mikebv

To be fair to any of Speedways landlords, when they see the sport lose tracks/tracks change promoters due to losses made, so consistently, you can see why they may put up restrictions on any lease.. If the sport had a following that delivered circa £50k a night through the turnstiles then rent increases wouldn't be an issue, nor would a change of promoter to "save the team" be ever needed.. Which I would suggest would provide landlords with more confidence in the tenant...

8 teams. 7 riders per team. Equals 56 riders needed.. 8 teams. 6 riders per team. Equals 48 riders needed.. 8 teams. 5 riders per team. Equals 40 riders needed.. Use six or five man teams and you have plenty of riders to come in and replace those missing.. Far better to deliver a credible offering, and do it on nights that can deliver your best crowds, and thus grow the sport as a collective..

It makes total sense to allow tracks to race on the night they feel will deliver their best crowds.. And for an entertainment business you would think Friday would deliver more punters than a Wednesday. (Especially the much needed families with young kids who hopefuly will become adult punters in later years).. Absolute crackers that they hold back the sports growth by preventing teams from riding on nights they want to because it means not enough guests will be available.... A ruling that destroys all the sport's credibility, and therefore reduces crowds significantly, and keeps major sponsors and mainstream media away, prevents tracks from riding on nights that they feel would increase the crowds that follow the sport.. An amazing plan...

So, therefore, the only correct and sensible thing to so is to carry on with such a winning formula isnt it? Keep running seven man teams even though there isnt enough riders, meaning every team can share several riders with someone else in the league below and thus, very little demarcation between the top two leagues.. Thus, zero aspirational attainment to grow... Keep running fixed (restrictive) race nights simply to ensure all the riders have an opportunity to do a seven day stretch and have loads of rides... With whether your fans thinking it is the best night to race on being very much a secondary (and maybe even lower?) consideration.. And keep running two leagues with an ever dwindling number of clubs taking part, thus rendering both pretty much worthless recognition wise in winning.. Even more so when any team who wins can, and invariably will, get help from every other team in the league to attain that "success"... They seem to have unearthed a new adage.. "If it IS broken, dont fix it".

Who could have predicted though that running such operating and business models for so many years would prove to be unsuccessful?

But to be fair to any "second strings/reserve level" riders riding in Sweden, they race against the absolute best in the world, both alongside, and against.. A "bit" easier for that level of rider to score points over here I would think....

Really? A bit of transparency? Imagine the carnage that would cause when "certain teams" get allowed to track a rider who clearly isnt eligible according to the rules... The less we know, the less we can flag up as being clearly wrong... Lift carpet and brush under it, and if all else fails....? "It is in the interest of British Speedway"..

Those that DU could wear 'half n half' kevlars in their two teams' colours when they race against themselves.. Guaranteed to be some close racing with a few dead heats, and the score would remain close all through the meeting... Just what Speedway needs.......

The "top flight"..... Akin to being Snow White's tallest dwarf .....

Adrian Smith will be another in quite a long line who have seen the sport from outside and thought "Wow! What potential".... So therefore, got involved, .. And, like others before him, would have gone into it thinking that all he had to do was highlight to the those already incumbent all the obvious inherent flaws that all can see hold the sport back in the UK... And then simply convince them that there are a great many alternative ways of moving this great sport forwards... However... Like so many others before him he has failed to take into account how insular and short term focused so many within the sport are, with many appearing to be "quite happy" with their lot as they hold 'some power'... Failing to grasp of course that they 'hold power' in a sport that hardly anyone has heard of, never mind cares about.. "Ideas People" are not wanted....

Spot on.. However... Those words "big 6" are as classic a misnomer as ever written.. Stockport County can get as near as damn it in one match what six matches collectively in a week in the Premier League can deliver.. And they are in level five of the Football League structure.. It's a tiny, tiny, sport, yet it seems some still have delusions that what they are running has some major relevance, meaning and impact... Unfortunatley due to the way they run it, it has none of the above..

One of the clear failings of those in charge a decade or so ago was to keep clinging on to the worlds best, paying them big money from the TV deal, putting up admission fees to subsidise their costs, and moving fixtures around ad nauseam to accommodate them.. Then, when fixtures inevitably couldn't always be changed, they loaded their teams with guest replacements across the board.. And then when the cash ran out, the big names steadily cleared off.. The irony being of course that as they paid out big money to these "must have" riders, crowds were annually dropping even when they were there, largely due to the admission increases, the fixture changes and the lack of credibility that so many meetings took place under... Quite simply they should have reigned in their egos and cut their cloth accordingly and paid out less to "lesser" riders who were 100% available and, on the back of this, reduce the admission prices previously raised to either pay the big names and/or cover the missing punters from the previous season.. Should have just "gone it alone" and focused on developing British talent.. More irony is that what we now have racing wise is good, as most riders are similarly matched.. Unfortunately that is in the main because the same riders race each other all the time in both leagues, which restricts race nights to open on, regardless of whether it is the best one for your business.. It needs a "five year plan" maybe?

