TheReturn

Consdiering away fans travel hundreds of miles and spend a fair bit of cash to attend speedway meetings, you would think showing a little respect to away fans in our failing sport would have been in order.

Then that is more than enough to 'sell' the sport to local residents. Pretty big catchment area too, so much potential. The first thing a new promotion should do is employ good marketing company that have a proven track record (excuse the pun) at reaching audiences (online and offline)... and by that I don't mean give the job to existing speedway buddies/press officers (which seems to be the case from what I can tell with British speedway). So many great promotion ideas that I can think of (and I am not even an expert), there needs to be lots of investment in terms of time and money this coming season with marketing Belle Vue, but it could have a long term pay off for Belle Vue. I hate to admit it, but when I was living on the south coast I would regularly see Poole being promoted. Because the racing is 'out of the top drawer' and they have a track and stadium that is proven to provide great racing. Sad but true, very few other tracks provide such quality racing.

Was the quality of racing not consistent throughout the season then? Every time the camera's were there the racing was by far the best we have seen anywhere on UK shores for many seasons. If I lived locally, that would be enough to get me going weekly.

I am confused by the promotion aspect from the AGM. How will some Premier League clubs afford it in the top flight? Surely it can only work if promotion comes with a big winners cheque to help prop the team up for the following season or two in the top flight.

Can someone summarise what's happened? I assumed the new stadium meant long term plans were in place for speedway, not clear from the press reports what's gone wrong. Shame this is what got speedway trending on Twitter.

Yep, I agree with others. Look at F1, if you tell sponsors they can't be in the pits on race weekend I imagine many of them would take their money. It shouldn't matter, provided the SGP officials are strong and firm and not influenced by sponsors, rider officials etc.

I must be watching a different Greg

I accept you were playing devils advocate and I don't have a problem with you holding an opinion. But why are people/speedway press not making more out of the fact he 'chose' to withdraw from the meeting because he was 'not in right frame of mind'. Just like the SWC at Belle Vue he's short changed the fans, and the excuse he used is pathetic beyond belief. Greg does what Greg wants, and it's about time BSI, speedway authorities and the speedway press called him on it.

You could argue Doyley was equally bad last year with his desperate SGP moves. It's just hard (silly sometimes) racing, which Doyley learned from, Nicki doesn't. The point is, Nicki is no worse that a lot of riders.

Rubbish. Like others have said, Nicki rides hard, very hard but not deliberately dirty what HanCOCK did on track in the heat of the moment was stupid but partly understandable. What he did the following day by making that blog post was petty, pathetic and disgusting... arguably bullying. HanCOCK lives up to his name, COCK.

Judging by his Twitter account, lots of sycophants will do! When he's back in Cardiff I hope speedway fans vocalise exactly what they think of him by loudly booing. And his fine for attacking Nicki was peanuts too. There was no 'bringing the sport into disrepute' charge for his subsequent website post about NIcki. Seems to me like Hancock can do exactly what he wants and the speedway authorities and press simply roll over.

Emil is a better rider than Bjerre and belongs in the GP. But Bjerre is absolutely right, Emil should be qualifying.

Been working away for a couple of days, what did I miss? Hancock, that sensitive soul, still pretending he wasn't in the right frame of mind which is why he pulled out?

Agreed. See my post on the previous page made overnight. He claims he pulled out for the safety of everyone, because he could not focus. Seems the sycophantic gullible on Twitter are buying that load of hogwash.

Wow... he's now saying he pulled out of the meeting for the safety of other riders (or at least that's my interpretation, I will read it again with fresh eyes in the morning).... someone take the man's spade away, he's digging himself one hell of a hole there.

Yes, but he then threw his toys out of the pram and chose not to race, so that needs to be punished. If he excluded himself from the meeting, really they should not have given him the platform to be presented with the trophy at the end in front of the crowd who paid to watch him race, not sulk.

It's a rarity, but it seems almost everybody on the forum that's commented is in agreement over Hancock and what happened yesterday. I had a good look around riders on Twitter and it's a shame they all seem to be congratulating Greg nobody is questioning what he did, which I find a real shame.

Finally people are seeing through that cheesy grin to see what kind of guy Hancock is.

Jacques, you are probably right there!

Hancock showed in the SWC that he does not care about fans, he just turns up and rides when he can be bothered.

Indeed. I have never ridden so can someone that is a former rider tell me, in this scenario is Greg saying it can only come loose when cornering? Otherwise is explanation does not make sense because if he was so worried, why was he going flat out mid track out on the straights and pulling a good few bike lengths clear each time.

Manipulating a race to help a friend/countryman or in this case Monster teammate is never acceptable. I would still say the same if Greg was helping Tai out tonight.

They didn't but the way Kelvin questioned the move during the race sort of suggested to me that Kelvin thought it was suspicious, which was enough for me to rewind and take a look. Not just today for me. Hancock's recent crimes against speedway are: - Today, manipulating the race. - World Cup, cheating British fans by pulling out of the Belle Vue meeting, after making no reference to that in the qualification. - His attack on Nicki by publishing a website statement attacking his character. Unprofessional at best!

I think that came last year! His attack of Nicki, not on track but the off-track website statement was pathetic and bullying. Tonight he went from winning the world title in one race, to colluding to cheat other riders in the following race. To be fair Kelvin called it 'strange' during the race, and was quickly critical. Pearson didn't try to defend Hancock (yes that's right folks, I am defending Pearson). I looked on Twitter and that total moron Havelock is now slating Nigel and Kelvin for judging Hancock. What saddens me is that Havelock can't see what Hancock did was wrong.

That's all I watch it for, first is first and everything else is irrelevant. If you say so! For most it's just a pointless meeting.