mikebv

The sport is in such a position that it needs to be on one of the five main channels... That would generate interest levels that would see growth quickly... And, given the low numbers at most tracks, substantial growth with just a few hundred more attending regularly... TNT/Eurosport are very much the lesser of the satellite companies anyway...

How many casual newcomers were watching last night? On a stream only Speedway fans would know existed..? And any newbies in the stadium would have been impressed I am sure by the crowd size and feel good factor of winning, (if a Poole fan).. Years ago, even at Hyde Rd, many races were often spread out and "done" by the end of lap one, yet the large crowds, with plenty of away fans in attendance, kept the atmosphere at a level where going back the next week was almost a given... Similar racing now takes place in front of hundreds, not thousands, with almost no away fans, which is why the atmosphere at tracks doesn't make it a given you will return the next meeting.... Edit... And I would suggest the many thousands of lapsed fans who follow the sport closely but don't attend their local track regularly are the target market that should be prioritised in getting to attend .. Listening to them and fixing the reasons why they no longer attend would deliver a far greater return than hoping casual newcomers become regulars...

To be fair,... Poole have got several "big" meetings in just a few weeks given the finals they are in, and probably still had as least as many as Leicester did at their final leg... And it was the first leg, not the second leg with your team already 4 points ahead... And they rarely go 27 months, never mind 27 years, without winning....

Speedway has always been about "winning at home" to maintain crowd levels. So much so, you can even bring in riders on higher averages at home to replace any of your missing riders.... And, teams will regularly be happy to ride away on nights their best riders are missing as it doesn't impact their home income... You get very little financial reward, nor any major national publicity, for winning any UK Speedway competition, therefore, having a winning team at home, and hopefully turning a profit by doing so, is the No1 aim for the promoters. And being able to "filli your programme in" after turn two, lap one, is something that has happened the majority of time in the thousands and thousands of races I have watched in the past five decades...

And in the semi final of the 2nd tier's flagship tournament, Glasgow turned up with THREE guests... I would suggest that this is far more brand damaging to the sport than any gate and go racing ... And Bomber got just four points that evening, not winning any races.... The track wasn't very conducive to passing that night I presume?

It wasn't a "televised fixture" though was it? It was streamed by a streaming service that pretty much only Speedway fans know about... Non Speedway fans watching would be as rare as hens teeth... A crap meeting, or a great meeting, neither would "destroy" or "save" Speedway, as only Speedway fans, who will have seen thousands of gate and go races at their own tracks, or on TV, will be watching... Poole won, (again), and that seems to be the main problem for many non Poole followers... However. Their fans went home happy, so their promotion did their jobs well... It is their business to run how they see fit to bring the punters in... And, given their crowd numbers appear as good as any in the country, they seem to do it pretty well..

But.... If the Tigers had won, would it have been a good meeting? And? Would the many fans, not just Glasgow fans, moaning about the racing still come on and say they were disappointed? Or.. Would Speedway have been the winner? So many have said that they never have seen a good meeting from Poole, yet paid for a stream covering a meeting from Poole....?

Surely the biggest objective for every promoter is to get as many punters in to their track as is possible...? To do that, (like in any business), you need to know what your punters want.... Poole seem to know more than most what generates good crowds so not sure why they get so much grief... I look forward to the 2nd leg where I can watch 15 heats of Poole gating and the Tigers flying around them, bend four, lap four... They will have the title wrapped up by heat ten though if fhey do that, so may need to go a bit easy in some heats to keep the scoreline close, so those watching at home feel that they were entertained enough.........

I presume the crowd tonight is "very good"?? If so, it surely means that the "paying public" there appear happy....?

The Poole Corinthian Pirates...

The majority of races are over by the end of the back straight, lap one, at all tracks... And has been the same since 1969 when I started watching.... "But! But! But! It's effing Poole!!!!!"

Winning in a pro sports is a bizzare perspective? Maybe they should do something like ice skating and have judges award points for "entertainment" .. The most entertaining team wins....

