mikebv

Well of course they are...! It's because of the business model they use, ie costs exceed income... Teams spend 'big' money on trying to be successful and when they achieve success they cannot afford it, and the supreme irony is that this success is virtually worthless in relation to more media coverage and increased revenue because hardly anyone in the respective towns/cities know the sport even exists!! Quite simply a successful team who wins a national title makes approx (at best) 1000 people feel good about themselves at most tracks. Therefore is it really worth the effort of bringing over foreign riders, paying air fares, hotel bills, providing workshop facilities etc etc to win a trophy that hardly anyone locally will even recognise never mind take any civic pride in winning? Your local ice hockey team doesn't have players that play in the NHL one night, in front of 20000 plus crowds, and get paid 1000's of dollars, and then come over here to represent a British team in front of a couple of hundred spectators, yet Speedway actually makes this 'the norm' by paying world stars who ply their trade in their own countries £1000's in salaries, flights, accommodation etc..... Simply Speedway has reached its nadir, and it is now reaping what it has sowed for so many, many years through the failure of those who run the sport to take their collective heads out of the sands and deliver a product which is consistently entertaining, value for money, and governed by a set of rules that are both simple for the fans to follow and credible to the wider outside watching sporting public and media.... No doubt those who 'run' the sport in this country will believe that the weather, the euro's, the olympics, the paralympics and even people staying in watching the soddin' mars landings are the main reasons why 'another 200 or so' decided not to go to speedway each week this year... Because let's face it, the reason speedway's crowds are dwindling and the sport is dying on its arse isn't their fault is it??

many teams are struggling and I am sure many will want 'radical changes' (again) over the winter to make the sport viable.. what will actually be agreed is a 50p across the board admission increase per person and a team strength average which reduces the quality of entertainment on offer.. and why not? because this plan has proved so successful over the years hasn't it?? simply, rider costs have to be reduced to make 'wages' lower and maybe the sport needs to go 'backwards to go forwards'.eg when the sport was at its most successful full time professionals were the exception rather than the rule and riding speedway boosted most riders' 'day job' salary (quite significantly) ... it is obvious to all that most speedway teams do not generate enough money to pay seven full time pro's so why continue chasing this set up? dying on it's arse speedway in this country with Mr Magoo the elected 'visionary' to move it forwards..

to be honest i can see why the joker is in place as even if the racing isnt close then the scoreline can be made to be so, thus keeping the watching audience interested (speedway fans or not).. it also means a team who previously thought they may be out of contention become more motivated as the momentum swings to them with a six point win, meaning hopefully closer racing the main flaw in the cunning plan though is an obvious one that all teams dont get the chance to use it if one stays ahead of the rest putting them ridiculously at a disadvantage for leading, therefore..... why not let every team use it?! you will still keep the chasing pack interested therefore showing more commitment hopefully to the end of the meeting and the leading team will never feel cheated as they will always have the 'ace up their sleeve' (sorry wrong card, I mean joker) to play should they need to.....

Fantastic tonight the way the clowns who run this sport had their mickey mouse rules thrown back in their faces.. As the joker seems to be permanently in place a la 'its a knockout' then why not go the whole hog next year and blindfold the riders with a hession sack hood, give each rider a buxom wench dressed as say a milk maid to represent them, and she can then stand at the start of turn one and shout "LEFT, LEFT, LEFT" as her unsighted rider goes past.... The riders could even carry a bucket of coloured water on their mudguards and their 'buxom maid' could maybe carry a pair of buckets attached to a wooden pole across her shoulders and at the end of the race the rider has to empty what is left of his coloured water into her bucket (oo er missus) and the team who wins the world cup is the one who gets that float on the top of their teams' water tube the highest.... as 'i'll tell you what Nige' would say, "it makes for great TV drama, shenshational"....!!!!!