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mikebv

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Everything posted by mikebv

  1. It's all very "Mickey Mouse" isn't it? But, to be fair, that is pretty much Speedway's level in the UK, and has been for several decades.. Far too late now to change anything... They missed a huge trick when coming out of lockdown to reposition the sport with a fit for purpose operating model and even maybe a salary cap... Instead. They chose to carry on doing the same failing nonsense that clearly wasn't working given the dwindling crowds year on year.... It's just "tick, tock, tick tock" for UK Speedway, unless anyone grabs it by the "wotsits" and directs it "off the track" to deliver the following the "raw product on the track" deserves...
  2. But, this is where the play off system comes into its own., Hopefully, in 3 months time, both will be able to represent Ipswich in the play offs...
  3. To be fair, that has been the same since I started watching the sport at Hyde Rd in the late sixties... Even at such a great, iconic race track, the likes of Ivan and PC would win races regularly by half the length of a straight, with the rider in fourth sometimes still not even half way around the final bend when they crossed the line... The big difference to today? You had huge crowds to share your enthusiasm with, often including at least a couple of coaches from the opposition's "official supporter's club", thus giving the meeting some atmosphere, resonance and a bit of tribalism.... Average racing doesn't appear so average when you are at "an event".. Sadly, not too many "events" exist in UK Speedway anymore... Hence the play offs get the crowds "the qualifiers" don't...
  4. You cannot just "take someone out", like he did.. Freddie could have rode the inside line and left plenty of room for Kurtz... But instead he elected to do a " block pass", (similar to Lambert on Bewley and one many riders use), but basically got it wrong by, literally, just a few inches.. Almost a perfect pass, but sadly, for Freddie, it wasn't...
  5. Brady No1 in the world so far....... Not a bad start to his debut season....
  6. Terrible news if true.... How many times can he keep coming back from these horrible set backs...?
  7. What a crap ride from Kvech.... So many riders cannot ride an inside line... They just "drift"....
  8. Aim bike at Dan's leg and watch him lift it and drift out.... That is the MO for riders... I noticed Tom Brennan having the same issue on Monday several times.
  9. True, but... If the landowner was getting £20k a night rent, 20 times a year, then, I would suggest, they would be more likely to keep their tenants on.. If Speedway had been able to keep hold of it's fan base, rather than losing tens of thousands of followers, then a 3,000 crowd would deliver around £70k a night, therefore paying a £20k rent would be a possibility... The harsh reality is developers know hardly anyone will miss their local speedway track disappearing, nor, for many, even notice it was there, never mind gone..
  10. "Devastating news to those few hundred people"... Says it all.... Never more than a tier 2 team at best given their fanbase, yet had to get shoe horned into tier 1... I hope Nigel gets plenty of punters between now and season end, and it offsets at least some of the tremendous costs he has incurred keeping afloat a sport in a town that not enough people could be bothered to watch.. Should get plenty of away fans for their teams' last meeting ever at Perry Barr.
  11. Maybe to get a few more punters in between now and closure? "Last chance saloon" and all that ..
  12. To be fair, Thompson should have moved out given Brennan rode the inside line... Not a great plan to follow the same line...
  13. The same as the first two months . ie. Just go along and watch the racing, without focusing too much on who wins and who doesn't... The beauty of the sport is two poor riders, or teams, can still deliver some great racing.... (If a promoter chooses to prepare a decent track to race on obviously)...
  14. Maybe it is preparing for the departure of Birmingham and thus trying to encourage another club(s), to move up without the need to expensively put a team together full of loanees, like they would ordinarily have to... That money saved could then be used to bring in higher earning talent which then makes the team(s), more competitive....
