Elephantman

Then the need is to fix the sport to make it attractive; I can afford £15 to attend but won't as my local track has a crap stadium, with crap facilities, crap racing..... need I go on. I'm happy to lash out £90 5/6 times a year to watch premiership football and will spend similar amount to attend the theatre and ballet, all are expensive but good value as they are entertaining. I'm also happy to travel a few times a year to a good speedway track that provides entertaining racing and pleasant surroundings. With Hotel that costs me £110 a go. To make something attractive to people you need to sell the benefits and if people buy in to the benefits the price becomes less of an issue.

As I said in an earlier post; deluded! What would the ROI be?

Fair comment. I don't know DH so cannot comment on his character (I did meet him through CS when he was a kid; a good kid from a good home, as they say). What I do know is that anyone who believes there is a long list of investors willing to stick their money in to speedway they are deluded. They may not like the choice of DH as owner/promoter, this is clear as they have been belly-aching from day one, however Hobson's choice is better than none at all!

Well actually you are not being fair. As has been posted this lad has done all that was expected of him; he is the victim of others not pulling their weight and an audience that are clearly demanding change. He has not failed he has been failed. Same as above. I can only assume that some posters never look at other people's post or read the press releases. It appeared to me to be an unusual press release as normally when someone is released it is case of the least said the better. In this instance it looks like the management have been forced to sacrifice this lad, even though he is probably the better long term prospect, to bring someone in who can cover for those more experienced riders who are not performing. The one thing Jake needs to understand is that it's not how many times you get knocked down that matters; it's how many times you get back up again.

You need to read the press release as this post is out of order.

For this subject the facts are available and opinion not based on the facts is exactly that; just some persons thoughts without any substance.

You are posting utter tosh. Obtaining grants is about following the rules by writing an application that meets the criteria of Sport England. Instead of posting nonsense why don't you do something useful go study the rules and devise a way for speedway to benefit?

I do hope not! If it provides an indicator of what can be achieved Cycle Speedway attracts a similar demographic in terms of support and participation with a history of the same types of internal conflict and partisan decision making that can be seen in most sports. CS was in a significant degree of difficulty some years ago (and in some areas still is) but it got together a 5 year plan on how to move forward and make the clubs in the sport self sustaining. Some have made it work some haven't but it is in a far better position than it was. A completely different business model of course, but if the issue is people not working together for the greater good, CS can show Speedway how it was done.

All hope need not be lost, if there is no money then you need agreement. What I mean by that is if no sugar daddy or big money is available you have to get all stakeholders (don't you hate that term)to understand what each of them can do to help the sport progress. That requires discussion, a plan and agreement on how to move forward. Speedway needs to get its best people around a table, whether they be promoters or not, agree a way forward and publish a five-year development plan with meaningful, measurable goals. If you've got nothing to aim for you are aiming at nothing! By the way setting goals and missing them is not always a disaster just the act of setting goals will reinvigorate and motivate all those involved.

With respect you are looking at this from the wrong angle. You can change price but then you need to understand the affect that will have on demand. If there is a high fixed cost of operation (I believe there is)and demand is inelastic (I believe it is, demand does not change significantly with a change in price) then dropping the price will not cause a significant increase in attendance but will reduce revenues. Speedway must either expand in their current market or make itself attractive to new markets and grow demand that way. One way to do this is to improve the product. Let me give you a specific example. I know someone who will not travel to the local Elite league track (25 minutes away) to stand in a ramshackle stadium watching crap racing. They don't care what it costs, it could be £2.50 and they still would not waste an evening there. On the other hand they will travel a couple of hundred miles 3-4 per year, stay in a hotel, to go to a good stadium with proper bars and restaurants to watch what is generally entertaining racing (as you can tell money is not the issue; good use of time is). The challenge speedway may have is that it does not have enough money to get the product right and attract new custom.

If the market will only pay £10 entry speedway has a real issue. Many costs are fixed and many are outside of the sports control. Add in to this the winter clamour of supporters calling for promoters to get their hands in their pockets to pay for the better riders and all together you have a recipe for disaster. In the USA they are doing some interesting work on the price elasticity of demand for team sports http://thesportseconomist.com/labels/Elasticity%20of%20demand.htm

The trouble with all sports is that those who follow think they can do better than those that do.

