mikebv

Now the Aces promotion machine can really kick into gear and go to town advertising the first Premiership match against... ??????????? Not sure why the four teams so far running haven't put out a fixture list . We know all meetings will be Mondays and Thursdays so just use the blank dates left to run the Ipswich and, maybe, Northampton meetings if they do exist.... Any Mondays and Thursdays blank can be just TBC until all sorted... At the least then fans can start to plan around some dates...

Brady Kurtz earned more than BZ last year in the GP's..... €132,750 to €128,250.. MJJ says in the Speedway Star that the GP's are less about financial return, but more about being able to gain better deals in Poland, as your standing grows, and more sponsors also come on board if you are doing well in the GP's.. Breaking even "needs luck" given riders have to pay all their own costs..

Nobody outside of the few thousand who watch Speedway each week know who he is... And that is the biggest issue the sport has... Most of Manchester won't even know what the NSS is, nor even who the Belle Vue Aces are... And even what Speedway is.. So, sadly, It matters not one jot to crowd levels how well Dan rides the NSS...

I must say I did have a wry smile when he said re riders potentially giving up the sport... "The trouble is that then as time goes on you run out of riders and there won't be enough to sustain a league system in the UK".. Even the odd American could maybe spot the irony of, one of the many, holding down TWO team places in the UK, making such comments..... Difficult to develop riders to keep a league system going when spaces are not available for them to take up...

In the Speedway Star is says that the 8% reduction for missing a season (from a professional league), is to be approved at the end of 2026 season...

My point exactly... Expecting to work six months and earn twelve months money from Speedway in the UK is folly... The competitors, and competitions, do not resonate with enough people, therefore the renumeration package should reflect that low standing... Not be something far in excess of what is affordable...

In a recent Speedway Star,, Mark Lemon said how he didn't want to be telling riders they had to take a pay cut as he understood their challenges.. He is looking at it the wrong way, (like so many ex riders who become promoters do, as they are far too close to the riders).. He should actually be telling them... "You increase the crowds by 500 and you will get more money"... As currently, their presence clearly doesn't engage enough fans to attend...

But if they didn't run a Premiership then every Speedway rider in the world would retire... Or something like that....

But what sized Uber would you order to pick them up when they get released?... You don't want to waste money on a seven seater only to find there are only four being held do you? An UberX would have done for that many, and saved around half the outlay... So many major decisions to be made still... Personally, I would take the risk and send fhe seven seater, and sod the expense... They could always run an "Uber Fund" meeting before fhe season starts, where the riders ride just for expenses to raise money for the extra cost of the bigger taxi... Let's face it, they will have plenty of time to hold this meeting before the start of the season... Maybe the first BH in May would be a good day to hold it?... Or the second one maybe? Or maybe even the one in August!!!!

No... They just leave Speedway... Adrian Smith a case in point. . He had very limited knowledge of Speedway when he became CEO at BV, but was "blown away" by the core, raw product that took place, and saw huge untapped potential... Unfortunately he was less "blown away" by the operating model around it, and several of those who delivered such a model... One of a good number who knew what was needed, but stopped from doing anything, so those "tiny, tiny empires", many of which want so many different things from fhe sport, could keep doing the same thing ad infinitum...

It is a total sh*tshow isnt it?.. But.. Let's be honest.. Anyone who has followed UK Speedway for any decent length of time, are not really surprised in any way shape or form are they?... Just par for the course...

I'm still totally devastated he cost the Colts the title .. No idea when it was, or that he even rode for them... But I am truly devastated nevertheless... In fact, I may never get over it ...😁

There has certainly been plenty of dense fog blinding the way....

The big challenge the UK version of the sport has is to make it relevant... If you run a team sport there has to be a "tribal, them v us, feel" to the competitions.. And the competitions must have something seen to be tangibly worth winning in the eyes of any prospective, (and even actual), followers.. The "War of fhe Roses" at the NSS is a case in point... Two local rivals yet hardly any away fans are in attendance even on a BH Monday which then delivers a flat atmosphere... Many "non regular" BV fans will visit on that day, so a huge opportunity to impress them enough to attend more... Often all it does is reinforce to them that their low attendance level is justified, and what made them visit less frequently iinitially is still the way that the sport is ran.. In short. Nothing has changed to entice them back.. The sport just meanders, doing the same old, same old, and, I presume, believes it will suddenly become popular again.. Give away fans free tickets if needs be to get them there, get a bit of banter and atmosphere going, build some tribal rivalries which can be "milked" ongoing... There is plenty of room in the stadiums to fit 100 or more away supporters I would suggest...

