mikebv

Peter Collins et al "thrilling the nation" most Saturday afternoons on one of just three channels brought excitement and patriotic fervour.. And the domestic Speedway fed off the back of it.. (Big time)... Then in the early 80's we stopped the conveyor belt of British talent by training up the Yanks giving them plenty of spaces... Then we trained the Danes and gave them even more spaces.. Then we trained the (fill any nationally in), and we reduced the chances of GB riders even more.. And now we dont even have a Rising Star system in the bridging league that should be the middle one in a three tier system.. We never learn do we? Still.. I am sure whatever two teams win the top two leagues this year will make the national news headlines and earn millions for their success and have major sponsors beating down their door.....

The whole population of the UK, (minus the circa 0.021% of the population who attend now each week) would be my target audience.. Meaning 99.9+ % of an audience to aim at, many of which will live "close" to a track but wont have even heard of the sport.. And you only need 0.1% of the populace to attend to be "very successful" given such a "sea level" low base.. Imagine 70,000 fans per week.. Imagine selling something in heavily populated towns and cities that you have a total monopoly of for a radius of 25 miles or more... Zero competition for what you provide! "Manna from Heaven" to any decent business person I would suggest.. And I sincerely hope Poole win the league this year, get a full page in the "Dorchester Tribune" (or whatever it is called), opposite the local meat raffle results from "The Legion" and the "Sandbanks Dart and Crib League results, and you and the rest of the "in crowd" all go along and enjoy your buffet with the mayor.. Quiche I reckon with a fair selection of various savoury pastries, like those mini pasties and pork pies. Oh. And sausage rolls obviously.. No one else will in the country whether Speedway fans or not, will give a flying "rude word" by the way which pastries make up the buffet, nor will they give a flying "rude word" who won the league, (either of them).... Get yourself along to Cardiff my friend.. A proper experience, which is well marketed, priced competitively, and reflects the glamour, colour, danger and skill of the sport...

Start with running the competitions with credibility, as if you dont, you are just wasting your time and money, as enough prospective new followers of a team sport (and major sponsors and mainstream national media), will simply not be interested. And run those competitions on nights when you get your best crowd in, running when your customers want you to, not when your employees dictate to you they are available... And charge an admission fee that people see as reflecting the actual value for money they get, rather than an admission fee that is set to allow competitors in a tiny minority sport to work six months of the year and have six months off... If all you can afford to remain solvent, and have enough for further growth of your brand and sport is semi pro riders, then only use semi pro riders... In short, have a clear structured development plan for your brand, cut your cloth accordingly when it comes to outlay, and, most importantly, open your business for your customers, not your employees, and listen to what your customers tell you... Plenty more obviously but those are the rudimentary obvious starting points..

Speedway has three main issues which stifle its development and growth.. One. The operating model. Simply it is designed to give the owners something to spend their money on that they enjoy. There is no plan for growth nor development, hence putting out "any adhoc Speedway", regardless of credibility, integrity, or relevance, is the objective, rather than running the sport like other "respected, relevant and succesful" sports' do, with genuine "worth winning" Championships.. Secondly. A complete lack of capability (or maybe desire?) in marketing the sport nationally through a nationally recognised marketing company, instead we have tracks doing "their very best" locally, using well meaning amateurs, (although trying to sell the current operating model would be beyond even the best advertising agencies I would think).. And Thirdly. A lack of a consistently successful national team with which to live off the coat tails of. Ten to Fifteen years from now of GB winning individual and team events, including Test Matches, would paint a very different picture for the sport domestically than it does today. (Yet in the 2nd Div we dont even have Rising Stars which tells us all we need to know about how important growth and development of GB riders is to some).. The whole thing is fragmented and disjointed, and unless it every comes together under one voice leadership then it is never going to be successful.. Succesful sports have successful leaders in charge, making tough decisions for the greater good. Leaders who have contacts in the wider media, marketing and business world.. Should Speedway ever allow itself to have the same, then it has a chance.. If it chooses to persist in following its narrow minded, myopic operating model and business plan then it wont..

The final might not be ran till the next Jubilee...

Aren't those fixtures called "The Premiership" and "The Championship"?

He will be the first sportsman in history who finishes bottom and second botton in two leagues who also qualifies for winners and runners up medals in the same competitions... "How did you do this year Bomber?".. "Finished bottom".... "And first"... "And second".... "And third... "And fourth, and fifth and sixth as well"..