I don't understand it I had an elderly Aunt from Leicester and she was normal so I know it's nothing in the water. Are you sure you whingers are actually from Leicester?

Your response is so typical of a few people who post about Leicester; there is no doubt that there is personal animosity driving some of the posts and it is clear that this minority are determined to keep this worthless thread going. There is an old saying, "if you've got nothing positive to say, say nothing". You should apply your own approach to attending Leicester if it is as bad as some of you indicate; stop attending. You don't debate anything on this thread; you just whinge!

Wake me up when this thread has died will you. Even better wake me up if someone posts something that isn't predictable. Thanks. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

Dear Spin King; consider yourself b****cked; by order of Oily Rag; Mind you is there an Oily Rag senior on the scene; which means this Oily Rag is junior?

If you say so I must be wrong. I'll b*****k the poster who named you shall I?

Yes you've got an agenda which is why you've not posted until two injuries have given you the opportunity. Just because some guy who works for you can't get a place at Sheffield there is no need to keep slagging the promotion. Why don't you follow Leicester or something; you'd come across as positive on their posts!

I had written detailed response to this but I blocked it. I really can't be bothered responding to people who clearly do not understand the power of the written word and the potential damage it can cause. They are always the one's that prattle on about "their rights" but they never really consider the responsibilities or more importantly the consequences of exerting their rights. The problem with all of the posts criticising Leicester and Hemsley (and all the winter posts slagging the Sheffield Team ) is that none of you have attempted to put yourself in his position of the people you are criticizing; to try and understand the challenges they may be facing. Without that attempt at understanding their position your desire for change will always hit a brick wall.

Is it really stupid? Is there anything I have posted that is factually incorrect? Hemsley fell out with a number of people at the start and during the delivery of the project 100's of posts have been made about that subject from some of the people involved There has been constant ongoing criticism about Hemsley Constant ongoing criticism about the racing surface Constant ongoing criticism about the shape of the track I'm not implying there is an organisation behind the campaign to oust Hemsley; but if something looks like a campaign, smells like a campaign and reacts like a campaign; it probably is a campaign! To all intent and purpose that is what the constant criticism of Leicester and Hemsley is. I have no doubt that if Hemsley chucked a load of money at fixing the problems that many claim there are; a number of posters would then be moaning about the time it took for him to do it. The constant criticism means that he is in a no win situation; whatever he does is going to be wrong so he's better off keeping the money in his back pocket in the hope that things calm down and he has the space to make a reasoned judgment. And that may be what is needed; some space for Hemsley to reflect and make some decisons. When people are put under constant pressure to do things they don't neccessarily agree with, many buckle and do it just for a quiet life. Others stick the requests to the bottom of the queue and don't budge an inch; that's where I'd be if I was putting up with this constant barrage because I'm as stubborn as ****. Hemsley may just be the same!

From a neutral point of view it seems clear that Hemsley has fallen out with some of the people that originally were involved with the reopening of Leicester. Since then there has been a consisitent and persistant campaign to undermine the promotion. Hemsley has clearly not helped himself in all of this; but the reality is that issues that may have died out at other promotions are being kept in the spotlight by a vocal group who will not let it rest. It seems clear that they will not be happy until Hemsley is ousted. I would imagine Hemsley is waiting for a lottery win so that he can bulldoze the stadium and poke two fingers up at his critics. If I was in his shoes I'd probably choose to put Leicester back to where they were before I got involved; i.e. no speedway and no liklehood of speedway.

I may well be saluting a fool; but at least the fool has achieved something of substance; it is that which I salute.

Can anyone leave a message to the Leicester Promotor? good; here goes: Dear David, You are truly one of the all time great cycle speedway riders and deserve your place in British Cycling's hall of fame. The attributes that brought you sporting success must have been displayed in achieving the dream, for many speedway supporters, of bringing the sport back to Leicester: Drive Determination Focus Willingness to take risks Embracing the positives and learning from the negatives. Yet many cannot see that the attributes needed to achieve this great success, are the same attributes that mean anyone who wishes to influence or persuade you, must have all their ducks in a row; if they haven't it's going to be a very short conversation. I salute you, Yours Nellie Elephantman

I'm not that hot on the rules; that is allowed is it?

Sorry just spotted this pathetic effort of a response. I didn't realise this topic was about me. Next time you want to respond in such away I suggest you add "nana na nana" at the end so we can get a clue about your age.