mikebv

When Speedway was massive it was down to far many other reasons than just the racing.... And it's National TV coverage focused on International and Individual events which invariably had British winners... What you got served up at your local track was somewhat different, however you only found out riders were missing when you had paid to get in, not well in advance like happens now via forums and social media. And moaned to those 10 or so around you, not the 1000's who read websites like today... The Champions League can get won by a club that are not that Countries Champion, but so what? It provides many more of the best teams in the same competition, giving success in this competition far more kudos than in its previous guise when teams could reach the semis by just beating a few Romanian ferret smugglers or Albanian goat herders... In British Speedway you can cherry pick riders from any of your competitors to improve your team and help you be successful, even if the help they provide directly results in their own team ultimately losing out on success themselves.. Just think about how you would sell that concept to a wider Sporting audience, in the hope it would sound credible and attract them, especially in a 24/7 modern media age.. It would take some marketing guru to work that one....

One of the biggest frustrations is that the Sport itself still can generate great crowds in this Country when it is done well... The meeting you allude to in Glasgow was promoted well (as the Glasgow promotion seem to do, even at short notice)... And it had credibility as both teams were represented by riders from their own nations... Which got me thinking.. Imagine if NKI the Danish Champion had been advertised as guesting for Australia to replace Jason Doyle (as could conceivably have happened if it was a Premiership match)... Ludicrous to suggest it I know but that is effectively what British Speedway does each week... If it was allowed to happen in that Test Match, even with lots of promotion, I can guarantee the crowd would have been several hundred lower. (In fact promoting it would have done more harm than good)... Tens of thousands of fans who don't attend British Speedway regularly attend Cardiff every year proving that their is a market for the Sport... However. Until it runs itself like a proper sport, at a price point that reflects its value, (rather than at a price point delivered in hope it will cover the participants costs) it simply wont work... When you cannot promote what's on show with any real conviction and belief in your product then you do have problems I reckon..

Spot on... Many comments are put forward about people not knowing about the sport but I would suggest there are literally tens of thousands of ex fans all within a close proximity to the tracks they used to frequent.. Get them back and don't make the same mistakes again that made them give up on the Sport in the first place..

I would suggest the 'novelty value' was a big factor, as was the fact the meeting had credibility when so many don't... The same as when a 'World Star' comes back to domestic racing. ie the crowds increase for the first few weeks but then drift back to normal as the season progresses and he starts to miss meetings through other commitments and the Guestfest merry go round starts.. Maybe that is the the way forward though? Less being more?... Put on fewer meetings but give every one of them a meaning? Run say once a month giving the promotion ample time to actually promote every event? I never buy into the view that people stop going if there are long gaps between meetings, as if the meetings were promoted correctly the next one should be highly anticipated and deliver a good expectant crowd. And if the previous meeting was any good then surely that can only increase the anticipation for the next one? Cardiff runs just once a year, yet everyone knows when it is and therefore attends... As with so much of British Speedway, a huge amount of its problem is down to a lack of active ongoing promotion and of course trying to sell a product that simply often lacks credibility... Maybe worth reflecting on that it sounds like this Test Match had both and a decent crowd duly arrived... (And at short notice too)..

The year before when the Aces were top virtually all season, they had to cram in (I think), 6 matches in just over two weeks... Some of those crowds were the lowest gates of the year, with several of them massively down on the regular crowd that year.... Getting 2000 and 3200 for the two play offs didn't cover the loss of revenue of those meetings I would suggest, or at best it broke even... If no play offs had existed then I would say that all six meetings would have run in front of healthy crowds as 'The Title' was up for grabs and every meeting meant something towards the ultimate prize.. (With the night the Champions getting the Trophy being the biggest crowd of the Season by far!) There are clear Pros and Cons to the play offs, but poor fixture planning certainly does the Sport zero favours, as instead of the Season reaching a much anticipated crescendo, it decends into farce with riders missing left, right and centre as clubs share them in Guestfests, to fit in lots of meetings before cut off time... Sadly that nonsense doesn't help bring any great kudos to winning any League, Play offs or not.... And, for me, that has a far higher negative impact to crowds than the system used to produce the 'Champions'...