There is somewhat of a myth re the pricing structure in Poland.. To us, it is "cheap". However, to the average Pole it is pretty much similar to us when measured (pro rata) against earnings.. What they do have, which we dont however, is a "proper sport", rather than a "sports entertainment".. Which therefore, gives fans that tribal feeling of following a team, gives the mainstream media something to cover that means a lot to many of the population, so brings in excellent audiences, and therefore also gives sponsors the opportunity to get their names out to a huge audience nationally... And they also, of course run at "family friendly" weekends.... You can take it as read that the day Zmarzlik dons a Wroclaw body colour to replace an injured Woffy, or Majic pulls on Gorzow colours to replace a missing Zmarzlik, that Polish Speedway will cease to be what it is today, and fans, media and sponsors would desert it in droves... Sweden's crowds were severely impacted by Covid rules so it will be interesting to see how next year goes.. It is clear from watching on TV how very similar their demographic of fan is to the fan found over here which doesnt bode well for their future, just like it sadly doesnt over here.... They do though still have credibility in the way they run their top League so have managed to keep a major sponsor interested which may be vital over the next few years..

Maybe they are doing something similar to some football teams who have gone into the Premier League knowing they will struggle to cope and stay up.. That is. Spend 'some' of the increase in money they will get and bank the rest... That way when they go back down they can still attract better riders in the 2nd tier to gain promotion again.... And that time spend more than they did the first time they went up giving them a better chance to stay in that top tier whilst also having the club on a firm footing financially.. Getting 'carried away' by the huge TV and Sponsorship sums on offer when reaching the top tier has had a negative impact to many football teams who found they spent well above their means and didn't use the money to build for the future.. Maybe Ostrow have a longer term plan than just having the one year at the top so are playing a longer game...?

Laguta Zmarzlik Sayfutdinov Janowski Woffinden Lambert Bewley *RS. Even Geoff might stay online come play off time with those seven...

It is a quick win to keep credibility to a meeting rather destroy it isnt it? No RS's guesting in the top league for each other... Use the next tier downs riders.. You could maybe even do the same for anyone who doesnt DU and only rides in the 2nd tier.. They then are the only ones allowed to guest in tier 1 for riders 2nd in the averages down.. A No1 missing means RR.. One that allows all riders to cover his rides as many times as the manager wants, but to a max of 7 rides each per meeting.. Given the No1's are no longer head and shoulders ahead of the other heat leaders now it is a perfect opportunity to dispense with guests..

It is a bit bizarre isnt it? As you say most riders have two averages so just use them in each league... Using a conversion figure could mean that riders are not as good as their actual figure that they got last year... Or maybe could mean that they are actually better than the figure that they got last year... In essence they could be better, or worse, than themselves... They just don't know it...

Which is why there is suddenly the focus on as many teams as possible putting out riders in the NDL as they can.. Hoping some come through.. Covid restrictions have (and will probably continue to do so), caused any flow from overseas to cease to a trickle, hence home grown talent is required.. And quick!! The big elephant in the room also though is how the U24 League in Poland hits and if they start taking the best young riders over there..

Maybe it is factually correct... Maybe this year they will be doing an "untraditional" one? One where they come up with proper plans to move the sport forward?

Which is why they have set up the U24 league.. The Football Premier U23 League (and the clubs Academies from a very young age upwards), all have lots of players from overseas to ensure that the quality of the Premier League remains as high as can be.. They know that there isnt enough talent in the UK only to keep that level up, hence pay out many millions collectively to attract some of the best young talent from all parts of the globe... Obviously not all make it in the very top League with some ending up playing either in the lower leagues over here, going back "home" and playing, or joining another league elsewhere... Bottom line being the standard remains high so the product remains saleable.. Poland are adopting a similar model to ensure their Leagues all have a flow through of talent (regardless of nationality), in the years to come.. No point building the hugely successful operating and business models that they now have, to just let it all decline due to not being able to replace "the talent" with a similar level of rider..

To give them maybe more of a balance on away tracks? Tracks like Lakeside, Rye House and Eastbourne often seemed to overkill the home small track specialists to the detriment of their away results.. One thing for sure with MPT is that you will get 100%, so any gap, however tiny, will have his bike aimed at it, which will be fun to watch on a tight circuit..

Wasn't Covid restrictions heavily part of the subsequent crowd levels? They seem to still be signing up some of the very best talent considering they are 'struggling', so I presume they feel all should be well again next season?

You would think that these clubs would need to do something similar to each other all the time as their business model must be heavily based on 'local' derbies.. If only one moves then they are very much stand alone.. And if two move that leaves one left alone.. Bottom line though is why would any team "move up" when you can see the vast majority of the same riders each week already in the 2nd tier?

Correct... But what happens in reality is that clubs sign these ridees knowing their other commitments, making sure though that they are available for most of their home matches, with the ones they miss getting covered by a decent guest using the plus 5% rule, so no issues from a team standard perspective.. You seem to find it is the away meetings these riders miss as the promoters of the visiting tracks earn no money that night, and their crowds are then not the ones being affected by their best known riders' non appearance.... You would simply think they would avoid fixture clashes full stop and run the sport properly without actually, pro actively as part of their operating model, planning in credibility destroying guests wouldnt you? Meaning every meeting, that has no missing through injury riders, gets its full complement of riders contracted to those teams and therefore becomes a proper sporting contest... Not that simple though seemingly...

And quite right they are too... It could destroy the sports (in the UK), credibility...