mikebv

Well done Kenny B.... Awesome ride.....

(G) had a bit of a hit and miss day....

And passing Pawlicki is sometimes an 'experience' I would suggest given he does like to pick one or two, (or even three), racing lines to keep you behind him..

Polish Speedway... Heat 11 tremendous.. Riders turning left, turning right and putting everything on the line for their team.. Every point contested...

Some "proper hard racing" on view.. Great to watch..

Must be so frustrating for the riders to have what they do so well, so undermined by the infrastructure that exists... Unless of course they are happy to ride as much as possible for all and sundry and earn the money it brings? As for sponsorship? When I stated watching football my local team was owned by a scrap metal merchant and a car salesman.. The team I follow, (even then regarded as the biggest in the world) was owned by a butcher who had several shops in the Manchester area.. Advertising hoardings around the pitches were of local businesses with a few national ones thrown in.. Then clubs started to bring in CEO's, and Marketing people, and the top league broke away with its own CEO who wasn't affiliated to any team, but whose sole role was to bring revenue into the game by negotiating TV contracts and to bring in huge blue chip companies as sponsors... In short, Football brought in independent "white collar" experts in sports administration and marketing, who got paid by the success they brought in, which was measured in £'s... With many other sports doing exactly the same and moving forward hugely as a result... Speedway still uses well meaning "blue collar" owners to try and attract and negotiate with potential sponsors... However, to be fair, selling the sport with its current operating model, and ageing demographic of what is a very small fanbase, would be a huge challenge for even the best of marketeers.. I think there is a clear reason why Poland would never dream of running the sport like their UK counterparts do and that is simply if they did, the TV coverage would diminish, the major company sponsors would disappear and the fans, brought up on following a "proper team sport" and the tribalism that comes with it, would disappear too... A shame that what can be a tremendously entertaining spectacle is allowed to be undermined by its very own operating model....

Crystal clear isn't it? But not to everyone who runs the sport it would seem... A truly Great sport... Just so poorly delivered and mismanaged...

Incredible to even think that isn't it? But it's 100% true.. When "ignore everything around it and just watch the racing" is a key part of your "marketing", then you may have a fair few fundamental problems to overcome, I would think. ..

Carl Fogarty became the several time WSB Champ and (via Sky), became a truly household name that transcended into mainstream sporting coverage.. The BSB didnt mourn the fact that Carl no longer was a frequent visitor to their races, but instead ploughed their own furrow and ensured that their version of exactly the same sport continued and even flourished.. And over the years, many have cut their teeth at BSB level before moving 'upwards' into the WSB domain.. With the BSB accepting this is the path so many will follow until they fall off that 'World Level' and will then possibly drop back into their competitions as they get older, thus actually adding interest to what they put out.. In short the BSB, "know their place" and dont pretend to be something that they are not, and build their business (very successfully) without "World Stars" but with many "Very Good" bike riders.. If some UK lads go to Poland and subsequently flourish at "World Level" then fair play, as any mainstream publicity that GB success gets in this country can only be good for the domestic sport to feed off the back of.. Just like it did in the 70's..

Great to hear .. But unfortunately there are clearly not enough of them to cover for those fans who still attend, but not regularly enough, and especially those many thousands who have 'lapsed' in the past decade or so, but are still very much followers of Speedway.. They are the biggest single group of followers Speedway has for me.. Several times larger than the die hards who are there every week or even the non regulars who go now and again.. Getting those followers back who rarely or never attend a UK match but will pay plenty to watch FIM meetings over here and abroad, and willingly cough up subscriptions to various TV companies, is fundamental for me if the sport wants to carry on in it's current guise.. However lets be honest when you have to almost "ignore" the infrastructure of what is supposedly a team sport, then you will sadly struggle to ever be on a winner wont you? The positive though is that a club like Leicester is a perfect example for me of a track riding on it's best night to get a crowd, and in a division that can be funded by that crowd level.. Struggling on a Thursday in the top tier, but doing well on a Saturday in the 2nd.. When more potential punters can come to you...

The "raw product" is still brilliant for me... It's just the infrastructure used to put this "raw product" on display that's completely unfit for purpose nonsense, (in the UK), and completely undermines the very thing that should be getting sold to the public.. You can see on Facebook and Twitter pages how many "friends", and "followers", (many of whom are local), that the tracks have.. Often indeed three or four times the actual crowd levels who turn up.. These are the potential audience just waiting to be enticed back, or engaged to turn up more regularly than they do.. Bottom line is that there still is a very large following for the sport out there.. They just dont all attend enough of the time, or even at all... That's down to disillusionment in the way the sport is presented in the majority of cases I would suggest, rather than not loving the spectacle of the racing.. I can almost guarantee that if UK Speedway ended tomorrow, Premier Sports and even Eleven Sports and NSport Poland would get a great many subscriptions from UK fans to get their fix.. "Make it actually mean something and they will come" to paraphrase an old baseball film...

If some tracks are losing money by running it would be a plus!!

100%.. The irony is that for a great many years hours and hours have been spent moving fixtures all over the place to accommodate the riders' own individual ambitions and agendas.. As obviously they cant be in two places at once.. Therefore moving fixtures around a a bunch of semi pro riders' "other job" cant be that much more difficult or time consuming surely? Especially as Mon and Thu are fixed for one league.. Those riders can have Mon and Thu days off in their "other job" and ride Speedway those days.. Employers are very, very flexible these days given the 24/7 demand of the world...

