the thread, some creativity and positive way of promoting and fund raising. It makes a welcome change from the endless posts about who thinks they know more about a virus and trying to convince us the sport isn't dying but already dead. Thank you.

Some of the fans of non-league football clubs in the area near me came up with a novel way of raising some money for their clubs during the pandemic. Basically, they were asked if they would like to donate the cost of a ticket, for the games which they would have gone to, had the games not been cancelled because of the virus (google Social Wave Donate A Ticket). There was even a cup competition set up, teams drawn against each other, whichever set of fans raised the most money went on the next round. Obviously the further the club went, the more was raised. Some clubs raised into five figures. Some clubs offered incentives for fans to donate, like corporate days, fan experiences. Basically, I was wondering, would speedway fans be willing to help out their clubs by entering something like this? Or has anybody on the forum seen any other novel ways fans / clubs have come up with to raise funds?

Didn't Buxton try this approach, sticking to the NL pay scales, and they really struggled to attract riders, probably because there were always other teams willing to pay over the agreed rates. You can always set out with the best of intentions, but human nature dictates that somebody, somewhere, will break the 'rules' to try to gain the advantage. It needs unilateral agreement between promoters (good luck) or it will never succeed. Good idea and the right way to go, but I can't see it ever working.

A general question, I disn't see any of the meetings this weekend, I don't have Premier Sports. Do any of the Polish tracks have covers? There seems to have been a few postponements this year.

Berwick have announced they are competing at the same level in 2021, so strike one against the doom merchants

Basically. Or until somebody with sufficient influence can persuade (£££) the government otherwise. Any political donors within the sport?

When the government gives the go ahead to mass gatherings. When that will be, nobody knows, so pointless guessing. I wish i had a £ for every time i've seen this question posted on social media. Everybody has a guess when they think it will be, but nobody knows.

That will upset a few posters on here.

first Old Firm match of the season in October. Bet that's when fans will be allowed back into stadiums.

I probably phrased that one wrongly, what I should have said was standardised engines. I realise that every rider will have their seats and so on at different heights. I am thinking, anything to save money.