Truly baffles me Dean.. No point having teams in existence if you dont create rivalry.. I remember fondly the early to mid nineties when BV raced against Wolves.. A few hundred away fans at every meeting.. And plenty of (good natured) abuse between both sets of fans.. Add in "Sammy" swiping "Young Joseph's" leg away as they entered turn 3 and you had uproar.. Two things I could guarantee.. One. Both promotions would have loved looking at the fixture list and seeing as many of these matches planned in as was possible.. And two? Anyone visiting for the first time, or maybe had just started going a few times, would definitely have been back the week later.. Noisy, tribal followings... It is what makes a team sport successful, and delivers growth.. UK Speedway seems to be ran like a Group of Gentlemens Clubs with those who own them quite happy to have "somewhere to go" rather than worry about ever expanding...

I suppose if the Poles relax the rules you could get those 3rd/4th/5th level riders (who make up the majority of places in teams), being able to ride "all over" again to compensate... France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden could all "chip in" to dilute the impact of DU'ing being reduced? One league in the UK, Poland, and three or four of the above would deliver a fair few rides and plenty of money I would think.. Fixed nights would come into their own then too, as Div 1 over here would facilitate a rider to ride everywhere apart from Sweden on a Thursday.. Div 2 would have issues though as it would be their HL's now plying their trade around Europe again..

The point being made was that it "doesnt look good" when you see opposition managers laughing and joking with the opposition during a meeting,.. Regardless of the standard of the manager it shouldnt happen.. Riders too often do it every night and all it can do is give anyone watching the impression that "it mustn't really matter this"... Poland keeping teams (and fans), apart gives off the right message that "this means something".... Even both teams stood together watching from the same part of the pits is something that should change.. UK Speedway definitely suffers from not having "rivalries" which stir the emotions and therefore encourages attendance.. Watching team members and managers all getting on together during a meeting wont ever engender those rivalries.. I do understand though that for riders it might be a tad confusing at any given moment who is your team mate and who is your rival given it changes so often.. As an example. Splitting them in the pits would have many wondering "can I stand and speak with Bomber tonight or not, I couldn't last night, but could the night before, and I am pretty sure I can tomorrow?"

To be fair.. If there isnt a prospect of racing next season then riders would be daft increasing averages and possibly making themselves unemployed... Not their fault that such an inherently subjective, flawed and manipulative system is used to "make everyone equal".. Therefore. They need to look after themselves..

As I say, Discovery would need to have deep pockets.. If they are serious on their promises to make Speedway a bigger global brand, then a resurgence in the UK would be quite fundamental to it happening I would think.. Every place a Polish riding star takes is one less DU if nothing else... Losing the "3 club" rule will also free up a fair few 2nd and 3rd level riders too, which again will reduce the spaces to DU... As you say, attendances won't pay the increases, but Discovery might... And then maybe attendances will rise significantly off the back of it...?

Still continues agreed, but with an ever dwindling number of clubs almost annually... Eventually that can only end one way cant it? And "stiil continues" is sadly more towards to "still exists" than "still prospers"... Which should be the true measure of any entity... If the Polish riding superstars are allowed back that would provide more riders, and also generate a fair amount of interest.. Hopefully Discovery's deep pockets can help bankroll that level of rider back..

I am sure Bomber would give it a try.. And... You never know, maybe an air fence panel or three will need fixing, meaning he could possibly get there in time to ride in a few of the last five races or so... Tac Sub, Heats 13 and 15.... Be like Phil Collins on Live Aid Day.... Edit. (Not the Heathens' Phil Collins, the "other" one)...

And to be fair to even the most compliant and supportive of councils.. Seeing clubs close each season due to a lack of support for the sport can not fail to start to seep into their judgement making (maybe even getting mentioned by developers as persuasive leverage)... And a chance to get £60k a month tax, ad Infinitum, from 300 houses, not to mention several million pounds up front, most be extremely tempting.. Even more so when a recession bites and cuts to services are an inevitable consequence.. An elected representative has a choice to provide services to over several hundred thousand people, or keep providing an evening out for much less than just a couple of thousand of them.. If I was putting myself up for a public vote at election time, I know what I would do...

Has to be... . Given that structure has worked so brilliantly well to get the sport in the UK to where it is today..

