mikebv

15 teams, seven riders per team, equals 105 riders needed... Nowhere near enough riders of the level needed, so a complete non starter... Heaven forbid, they cut the number of riders to five in a team and just then need 75... I could never get my head around the "we need GP riders back", thought process, as, when the majority of them rode over here 15 years ago, crowds dwindled consistently, just like now.. The very riders who took all the "Golden Ticket" Sky money, then effed off to Poland to take the "Diamond and Platinum Ticket" money when Sky's money disappeared... One league would at least make the sport look like a reasonably sized entity, and have a "national reach and feel"...... The "Optics" of how you are perceived are so, so fundamentally important when trying to sell something…. I have seen Brady and Dan ride at the NSS loads of times, so,watching them scream around the boards is no longer the pull it once was... Especially against the same few riders .... If you can fit them in (and afford them), to a one league structure then great... If not, it means you can run on any night you wish... Obviously though one league would mean no DUing which would mean riders getting paid by just one team... Hence no chance of it happening...

Good to see a club doing some market research.. I hope they don't prevent Scunthorpe finding a Guest...

It would be easier to find out why so many still closely follow the sport, but don't see a UK domestic meeting as worth attending... As an example. The GP's showed that there is a decent audience still out there for the sport in Manchester.. BV followers who were happy to pay circa £140, as a minimum, for two evenings of Speedway... But don't see UK domestic Speedway as something worth regularly attending.. The question that should be asked is... "Why don't so many people, who follow Speedway, attend UK meetings?"... Also. "Why don't the 3,000 or so Aces followers at the GP's attend the NSS regularly?".. Another example? "Where are the 5,000 who attended the PO Final at Ipswich every week of the season?"... There is a market of Speedway followers out there much bigger than the numbers who do attend.. Just getting them back engaged and attending would solve a myriad of issues...

Heat 13 knocked 2.4 points of his average for the night...

"Make it a date, Friday at Eight"... Today it would be.. "Make it a date, Friday at, errr, no, sorry, not this Friday, nor the next one, we might be doing something the one after though, and definitely, well, most probably, the one after that"...

100% they do.. However, the FIM meetings are in the calendar well in advance so it shouldn't be beyond the capability of mankind to plan UK Speedway meetings around them... And if the riders don't qualify to the next stages then that would leave "blank" evenings to arrange a previously called off fixture, should they need to do so.. The sport in the UK is dying through far too many self inflicted cuts... Many of which could be avoided,. Having one of your young "starlets" unavailable due to your own planning is only going to make that meeting less attractive to pay to watch.. And UK Speedway can ill afford putting up any possible barriers to prevent people to attend..

When you are regularly losing customers, raising prices for those who still shop with you, by inflation busting amounts annually, is truly a brilliant plan... Heaven forbid, ever try and find out why your, once hugely loyal customers, are no longer visiting you...

100%... All four riders, riding that 2m blue groove certainly takes some doing, lap after lap...

I think he drew overall on aggregate though... 90-90....

He always seems a bit more happier than his Dad did though... So. You know... Swings and Roundabouts...

No fixtures being published in advance would have meant less season ticket sales given no one knew if they would be available on the eventual dates.. The same (just) five teams visiting twice, and maybe more times in the KO Cup and PO's didn't exactly inspire.. And, at the end of the day, winning such small time cups and leagues is all a bit "meh" isn't it?..

I think TTT is Chris Louis....

Beat me to it.... I'm CTRSports...... No! I'm CTRSports... Etc, etc etc...

I was going to have a few quid on NKI to get over six .. Given he is riding decently well currently, no Doyle, and I presumed he would get six rides... Then I realised who the TM was and thought better of it...😁

If I was a betting man... I would say the Aces are going to edge this... "Squeaky bum time" though as Sir Alex Ferguson would have said...😁 I think Mike will be replacing Brady in 13 and 15...😛

It was mentioned on the Aces Unofficial FB page by "someone" that the in house steam for the Aces is doing good business...

Gradually improving meeting by meeting Across all his racing ... Getting dialled in at the NSS is key, especially during the warmer evenings, when the track is a bit slicker.. Progressing nicely... ..

On many of those 'technical tracks'... "Bluegrooveway" might be more appropriate..

Technicalway....

"Zmarzlik is going to dive bomb (insert riders name here), into turn three"... Repeat, ad infinitum....

I've noticed that the PO Semis now don't seem to bring too many more in either... Maybe down to being on Satellite TV?... Which, this year it obviously won't be so maybe more will attend...?. The lack of prestige, prize size for winning any of fhe comps, and lack of interest from non speedway media, must also obviously impact crowd sizes..

Spot on... I think the largest fundamental mistake the majority of promoters have made is that many still, it appears, see the sport as, well that, a "proper" sport!! Even though they have pretty much removed that notion via their very own operating model.. Fans, on the other hand, (maybe even the majority of them?), see the sport as more "sports entertainment"... Which means, and has meant for a long time, that the "sport" is seen more as being in the entertainment business, rather than being seen as relevant, or indeed, has the required resonance and prestige, to be measured as purely "sport"... And, as "The Entertainment Pound" is under more pressure now than ever before, you need be innovative, exciting, great at marketing, and need to be "something different" to survive, never mind prosper.. None of these attributes definitely exist in money losing organisations that do the same old/same old each year.... But still expect things to change for the better by doing exactly the same old/same old, and "scratch their heads" when it never happens.. As I have said before, the Manchester GP's gives hope as 6500 were happy to lay out a lot of money to attend two Speedway meetings, with many of them Aces followers.. Which shows, promote something with some prestige, jeopardy, consequence and credibility (like in a "proper" sport), and you can still attract a very decent following.. "Pretend" it is a "proper" sport, and hope enough people will collude with you, and you are pretty much doomed to fail, especially in the 24/7 unforgiving scrutiny of the digital age..

The Size and Prestige of The Competitions??

Never understood the grief Batch, and riders like him, get... They make up the majority of double uppers who run at HL and SS levels.. And all pretty much do the same thing, and are of not too different ages... If they gate first, they can win in the second tier, and maybe, now and again, hold on in the top tier.. If they gate last, in tier one they stay there, and in tier two they may get third... Many of them certainly won't be busting a gut to make any risky passes at this stage of their careers.. And, given so few riders of their level want to ride over here, they are all desperately needed to fill two team places.. a) to ensure full teams, and b) let both teams share costs..

The press release said every league meeting has been ran at a "significant loss"... The two KO Cup ones were good crowds, (I presume down to Aces and Lions fans being there in decent numbers?).. Streaming must impact attendances negatively as you say, when it was shown on Satellite TV the same thing happened...