Yet they get some of the biggest crowds in the sport and are one of the few profitable ones... Strange...

Its a final.... Why are so many bothered about the entertainment level? In pro sports, winning is the ONLY thing... It's hard enough to take UK Speedway seriously so fans should at least appreciate it when professionals want to give themselves the biggest chance to win... Not watching as not bothered who wins, however reading the comments if Glasgow gate then they could win... Would that be good, even though the racing would still be poor?

Bends one and two, (and three), first lap, don't count....

I don't remember too many edge of your seat moments from Foxhall in either of the play off matches. ... Or indeed, any time i have attended or watched racing from there on TV.... Lots of fans seem to have a negative opinion on Poole's track in particular... I presume therefore that their tracks must deliver "out of this world" racing consistently which brings in the crowd numbers that Poole generate......

Arv dun me dough.. T'riffic....

Brady K, lEmil, Dan B, Jason D, Bomber.

For Poole, more than probably anyone else, winning home meetings, and reaching finals, keeps their very good crowd levels up.... They have a "winning formula" by what they do, and, let's face it, no one but Speedway fans will be interested in the result, so even a fantastic meeting will only be watched by those in the stadium and the stream (if there is one?).. Having 15 world class races every week, but Poole getting beat, won't keep the punters coming to the track in their current numbers, therefore the Poole promotion, wisely, ensure the surface is prepped for their riders to have the most chance of bringing victory... If entertaining racing happens as well as the victory then that is a bonus for them I would think.. The Poole match could be all "from the gate" and the Glasgow one have "passing galore".. If Poole win overall their promoters and fans will, quite rightly, not be bothered one iota how they won it, and "winning" always beats "entertainment" in pro sports...

The team structure therefore is the issue that needs resolving... Last year, the top tier could have ran with six man teams and made seven third heat leader level riders available to replace missing riders... Two "top riders", two second strings, and two reserves (without RS's), could be the model to follow... Most third HL's either ride in Poland/Sweden or DU (or both), so it wouldn't be like you are expecting them to buy kit in the off chance they get a place... Some argue that "what happens if a rider gets injured and a team is one rider down?"... The counter argument is, how many times does that actually happen? Less than 5% of meetings? And a fit for purpose RR/IRR facility would also mean you wouldn't need guests, or be seriously disadvantaged by losing a rider during the meeting.. "Guests were around when Speedway was popular" is something some use as a reason for keeping them or "there is no other way", and in the old 13 heat formula, when you had No1's running 10 and 11 point averages, regularly scoring between 25-30% of a teams points, then you can understand why that scoring needed replacing.. Nowadays there is less reliance on the No1 to score such a high percentage of points per match.. Any sport that wants to be taken seriously needs credibility, and also needs jeopardy... UK Speedway seems to always want to remove jeopardy by making up rules to try and negate it... The recent final had a Birmingham rider in it, to replace a second string, when a fit for purpose RR facility would have meant it not required... eg Danny King takes two rides, Dan T takes two rides.. The same last year with NKI riding for the Aces to replace a second string... Both finals pretty much being ignored by the national media, with minimum recognition from a wider public base, outside of the local community of the winners.. The sport is crying out for mainstream media acceptance and coverage, as this would send it skywards overnight in relation to where it is now.. Just an extra 500 at some tracks would double the attendances, and mainstream media coverage would surely deliver that...? And mainstream media coverage would bring in much bigger sponsors from outside the sport... To get that they have to find à way to stop using "Ahh, you see, this is Speedway" as their reason for having rules that impact the sports' credibility and start to see the sport as it should be.... An exciting, high octane, adrenaline fuelled sport, ran by and for professionals, with credibility, jeopardy, consequence and integrity... It has so much going for it, with the racing as good as ever for me, so getting it right "off track" has to be the overriding priority ..

