George Dodds

not sure what your point is meant to be but surely that just underlines the fact that speedway is a sport which hires the stadium for a few weeks a year while the football and rugby are the semi-professional entities of sports which flourish at junior and amateur level around them. Bearing in mind that a majority in Cumbria voted for Brexit they might not see all the foreign riders as a good point!

I suppose what they offer is the land that their current stadiums are on which then has a value to the council, which owns them, when redeveloped

The Comets' biggest problem is that they have nothing to offer the development other than potentially renting the stadium. The club also has a chequered history and regularly (like most speedway clubs) seem on the verge of closing/seeking new owners. You can understand why the football and rugby clubs would be loathe to build a new stadium which would be unpopular with their supporters, only to find that speedway disappears a few years after it is finished. To be part of the scheme someone has to offer money on behalf of the Comets - then they might find a way to include a speedway track.

Is this a new rule because it didn't stop Rotherham from playing four seasons at Don Valley in Sheffield between leaving Millmoor and building their new stadium, mostly in the bottom division.

Is this really true? Surely West Ham has an athletics track around it.

forecast is fine on the terraces ... but it could get wet and windy in hospitality

Result should stand ... no way we would have let it slip from that position

I do actually agree about getting the product right, that has to the main aim but the history of sport is littered with examples of clubs which assumed that the fans would flock through the gates only to be left with a pile of debts. Much is being made of the role of sponsorship - surely this scheme is no more than allowing fans who wish to, and can afford to do so, to "sponsor" the club in addition to paying their admission fee. Not much different to a business owner who sponsors either out of a love of speedway, a sense of duty to his/her town or city, as a publicity tool or to take advantage of tax benefits.

All sport is propped up by something extraneous - football by TV rights, rugby and cricket by TV rights and redistribution of profits from international games, most other sports by wealthy owners or support mechanisms. No sport is run as a business - even the monster that is football features hugely indebted clubs as they fail to balance the books. But I do promise that if the bottom ever falls out of your market I'll be the first to organise a tray bake and coffee morning to make sure you're never short of beard dye

You know as well as anyone B&P that almost all modern sports clubs survive thanks to injections of cash from areas other than attendance and sponsorship. Seems perfectly reasonable to offer a conduit for those who wish to get involved over and above admission fees - one that they didn't have in Berwick.

Maybe don't fancy 25 minute parades

always has been, always will be - it's not a struggle unique to Berwick or speedway. I used to follow Newcastle United home and away, I haven't been to a game for 20 years and can't even be bothered to watch Match of the Day to be honest - they found someone to replace me, - and 20,000 more to boot. Life goes on. One of speedway's traditional problems has been the assumption that fans will keep on coming. Better to assume that you start each week from zero and try to build a crowd from scratch. While it would be nice to think that old fans could be tempted back the truth is many of them yearn for a heyday which is pure invention anyway, the era of 13 races and a second half when each race had all four riders passing and re-passing on every bend and straight from green light to chequered flag.

I think we get it - you used to go, you don't now and believe that you have the right to consider anyone who doesn't agree with you as a bit of a prat - point is that's a two-way street. It's a shame you don't go any more but I suppose the club just needs to find one person to replace you and it's status quo.

maybe we've negotiated a link-up with Weight Watchers?

no but it also gave people an opportunity to stay at home and for the cost of entry at one meeting see between four and ten from the comfort of their living room on TV along with other sports for the rest of the month. Rugby League has huge TV viewing figures - second only to football on Sky - around the country but those people do not travel to watch it live.

... having taken into account their TV money - ie they spent it on players wages, same as speedway did. Speedway operates on crowd levels in line with National League football crowds but are paying League one wages ... it doesn't work

There aren't any but you're trying to make out that speedway promoters are the only club owners so inept that they cannot make a profit from their sport. I'm making the point that they are following the blueprint of many sports, such as football, perceived as being run properly and successfully but actually in a worse state than speedway. The entertainment provided by riders is not enough to attract the crowds to cover their wages, most obviously in Britain but also in Sweden and Poland despite their much higher attendances. The problem is a sport living beyond its means. It will not change unless riders - and the "I'll only go to watch the top riders" type of fans take a large dose of reality

... name me one premier league football club, premiership or superleague rugby club or cricket club that has not lost money year on year, despite huge injections of TV cash. Why would speedway - with a much lower fanbase - be any different?

ice hockey, basketball, rugby league, especially below Superleague level, rugby union, county cricket .... although it all depends on your definition of thrived. If you mean clubs loading up with debt to pay spiralling wages in the hope that TV will keep throwing money at it then no sport, including football, has thrived - although some do get bigger crowds at the top level than pre-Sky

think comets riders would welcome the drop of any coloured envelope

From the Bandits' facebook page 15 minutes ago NEVER IN DOUBT! We’ve been made aware that rumours may have circulated possibly suggesting that this weekend’s match vs the Scunthorpe Scorpions could be in doubt due to the football but we want to make it very clear that we will be in action Live at Shielfield Park Stadium on Saturday the 14th of July at 7pm! #BacktheBandits

Probably just do what they did last week and have people in the town centre trying to attract extra support by handing out flyers.

some of the decisions they make suggest they have been in hospitality!

to keep the ref out of the hospitality box?

track covered since this morning