mikebv

A shame each team don't have two RS's to share the one spot... Especially as only 10 would be needed... Would give 10 young riders potential opportunity, and create some healthy competition for places, as any sport should... No guests required then either...

The frustration is that there is still a decent market for the sport in the UK... It's just not a market that team Speedway regularly attracts due to the nonsense operating model that is allowed to pervade, the lack of jeopardy and consequence to so many meetings and the leagues, the seemingly lack of any "decent prize" for winning anything, and the admission costs which reflect the outgoings being paid, rather than reflecting the standard of what is actually being delivered to the punters.. The NSS will have around 2500 watching the PCMM (presumably being ran?), and around 6,000 will attend each night at the GP's... So. If you put some "Proper Speedway" out, you can still get a good following for it... The Aces this year will, once again, run with crowds much lower than the PCMM meeting, as many Aces followers simply won't follow up their PCMM visit due to not buying into the league structures being used, and also due to saving their cash for the GP's... Yet, like all other tracks, will see a significant increase come play off time due to its natural "make or break" nature, which finally gives off some semblance of relevance for the sport.... I would suggest the sport has as many close followers of it who don't attend each week as those who do... What an opportunity for growth if anyone could actually ever lead it properly, using Vision, Strategy, and Ambition... NB. Having Mark Lemon and Rob Lyon on the Leadership Team is something that could help shape a better future... Getting cut through and agreement from so many of their peers, who want so many different things from the sport, will be the major challenge though, as always..

They have a two year plan now... Year 1 - Do exactly the same as we always do... Year 2 - Do exactly the same as Year One..

All 55 years of age, returning on minus five point averages....

They need a five year plan... (Again)...

Was there really any major positive impact on those measures? After the initial novelty wore off, and BSI no longer marketed the GP as vigorously, it became just another speedway meeting for many... Hence crowds eroded away after around ten years or so of reasonable growth.. It certainly did nothing for UK domestic speedway as the current malaise shows... If the NSS gets around 6k a night this year, that will still be a fair percentage of the total punters who regularly attend UK Speedway at the fourteen tracks left...

I remember reading that Cardiff was circa six figures to hire the venue... And was kept by the owners of the series rights as their own promotion and not tendered out to anyone else... Warsaw was the same... Presume as they were considered "cash cows"... The Welsh Tourist Board subsidised the costs to some degree too... 40,000 at around forty quid must have been worth doing... 20,000 at around forty quid much less so, hence no more Cardiff...

What was the average price per ticket? £50 or so? If it was, that's £575k in income... Not a bad little earner given no hiring of the venue needed. ..

There are, literally, dozens of UK riders who have given up the sport since around 2015, who are still not older than 30 years of age, with most, if not all, not even mid thirties now... An 80% reduction in their average could maybe bring a few back? I presume 2.00 is the minimum any reduction could go down to? Watching many YT races from around 2015 to 2021, post covid, there are a surprising amount of names who no longer ride, with many of them being "OK" at the time as riders at Championship reserve level at least... The sport desperately needs new, (and even old) blood so maybe this could help possibly...

Well... If it ain't broken.... Oh. Hang on......

Unless they lose money on the POSF!!! This was my first thought too... One less "proper meeting" for the winners of the league itself? Maybe there is a decent financial prize this year for finishing top?? I am not holding my breath...

Adrian Smith couldn't believe the way the sport was ran,, and tried to ensure the Aces, (at least), were ran with credibility.... He did this as he listened to fans on his many walkrounds during the meeting... He, like so many others with actual vision, eventually gave up, as he knew the capability simply wasn't there amongst so many of the others to drag the sport up to its potential... Another good person, who understood the modern world, lost to the sport...

And the Promoters who expect riders to have "decent kit", minimum two bikes, (often at a moments notice to guest), and then devalue their very own competitions by removing the credibility of them... A vicious circle that just keeps going round and round..

And that is the frustration many fans feel... So many "basic things" simply don't get done... An AGM is obviously for "The Shareholders", however, being, in particular, a team sport where Promoters require an emotional investment from "The Stakeholders", then their communication out to these "Stakeholders" is vital, as, by not communicating to them could give the impression they are irrelevant to you and your business... Very, very, basic business practice..

One Million Percent... There should have been soundbites from Promoters leading up to the meeting, putting forward, in a positive way, what they would like to see from the AGM... Giving it some importance and resonance... And then. On the day. Photos taken of all there and shared via all SM outlets, including one as a collective all together... Then, last evening, a statement (again positive), should have been put out, even if it was only to acknowledge the meeting took place, a generic update as to what's agreed, and that a further statement with detail is forthcoming in the next "x" hours.... Do they actually have a PR person? Edit. Did the meeting actually take place? Which, as we don't know, probably answers my question re any PR person....

Parole Officers too, will be involved... I worked alongside them until all "time served" was spent... Curfews, Tags, etc needed to be discussed given the late hours some of my staff would work... No condoning what he did in any way shape or form, however, someone addicted to "Class A" drugs will truly do almost anything to get their hands on the money to fund their habit.. I had some truly horrific stories from lads I took on as to the depths they reached, with, to be honest, their home backgrounds and their ultimate recovery being truly humbling for me given the challenges they faced "getting clean"... There truly is an incredible "dark sub culture" in the country which, having worked with plenty of social workers too over the years, is far more prevalent than most, who live well outside this world, would ever imagine..

There are certain stipulations... Working with kids isn't allowed for those convicted of sexual crimes against them for example... Riding a Speedway Bike again won't have too many stipulations I would imagine...

Well.... The Epiphany has passed... And, I presume, the Three/Four/Five/(Six?) Wise Men, have returned home?.. Any news from them? Worth the long trip?... Did they bother visiting in the end?... Certainly no photos taken of them in the stable/hotel.... Nor any mention of them arriving in the various Gospels of Social Media.. I have just opened up the Bible of GB Speedway, at page one, and all it tells me is... "Lo, and so it did pass, Saint Jack Holder leadeth the way in the Land of the Convicted Ones, at the ends of the Earth"...

Double Header next year?

Pretty clear to be honest how It got this bad... Year on year, keeping using an unfit for purpose, failing operational and business model was a key fundamental... As was not listening to thousands of disenfranchised customers, over the past two decades in particular, who refused to keep paying for what they were being served up..

Did the AGM take place? Nothing as a prelude on their own website... You would think something so fundamentally important in actually delivering the sport each season would have been given some media focus wouldn't you?

Not allowed to do so.... I took on many "criminals" for my supermarkets all around the country... As long as they informed me about their past history then they fulfilled the criteria for a job... If they didn't let me know, and I found out later, then, legally, I could dismiss them for failing to declare such information... When you have served your time then you are as equal as everyone else...

It must be "quite difficult" to spend your disposable income on something you don't even know exists though.... Even though it actually does exist in your own town or city..!! Maybe fixing that situation could help a fair few tracks?...

Cough... Bonus Point Kings... Cough...

The promoters have the sport they want. . Some do it to bring in income to pay their way in life.. Most do it as an affordable hobby, and maybe a bit of an ego trip... Therefore. Any comments on here, or on the various social media pages, will make not one jot of a difference as to how they decide to run the sport... Sadly, we are where we are, simply due to that fact... If they could run the sport "properly" then they would have done so many moons ago, hence the "same old/same old" has been the only plan for a long, long time,, (as it is the best they can deliver), even though it clearly isn't fit for purpose, as the current issues it has led to obviously demonstrate... Their money, therefore, their way, and that is fair.. However, the sport will never grow unless they radically change their operating model, which is simply regressing the sport, almost year after year..