mikebv

I believe ''someone' said recently Kenny Bjerre wasn't at heat leader level in the UK any more? Hope that person is watching him tonight being a heat leader in the top league in Poland..

I have a suspicion the sponsorship he brings helps.... Good meeting this....

What a ride from Shamek 1-5 to a 3-3.... Superb.....

130% more to watch the same fourteen riders? As you say, it must be blinding racing at Kent...

Some common sense ideas.. So much could be done.. Flood secondary schools with free tickets, do the same with colleges and uni's... Lads and Lasses doing mechanical courses, give them some hands on experience at the track.. Dont bother with 'free when accompanied by an adult' rubbish, teenage kids hang out in packs, let them all in for nothing.. They are not there now in any amount of numbers, so absolutely nothing at all to lose, even if ultimately no gain.. And you may sell some more teenage/18+ fodder, burgers, pop, booze etc. So those who own their food and drink outlets would benefit from the extra footfall if nothing else..

Whilst I am sure the racing matters, for me the lack of any atmosphere generated by having so few fans st Speedway meetings is what's killing it quicker. Perceived poor racing in front of a big crowd always seems so much better, and vice versa, great Speedway comes across as much less than it should when played out in front of 'one man and his dog'.. Hardly any away fans, and a home fanbase quieter than a Library, means a very flat atmosphere, and ultimately suggests the meeting isn't one that has any value and therefore not worth your continued patronage.. Unfortunately poor crowds are a self fulfilling prophecy... As why should you attend when hardly anyone else does? And slowly and inexorably the rot sets in.. Maybe collectively the sport should agree away fans get some special deals to encourage their attendance..? Fuel costs now are far different from 20 years or so ago meaning an away trip can be an expensive night out.. To help offset these costs, maybe charging just a fiver entrance to away fans would be worth it? Tickets they have to purchase from their home track direct on match nights in person, so as not to allow any 'non away fans' to jump on to the offer by post or via websites.. "Buy a ticket to tonight's meeting and get in to the next away match for a fiver"! Hardly any away fans go now so selling tickets for a fiver wouldn't do too much damage to profits I would suggest, and it may just deliver a better atmosphere... Which may also deliver a more positive self fulfilling prophecy?

And will he be riding in the SON? Would Rosco pick a rider not competing at any where near the highest level when many other Brits are in the top league? Also he wouldn't be as 'match fit' as less meetings will have been ridden..

With Sky's money paying for so many of them... Over £100k per team given out for a long, long time... Now, no Sky money therefore a lot less 'top quality' riders.. Time for some clear re-alignment and re-avaluation when it comes to salaries in the UK, and it looks like it is starting.. Maybe it will need several more steps back to eventually start to go forwards..?

Same thoughts struck me... I have a fairly decent salary but not sure I could afford (or justify) £100+ per month for four Speedway meetings out of my disposable income, with the inevitable teenage requests for food and drink on top! There are so many other costs these days that have to come first.. Kids aged 13 - 16 are conspicuous by their absence at a great many tracks, maybe charging for them to get in also dissuades parents to attend who otherwise might go if their teenagers got in for free? Use free admission for their teenage kids as a 'loss leader', as let's be honest you don't see many teenagers now at many tracks so hardly a huge income loss... Do those who let teenagers in for free now I wonder see a reasonable amount of them there? Someone needs to replace the ageing demographic over the next ten years or so..

Reading the Speedway Star, and looking at the admission costs listed for each track, I thought I would see what the cost would be for me and my 15 year old lad to attend each circuit.. These teenage years (last year at school) seems to be the ones when 'kids' drift away from the sport, just at the time you would want to keep them interested as they are only one small step away from being potential paying customers themselves.. With the SON being just £22.50 for me and my lad to get in, it certainly puts into perspective some of the admission charges being asked for, and may also give some steer as to why terraces are hardly full to bursting. Some real disparate numbers for 'the same product'... Fair play to Buster, his three teams are by some way the lowest charging in the Premiership.. £27 - Glasgow, Edinburgh (Booked Online pre match day it's £25 at Edinburgh) £25 - Poole, Belle Vue, Wolverhampton, £23 - Swindon, Kent £22 - Redcar, £21.50 - Birmingham £21 - Scunthorpe, Somerset £20 - Newcastle £19 - Cradley £18 - Kings Lynn, Ipswich, Peterborough, Plymouth, Eastbourne £17 - Berwick £16 - Sheffield £15 - Leicester £13 - Isle Of Wight, Mildenhall £12 - Leicester Cubs £10 - Belle Vue Colts..

