mikebv

If Team racing is to stay AND be seen as a vehicle to drive the sport forwards in this country then for me the following could be the answer.. One Elite League of 8 x six men teams, meet once home and away, same night racing, all riders graded A - E for team strength planning, team strengths to be high enough to include two 'A grade' riders per team'. just 48 riders needed leaving plenty of riders to be drafted in to cover injuries - (A league basically built to showcase the sport on TV) - NO GUESTS One Premier League based on the SWC with 4 teams per meeting, 5 riders per team (4+1 reserve), 16 teams all regionalised with the top teams in each region going to a 4 leg semi/ final, all riders graded A - E for team strength planning, No 'A grade' riders to keep costs down/lower team strengths, 80 riders needed so again plenty of riders to be drafted in to cover injuries and NO GUESTS!! The Elite League teams can enter the second comp (if they want to) as long as they comply with the competitions team strengths, oh and NO GUESTS... All other clubs who don't go in the EL or PL can run National League, configured any which way as basically it will include a mixture of riders who at any given moment can replace unavailability in the PL or be complete rookies learning their trade, the planning of the heats should reflect this difference in standards to ensure competitive racing.. Probably bollox, but at least its a plan to improve what we have, something I sadly don't have any faith in the current sports' rulers having.....

Team racing in its current guise isn't worth carrying on with as it is simply now a farce.. When 50% of the competitors in a play off semi final are guests it really is time to give it up.. Maybe tracks running individual events once a month with big prize money is the answer? Maybe run once a month, charge £15 and see if you can get 2000 there with a months worth of advertising/promotion... Prize money of 25k (or maybe more) would be achievable I am sure with a 2k crowd and meeting sponsorship, and maybe the sport should do what many other motorsports do and charge the competitors to compete? (16 riders at £200 quid would generate the rent money surely?) Stock cars pack crowds in due to not racing weekly and has even less of a public recognition than speedway.. The sport needs to go very much back to basics and given the embarrassment of team speedway nowadays in relation to credibility and integrity then maybe some high profile individual meetings will once again put the sport back in the public eye and if successful after a couple of years maybe restart team speedway again? And this time try and get it right..!

as blackadder would have said 'I just thank the lord I am wearing my corset or I fear my sides would truly have split'....

well done Poole... however due to the farce of a season, sadly hardly anyone will care.... after batch helped you qualify for the play offs last year, great to see the Swindon rider pick up a winners medal this...

I believe that at least 12 promoters cannot make those dates so the BSPA have drafted some guest promoters in for 10 of them and 'Promoter replacement' is being used for the other two.....

Or teams go to six men a side and omit the big names, ?? for what some GP's No1's get in salary you could pay three 'good riders', (or half a six man team)...

I can watch a football match between two teams I don't care about in the hope I may get some satisfaction/excitement generated by great goals or bits of skill from one or two players.. The same can be said for my cricket, rugby, baseball, American football etc watching The difference though, watching these professional sports, is that I don't need to 'put their problems aside' when watching them as they don't have the glaring 'self inflicted ailments' speedway has. (and surely any sport that needs paying spectators to make 'allowances' for what they are watching is, by definition, on a pretty downward spiral?).. With speedway, many fans seem to want 'Utopia' ie a winning team and great entertainment, which isn't ever going to be achieved, however what can be achieved is four riders in each race, racing for 'their' clubs only, of commensurate ability, in a competition that has 'integrity' as its fundamental foundation.. I still watch the EL on TV similar to how I watch the sports mentioned above, and make a point of watching the GP's in particular as they often provide great entertainment, however... In any team sport (let alone one that is allegedly professional) there has to be 'integrity' of both competition rules and regulations, and participants eligibility.. Speedway has no 'integrity' of either hence so many no longer pay good money to attend.... You may be happy to 'forget those problems' and enjoy just watching four lads compete in each race you see(?) However, thousands of fans, who have simply 'voted with their feet' over the past decade or so, would appear to want some 'integrity' with their racing... One thing is for sure, 'if' the sport does eventually 'die', it wont be the fault of those who decided to leave it behind and stopped paying their money to attend 'live' because they got disillusioned with it... Because quite simply if you 'go to the wall' failing to provide what your customers wanted, particularly when you have had so much direct and databased feedback from them, then you clearly have no one to blame but yourself....

To be fair... It is a final and many sports have a higher tariff for their respective finals, many a lot higher than three quid... I can see why some people maybe peed off but you do have to remember that this increase tonight will be partly to pay for the winners and losers medals for all the riders who are eligible to receive one, and as at the last count that number stood at 48 (with many being eligible to receive both )!! Then a normal admission fee would have seen the two finals make a loss!!

that should get us to heat 10 at least..... (Orr maybe not depending on the score at the end of heat nine obviously)....!!!?

