Hawk127

Unfortunately it does not have the cut and thrust of the live Polish meetings on a Saturday and Sunday and with poor commentary and half empty stadiums, it says it all. Hopefully someone somewhere will wake up and do something dramatic to revitalise the sport. As it stands I would keep U.K. speedway under wraps and not do too much until those in charge find a formula that works and attracts fans and makes it the spectacular that we know it is capable of being.

It depends on what you want from an evenings racing. The purists will only go to league meetings even though team riding is a thing of the past and you effectively have seven gate and go merchants. Others will go for the thrill of simply watching four riders on bikes with no brakes whilst some will be happy with individual meetings, 4TT and pairs etc and look at GP’s as the pinnacle of the sport. Each league and format has its followers and it depends whether an attendee is an anorak or someone with a family who wants a fairly fluid array of racing etc without tractors being part of the entertainment. As it stands, anything new should be given a chance and I would rather go to a meeting that has a mixed format with say short track, NDL competition and perhaps side cars rather than take it or leave it fifteen races over two plus hours and nowt else. You are entitled to your opinion and it is the sort of feedback that promoters should be interested in and I am sure the IOW will not lose sleep over it. They like many are trying to run/provide entertainment so you cannot knock them for what works on their patch but may not work in say Manchester or Birmingham. As an aside your Rockets when run by Len Silver out of Rayleigh did it all and put on meetings even when it rained, he just used tons of saw dust. A legend in speedway if ever you wanted someone who knew how to entertain before the nutters took control of the asylum.

With so many ideas and suggestions on this thread plus many constructive and valid opinions on what might or might not work, the fundamental problem is that no one at club level be they owners, promoters or the fat controllers are reading what is being said, can be bothered to respond and with each club having its own agenda while loosely following the remit of the few whose answer to any dissident is to threaten them expulsion, change is not going to happen. If you are on the end of a threat of suspension and fines with a fairly large bond held by those who have you by the wotsits, how many would go against the grain. It will take a break away group to either join Nora or start their own association before anything will change. The problems have been mounting for too many years, club closures being an example where for many reasons they have gone by the wayside but what happened to all the riders who not so long ago grace so many tracks up and down the land.? Why is the sport so short of riders? Why do meetings get called off based on a weather forecast which might predict a slight chance of rain? Why have the authorities done nothing to control costs so that you are left with rider’s demands keep going up at the same time as sponsorship and attendances fall? Away attendances tend to be a thing of the past unless it is the play offs and the lack of away support can be in part to the geographical spread of teams and the cost of travelling to meetings plus with most tracks operating mid week, it is hardly conducive to a family day out. Possibly speedway could learn from other motor sports when it comes to entertainment, promotion and the day that they that they run a meeting (ideally Thursday through to Sunday and no you will not attract many top names but they currently pick which meetings they are going to appear in so what does it matter). The meeting ought to be an event not just 15 contrived races with riders who will ride for any team who wants to pay them. People want more for the money and this is one of the few sports which gives less and less. Alas most on here can only watch from the sidelines as the sport slowly disappears into oblivion largely due to a few burying their collective heads in the sand and continuing to be in total denial as to how bad it has become in this country. As much as they may aspire to follow in the foot steps of Poland in reality that will never achieve what the Poles have today, so cut your cloth accordingly and get back to grass roots entertainment. However, no one is listening.

Perhaps the answer is revert to 13 heats and then have the second half where the second strings compete against the second strings/heat leaders in a rider of the night competition. It is probably fair to say that the majority of heat leaders have much better equipment etc, and unless a real gem comes along who has the skill a track craft to stop a rider passing it is better that they not thrown in at the deep end. Alternatively have six or five man teams in the top league and NDL riders excluded until they reach at least a second string status or a particularly average in one of the two other leagues which then gives them something to aim for without the same pressures. Just a thought and in no way is any criticism be made.