Social Media can massively mentally impact these kids today... Resilience and a "who gives a f**k what you say?" attitude are in much shorter supply these days given the kids are exposed to non stop feedback and, sometimes, trolling... Getting things "too easy" in life can also dilute ambition and sacrifice, which can also prevent growth, desire, and development... Any semi decent kid seems to be the "next Woffy" according to too many, with the reality being that to get to World Class level, by the age of 18 to 20 you are usually beating World Class riders if not regularly, then at least more than occasionally... It sometimes appears that any 16 year old kid that can beat riders of the same, or similar age, gets expectations well above what his level truly will be... Which can only put unrequired pressure on... Joe T in the play off final is a clear example of pushing these lads into top tier team places that they are not ready for, and can do nothing for his confidence, however, hopefully he will put it into context and continue to show gradual improvement to reach a decent level in the sport...

The part re guestfests and DU's, I 100% agree... And "one league" would bring variety... Unfortunately fans of teams used to watching Kurtz, Emil, Bewley, Holder, Fricke, Doyle etc, and paying around twenty five quid to do so, are going to have to see a significant reduction in admission costs to watch some of the riders mentioned, (if the riders who ride in Poland are not there).. And even if they do sign these riders up, they will miss so many meetings every week on Fridays and Saturdays, that it would make the league a complete farce... The top two division clubs seem to average between 500 to 1500 or so, and their rents won't be dropping, nor will their expectations of their riders to spend quite frankly ludicrous sums to compete, therefore admission costs cannot drop too much I would say... And any reduction in admission wouldn't see enough increase in attendances I would suggest to cover all the costs, given the dilution of the riders on show... A true conundrum for people who have demonstrated many times that they may not have the skill set required to sort out the issues...

It would be a challenge to get enough people to lay out circa £25 to watch some of those riders... No disrespect to them, but the admission fee would need to be around £15 to watch them ride and that wouldn't cover the "best riders" fees... My lad plays semi pro football as an amateur, (£10 to watch), and it would be like the league was set up to allow him to play against Mo Salah.... That tenner to get in wouldn't pay Mo's wages....

A completely different time, sadly... Most of those riders had jobs, and rode for excitement, and the "good money" they could earn for two or three meetings a week.... Lads in mundane jobs by day could be "heroes" in the evening, and go home with more than a weeks worth of money from their usual job for just one meeting.. And admission costs made a massively lower dent in the fans' disposable income than happens today... Plus, many ran Friday and Saturdays rather than Mondays and Thursdays... Now it is "two top bikes" minimum, sign written vans, hotel costs, flight costs, tuner costs, and a travel schedule that Jet2 would go dizzy with... 100's rocked up to the many training schools across the country, some sharing bikes they purchased together,(old several owners kit so didn't cost the earth), some riding old bikes fhe tracks had, hence there was a conveyer belt of potential talent, and, most riders only had one team so they didn't block progression like the majority do now by having two teams each, which erodes places for others... The Poles have "dozens" of riders who organically travel through a development structure as they know that to keep their sponsors, fans and TV happy, it is important to have "new talent" coming through regularly... They don't want to end up like the UK with guestfests and doubling up and down rife, as that will end the same way for them that is has for the UK... One league unfortunately looks unachievable if you look at the numbers of riders, unless another 20 or so want to ride over here, and given Poland ride Friday, Saturday and Sunday, (with the odd Thursday thrown in for good measure), getting another 20 would be very difficult indeed, unless like some tracks have done, you sign riders who you know will miss quite a few matches, and just accept guestfests as being the only way the sport can be ran over here... If you don't get more riders to come over, and run with one league, then many riders at six and seven (if they stay with seven per team), would be well out of their depth I would think... I personally think having a "Super League" with six, six rider teams, could maybe work, using only riders of say 4.5 points and above averages, and then they also run a 2nd tier team alongside all other teams, with three or so of their top tier riders, plus second tier level lads making up the rest of the tier two team... It will keep the DU'ing for many riders that they say they need, and still have a top tier at a significantly higher level to sell the sport to TV and its viewers...

Scott "Well ahead of his time" Nicholls had the answer... Rock, Paper, Scissors... Sorted.....