Probably realised a few weeks in that with only six teams any weekly coverage would mean the same ones appearing over and over again.. With the four play off teams then getting shown even more so.. And if wouldnt be beyond the realms of fantasy to suggest that showing the six teams ad Infinitum would considerably have impacted attendances at these tracks to quite a devastating level, as when on TV the crowds seem to dwindle significantly.. And with Monday also being a "fixed night" the crowds at other tracks could be impacted too as those many Speedway fans who attend, but dont really care who wins any UK League match, but do love watching the racing, stay in and watch the TV offering available, rather than attend their own local track.. Maybe it's been a good thing overall having so few matches, and has protected crowd levels somewhat..?

Just a complete coincidence HT I am sure....

Been the obvious way forward for donkeys years... Teams winning leagues and then closing due to paying out far more than they expected the team to earn is simply ludicrous... The pitfalls of their system are obvious and signposted clearly... Therefore they either don't see them due to incapability, or simply revert to type and stick their head in the sand to avoid doing "something different".. It's similar how they will allow "poor" teams to exist, rather than sharing the talent around when it's clear these teams have "no chance", as all it means is that several "top teams" will then end up paying high 50/60+ point money for a good amount of home victories, and a fair few away.. When budgeting for 45 a match appears the usual M.O..... With the irony being the team doing "too well" don't get the crowds to pay for their "success" and face possible closure.. Whilst the team at the bottom keep getting beat so don't get the crowds to even pay for their "failure" and also face possible closure.. But don't forget, every team at the start of the season start off "pretty equal" as the averages say so... Another clear pitfall of the system that they use, year after year, after year, after year etc etc.. (File away with points money as being obvious and signposted clearly)...

Majic...

Be like the boat race.. Same two qualify for the final every year.. Home and Away 20 times each means 40 matches.. Plus a two leg semi and play off final is a total of 44.. Plenty of rides for the lads...

Good call.. With the addition of the IOW back in the 2nd tier. The sport needs their promotional input.. I would dispense with "fixed race nights" and include Leicester on a Saturday in the top tier, (maybe as Kent's replacement?) Still call the leagues Premiership and Championship so it doesnt mention "development league" in the second tier.. Even though many of the riders may be that level.. Bottom line though is the strength of the teams will have to be fair, (we know averages dont work due to be being far too easy to manipulate and the many variables that deliver them) so dont just use them as the sole determinant.. Maybe some "rider control" agreements will be needed as a temporary measure to ensure all genuinely come to the tapes "relatively even"...? Rather than the usual "everyone is equal"... (Apart from the teams that everyone on here says "they've no chance" and those teams then finish 40 to 50 points behind the top teams at the end of the season). And a salary cap might be a useful addition too? Whatever they do, they need to work very closely together.. Winning any league isnt a priority given how the leagues are set up, but having competitive, close Speedway is important to keep the fans interested..

Dont need a roof in Manchester... It never rains...

Maybe just not rearrange and they lose everything but their petrol money.? Especially if some tracks lose money by opening.. It would actually be less of a loss to them.... You will soon see much more of the current "call it off 48 hours in advance" by promoters given they can even save on the travel money by doing so.. Not a great situation to be in is it?

The amount of times Stox run v the amount of Speedway meetings.. The old track at Kirky Lane used to get around 4k ten times or so a year for the Stox.. If stox ran 20+ times a year, I would suggest many less per meeting.. And vice versa.. If Speedway tracks only ran 10 meetings, properly like Stox does, then I would suggest a fair few bigger crowds per meeting than they currently get..

You are though also in a world of litigation that didnt exist many moons ago.. If I was a ref and there was a slightest doubt then it wouldn't start, just to protect my own backside.. Again though.. Track covers would help.. There are serious challenges to overcome without doubt to get racing on, however, the priorities of those who run the racing needs to change.. eg Find a way to make something like track covers work (as is proven already by various tracks globally and also in the UK).. They pay out hundreds and hundreds of thousands, to 90 or so riders, who can prevent a meeting taking place.. Yet dont spend one single penny on something that would actually help racing take place.. As with much of the operating model.. Fudged thinking...

Without going all days of yore... In the past, riders have taken to a track and "turned it over" with the result that the inside became slicker and the "heavy slop", that had been sent out wide by their back wheels, then got removed... We see even in the GP's how a wet track will settle down after five or six races so have as many riders as needed doing 20 to 25 laps on it... One at a time if needs be to ensure health and safety.. (And no one complain that this is an advantage to those doing it).. I remember seeing BV v Berwick in the days of Tatum, Nilsson and Knight on a saturated track and after an hour or so of track work it produced some of the greatest racing I watched around there. With Neil Collins flying past riders due to the racing being down to more about natural ability and not just horsepower. (And it must have been great racing for me to remember it as such amongst the hundreds of other meetings attended).. At this rate, and very soon, there wont be enough tracks left for the riders to decide not to race on.. How ironic would that be?

I wonder if cricket rules were implemented and each club got a point each and no rescheduled match.. (So the riders would lose a meetings earnings).. Would it have been ran?