mikebv

The Poles want to nurture his talent by giving him an opportunity to show what he can do.. The UK on the other hand, doesn't... A strange way to develop your sport by allowing "young talent" to sit on the sidelines... And. No doubt. If he develops into a genuine top level rider in Poland, many within British Speedway will then be moaning that the Poles are out of order dictating when and where he can ride...

Similar thoughts...

I thought that "nomadic clubs" from "defunct tracks" had been banned from competing...?

Ironically... "Made up Speedway Teams" are not allowed, even though "Made up Speedway Teams" are an integral part of the operating model...

Slough Sliders.... One for the teenagers there....

Nice wide, more circle than oval, track Dan B should enjoy himself around there. Jensen too...

And some contracts (maybe all?), contain a clause that any injuries sustained in other leagues will result in no payments and/or return of monies paid up front... Was it Nicki P that published his with that clause in it a couple of years ago?

Fnaaaar, Fnaaaar.. Gwop! Gwop!... I will have to take you in hand Mr Gimlet etc etc etc..

And to just be clear, that's in sterling pounds Michael, not PLN...

Well Done Tony... RIP Steve, Belle Vue will be a much poorer place for his passing... Condolences to his family and friends...

Every bit as exciting as F1? I hope not... Good to see money coming into the sport regardless of where it is from.. At least it is not a middle eastern, misogynistic, homophobic, racist state that is doing it, riding roughshod over any FFP rules....... Ohhh. A little bit of politics there, yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen.. Now give it up for Stavros... Let's hope the top league can get a sponsor too... It's been long enough without one..

Belle Vue 1, 2 and 3 Rochdale, Ellesmere Port, Crewe, Long Eaton, Newcastle, Workington, Bradford, Stoke, Exeter, Buxton, Swindon, Reading, Rye House, Milton Keynes, Cradley, Weymouth, Coventry, Leicester, Kings Lynn, Peterborough, Ipswich, Mildenhall, Sheffield, Wolves, Scunthorpe, Poole, Birmingham...

70 million live in GB... Many millions of which live 45 mins or less away from a track... That many dont even know about the "local track",and even the professional sport that takes place there, is simply down to the custodians of the sports' lack of capability in getting their message out there... Maybe ensuring every track has to put £20k into a joined up national marketing scheme would be a better idea than just paying out literally hundreds of thousands per track to riders who few of the local populace would ever have heard of.. Similar to the way they ran meetings to pay for air fences, why not do the same to raise some marketing budget...?

I would suggest it is the biggest issue with regards to getting big sponsorship on board from major companies... Betard would drop Wroclaw like a stone if Majic went guesting for another team, and top scored for them in a win, with that team then subsequently beating Wroclaw by a point to the last play off place.. Something that easily can and does happen over here... The league too will never get major sponsorship given its "Mickey Mouse" reputation... There is a very good reason Poland hasnt followed the UK operating model and its because they have seen the results of it...

A Match Race v Skippy.? Not sure he would be a good benchmark as to their progress though to be honest....

Bless them.... A good job they are not Young Aussie lads.... 1000 mile round trips (and sometimes more) just to practice... And then you have to travel halfway around the globe to earn a living if you find you are good enough to do so...

Because when they diluted the league a couple of seasons ago they have ended up with a fair proportion of "second string/third HL level" riders on quite highly inflated averages due to riding against much weaker opposition at the bottom end of teams?

Just making the numbers up is very important in the modern era given so few "numbers" now exist... You are never winning leagues on crowds of less than 500 or so, so it is simply not worth threatening the clubs' long term future by spending "daft money" doing so.. The sport has seen several "winners" close down due to the costs involved in "winning" being much too far a stretch for them.. The way Speedway has been poorly ran for several decades it is now very much down to its "die hards", so the feeling will be that they will turn up to watch anything put in front of them, (as they have become 'bomb proof' to anything but watching the racing), therefore any track with such a low following are 100% correct in cutting their cloth accordingly.. "Success" wont bring crowds up by 100% to around/over 1000, so putting a team together to win most weeks at home (or at least always in contention to make it entertaining), will be the right plan.. Good luck to them...

His book was a great read... You could certainly see that in those days it really "meant something"... The big sponsorship of Gulf, so many teams involved, admission costs more reflective of what disposable income people had, and stadiums full of punters, many of them there to see true "sporting superstars" not just "speedway superstars".. And riders like Wikie, happy to earn in a night what they could earn in a week in their other "real jobs", and could earn that money four or five times each week, and sometimes more... A much different landscape from today where so many riders of Wilkies level (and much, much lower), are now "fully professional" and septets and meetings get contrived just to provide them with that opportunity, (which obviously then destroys the credibility of the product being served up)... No major sponsor, no major mainstream coverage, no "household names" who resonate across the sporting spectrum, no league title winners getting good financial rewards and publicity for winning, no tracks struggling to fit everyone in... As the saying goes.. "We've never had it so good"...!! NB (Exactly like Poland has today, be interesting to see if they blow it like the UK did)... Wilkie...

Not according to the interview with Ablitt in the Star.. A two year plan was drawn up re team averages it states, hence they had planned in this seasons team and then had to make changes.. However, let's be honest, thinking a plan would last two years is probably a bit naive... Having plans lasting ONE year is an achievement sometimes...

It works both ways... Fans may not want riders back, but riders may want to be "essential" somewhere else the following year as their average could belie their true capabilities.. A rider who is a "seven point man all day long" on a five point average, (or lower), could name his own price I would think... You could also have teams definitely wanting "underperforming" riders back next season if two or three points lower than their "real capability"... If a couple of riders drop out of HL positions to SS and get replaced with two new HL's then a team can be transformed... 10 matches far too few to be realistic and far too easy to manipulate...

And if you are "cut adrift" by June, like usually happens to at least one team, then you can look to the season after and try and lose as many points as you can. Especially away from home so as you can keep your home crowd happy by still winning... You can get plenty or 3-3's too, with your best rider running a third and not having his bonus point impact his average...

Well, partly it probably was... They would have either proposed how the rule was written, or nodded in agreement if someone else had proposed its detail... Maybe it was one of those moments when a Promoter realises he/she/they (it is 2023), could make mileage out of something not spotted by anyone else...? Didn't some ex Promoters run a fair few successful teams using that tactic...

The Aces in Pole Postion then.. "He's one of our own".. "That Robert Lambert, he's one of our own"......

100% it did... However.. Ringers get brought in every week, so no different...