Elephantman

He's not a kid; he's 25 years old and his record of behaviour seems to indicate he may have some personality defects.

Behind a keyboard!

If a couple of posters on this thread typify the demographics of your average speedway supporter; then the value is f*** all! Sorry to be so rude but ignorance begets ignorance

You can't post that; we don't want any positive stuff; Mr 20% will be after you (I thought it was 10% but clearly got it wrong earlier).

Is it something I said?

Who's April and what's her bottom got to do with anything?

Well Mr 10% you failed to PM me didn't you? I did ask you to PM me if you had anything positive to post; I nearly missed it. Two of your mates gainfully employed is positive isn't it? But your so used to been negative you couldn't even see the positive in that. I am personally stunned. Next time try and work it out; in fact let me help; if there is a modicum of good news in anything you are thinking of posting do let me know in advance, as previously requested.

Look I'm very sorry that your personal friends haven't been employed at Sheffield (again) but get over it. The reality is that Ricky Wells has signed; he earns the bulk of his money (as they all do) on results, he will be motivated to race at his best for Sheffield. I would imagine his biggest issue is moaning G*ts like you! Do me a favour PM me if you ever post anything positive, I don't want to miss it.

You must dread waking up in the mornings!

Wells that's a relief! http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/speedway/wells-ties-up-a-new-tigers-deal-1-5340906

If you accept that the boom years were immediately after WWII in to the mid 1950's it is clear that arrival of televison is the single event that has changed the entertainment business. Not just speedway has been affected, the dogs, stock cars, dance halls, cinema audiences, bingo all affected by TV. Speedway had a revival in the late 1960's early 1970's; that may have been the supporters from the 40's & 50's taking their kids along, but pretty much it has been downhill ever since. The problem now is that the core support is ageing and there dosen't appear to be enough money in the sport to relaunch or refresh the product. It is a concern.

Ah one of my areas of knowledge! It will leave him without a work permit............ no work permit, no job!

Having read many of your posts I'm not at all certain I could trust your judgment. So instead of giving your opinion why don't you list the total payments and benefits in kind he received last year and what is been offered this year. Then we can all decide if we think it is an insult or not? A few facts generally help.

I and many others are working for less than last year. I don't condone this but it's either that or find another job. Why should any sports people be protected from the economic realties of life under the coalition government. It is the lower paid workers/manual workers that are suffering because of Cameron and his mate; many speedway followers fall in to this bracket. If they are suffering this has to have a knock on effect on the sport and if you are to balance the books that will affect riders.

I understand what you are saying but i think you miss the point. Riders have a choice, nobody forces them to race speedway. If the money is too low, quit; if the risks of serious injury are too high, quit. I can't imagine too many kids are thinking to themselves, "how much am I going to earn if I take up speedway?", if they love the sport they just want to have a go. I don't think risk assessment rates as a major consideration when kids start racing; again they just want to have a go. So to argue that they risk life and limb then link this to the rates they are paid is a false argument; the two should never be connected. As soon as a rider starts thinking that way it surely is time to quit.

Costs are rising; revenues aren't. So who takes the pain off the losses; the rider? the promotors? The spectators? Or do you share the pain around? If it is the latter then the riders should expect to take soem of the pain. The riders are not risking life and limb to entertain us; they are competitive sports people who want to be the best at their chosen sport, the down side is they do risk life and limb becuase that is the nature of the sport they choose to do.

I must have missed this; but where is it stated that the promotion offered him reduced terms?

So realistic = miserable in the world of Speedway Forums?

You post such ill thought out drivel that if anyone took your views seriously I'd be staggered. From my perspective the sport is in major difficulties, we are potentially facing a triple dip recession, the demographics of the core support are those that are most affected by this Governments economic policies and cost all around are rising. Yet you manage to scrape up the brain cell to post this tripe. I'm cetain that Machin and Hoggart would value a couple of hundred more fans; that would be an extra £3k or so a meeting. But the likes of you would expect that to be spent on team strengthening; the reality is that it needs to be spent on paying the bills or are you uanble to understand what was written; most owners support speedway as a tax break for their core business i.e. you and I are supporting every other club that has this strategy via our taxes. No better than Starbucks really.

It's actually your ignorant crap that is the problem. I have not read a single positive post from you that I can recall; earlier you admitted that you only post to moan. Most other critics have some logic to there argument your views are just good old fashioned abuse from what I have read!

Fair comment; posted when I had just had a gutfull of reading negative comments. However my view will not change; their is a right way to criticise and a wrong way. You quite correcly highlight that I dealt with the critics in the wrong way; eqaully there are a number of regular posters who just whinge. In my view that isn't support or supportive it's undermining.

I have never posted that you should not make comments about the team. What my post imply and indicate is that if those posts are constantly negative, constantly criticize the promotion and constantly imply that the new riders are not going to be good enough the result will be the "self fullfilling prophecy". i.e. If enough people say you are crap you will be crap! The constant barage of bile from a few posters will undermine the morale of the new riders, p of the promotion and unsettle other supporters. Now if you think that is a good way to support your team that is a different viewpoint to mine. There is a huge difference between constructive criticism and what is generally posted on the Sheffield thread every winter (by the way I don't generally include your posts in that category). The underlying comments from a few posters are always along the lines of "Machin is too tight to pay". Well it appears to me that Machin has run a financially viable speedway for many years, with Sheffield there or there abouts at the top of the competitions for the majority of that time. To use another football analogy Sheffield are rather like the Arsenal of the of the speedway world; properly run, generally succesfull with some supporters not valuing or appreciating what has been achieved. I would dare to suggest most speedway supporters would want a set up like Sheffield just as most football supporters would be estatic if their team had achived what Arsenal have. To sum up my view is that is is not what you say, it is how you say it that matters and I am criticisng how people are saying things.

Where exactly have I said anything of the sort? The answer is nowhere. I've had to answer this for you because your overwhelming dislike of the Sheffield promotion appears to affect your ability to assimilate and sort information in to logical threads.

I would hope that my posts don't need your slant or interpretation. All I am saying is that I'm sick to death of some of the people who post on this forum that have nothing positive to say about Sheffield, either the team being put together or the promotion. Every winter the same names appear spouting the same drivel. Fortunately you are in the minority as the silent majority may not post an opinion but the certainly do use the like button. I've spent 50+ years participating in and supporting team sports; in all that time I've not experienced one team perform well when there is constant criticism and negative comments from their so called support. On the other hand I've seen average teams perform brilliantly when everyone gets behind them. All you whingers really need to decide what you want; a team to support that will do it's best or a team like England's football team that can't perform at Wembley because the slightest error or mistake has every so called fan and journalist on their backs? I know which camp I'm in.

And you have just contributed what exactly with this post...... Oh, that would be nothing. One would hope so; there is a rich history of winning teams (in all sports) that go out of business after a year or two. Perhaps that's what some people want? Anyway my last post (unless somone really winds me up) until March! Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to you all! Nellie.