This sport has become beyond parody... Fans simply cannot take the p1ss out of it anymore as the 'reality' is more far fetched than even the biggest moron could ever dream up.. Shame, because 15 heats of four riders of a similar ability level, racing for the teams that they are contracted to, on a well prepared racing surface, can still be a cracking night out for fifteen quid or so.... Pity this doesn't seem part of any plan for the sport....

yes, all sorted, 35 riders have been asked to attend..... 14 of which will find out what teams they are riding for about 7pm..... The riders will line up in front of Matt who then turns round and faces away from them. Buster then randomly gives every rider a number.... Matt calls out seven numbers who will be the home team and then seven more who will be the away team. To ensure the anti poole brigade dont come on and say Poole fixed the selection, Matt will be blindfolded so he cannot peak over his shoulder when Buster is giving out the numbers or see any reflection in any windows that maybe within his eyeline.

buxton.....

No anti poole agenda here as I do think Ford is one of the few progressive promoters.. However failure to hold your leg of a semi either on your own track or elsewhere should really signal your withdrawal from the competition.. Harsh? Probably but there has to be a line drawn somewhere and the lack of the initial staging was largely 'self inflicted'

Isn't there a cross party group of speedway friendly MP's?? Time to give them a bell and get them down to fans' meetings alongside the sitting MP...

not read the whole thread so it may already be covered but.... with melbourne now being the final gp and the possibility of the gp winner being virtually known before the meeting (similar to this year), will bsi do a 'double points' final round like F1 are doing?.. If its a foregone conclusion who has won, it will I am sure adversely effect the crowd so anything which prevents this will I would have thought be considered. ?.

Possibly linked into the aces new track....??? Seem to remember within the planning, wednesday is one of the agreed nights..... They run wednesday now as and when required...

Harris and Garrity in for Lynn?? Get those 38 winner medals and 23 losers medals ready for the final!!!! At this rate both teams' Captains will be allowed to lift the trophy!!!! And to think, some believe Speedway in this country has a credibility problem and isn't taken seriously.... Can't think why, any thoughts anyone?? ....

When you build teams in such a way that the top rider in each team is expected to score 10 - 15 points per match, then losing these riders means a massive hole has to be filled points wise. So what can be done? Have a higher team strength to lessen the impact of the No1 ? Not affordable? Have a lower team strength and remove the No1 rider/superstar? Drives people away as the best riders are no longer over here? For me one possible solution is instead of 'guests', teams can 'loan' riders for say a month ie if ward is out then nicholls can replace him for 28 days, however poole cannot race against belle vue for that to happen during those 28 days and nicholls couldn't ride for any other teams during that 28 day period. It would at least lose the 'guest' tag for wider credibility of the sport and also prevent the almost daily changes of guests on a 'horses for courses' basis which happens so often now, meaning riders guesting one night for a team then guesting for someone else against that same team the night after!!... Only the No1 can be replaced with a 'loan' rider however RR can also be used if teams so wish with the No2 and No3 riders taking all the No1 rides if the management of the team see fit. eg if no zagar then nicholls and cook could take his programmed rides. For other riders in the team missing, the rider above them in the averages can take one ride and the 2 riders below can take the other three, (maybe if the fifth rider in the averages is missing then the No4 rider could take two rides to remove the need for the reserves to take three rides?) Probably completely unworkable, however something has to replace the 'free for all' and 'tactical guest selections' which make a farce of the integrity of the competitions as they currently stand..

really?? a business can get too much free of charge, unsolicited, databased information to improve its performance and you think its a bad thing? it should be manna from heaven... if they so wanted, any promoter spending say just an hour on here would see more than enough clear common threads running through it to guide them in sorting out 'the key issues' which have driven so many fans away... alternatively, they could simply cut through all this crap on here and do some professional market research as to what the fans really want...? neither I would suggest will happen..

no need, so many of the reasons why so many people no longer attend in the numbers required to make speedway viable at so many tracks are there for all to see having been well documented on here, the speedway star, and virtually every unofficial website which covers individual tracks over the past decade or so... those that run the sport have decided (as is their wish) to ignore the feedback they have been given from paying (or should that be no longer paying) customers and are now reaping their rewards for their 'we know best/you take it or leave it' attitude,,, I suppose I could 'enlighten them' by saying that 'when running a business, listen to your customer's feedback to help you grow' but I would suggest any business man or woman who needs someone to tell them that, shouldn't probably be someone running a business in the first place..

Yet another track biting the dust.... Can't understand it personally. ? Especially given the way that the promoters of the sport do such a great job in running it..

and therein lies the ultimate issue with the sport... it can never move forwards with the continual 'make it up as you go along to appease everyone' rules and decision making.. 'Survival of the fittest' was Darwin's view of evolution.... 'Survival of the weakest' is Speedway's, hence it simply doesn't grow stronger and evolve, at best it stagnates and mostly, each season, it regresses..... And we all know the ultimate fate of any entity continually evolving to become weaker rather than stronger...

bottom line is the sport is heading for total balls up, so needs to draw up some sort of plan of action/template, especially for its pinnacle league (the EL)... when done it needs to say. 'this is it, everyone work to it, if you cannot meet the EL criteria you cannot be in it'.. no more 'tail wagging the dog'.... there will be some winners and some losers but the greater good has to be the priority... let's hope the plan is good....

Rock, paper, scissors.... Best of three....