I would suggest the 'natural level' of the attendances you can get determines what league you race in rather than the standard of riders in view... Somerset and Leicester for example, are for me traditional 2nd tier teams... Both have recently had a dalliance with the top league and decided that they couldn't justify paying out for a higher level of rider as their crowds didnt increase sufficiently (or maybe even at all), to cover their costs.. Every team has its 'natural level' and it is quite pertinent that teams always need their 'arms twisting' to come up, such is the risk their crowds won't increase, and their lack of belief and confidence that increased crowds will happen... I actually think the Aces for example would still get 1300 - 1600 or so on a Satuday night charging circa £15, riding at a '2nd tier' level as that is their 'natural crowd' level.. Clubs such as Poole, KL, Swindon, and Wolverhampton are all for me similar to the Aces in that they will get 'the best crowds in Britain' regardless of whether 'World Class' talent is on show or not, (as long as they are allowed to ride on any night that is best for them)... Hence the top tier is the 'natural position' of these teams... Most teams who average 800 - 1000 are therefore naturally 2nd tier, and regardless of who gets brought in, their crowds will pretty much stay that way I reckon..

There did need to be some 'balancing' and it looks like Buster is the man who has taken it on himself to do it... Read Craig's comments in the SS and understand his view completely... However, bottom line is, you work for someone under their terms and conditions.... Or you don't... I am sure Craig will get a team place given the nature of the sport.. And who knows, maybe some team in a difficult position will offer him even more money than he would have got at PBoro....?

£16 in 2008 is worth just under £22 now so sitting down at the Aces is still more. However charging just under £22 at each top division track as your base price would be a disaster I would think.. I think the admission price surge of the late noughties though were a reflection of the rising costs that the 'superstars' started to incur as they started to ride around Europe virtually every night, and the fact that crowds were starting to drop significantly, so inflation busting rises were being pinged in to balance the books.. Around 2010 I think the sport reached that tipping point where promotions finally realised (at EL level) that they couldn't keep squeezing more out of an ever decreasing number of people year on year, and slowed up the increases to try and keep the fan base they still had from leaving too.. This was the start of the 'exodus' I would say of the very top riders as EL promoters couldn't justify having three top heat leaders per team as the crowds wouldn't cover the cost of doing so... The PL just seemed to jump onto the coat tails of the EL prices and kept their admission charges a pound or two below in the main, even though they had no 'superstars' to pay for which always surprised me, especially given how the 2nd tier mainly had EL level second strings at No1... Presume it was the Sky Money that heavily subsidised the EL?

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.. I remember being in a crowd once, a crowd full of anticipation to see a new track, (maybe you were there too?), and coming away thinking "Speedway! No matter how many times you give it another go, it will always be a Mickey Mouse amateur shambles"... At least this time a couple of thousand fans (including Aces supporters again no doubt), won't have yet another reason to feel so peed off with the way the Sport is ran once more... And no need for humble pie either, as with any Speedway meeting, the track may have been absolutely perfect on the day but the heavens might have opened so no meeting would have taken place anyway... The season finishes many months from now, so better to wait and do something properly, than rush things through half arsed and spectacularly fail... Especially when you are in Swindons unique position where they will want to be seen as ultra professional in the eyes of the public and local officials, given the challenges they are facing with their new home.. A brand damaging opening night farce could have been a disaster that they just may have struggled to recover from..

Leicester v Somersets crowd on a Saturday night would be worth a review I would suggest. . Last year it would have had the then World Champ turn up on a Monday night.. This year it won't... It will be interesting to see if having the World Champ there on a Monday brought in many more than 14 'lesser riders' will on a Saturday.... The Aces crowds didnt seem to have been adversely affected by having no Zagar last year, a then top eight GP rider...

No riders missing but fans missing.. Already one fan on Facebook needing a refund as he has changed his working nights to a Wednesday as he believed Speedway is now ran on Monday and Thursday's.. It didn't even last a week...

No nights will ever be right given the nonsense that pervades as its operating model.. If the day ever dawns when it sorts itself out, and can run itself as a team sport based on one rider having one team, and can cover absences from squads rather than sharing riders, then weekend has to be the desired times to open.. For Worky running so many meetings in such a short time was the disaster, rather than running on a Saturday, and Lakeside had to vacate the stadium.. There is a reason why Poland run at weekends. The crowds this weekend show it. If they ran on Monday and Thursday's this week the crowds would have been many thousand poorer (even though every superstar on the planet would have ridden).. Lets be honest, hardly any riders now riding in Britain put 'bums on seats' so you might as well run at weekends to see if non superstars can generate big enough crowds. Currently 'Superstars' don't bring the crowds in on a Monday, Wednesdays and Thursday's so got to be worth a try..