They attract reasonable numbers but I would suggest 'net' over a season they just about break even... As teams cram in fixtures, particularly if your team is guaranteed a PO place, you tend to find 300 - 500 give a few meetings a miss due to nothing riding on them, and the cost of lots of meetings within two or three weeks of each other... Then you ride a PO in front of an extra 1000 and think the Play Offs are "a winner"... The added irony is that when teams eventually get a big crowd, that delivers a great atmosphere with something riding on it, they then invariably have no meeting for the next six months until the new season starts..! Speedway's Operating and Business Model....

??? "Thanks Denmark"? For what? For running their League properly? Or maybe is it for not short changing their fans through the implementation of a poorly planned, ludicrous, unfit for purpose operating model, which delivers missing riders week in and week out? Or is it just because they have the temerity and audacity to actually run on their prioritised night (as was clearly agreed by the BSPA, and Swedish and Polish Leagues)? I would suggest you should look to blame a few of those much nearer to home than Denmark for the nonsense that infests British Speedway..

Or maybe another way of looking at it.... If British Speedway had just stuck with its allocated (and agreed to), Monday and Thursday nights, you could have had as many Danes riding over here as you wished, and that could have been ANY or EVERY week you wanted a fixture planned in, without any clashes.... Only British Speedway could have done what they did with fixed nights...

"We have an idea how Speedway will run in 2019"... Let's hope it isn't how its been done for the past 10 years or so...

As many on here say ad infinitum... Great racing in front of a three quarters empty stadium with no 'audience' participation or enthusiasm can be an easily forgettable experience... Average racing in front of a full house of engaged people, infused with the enthusiam that an emotional attachment to 'their team', and 'their riders', brings, can live a long time in the memory.. And at circa £20 for domestic Speedway, (especially the way it is ran), you will always have the former example at the vast majority of tracks I would suggest... To keep and improve your fanbase, fans should leave every Speedway meeting already looking forward to the next one... I bet not that many currently do that....

Come on Brady... Help the Aces get to within seven points of your own team... Who knows, it might be enough for them to eventually take your own teams place in the play offs...

They had 66 dates as Britain's TWO days were actually THREE... That they included Wednesday didn't actually help though as so many meetings must have been unable to be arranged due to Denmark's legimate claim to run meetings on that particular night... You then have Championship teams having many long standing meetings being pulled on a whim, and this too will adversely effect any planning between now and the cut off dates, as they too will need to rearrange and possibly have to ride on 'off nights'. Causing even more Guestfest nonsense due to all three Leagues using the same riders... Causing even more lack of credibility for the very titles they race for... Causing even more fan dissilusionment and apathy in the competitions..... Causing even more gaps on ever emptying terraces... Will British Speedway ever decide to run itself properly, or have they simply thrown in the towel and given up?

Of Feb 2019?

Let's just get the top four teams at cut off time in the play offs, and all then conveniently forget all the Mickey Mouse nonsense that has taken place to reach the play offs, and turn up in numbers to collude with the Promoters and BT in pretending that it is actually a serious competition worth winning... (Like we do every year)...

It simply shouldn't happen... Imagine trying to explain to a wider sporting audience this scenario with Craig Cook...? That effectively, British Speedways Premier competition must be rendered so inconsequential and worthless (by the very people who run it) that they allow the League below it to have priority on its competitors... Imagine trying to sell that "brilliant concept" to any National Company that you are trying to attract to Sponsor the Premiership? Imagine trying to sell that "brilliant concept" to any National Mainstream Media outlet that you may be hoping to bring on board, with the aim for them to increase coverage and awareness of your Sport? And Imagine trying to sell that "brilliant concept" to fans of the clubs effected, fans who follow the teams through their emotional attachment that only 'team sport' brings...? An independent board or single entity simply wouldn't allow such 'brand damaging' nonsense to take place, as anyone with even just an ounce of business acumen would see such an operating model as nothing other than 'corporate suicide'... That is why of course there never will be an independent board or entity running the Sport.. Let's be honest. If those who run the Sport constantly make decisions that show absolutely no respect for the reputation of the very Championships they run, then really, why should the fans give a monkeys about them either? We could say it's a joke, but sadly, no one is laughing...