They would not know the truth if it slapped them in the face. They are a deceitful bunch who think it is OK to mislead all and sundry. Why don’t they just stop wasting everyone’s time by closing down the tracks that have no chance of surviving and let those left plough there own furrow. Some clubs are run/managed by decent folk but far too many are run by renegades who have no morals and literally take the p.. out of every punter who passes through the turnstiles. The sooner the punter makes a stand the sooner the mess will be sorted. As long as you keep turning up those in charge will do nothing but take your cash. Time to make a stand.

If I was a promoter/ owner of a club not caught up in this latest farce, I would be deeply concerned about my clubs future, the credibility of the sport and what the options are going forward. No way would the current set up allow a club to drop down a league so it would almost be a choice between closure or Nora. It beggars belief that those in charge trot out the same garbage and still think that they are professional business people yet they regularly fail to understand the market they operate in,the interest of the paying public but believe that the right thing to placate one and all is to trot out the same deceit which a few conspire to promote week in week out. Not one of those in charge has the balls to come on this or any other forum to defend the decisions or worse still accept reasonable criticism and debate the issues. If as seems likely some clubs are doomed, then protesting when the TV cameras are in town will do no harm as it has reached the point where the punters have nothing to lose apart from the entrance fee. It would be surprising if the likes of Belle Vue and Ipswich are part of this shambolic situation but I guess it depends whether they are under threat or worse if they do not follow the party line. How on earth did we get from regular weekly meetings in a semi competitive league to the as and when meeting arrangements you have today. Rather than give clubs the freedom to promote the sport, all those in charge who are empire builders want to do is, restrict, impede and frustrate the hell out of the decent clubs and the punters.

Support through the turnstiles continues to fall and the cloth cap brigade have all but gone with no new blood coming through and with the financial demands from the riders, how much gate money really makes a difference these days. So much is now wrong with the sport from costs to riders, clubs and punters to intermittently run league meetings with gaps in the calendar throughout the summer months that makes it a joke to call it a summer sport added to which the poor tv coverage via Eurosport (BSN are the exception) through to the lunatics who run the sport and are the same idiots who are doing their utmost to stop the likes of the IOW running with Vacther and co being the cancer of the sport. Cut out these people and it may have a chance but it will probably take some clubs to break away and without knowing all the rules, I would suggest that come the end of season, clubs close, get the bonds refunded and then start up again under the governance of another body who are interested in making the sport a success but more importantly, a form of genuine entertainment for the punter.

Sad to see such a decline in what was four or five years ago a passable sport. The top league should be abandoned. Two leagues only with riders who are prepared to ride u k speedway as a their main league and any overseas clubs who they join are aware that the British fixtures take precedent. If it means you end up with part time riders who have jobs outside the sport so be it, it was not that bad last time it was run on this basis. It has no future as it is currently run. Once great teams/tracks like KL and Peterborough have been sacrificed by promoters who fail to operate in the interest of the entire sport. I really hope that someone with some vision can drag this out of the mess and make a successful before it is consigned to history. We cannot compete with overseas clubs/ leagues so stop pretending we can.

Sad state of affairs where the three teams in East Anglia who now have four or five world class riders worth watching are supported by riders Who in each case are average to poor. Perhaps the teams should pool the riders and have a squad system. It also looks as though none of the three will make the play offs. Perhaps they can have their own championship. The coverage on TV is poor and comes nowhere near that which is streamed from Poland. Anyone who has not tried it, watch one Sunday afternoon/evening to see how it can/should be done. Finally, where do the Witches go from here? Is a wholesale clear out required and get in some up and coming talent with a view to next season (assuming they have one at this level)

Processional sadly and having watched the Polish meeting this afternoon, the quality of racing was far better and this sort of presentation leaves you wondering why anyone bothers. Gate and go.

Good meeting and Brady Kurtz was Mr Entertainment weaving his way through from the back. Not sure why Timo left gaps big enough to allow a whole team to pass him. Zagar also got his act together eventually.

