mikebv

Spot on... And all to help try and win competitions hardly anyone values (given the structure of the competitions), over the entertainment level they want to see every time they visit.. What a strategy....

When the penny finally drops (if it ever will), that given the way they decide to run the sport, the entertainment value they provide as a collective throughout the whole season, means 1000% far more to the sport than any individual team gaining play off success ever will... When only 20000 or so watch the sport regularly each week, losing 600/700 is a big blow... And with just a modicum amount of clear leadership, strategy and planning, could be so easily avoided...

Many a blind man foresaw this at the start of the season.. Yet those who run the sport didnt, which probably speaks volumes.. Putting uncompetitive teams in a league doesnt work for anyone, as history has been shown in many a long year.. Clubs will have paid out thousands hammering the Diamonds and will have no points to show for it.. And the Diamonds would have been no attraction when visiting meaning getting a crowd in would be a harder sell.. There should be clear leadership well before a season starts that decides whether a declared team can run within each league, and either contrive a more equal distribution of talent to make them competitive or only allow them to ride at a lower standard... With teams to be declared well in advance, not being allowed to "thrutch around" in bargain basements to put 7 riders together.. Hopefully the Diamonds can be saved and their die hard fans keep access to the sport, but you do suspect that some clubs will already be trying to cherry pick riders that they will replace their own riders with... All to get into those "Oh so important play offs"... Best wishes to anyone who comes in and takes over.... Let's hope someone does.. And this time they dont find out some serious legacy issues like Grant did...

Because every team had picked Bomber, given he had qualified for each of them on appearances...

Fifty thousand you mean?

It is crackers isnt it? Due to the way the leagues are contrived, they have rendered them pretty worthless.. Yet should some Div 2 team not be able to run with Div 1 HL"s there will be fans complaining that they may miss out on the play offs because of it.. There is a reason Poland dont use guests or doubling up, (DU Covid excepted), and that is they know they will destroy what they have if they do.. They also know that they need a constant stream of riders to keep Poland at the top which keeps the media interested, so have Polish "juniors" at six and seven of every team. And also now run an international U24 league to hopefully bring through and develop Brits, Danes, Swedes, Aussies etc so they can fill the overseas riders slots inevitably vacated by the current incumbents as they get older.. Light years in front, however the UK could do a smaller similar operating model but choose not to..

We used to run seven days a week due to the amount of teams running, and there was hardly any clashes with foreign leagues given so few riders rode in them.. German Longtrack and the many thousands that the top riders could earn for an afternoon at one of their massive meetings was more of a threat than any other domestic league.. Now we run seven days to ensure that the riders can earn as much as is possible, either through their teams fixture list, or guesting.... And it also allows promoters to use riders from a higher level to bolster their offer to their punters... All it does though is create more headaches trying to fit in meetings around FIM meetings, meaning more guests, or trying to run meetings with riders missing due to injuries because they have had no time to have them heal, meaning more guests in both leagues for the same missing rider.. One injury can mean four or five meetings become a "Guestfest" due to having so many double up.. Anyhow, it wont change, because if it could, it surely would already have done so, given the negative impact it has on the sport..

Difference is the Polish clubs only ride one day a week but change their days to accommodate TV... Which can only be a good thing as it shows that there is an audience for what they are offering, and delivers a very tidy sum of money indeed (in the several millions), from the TV companies who have to outbid each other for the rights to show the sport.. Whereas in the UK we run seven days a week to accommodate riders' earning potential.. Regardless of the impact to the credibility and future success of the sport that this has... Hence the TV deal over here is "somewhat different"...

I had a look yesterday too, as presumed my memory of them racing together a lot was playing tricks.. And he did get a fair few bonus points... Averaged over 8 at home with them.. Not bad for a first year... With most of those bonus points behind Dan I presume...? Stats eh? I am still surprised how close they were then to how far apart they are today...

I agree re the gardening and other things that go on... The UK just needs to do what the Poles do.. Two minutes is on, and you had better be ready to start in two minutes.. Noticable too over there that when using RR or putting in a TAC sub which means "two on the run" for a rider, there is seldom extra time added like you hear from the track announcers over here... The two mins is on, and you had better be ready to start in two minutes... This means they run meetings in "sections", so have several natural breaks for relaying the track and plenty of time to go to the toilets, bars etc... The start marshall is also linked to the ref too so the riders all start in line and not going off at all angles, and no one can pull back from the tapes when the start marshall moves away like happens over here.. Simple, structured, and organised..

But why need a guest in that scenario? Just have a fit and proper RR facility rather than the poor one they use currently.. All riders can take 7 rides now, so fit a RR facility around that premise.. "But what if another rider gets injured?".. Then the team will struggle and probably get beat... What if football team have used all their subs and two players get injured? Then the team will struggle and probably get beat... Injuries happen in most sports.. Only Speedway (in the UK), contrives ridiculous ways of dealing with it... Up to, and including, allowing a team weakened by injury to actually be strengthened by their league rivals to a higher level than they were running at... In short. You can have a better chance of victory using your rivals riders than your own... Sell that one to major companies and the wider mainstream media...