It just shows how important the 'flagship' Premiership is doesn't it? With such nonsense who really cares who wins it? Not really a great selling point with which to attract a crowd is it? Or indeed attract any major media coverage ..

Arrr..... But..... The TV cameras being there always coincides with a low tide... (Or is it a high tide it coincides with?)... It's one of the tides anyway...... Wednesdays tides are different....

And then you have Guestfest after Guestfest as all three Leagues try to cram fixtures in on the same nights using the same riders.. As you say, "happens every bloody year"... (With less and less people understandably watching it happen)... The best summer for years too.....!

He might give himself a team place...

Cook needing to be in two places at once on Thursday... Riding for Glasgow.... Surely not?

It would appear not in Under 16's Football.. A couple of games ago, my lad got pulled over by the ref after he had been 'taken out', and lectured him for a good minute or so about what the ref had heard him say to the lad that had 'launched' him... When I asked after the match what he had said to the lad, he told me had said "F☆☆k Off Ginger Bollox'.... The ref spent a long time telling him that this was 'discriminatory language' and "wouldnt be tolerated on my pitch".. As a responsible parent I naturally told him that the next time the ref calls him over for something similar, suggest to the ref that you believe that you are 'technically correct' and then ask the ref to maybe seek some proof before dismissing his comments as discriminatory... The World has indeed gone mad.,.

Really? What an odd way to run the Sport.... (Properly)....

Having a fit for purpose RR system would reduce Guests if not even eradicate.. Top rider missing? Then EVERY rider in the team can take his rides up to seven rides max per rider, meaning (if the Team Manager elected to do so) the 2nd and 3rd highest riders can take two of his rides each and appear also appear in Ht 15. .. If the 2nd rider is missing then, as now, the No1 can take a ride and all riders below the 2nd rider can take the rest, again up to seven rides per man.. (eg 3rd in the averages could take three of his rides but would have to miss Ht 15, or take two and ride Ht 15).. Work that down the order till you get to the No6 rider missing where the rider fifth in the averages could take one ride and the reserves the rest (with one reserve taking all the other three rides if the Team Manager selects to do so up to a max of seven rides).. Any No7's missing means the other reserve takes two rides and a No8 (NL rider not DU 'ing) comes in and takes two rides... The closer the level of rider from One to Seven in a team will also mean much less impact to the team by any of the riders missing... And let's be honest, many of the Guests needed are more down to poor planning in fixtures rather than injuries. So getting that right alone will reduce Guestfests..

A bit OTT Moxey... Wrestling will be very unhappy to be compared with Speedway... At least they have terrestrial TV coverage now for British Wrestling too...

We also didn't have the Internet or Social Media, so often would turn up to watch a Speedway meeting, pay to get in, and only then find out PC had been replaced, or your team or the other had three or four guests... What we did have though was National terrestrial TV showing meetings most weeks that had no guest riders as they were individual meetings, which then had a positive spin off for the domestic Leagues... You could watch the riders (most weeks) that you saw in TV on the Saturday... And at a reasonable admission cost too.. Simply, if Football, Cricket, Rugby Union/League, etc etc did the same and used 'Guests/Ringers' to cover absenses then those sports too would (quite rightly) open themselves up to ridicule in this modern era of 24/7 information and (also quite rightly) have a deserved reputation of being a bit 'Mickey Mouse'... Nowadays your 'brand' is so, so important... And the credibilty of what any 'brand' stands for/puts out/produces, is absolutely the most important stand alone asset it has. Everything else that comes from this, (good or bad, positive or negative), 100% starts from its credibilty rating in the eyes of the general public, which in turn, will directly influence them to utilise the products/services provided (or not as the case may be).....