Of course it is... It is total nonsense isnt it? But fans of the sport who attend each week, and collude with promoters pretending that it a real team sport, cannot really have it both ways... Great sport to watch but best not to take it seriously from a competitive team sport angle in the UK.. Just enjoy, what can be, a great spectacle and ignore the infrastructure around it... The crowd numbers at Oxford , after their long absence, certainly seems to suggest that they are happy with what they are watching, and having a track with numbers like that can only be good for the sport..

That particular ship sailed a long, long time ago....

But also suffered when success wasnt being delivered... Big crowds suddenly became "average" when the trophies were not guaranteed... They are a club that, more than most, seem to do very well at the gate when success is happening, but lose out more than most pro rata when it doesnt.. I presume choosing to drop down into Div 2 was down to not getting enough punters in to make Div 1 deliver what they wanted? If they had got 2000 a week I would have thought that this would have been more than enough to stay in the top flight..

Councils benefit hugely by house building through "new" council tax being paid.. Therefore they wouldnt want to put too many "difficult" demands on developers.. So asking any developer to stump up a few million to get planning permission isnt likely to happen.. And if the developer has zero intentions of carrying out any promises from the outset then why would they offer up some cash that they dont need to...? The bottom line is that any council will be very pleased to have 300 or more Band D and above houses paying them well over half a million a year for decades... You can do lots of good with this money, can get plenty of funding with that guaranteed income behind you... And some developer spending a few million on, (as examples I have come across when being involved in new store builds), re routing congested roads, paying for traffic calming measures, building a new roundabout somewhere within the borough to improve traffic flow, or sponsoring some local public amenities... In short someone improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people over decades... Will always find themselves out weighing the arguments of a few hundred protesters... And come election time, the councillors will all be happy to jump on the positive message bandwagon...

Of course, if two teams in different leagues didnt share riders, then there is no debate to be had.. As they do, you will always have winners and losers from any situation like this.. Sharing riders will always kick out such things on the odd occasion.. Same with Poland. If resting up on a Thursday means being ok for Saturday or Sunday then that is perfectly reasonable from a perspective of someone who is self employed.. And in the scenario being discussed.. Someone could pull out of a Div 1 match on a Monday and still be able to "give it a go" at Plymouth on the Tuesday... I am sure the integrity of both riders in this situation was absolute, and it was just "one of those things" that can happen when teams share employees...

Have you not been watching much British Speedway LC? I would suggest it is a very good crowd... Poole get 1300-1500 or so dont they I seem to remember Steve S mentioning not too long ago.. Which, given they are Div 2 is no mean figure.. When they were in Div 1 they did get over 2000 quite regularly when Ward and Holder rode there didnt they? However, they were not getting those crowds when they decided to drop down I would imagine, hence the decision taken to drop... Any crowd over 1500 is good for British Speedway nowadays, and at £20 a pop brings in circa £30k which means you should be able to pay two meetings out of it and cover your staging costs I would think, with maybe a bit left over.. Even when HMRC is paid their dues...

In front of one man and his dog... Only add on for me tonight was they missed an opportunity to get a crowd in next week.. "Bring a friend, bring a neighbour" is not really much of a marketing plan, but fair play to the presenter for giving it a go.... Half price tickets tonight, or maybe better, even BOGOFs, would have brought a fair few back who simply wont be there next week as many there tonight will watch it on TV... Been a better advert for the sport and the Aces brand too, and maintained momentum crowd wise, which sadly will be lost next week... When you get the feel good WOW factor... You milk it for all it is worth...

Enjoyed that tonight... Some cracking racing from both teams.. No guests either... (Not sure if that is allowed in the regulations though).. Connor Mountain and Tom Brennan both deserved more for their efforts, but great to see young British lads mixing it with GP stars.. Plenty of sponsors on the centre green too, and that ball game thingy is good to keep the kids involved, so the Aces look like they are giving something a go off track too... Biggest crowd of the year at the NSS for the Premiership? Maybe 1800/1900? No guests, decent crowd, full on cracking racing from both sets of riders, regardless of the scoreline, interaction with the fans, and all done an dusted by 915pm... When done this well, what's not to like about British Speedway? It shows it can be done...

Glad it isnt as wouldnt have gone... Looking forward to this tonight... Should get a very decent crowd...