It will need a miracle to turn this around. On the plus side, Emil and Jason are crowd pleasers and more often than not show how it can be done. Apart from these guys the team is a shambles. King and Thompson need to be put out to grass and given that the chances of a play off place are becoming remote, try some new talent and hope that the current set up league wise survives another season. Not convinced that the sport can continue as is and the current arrangements show why more meetings are needed to bring on the talent not the current farce with once every three weeks or so for a home meeting. If you cannot change and start having meetings be they individual, four team or pairs in addition to the joke of league racing than every promoter needs to think long and hard and decide if it is worth continuing with the current set up. While the powers that be piss from a great heigh on Nora events, they are also killing off the sport as we all know it.

Possibly one league with clubs racing on nights that best suit them not dictated by overseas race nights. In reality the league as it stands aspires to something it cannot possibly achieve with the real returns for high flyers being Poland therefore why does the U.K. try to compete by paying some stars top dollar (and yes the likes of Doyle etc deserve it) with a long tail in each team of second strings when in reality the sport in this country can not afford those top guys. If you look at the three top teams in the region, they would be hard pushed between them putting out a competitive team that could operate in the top Polish league. It can go one of two ways in the future, complete revamp under the BSPL or Nora. The way some clubs have been treated recently, many will need to consider what will work best for them, a dictatorship running the show or the show being run with spectators in mind.

Britain’s Got Talent has more entertainment and that is saying something give the presentation on show. Who sold out to Eurosport? Oh well always BSN and next season.

Unfortunately the racing cannot live up to that from Poland. Crowd levels don’t come anywhere near and the atmosphere is flat and now you have the commentator talking horse sh.. about to meetings in one day. No hope for the sport in this country. Would today’s current crop of riders coped with the meeting schedule back in the 70’s and 80’s, I doubt it.

Sorry but do not know. Just watched the announcement on Discovery and no names were mentioned.

Well down to Kings Lynn. Great signing and what a meeting it will be between Ipswich and the Stars.

On Discovery + and it really is amateur status. Give up and stick to streams from Poland on Sunday.

Simply filling in at the moment with mindless drivel of interviews. No wonder the sport is on its knees. Currently showing pictures of the supporters. Bit like Euronews with no comment.

Interviews on Discovery plus. Sold out by the arseholes who signed up the rights to this shower who are showing the sport and you have to wonder what the agenda is/has been of the BSPL and any other authority who has had a say in this farce.

It has seemingly been delayed by 30 minutes. Sums up the sport. Crap presentation crap timing, better that clubs/stadia give some credence to Nora events and stop the Vatchers of this world calling the shots. Time this guy was eliminated from the sport.

Looking back, on the May bank holiday in 1973, May 26th you had nine meetings Kings Lynn v Leicester, Belle Vue v Wolverhampton, Cradley v Reading, Halifax v Exeter, Berwick v Boston, Canterbury v Peterborough, Rayleigh v Teeside, Swindon v Oxford and a WCQR at Coventry. On bank holiday Monday nine meetings were taking place and between the 24th and 31st May the fixture list showed 53 meetings were due to take place. I afraid that is when speedway was really worth turning out for and many a happy Saturday night spent at the Weir watching leaping Len and the Rockets. Sadly the last season at the stadium.

Perhaps it should be like American Football, the Poles grace us with a league match in this country and show the BSPA how it is done. Imagine two top clubs from Poland racing in Manchester or Ipswich or Poole and have it televised live on a Sunday afternoon. I guess we just have to dream on but the sport in the U.K. is nowhere near the level that will generate enthusiasm amongst the punters that it does in Poland. Sadly it is past its best in this country.

Sorry but it just does not compete with Poland at all levels. They have more queuing up for the toilet in a Polish meeting than are on the terraces and excitement is as good as paint drying. U K speedway needs to take a look at how you get people interested, this will not do it.

Maybe with a few hundred supporters and naff all in atmosphere. The U K simply cannot compete at this level. Also rans comes to mind