If the crowd was 2500 I doubt he would regard that as failure.. Lots of local derbies will help this year... As we know, as the season progresses, crowds dip due to various reasons, so having your local rivals visiting for even 'dead rubbers' so often has to be better than having the likes of Somerset and Leicester who have far further to travel.. A drop of 10% will be circa 120 - 150 team absolute tops I would imagine, and is more likely to happen for a mid season meeting against non local rivals. But given the amount of local derbies I can see more than enough people on those nights to minimise any possible losses made.. And nights against Poole, BV, Wolves and Swindon (if) any of those four are flying high will no doubt deliver good crowds wanting to see them.. I am actually quite impressed from a business angle how he has gone about this.... He will know that successful teams don't generate huge crowd increases, with the irony that as all meetings are play off qualifiers, too good a season can see crowds actually dip later in the year as fans know the play offs 'are safe'.. He will also know though that successful teams generate high wages! Alternatively, a poor season will still see the 'die hards' attending and as most tracks the vast majority of fans are these people (and the impact level in terms of actual numbers are so low anyway now), you wouldn't see too much of drop I would say.. As a business plan it has a lot going for it..

I have heard the same rumour.. I believe the race jackets were to be white too so it meant the meeting would have been sponsored by... " "......

To be fair to Chapman doing what he has done has meant BT stay involved and the Sport still has a 'top league'... One big league may one day manifest itself but currently there are either not enough riders to do it of the required level, or there may be enough riders for say, five man teams, but then there wouldn't be enough meetings for them to make the money they need out of the sport.. Hence two pro leagues keeps these riders with two jobs and therefore justifying their outlay.. Something I am sure Buster knew needed to happen in the short term, before maybe embarking on a longer term strategy.. He also knew that clubs needed to start lowering their outlay on riders, something he can now control in three clubs at least, and even if all finish bottom three, the best of them will be fifth, just outside the play offs, and the second of them will have only been two places away from the play offs so not a bad season overall....!!! Taking the race to the bottom re salaries out of the equation is a major plus point if he can do it... Winning any of British Speedway Comps is pretty much of no real value from either the recognition kudos or the financial rewards available, so a period of lowering outlay and bringing some stability might just be what the Sport needs to evolve its operating model and business plan into something more fit for purpose....? Which may one day deliver recognition kudos and financial rewards..

What's the going rate paid to a team for letting their riders miss a scheduled British meeting? Wasnt it reported that a team got circa £20k from a Polish team a while back? If that was true, I would be amazed if winning any domestic competition in the UK would win you (or bring in through increased support) anywhere near that amount, so well worth from a business perspective coming to the odd agreement I am sure.. Go a long way to paying off some bills would that... And the die hard fans, (who make up the vast majority of a speedway teams fan base) will turn up anyway so no real loss of revenue...

That's the balancing act... Sadly the truth is that a 'successful' Speedway team can be more of a risk to its survival than a 'run of the mill' one... Paying out too much money to riders (who bring in hardly one extra punter by their presence), versus not peeing off your fan base by getting beat most weeks, is a tricky thing to achieve.. Winnng British Speedway competitions carries almost zero kudos the way they are ran, so it really isn't worth the risk paying out daft money to try and win them and possibly threaten your very existence.. After years of teams spending fortunes out on chasing 'fools gold' it does actually look like three teams at least are working to an initial strict payroll budget... As the season goes on this budget may change if Chapman feels it is effecting attendances adversely. Or he may decide he is still getting enough 'die hards' to keep his costs the way they are and make a profit. The correct way to run any business for me...

That's £5k with the VAT.. At circa £20 a punter it means you need to use 250 punters worth of admission money to cover it... Over a season would you gain/lose 250 punters by running with/not running with race suits.? Probably not I would think.. It's good to see clubs starting to look at their businesses as something more than a 'play thing' and trying to get them on a firmer footing.. And as has already been said, regularly one, two, three (and sometimes four and more), guests per meeting renders race suits an irrelevance anyway...

Sweden have 15 Thursdays booked in for their top League... Don't they pay considerably more than the UK? And with Poland having plenty of Friday meetings there would not be too much surprise to see some of the fairly regular 'compulsory training sessions' the night before.... Thursday may be the 'UK's night', but money does talk... Watch this space...

All riders are self employed so, just like anyone else self employed, they should really be allowed to dictate their own terms when they take on 'a job'.. If the person booking them doesn't agree with those terms requested then they are then at liberty to look elsewhere and offer the work to someone else who is OK with the package on offer.. Likewise, if the person seeking the contract isn't happy with the T's and C's of what is expected of him, then he is free to walk away without signing the contract and taking the job.. This just once again shows how difficult it is to shoe horn an individual sport into a team framework.. It costs a lot of money to set yourself up for a season of Speedway so personal sponsorship is paramount.. But it also costs a lot of money to run a Speedway Team, so team sponsorship is also paramount.. Maybe this is a way of wrestling some of the perceived control away from the riders to help facilitate further changes and cost reductions....? "Unfortunately we cannot reach an agreement, thanks for your time, NEXT PLEASE".. And as we know, there always seems to be 'someone', from 'somewhere' to gratefully take up the vacated positions... And increasing the supply of riders willing to ride for "take it or leave it" terms can only decrease outgoings to the clubs, which in the long run probably won't be a bad thing for the sport....