OGT

This is like some sort of 70s Acid trip, all of a sudden. I've been told all about them, not pleasant.

Cricket. Now there's a thing. Essentially boring (imo) and tedious (also imo) at bread and butter level, but vastly more successful and exciting (?) at test and limited over levels. But what really brings the money in and propels the game up to a totally different level of everything is 20/20 or whatever it's called now. Largely unpopular with the older generation, it's helped many clubs to survive financially (some still struggle though, granted) but it's created a whole new generation of, well, 20/20 fans. So there you have the answer, 6 months of tedious bread and butter league speedway, with a month of an all singing all dancing, hyper exciting, over the top competition to pay for it. Simple really.

The start marshall should line up the riders at the tapes. then have someone spray some of that the foam the refs were using at the world cup behind their back wheels,. Anyone who reverses over the foam is then given a chinese burn by either the start marshall, a grid girl or an independent body appointed by the SCB.

For God's sake Stan, give it a rest old pal.

On top of this, the pit wall needs padding too.

Good post and some very good points. Speedway IMO needs to remarket as an extreme sport (I know I'm not the 1st to suggest this) if it is to survive to any great extent. Watch any show like Nitro Circus or X-Fighters and you'll get the idea, obviously it would be nigh on impossible for most tracks to emulate the level of entertainment that those events generate, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be dismissed as a way forward. One key ingredient is the atmosphere generated, which for a venue like Perry Barr would be a problem with the ban on airhorns and previous noise problems, but I guess that could be worked around. Something drastic needs to happen to speedway in this country and it needs to happen pretty quickly.

It's a shame that the track isn't better, because everything else seems about right at Leicester. It's a strange old shape alright and that problem does need addressing. Cracking climax though.

Here Neil, have this..........

The accent should be enough.

And you know this as a fact, do you?

TBH, I sort of agree with Pedaler, should speedway be considered a pro sport or should it be seen as largely amateur where only the riders get paid? If the standard on show was equivalent to Sweden, I'd bring my own rake!

Tony Mole tried to bring speedway back to its most recent home in the late 80s and was only a handshake away from achieving his goal. Unfortunately the guy he shook hands with died and the new stadium owner refused to honour the agreement. Another case of "if only".

Dudley Wood.

Birmingham were certainly not wanted in the BL, that's for sure. The way they were treated in the first year was scandalous, what little help they got from the powers-that-be was frankly not worth the effort.Having said that though I think the novelty of a new league and proper local derbies, kept the crowd levels up. At least when it was sold it went to someone who knew what was what..

Clubs in many sports are guilty of living beyond their means, football is rife with it, but at least there's always something to aim for, promotion, avoiding relegation, various cups, european qualification, local derbies, all stuff to keep the fans interested and hungry. Speedway on the other hand seems to just exist without most of the above, so what are clubs and their promoters aiming for to get so much in debt? If the crowds were worse even though they topped the EL then they should have read the signs and dropped down. Could have kept most of the team too.

Doubt it, he and Mrs GD boogered off before the start of the season

TM doesn't want to take it on because of the amount of debt. Sooooo, if the debt was reduced by one means or another then it wouldn't be too ridiculous to think that he'd then be interested in helping the club out.

Whilst I appreciate your enthusiasm for speedway, do you really not already know the answer to that question?

You do wonder how bored with the Premier league fans would/could have become, especially after Jason Lyons retired (which coincided with the move up). Wonder if the BSPA would have continued shafting us for the benefit of other teams too, vested interest and all that?

There will always be an Elite League, or a Division One. A league a little bit higher standard than the one below it. Just depends what name you want to give it and whether or not it's fitting.

In reply to Weatherwatcher. Tony Mole had no option but to use PB to bring speedway back to Birmingham. Attempts to return to the wheels site were repeatedly denied by the people who ran the place. Plans were drawn up for a track, training track and a museum. The whole lot was kicked out because they considered the speedway as a profit making venture, forgetting that Incarace ran the stocks at the venue. An alternative site was found at Salford Circus, where the old velodrome was left derelict. Noise tests were done, but the site was just too close to residential falts to have a chance of being given PP. Perry Barr was ideal, with a ready made stadium all that was required was the construction of a track, pits and a few bits and bobs and voila. The danger was always whether the public would still be interested in the sport after being absent from the city for 21 years. Sadly it looks like they aren't, well in sufficient numbers anyway. It's interesting that Cradley can attract decent crowds with NL racing whilst Brum struggles to get the punters in with the "superior" EL version. This tells as much about the differences between the 2 areas as it does about the state of speedway in this country. Mention Cradley Heath to people and most will ask if the speedway is still there. Mention Birmingham and most people will mention several sports before the sport gets a mention. When Brum reopened, I knew at least 20 fans at work who were at the first meeting. This dwindled down to a dozen over the following weeks until it levelled out at 10 over that season, staying constant over the rest of the PL years. Now, I only know 2 people who go to PB, and even that it isn't to every meeting. The reasons they walked away are pretty varied. from growing out of love with modern speedway to a dislike for the venue, with a few others in between. It's sad, especially after the hard work of Brian Buck et al to bring the Brummies back. But if the cold hard fact is that if relatively few people have the desire to support speedway in the city, then there can't be many more things any promotion can do to change that, except to take steps to make up the cash shortfall, which would really only be a short term fix. If there's someone out there with a magic wand who can make speedway in Birmingham viable again, the great. Nothing could be better than a return to the crowd levels of the first years and the nights when fans were praying Jason Lyons would miss the gate (unless it was a last heat decider of course!), but I really honestly cannot think of anything at all that could get the good citizens of the 2nd city off their backsides and into Perry Barr stadium on a Wednesday night, I really can't.

TBF Burton's average crowd was 2,720 for the 13/14 season. I get what you're saying but that's more than a few hundred. Remember too that more people are interested in football, even though they don't attend games.

TBF, there are a few other events to watch other than whatever Bolt is running in. One of Brum's big problem's is their restricted revenue stream, with basically just the gate, progs and merch (maybe) money going into the club's coffers. Food drink and parking goes to the GRA on top of the high rent, that's a sizeable disadvantage against many other clubs, which is where the myriad of sponsorship deals have been a huge help over the last few years. So as has been said, losing Joe Mc along with the Drury's and Wizzer has been a massive blow and the club will do well to survive at all let alone in a lower league without any of those names being replaced with experienced heads.

P155 Poole has a better ring to it.

I have a dog lead but no dog so I'm not really interested in shopping centres, anyone recommend anywhere to hang out?