mikebv

I think the words "downward spiral" are a bit of a misnomer... As it suggests that they still have some way to go to reach rock bottom.. They dont....

Any restaging might cost Scunthorpe a few quid as they may have to turn up with a full team... Ambulance MOT's being cancelled all over the Midlands as I type.....

Can they not start the meeting due to the health and safety issue of the Ambulance not being there...? Or is it because the driver is in Scunthorpe's team.?

I am sure the official ruling will be "it's in the interests of Speedway" to gloss over it....

No doubt we will have another in depth interview linked up on here next season with a Promoter of a closed down track saying how surprised he was that he couldn't get enough people through the doors.... They just don't get it do they?

The best we can hope for is maybe an eight team top league with all riders doubling down.. It is clear the riders need to have (at least) two teams to make it pay as a "professional rider" and with no chance of them becoming "semi pro" anytime soon what we have as the status quo will remain... It clearly doesn't work from any perspective if the sport is to be ever taken seriously from fans and media but it is what it is...

It will be Covid 20 used next year...

If that is his plan... And I say 'if'... Then the rules allow him to do it (rules agreed by all), therefore there is nothing wrong.... I am amazed fans still pay money to this lot who run it, but whilst they do, they deserve everything they get, as, due to their very presence, they condone and endorse what goes on... And also by condoning and endorsing how the sport is ran (in the UK) also pretty much take away their right to complain..

Just another night at the Speedway.... (In the UK)... Roll up! Roll up! Form an orderly queue please...

You might be very well correct.. Bottom line is that not many will really care as long as the two finals are full of good racing... Me for one...

This forum would be a lot more boring without them... Good. Bad. Or Indifferent...

100%... But an unrealistic utopia sadly.. Promoter Egos will prevent an even share of resource so each team is genuinely "equal" and every team's fans will feel they have a chance and worth following.. Riders will want to ride 60 times or so a season like the current system allows, for many five times a night, with guests each night being required being the icing on the cake which fixed nights make available to them... It should have been done a long time ago... Being in charge of your own destiny, and never beholding to other leagues or employees... Sadly, wont ever happen..

I did in the first draft...

Come on... Have a heart... He/She/They* (delete as applicable), obviously clearly has no friends so he makes alter egos up... We are his/her/their* (again delete as applicable) only human engagement that they have... I like him/her/them* (sigh! Again delete as applicable).. NB. This gender identity is a nightmare isnt it? ..

Because they decided that this was the level that the fans wanted and would therefore support with their cash and number of attendance visits.. Clearly it wasnt... With many fans happy with paying less for a lesser standard... Ego's overriding the clear path to be taken for success.. As happens so many times, at so many tracks..

Again, for me, it comes down to the misguided belief that fans will just turn up and watch what the promoter has decided that they want to watch.. In my opinion the old National League with a decent number one is the level that the sport should run with in this country.. A "National League Plus" or a "Championship League Minus" being the perfect structure for the fan base numbers that attend... Promoters' egos might say one thing.. But ultimately, attendance levels suggest another, and that is the barometer that should be used.. Get down to the base level, make it work, and build up from there....

I actually think that through his comments, his business plan was an "honest" one that he believed in... However misguided.. Which showed for me, just how deluded some promoters must be... Reading his thoughts, to at least some of them, it would appear that what they do has some real relevance... When the reality due to how they operate the sport, delivers quite the opposite result... Turkeys really do vote for Xmas it would appear...

Good call to be fair... Dan in particular may freeze given all he has done recently is compete (extremely well), in front of two "full houses" in the Polish play offs.. Riding in front of a combined total of fans at the NSS and Peterborough that wouldnt reach anywhere near the amount of just one leg of the final in Poland must be nerve wracking.. As must riding for a title that will hardly raise a paragraph in the local paper of either team rather than make that nights national TV sporting news... Not to mention also the huge financial bonus of winning that I am sure he and his fellow Aces team will be riding for in the UK, which will dwarf the trifling amount that winning the Polish title brought to him... Hope he can manage to keep the incredible pressure under control...

Reading the honest thoughts of the Eastbourne promoter as to why the season went to pot is quite enlightening if nothing else.. The bottom line, and its fundamental issue is.. Running the sport in such a Mickey Mouse haphazard way renders all leagues worthless... Yet... He thought "bumper crowds" could be expected, presumably due to Covid desperation to watch "their team"... He also couldn't understand why crowds didnt follow long drawn out (and higher priced) double headers.. And found it hard to believe that the Speedway GP live on TV (a proper competition), would mean fans stayed in and watched it rather than watch "live" Speedway.. Incredibly out of touch really isnt it to hold such views? Bottom line is that if the leagues had some kudos, and it was a proper 'team sport' and fans felt that emotional tie in, they would be much more inclined to attend... When you follow (like so many thousands do), "the sport" rather than "their team" then you will always have a very sporadic, but high, number of "take it or leave it" visitors... The play offs once again will demonstrate the perfect examples of the "take it or leave it" visitors, as crowds will be "bumper" yet so many will have hardly attended all season.. Maybe the Promoters (who by these kind of articles obviously dont realise the negative impact they have), will wake up one day and at least try and run it properly, and deliver "decent crowds" each week of the season and not just Play offs and Bank Holidays when amazingly they run meetings on days that many want to, (and more importantly) are available, to watch it.. A great many follow the sport closely, with great passion and enthusiasm, but dont follow their local team with anything like that same level of both positive behaviours... And that is a very sad indictment of those who run the sport.. (In the UK)..

I believe she may be singing at the interval as well. And given the expected Aces lead by then... "We dont need another zero" will be your song of choice..

They haven't done any "going back to the drawing board" for the past two decades when they clearly should have done, (several times), so I think everyone will be very surprised indeed if they did it now... A great sport, ran in a very myopic poor way... (In the UK)..

Lets just hope for two good meetings for the cameras and that no guests end up racing, thus making the flagship domestic final of the sport a contrived joke.. If a heat leader is missing from each team then both run RR... From reading the reports it sounded like all the meetings in the semis were a bit short on the level of entertainment we would want, (only personally watched the Wolves leg of their semi so maybe the reports didnt do the others justice)... Regardless, hopefully we can have two great finals, delivered by two "proper" teams...

To be fair the Polish authorities are not that clever... They hold just one meeting a year and this is held a week after the UK promoters AGM.... At their meeting the Poles list all the UK regulations agreed at that UK AGM for the coming season (well agreed for a week or two of the season at least)... The Poles cover each regulation in turn in microscopic detail... Before ensuring they implement absolutely none of the same ones in their regulations....

They should run it with Guests every week.. Bartek and the rest of the lads could earn so much more... Fans, TV companies and Sponsors would still pay in their respective millions...

Initially the UK had Monday and Thursday as their allowed priority nights.. Due to Poland taking Sunday, (and then subsequently Friday), Sweden Tuesday, and Denmark Wednesday as you say... The UK (due to Poole riding on Wednesday), then took Monday, Wednesday and Thursday as their TWO allotted nights... When they seem to have trouble counting such low numbers correctly, it probably explains why the sport is in the position it is over here... And why we cannot calculate an RS riders' average...