mikebv

I have a guest contributor standing in on weekends...

I got mentioned twice .. Just saying. .

He does what he does... Hopefully, earning enough to cover keep coverng two places that keep UK Speedway going...

With all the best will in the world... The competition itself isn't a "puller"... And Doyley has done probably thousands of laps in the UK... Maybe 1200 (at most) will bother turning up?... My lads four closest mates watched the GP's on TV and all said to him, "Eff me, how good is that?".. None of them had a clue about Speedway... Ironically their dads did!!!! And all said that they would like to go and watch... He told them to go with him to the British Final as there isn't any point attending "a league meeting"... He is 23... A perfect target audience... The British Final will have four brand new Speedway fans..

Good to see Will Cairns giving it a go tonight... He will see what a level he needs to be at to be a "proper" top level rider... Good also to read Tom B's honest appraisal of himself in the Speedway Star... A massive way to go for these lads... Let's just accept where they get to without criticism...

Ticket sales either side of last years GP's were not great... If roughly 6500 attended each night of the GP's and around (at least), 50% of them were Aces followers, (as it anecdotally appeared), then that is s lot of money paid out... Conversely, and very positively, it shows that plenty of people locally... a) Know what Speedway is... And b) Know about Belle Vue Speedway and where the NSS is... The challenge is, for not just Belle Vue, but all teams, to get all who follow the sport, and know where their local track is... To deliver up something they see as worth attending regularly.. Can they do that? ... That is truly the question... The following is definitely there, as the play offs regularly show... The infrastructure they use, to get people there regularly, maybe not so...

Far too easy to blame landlords and developers... If crowds were such that the clubs paid £20k+ a night, twenty or so times a season, then a good few number of tracks would still exist I am sure... Let's be honest, crowds of 3,000 to 5,000 each week would have meant much bigger rents could have been afforded, and would also have meant more challlenge to closures from the local communities, given the number of people impacted by them... The first few closures also then gave the optics that the sport was in steep decline, especially given so few challenged the closures due to crowds of 1500 or so, max, which then had the domino effect of further closures as landlords saw no big money coming to them in the future given the dwindling number of meetings the reduced numbers brought. Let's also be honest and say that should Coventry, Swindon, Peterborough, Birmingham and Wolves have still been running, who would have ridden for them?... That's another 35 places to fill with 10 "top level" riders and 15 of tier two HL level to be "competitive"... A six team league, and a seven team league last year, cannot put together more than four teams of the required level, therefore another five would have no chance... Great entertainment, and/or a successful team, can, hopefully, both deliver a sustainable business model which sees that much needed growth...

Just watched the incident on Dan's (excellent) Vlog and it was an incredibly bad decision... Laughable, (if you weren't Dan),... Not a clue how any ref could exclude the rider in front, leading by some distance, when another rider behind falls off by themselves... It would be like excluding Fricke for Zmarzlik falling off in the GP's!!! Don't even think Specsavers would help... And he supposedly watched the replay too?...

Reading between the lines it would suggest some extra rounds elsewhere... Maybe two in Aussie would be viable like the NSS do currently....? The GP series certainly needs a "shot in the arm" and Mayfield look like they have a plan to follow which sees some quick impact...

Got suckered in...

Very, very true... Unsolicited feedback, especially poor feedback, can be "Gold" to a business... When the criticism is databased, (so factual), and also carries some constructive comments, then even better...

A £100k net minus v last years' numbers from moment one.... 5,000 extra punters needed to pull that back, just to "stand still"... And not too many meetings to do it in either...

"The BSF Massif" have made this weeks copy... Tony Mac referred to us as "cynics"... Best behaviour going forwards everyone...

I presume down to two changes being needed, whereas its a straight swap for Dan at the NSS... If Dan comes back maybe Jason will end up at Ipswich?... Or somewhere else?. Northampton maybe?...

Mayfield certainly look lke it is very much "business first" which can only be a positive thing for the sport.. As the more who view it as that should hopefully mean challenge and growth... Jeopardy, Consequence, Integrity and Credibility... All professional sports need those characteristics if they ever hope to be successful....

It was simply the delay in confirming what the league would kook like, and if Ipswich were going to be sold... Chris Louis wouldn't countenance a five team league and Northampton was still in the "pending file"... So Jason Doyle decided he needed to make some firm decisions for his season, and couldn't wait for something that "may happen"..

The GP's showed that there is still very much a market out there for Speedway,... Around a million quid would have been taken in ticket sales... The challenge is engaging many of those fans who attended the GP's to attend domestic Speedway regularly.. Me and my lad were stood with four Aces followers who, like us both, don't bother with the run of the mill league racing... There are definitely enough followers out there to significantly improve its position if the sport can sort itself out and engage them..

Most meetings over the past decade or so have become pretty much "Speedway for the sake of it"... Given so many promoters fund a hobby plenty of what we have now is "Speedway for the sake of it".. Hence, nothing is even considered to not be fit for purpose, therefore nothing radically changes and each season morphs into the last one.. Without these hobbyists though there wouldn't be Speedway, given there doesn't appear to be a long line of others to take over their tracks..

I cannot believe that something like this would ever happen... As it would directly impact the considerably high level of integrity and credibility that UK Speedway continually, and proudly, displays ..

SAGA, Tena, and Steradent will be next...

For me, in the UK, the sport exists to provide a hobby for many of fhe promoters, and an income stream for lads who want to ride a Speedway bike.... No more, nor less, than that... Continuous contrived septets, put randomly together almost 200 times a season, on an ad hoc basis, suggests the sport certainly isnt set up to have its leagues as its major selling point...

The size of the sport in the UK makes it perfect for it to be a feeder league to Poland... I would go as far as to say that UK clubs should form links with them... The BSB deliver a great product using some old heads, some young UK riders, and some young riders from Europe, Japan, and Australasia who are not ready for the higher echelons.. They ensure that the talent they "lose" to MotoGp and WSB as the best riders, organically, move through the levels, get replaced by the next riders in line, due to running several lower classes including youth racing... They don't rely on other competitions to bale them out, nor allow other competitions to impact their fixture schedule... In short. They know their place and cloth is cut accordingly.. The result is a strong competitive format... Given the amount of young Poles who ride Speedway there will be a surplus of reasonable talent that cannot get team places, therefore, the UK should enable them to ride over here as part of their development.. In any business, why wouldn't a smaller entity try and forge great relations with the biggest business in their industry?... UK Speedway is now at a point where it needs significant help, and a conveyer belt of riders from the No1 Speedway nation on earth would certainly help them.. And, at the same time, help Poland with their overall rider development...

As much kudos, for winning either...

It makes a mockery of nothing... There isnt any major prize for winning either league, therefore, getting decent crowds, (who go to see a winning team), through the season, means decent regular income for Poole.. Their operating model works for them, and they know their customer bases requirements... Ipswich had a successful season last year and their crowds were decent, would they have had better crowds if they had delivered fantastic racing but won nothing? Of course they wouldn't...

No TV schedule to work to so back to their old "we'll get there" ways... Bonfire Night is a Thursday so we could have a "Bonfire Bonanza Play Off".. Mind you, Xmas and New Year's Eve's are also on a Thursday...