Liverpool Chad - Stooge thought you were me. I'm a Stoke fan, although new to the Potters Forum.
The whole thing about the proposed move to the NL has understandably raised a lot of emotions with supporters. Not surprising because this has come out of the blue, with no indication that it was on the cards.
The adminstrator of the forum has has a conversation with Dave Tattum and having read the detail it is clear that the club has financial problems.
A lot of reasons have been given and discussed, such as lack of/poor facilities, lengthy meetings, lack of recognition of the supporters, etc., but one thing is certain the club has not put together a competitive side for many seasons. As a result supporters are frustrated, fed up and tired of being presented with promises at the start of each season that the team that has been put together will do the business, only to find that very soon after the season starts, with a few exceptions,these riders simply do not perform.
It is quite probable that much of this comes from the financial issues that are surfacing; like chicken and egg, the money is not there to recruit good riders and the riders we recuit just aren't good enough to produce the results which would increase support/revenue enabling better riders to be recruited.
However, the one thing all Stoke supporters know is that we have a damn good track that is capable of being ridden by anyone. There has never been any home advantage at Loomer Road and so it is almost impossible to understand how or why some of the riders we have had in the past have been almost totally incapable of riding it. Also I think that when you have a track as fair as ours you must have a strong team. Stoke supporters reading this will know how many times we've suffered at the hands of talented opposition reserves who have found the track good to ride and racked up the points, despite the fact that they have never seen it before.
The supporters have have become fed up with the promotion's inability to field a competitive side, for whatever reason, and as a result many I think have given up. The rest have been waiting patiently for something good to happen and in their eyes it isn't the NL. That comment does not imply that the NL is not a good league.
Last season we suffered badly with injuries, but the young lads (not one of them a heat leader!) rode their hearts out. I was looking forward to this season, hoping that we could retain them (I think most were on loan) add Jason Bunyan (back from injury) and add one more solid heatleader and we could have the makings of a good team. Maybe other supporters felt the same, but any hope we had of that has just been blown out of the water.
On a personal note, I have been a supporter since the Provincial League days. I 'missed' the restart in the 70s, but was a regular during the Crabtree, Monaghan, Jones and Collins periods.As the team quality declined and we continually stayed at or near the bottom of the league, my interest dwindled for many of the reasons mentioned above. When my garnddaughter arrived 12 years ago, I took her to ST.Austell in her pushchair for her first meeting and her interest has grown. I now take her to Stoke when SHE is available, but to be honest I find it difficult to raise the enthusiasm to go on my own. The big danger now is that those supporters who have been more regular than me will disappear in disgust at DT's unexpected decision and that will almost certainly spell the end of speedway in Stoke. My sincere hope is that once the emotions have settled down, the Stoke speedway fans will accept that any speedway in Stoke is better than none at all.
Apologies to all if I've gone on a bit.
By the way thanks to all existing NL supporters for their best wishes for Stoke in the NL (if we get there!)
Chad