Indeed... No Rising Stars either.. A good interview with Mark Lemon in this weeks Speedway Star on the very same subject... (The Star in the past few months has been truly of a great standard by the way, but I digress).. There simply is too big a leap from Div 3 to Div 2, as Div 2 is too strong.. And given the talent is in no way shape or form shared around, it is also too uncompetitive... Whether Div 1 should be of a higher standard is a discussion point, but immaterial in relation to giving those Div 3 better performers a route into the higher levels of the sport.. One Div 1 HL, and then the rest made up of two Div 2 standard riders, and three places at the bottom end for NDL level riders would be ideal.. Six rider teams with the No 6 being a true NDL level reserve who can be replaced by other NDL level reserve (but unattached), riders when injured or not capable of riding at a higher level.. There needs to be an organic pathway into Div 1 from Div 3... Therefore Div 2 has to be the stepping stones that facilitate it...

Woffy definitely lost that edge you need... Could have driven a bus through the gap he left then... Didnt move over to block the move one iota...

Can never understand a word they are saying obviously, but they do seem to always get excited most weeks when Dan rides, saying his name often, especially when he is behind.... And to be fair to him, he has probably made more passes than anyone else so far this season, or be very high in the list at worst...

And sometimes on the side of their bikes too...!

But they only fight with any league because they want to cover all seven days of the week using the same riders.. Sweden and Denmark have the same challenges re Poland, but dont plan in seven days of racing as they couldnt make it work either as they too want to use the same riders.. If you want to run Friday, Saturday and Sunday (absolutely the traditional best days for the entertainment sector), then not using Polish contracted riders would seem the logical thing to do if you want to run regularly with credibility, and also be in charge of your own business and destiny as not getting influenced by external factors..

Saw them at the NSS many times racing together and Bickley won his fair share... And when finishing behind Bewley was often on a pace with him.. And I would imagine Bickley averaged a fair few more at the NSS than 6 plus? No doubt who is the overall better rider, but Bickley was certainly not "miles behind" Dan in those days to the extent he is today... I thought at the time they reminded me of Screen and Stonehewer riding together in the Colts, with one being destined for big things, but the other definitely having "something about him"...

Bomber must be gutted to not have been born until 1982, as he would have been a shoe in for one of those slots.....

The system would work well if the Poles had no influence on it... The fact they do is 100% down to the operating model that UK promoters have chosen to follow... In the world of bike racing for example, the BSB and WSB exist and both do well, with the reason being the BSB "know their place" and use a level of rider below the level of WSB... They ensure that their operating model and business model isn't influenced by another, (bigger) player in their field of operation... They know that the top level riders in their version of the sport will organically move on to WSB/MotoGP, so have a strong development plan through their running of lower level championships alongside their main one... Ensuring a solid constant stream of participants, whilst also putting out a good value for money offering every other weekend to their fans... The BSP should do the same, and should actually have done it around 10 years ago when Poland started to influence their business far too much.... The fact they didn't, and still don't, isn't the fault of the Poles...

???? If you want to run a national sporting competition with 3 leagues and expect fans to emotionally buy into it, (and if they dont you are 100% wasting your time, energy, and money).. Of course it does..

No it doesn't ... The sport runs Monday to Sunday using many of the same riders.. No other country wants to have access to riders EVERY single day of the week other than the UK.... Hence, so many meetings end up being ridiculous made up "Guestfests" which does it absolutely no favours whatsoever... And does nothing but destroy its credibility... Enjoy....

And you can add that this country is still the ONLY country who want to have EVERY day/night of the week available to them... Simply. When Poland started to take over the UK's place at the head of the table, then this country, (whilst it still had strength and influence), should have just "gone it alone" and set up without needing to rely on so many overseas riders.. Instead. It bent over, changed race nights to accommodate even more overseas riders, and then felt hard done to when the same riders all said "I'm off", and dropped the UK, leaving the promoters with their only route of either bringing over even more overseas riders, but of a much reduced standard from those who had said "goodbye", and letting pretty much every rider ride for two teams. (Which then renders the leagues somewhat farcical).. Too many promoters want to compete at a level that either their purse strings dont allow, or not having enough riders available at the desired level they want to run at, doesnt allow.. When all that gets aligned, (hope springs eternal), and tracks only open for business on nights their customers want, rather than nights their employees want, then maybe recovery and growth can start to be achieved..

Peterborough not too far away so maybe if both KL and Peterborough are at home on any evening, he could nip forwards and backwards and appear for both? .... The time taken between heats for track grading may just allow it maybe?

The (tens) of thousands who make up the "silent majority" and have walked away... Cardiff will have approx 100% more British Speedway fans in attendance than will colllectively attend all UK meetings on any week.. Passionate fans of the sport who, in many cases, have "given up" watching Mickey Mouse nonsense like Bomber riding for heaven knows how many teams, with those who run the sport allowing it and thinking "that's ok that, makes perfect sense".. (At the current rate of guesting, Bomber is going to get "Rider of the Season" at several clubs' end of season awards nights).. Not enough riders of a certain level? Then have less clubs at that level, or less team places per team, thus creating a surplus of riders to replace injured riders or poor performance.. Make the supply exceed the demand by making changes to your infrastructure.. In other words. "Basic business practice"... Run the sport "properly", thus making the competitions actually worth winning, and who knows, maybe many of the thousands of fans who have walked away, but still love watching the sport either via TV, or in person at "proper events", will come back to domestic Speedway? And who knows also, if the competitions became worth winning, the league's themselves may attract headline sponsors happy to be associated with them..? Something that would be a "hard sell" under the current way of running things I would imagine..

Definition of insanity... British Speedway. Repeat ad Infinitum...