mikebv

Most meetings over the past decade or so have become pretty much "Speedway for the sake of it"... Given so many promoters fund a hobby plenty of what we have now is "Speedway for the sake of it".. Hence, nothing is even considered to not be fit for purpose, therefore nothing radically changes and each season morphs into the last one.. Without these hobbyists though there wouldn't be Speedway, given there doesn't appear to be a long line of others to take over their tracks..

I cannot believe that something like this would ever happen... As it would directly impact the considerably high level of integrity and credibility that UK Speedway continually, and proudly, displays ..

SAGA, Tena, and Steradent will be next...

For me, in the UK, the sport exists to provide a hobby for many of fhe promoters, and an income stream for lads who want to ride a Speedway bike.... No more, nor less, than that... Continuous contrived septets, put randomly together almost 200 times a season, on an ad hoc basis, suggests the sport certainly isnt set up to have its leagues as its major selling point...

The size of the sport in the UK makes it perfect for it to be a feeder league to Poland... I would go as far as to say that UK clubs should form links with them... The BSB deliver a great product using some old heads, some young UK riders, and some young riders from Europe, Japan, and Australasia who are not ready for the higher echelons.. They ensure that the talent they "lose" to MotoGp and WSB as the best riders, organically, move through the levels, get replaced by the next riders in line, due to running several lower classes including youth racing... They don't rely on other competitions to bale them out, nor allow other competitions to impact their fixture schedule... In short. They know their place and cloth is cut accordingly.. The result is a strong competitive format... Given the amount of young Poles who ride Speedway there will be a surplus of reasonable talent that cannot get team places, therefore, the UK should enable them to ride over here as part of their development.. In any business, why wouldn't a smaller entity try and forge great relations with the biggest business in their industry?... UK Speedway is now at a point where it needs significant help, and a conveyer belt of riders from the No1 Speedway nation on earth would certainly help them.. And, at the same time, help Poland with their overall rider development...

As much kudos, for winning either...

It makes a mockery of nothing... There isnt any major prize for winning either league, therefore, getting decent crowds, (who go to see a winning team), through the season, means decent regular income for Poole.. Their operating model works for them, and they know their customer bases requirements... Ipswich had a successful season last year and their crowds were decent, would they have had better crowds if they had delivered fantastic racing but won nothing? Of course they wouldn't...

No TV schedule to work to so back to their old "we'll get there" ways... Bonfire Night is a Thursday so we could have a "Bonfire Bonanza Play Off".. Mind you, Xmas and New Year's Eve's are also on a Thursday...

Could bring a fair bit of publicity this....

Doyle already replaced with Tungate in Sweden.. They seem to replace riders a lot easier than the UK can..

Use an ad blocker.... Works well.... I presume the ads help pay for the site?

I suppose there was a possibility that with so few matches that the season could end early if meetings were ran regularly... The danger now of course, given so few meetings have happened, is, even with so few meetings to complete the season, the weather gods will intervene and we will get the usual "cram them in" so the play offs can take place.. Although, with no TV schedule to worry about they could run up to November I suppose.... But "cramming in" home meetings can, as we have seen in the past, provide attendance challenges over the piece... Sadly, it is all a bit underwhelming overall given so few meetings isn't it?...

I remember on here, for both signings, (Adam and MJJ), within an hour or so of being announced, some contributors said they were 100% short term deals... They were proved very much correct....

"Doyle's rubbish now".... "Over the hill".... "Ipswich had his best years"... "He's not even as good as Kurtz".... "Oh! And Poole's track is crap"...

Roll on THIS season...

Mark Lemon Sole might be interested?... And Mike Bass(t)..

Strange to see his score at end of a meeting at the NSS.... I don't buy a programme so never keep scores... However, just watching him race he always seems to be in the mix most times, yet ends up with a score that doesn't ever seem to reflect his efforts... I do remember him scoring well in the SON....

Do any of the Social Media outlets advertise car sharing?.... That might encourage more to go and it shares the costs... Four in a car with three passengers giving the driver £20 each may get a few more away fans there.. Sixty quid should pay for the fuel there and back and get the driver in the meeting for nothing...

It just shows the state the sport is in these days.... Almost zero margin for error... And is this a track owned by those who run Leicester?... If so, no rent to pay, yet still being cautious due to all the other costs involved... Does "Absence make the heart grow fonder?".... Meaning such long gaps between meetings result in good crowds due to missing the sport?... Or will it be more "out of sight, out of mind"?, and crowd numbers suffer?... Or, are we now solely down to the die hards only who turn up whenever, and accept whatever is put in front of them?.. If ever a sport needed a huge injection of cash, it is UK Speedway... Who from though? Given its inherent flaws and issues, is the several million dollar question...

Well.... Plenty on here moan about missing regular Speedway (like in the Good Old Days)... So. Pretty soon they will have Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday, at home every week for a whole month...😁

The Fanzone was pretty poor.... I was surprised riders didn't have merch stalls there... I presume the lack of fast food and bar was due to those who had paid to have their units within the stadium?... We didn't bother with the fanzone in the 2nd day... Overall though a cracking weekends racing...

What a sh*tshow of a season.... No wonder the SGB Premiership Speedway League Thread has so many other topics to pad it out...

"Nigel! Hello Nigel!!! What do you think?".... A London Stadium GP would easily deliver 50,000 fans I would think... Tens of thousands from defunct London clubs whose fans still fondly remember the sport.. Admittedly, most will be well over 80, but you live longer these days don't you?... Also, a London GP would transform the sport in the wider UK... Almost overnight, dozens of business people will invest millions into purchasing land and more millions in building tracks... Just like the way sport has grown so much since Cardiff came onto the scene, it will be a huge success... Cardiff, when Wembley was being rebuilt, was the highest focused stadium in the country, hence UK Speedway was able to piggy back off this media focus and grow like it has for the last two decades or so... I can see a Saturday GP at the London Stadium being a huge success for both the series and UK Speedway in particular... Buxton could even run a meeting the next day... Easily 5,000 there I would think given the nation will have suddenly realised the night before that Speedway is still going...

And High Beech wasn't a patch on the Maitland Showground in Australia.... Maybe they should run a GP there to relaunch Aussie Speedway and make the sport a huge success over there?.. I am sure that running a one off meeting there will have a 10,000 crowd attending Mildura through the season each meeting....

I remember when this was all fields...