I've watched Speedway in the USA and it's a similar vibe... It is a "night out" and not just a Speedway meeting... Kids races, sidecars, handicap racing, riders stalls with their merchandise, various competitions for the crowds to enter through the night, food and drink served to you in the stands, and a presentation level that keeps you engaged from announcer to roving mike person.. The towns I saw the racing in had a good many banners and boards up around them, including on the interstate, and loads of fhe restaurants, bars and hotels all had posters in their windows advertising the track and the racing... Crowds were "very decent" too, no GP riders in attendance, and, mainly, ex UK riders in their 40's and 50's dominating proceedings.. Speedway can be a great night out... The UK version just needs to find how to show it much more often..

There is definitely a "less is more" feel to UK Speedway due to so much of it being delivered poorly... Less meetings but much better planned, promoted and delivered could help it keep going... Two teams, seven riders per team, (any adhoc seven riders per team), fifteen heats, four laps clutch start, birthday dedications over the PA to octogenarians, etc etc etc, and all to try and win competitions very low on relevance and kudos, simply doesn't engage enough people anymore.. The racing itself though could still be "sold", and even more so if fhe prizes of the competitions engaged the wider public... Watching Speedway racing should feel like you are attending an "event".... Unfortunately, it rarely feels like you are attending one given the "sales pitch" and "race day experience" is so far away from being where both are required to be in 2026...

The riders can be Full Time from April to October and get another job from November to March.. Not enough people pay to watch UK Speedway to have so many riders earning a full years salary... When I ran businesses my payroll budget flexed up if I beat my sales budget, and dropped down if I didn't hit my sales numbers.... I couldn't keep laying out more than the income justified so, many times, I had to pull in the payroll spend by cutting overtime or not replacing leavers.. My team were "disappointed" at times as their earning potential was reduced, as was I as so was mine... Life eh?

The Danish model would give HL's five rides a night, and possibly six .. Conference the sport into two seven team Conferences, where you race your "local teams" twice home and away, and once home and away with the other seven.. That's a total of 36 matches.. Add in a KO Cup and a minimum 38.. At five rides a night that is 190 races per season.. At two points per race (8 point average) it scores 10 points per night for five rides.. At £150 a point that is £1500 x 38 matches, which equates to £57k (FOR SIX MONTHS WORK!).. And, given there would probably be no GP riders, and the No5 in each team would be NDL SS level at best, you would think an established 30 something DU would score well... You don't have to only work from April to October...

Racing around the flat packed beds and the dining tables? Flat pack racing... I like it... Could catch on...

Well it certainly wouldn't work at Edinburgh... Their promoter couldn't work out how or why the city's basketball team got three times the crowds Speedway got...

The Aces will end up advertising prices for the two GP meetings, the PCMM, and Season Tickets all pretty much at the same time.... It must impact at least one of the three, if not two... With, you'd suspect, the GP's being the one least impacted... Crowds could be a real issue this year...

Who collectively spend seven figures a year on riders?

When I went around seven years ago it was £70 for me and my then 15 year old lad... From the moment of entry where riders had their meet and greet merch stalls, and free event posters given away signed by many of them, to the "have your photo with the Monster girls" (He did, I didn't!),, to the pre racing build up, the actual racing itself (didn't have a clue who any of them were), and the entertainment between hests eg the T shirt guns getting fired, the text raffle for fhe bike, right through to the free giveaways as we left, more posters, stickers etc.. Worth every penny... And so much of it would have cost fhe organisers minimal outlay, yet the crowd left with great memories and something tangible to also remember it by... I got an email that night thanking me and my son for attending and asking for feedback, and 12 months later, an email with 10% off tickets but we were going away so couldn't go.. Proper Promotion by Proper Promoters...

I attended one in Manchester a few years ago.. I said at the time that every UK Speedway promoter should go and see how motorbike racing could be presented.. My lad caught a T shirt and I got roped in to entering the text raffle to win a mini MX bike, which was hanging from fhe ceiling, at a fiver a ticket... They must have paid for that bike several times over given how many phones were in use! Music. Lights. Noise. Colour. Excitement... And a hyped up prize too, where it was said they were racing for a £200k first prize... The reality was that this was the total paid out over the five rounds to the riders.. But nothing wrong with a bit of hype that increases your profile and standing...

Brady Kurtz? Mark Lemon taking one for the good of the sport? Woffy at Belle Vue as back up to Bewley in SWC year to show his fitness levels?...