  15. An excellent meeting but, sadly, so many "throttle jockeys" on show.. Unfortunately, it was like watching a meeting in Poland... They should hold it at Plymouth next year and call the sport "TECHNICALway" rather than "SPEEDway"... How much more exciting would it be to watch riders fully locking up, blocking the track every bend, thus ensuring no one has room outside to pass.. The art of the sport is to scrub off speed by going sideways, instead of forwards.. I have read on here that this is what Speedway should be about, so let's hope the authorities are reading this.....
  16. And then make those six meetings also irrelevant as "ringers" from other teans get brought in on a "horses for courses" basis to replace injured riders....
  17. It cannot be ran at Poole... As everyone knows, the people of Poole only go out on Wednesdays....
  18. Ironically they spend, as a collective well over a million on riders each season, yet sod all on making their product known to even locals never mind the wider population... That huge investment would be far better used as "prize money" and advertise this total amount of cash as the total that can be won for the season.. eg "One Million Pounds Prize Money To Be Won In British Speedway"..... A bit of creative advertising maybe, but based on the truth...
  19. Stocks run a lot less frequently.. At the old Kirky Lane track they got around 4000 punters, once a month.. Roughly the same (maybe even less), than the Aces got in a month from four matches... The perennial issue for UK Speedway will always be shoe horning the sport into a team concept without any real "tribal" rivalry due to the contrived make up of the teams.. Allied to hardly any large financial gain and national publicity for winning.. Difficult to get "big crowds" regularly, and wider interest, with those big challenges to overcome.. Maintaining a season long interest for even "regulars" can be difficult too, especially when the play offs are decided months out from when they take place, with many regulars (apart from ST holders), picking and choosing which meetings to attend... UK Speedway is a "tough sell"...
  20. Talksport (Hawksbee and Jacobs) actually talking about the BF!!! And how it destroyed Andy's long held theory that "first to the first corner wins"...
  21. Next year run it on a Saturday at 5pm and EVERY club promoter (apart from the Aces), sponsor a coach for 70 of their fans to attend... You could even do some "cut price tickets" that they have to purchase when they get the place on the coach.. A £20 ticket and free travel? Surely every track would get 70 there as a minimum? And, any track not having anyone qualify/not want to ride, could just support Bomber as he will invariably represent them at some stage that season... Be a bit like the old fours at Peterborough where loads of teams' fans were there in numbers, giving the event plenty of atmosphere and stature... 1000 or so from around the country and 2000, or more,Aces fans in attendance... That would be more fitting for the No 1 Domestic Event of fhe season...
  22. Completely understandable reasons for not going... Surely it has to be a Saturday night, or Sunday afternoon, even if it early in the season due to Poland? Expecting the Aces fans to fill the stadium though was never going to be a starter given the GP costs for so many that have been paid out... And, unlike the previous seasons, the TV coverage now comes with an added premium if you didn't have BT/TNT previously, so, again, another valid reason to not spend extra money when you already had paid to watch it.. Riders (whose bread and butter is UK Speedway), having the option to "not bother" also devalues the event massively, and adds nothing positive in persuading those who were "maybe" attending to turn up... And then you have the marketing. There must have been 100,000 people in Piccadilly city centre on Saturday and Sunday, yet zero done to make them aware of the event. "The No1 Flagship Domestic Competition in the UK". Given there are so many promoters, and it is a shared event, surely they could have invested in some kind of fan zone to raise awareness? Doing nothing to promote the event (outside of telling those who already know about it), also suggests they have little faith in it's merit and kudos.. Fortunately, they now have some amazing action to use on social media websites, and may even get some snippets of that last race on some mainstream channels if they send it to them, (and they bother to watch it), meaning the "British Speedway Champion" may get a name check... The NSS truly delivers doesn't it? So moving it away sadly will reduce the level of racing several fold, hkeever, it doesn't look good for the sport to have crowd levels like last night advertising its "popularity" to those none fans watching on TV.. Next year there won't be 2 GP's so hopefully a better attendance, however, actually getting out there and marketing the event can only help... A magnificent nights racing delivered by true superstars, so the promoters need to back them...
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