Stephen7

Well Berwick have shown that Edinburgh can be beating, and we are getting one of their guys Bellego who was on top form tonight, plus the addition of Cavatti for the rest of the season, should make Thursdays race a good one. I'm bringing four others with me who have never been before, so just hoping the weather holds.

I think that is the whole point, having a plan to entice more supporters to attend races. Everyone keeps debating whether big name riders pull in the crowds, as if that is the answer to speedways problems. I think speedway needs to think more about promoting the sport. It is strange that in the UK speedway is such a minority sport compared to say Poland, Sweden, or Denmark, to name three, but we can almost sell out the Millennium Stadium for the British Grand Prix, and put on the biggest speedway sceptical in the world. Why is that? Mainly I think because it gets good publicity and is held in a stadium that firstly has Kudos in the general public minds, because it is a terrific venue, one that is a joy to go to. Compare that to the Speedway World Cup being held in the UK heats at Kings Lynn, and I say that with the greatest respect to Kings Lynn but it just does not have the same ring about it. I think the powers to be need to be thinking a lot more about making it an attractive sport to entice more visitors, and that is how the sport looks and feels not just what riders a club has.

Quite likely the most sensible comment yet made. Watering down a product to save money is a recipe for disaster, somehow speedway needs to find a way of attracting more fans. Easier said than done I agree.

In my previous post I raised two questions, one has been touched on but nobody has commented on my second question, and I would be interested to know the answer. My second question was............ "Secondly the subject brought to the fore with Ty's comments about a single night for all teams to race. I don't have a problem with that in principle, but with the sport being so subject to weather I am wondering how this would work as the season moved on. In football we talk about teams having a game in hand, and sometime even two games in hand, but in Speedway this can be a great deal more. At the moment there is a gap of five games between some teams, and in the Premier league there is a gap of eleven races in one case, and we are talking about a year where the weather has been reasonably kind. Surely as the season moves towards the second half the calendar is going to become packed and other nights will have to be raced to catch up. I notice Belle Vue a week on Monday are having a double meeting, with two races one after the other. I am a Belle Vue fan, and love Speedway, but 30 races in one night is a lot to take especially if we are not on form that particular night, and the fact that I have to travel an hour back home afterwards. So my second question is how would it work especially if we had a particularly wet season."

I would be the first to agree that something needs to be done to improve Speedway, as much as I personally love it, and I have read with interest the various comments. I would however like to ask two questions. Firstly regarding the promotion and relegation. A few years ago when I was new to the sport I raised this very question on this forum, and was told that it would not work because most of the teams in the Premier league would not have the money to pay out to compete in the Elite league, and would therefore refuse to be promoted if they won the league. So my first question is, is this still the case? Secondly the subject brought to the fore with Ty's comments about a single night for all teams to race. I don't have a problem with that in principle, but with the sport being so subject to weather I am wondering how this would work as the season moved on. In football we talk about teams having a game in hand, and sometime even two games in hand, but in Speedway this can be a great deal more. At the moment there is a gap of five games between some teams, and in the Premier league there is a gap of eleven races in one case, and we are talking about a year where the weather has been reasonably kind. Surely as the season moves towards the second half the calendar is going to become packed and other nights will have to be raced to catch up. I notice Belle Vue a week on Monday are having a double meeting, with two races one after the other. I am a Belle Vue fan, and love Speedway, but 30 races in one night is a lot to take especially if we are not on form that particular night, and the fact that I have to travel an hour back home afterwards. So my second question is how would it work especially if we had a particularly wet season.

I went to Owlerton for the first time last night, and was very impressed by the stadium, and all the facilities. Someone it trying very hard to make visiting there a pleasant experience, from the kids being able to get their face painted, to a nice bar area, and restaurant with great views of the track, not to mention reasonably easy views of the pits area. The whole place had a good feel about it.

Like you I subscribe to Sky for a whole variety or reasons, but I have to say the EuroSport coverage has been excellent, and I am really warming to the presenters.

Much appreciated flagrag.

Watching the Sky race last night between Leicester and Eastbourne, the show was started with a look at the current Elite league table, with Birmingham now removed and presumably points deducted from other clubs that had raced against them previously, as a Belle Vue fan our points had dropped to 15 which was disappointing. At the end of the race the table was shown again being updated following the evenings races. However Belle Vue was still showing at 15 points, even though they should have got one point for losing by less than 6. So I went onto the Sky website and that still shows Birmingham on the table and Belle Vue with 18 points. So I went onto the official Speedway website SGB, they are showing Belle Vue with 22 points. So I went onto the official Belle Vue website and they are also showing 22 points. So I went onto the Belle Vue Army supporters site and they are showing 21 points. All updated as of last night according to their websites. So does anyone have any idea what the actual points table should be??????????

Last season Sky introduced around the grounds with a reporter and camera man at other grounds, which I thought was a great idea especially if you were watching a race where you did not have strong allegiance it was great to get regular updates from other matches. This season they seem to have dropped that, but did still give verbal updates of other matches being played that night, however they seem to have even dropped that for the last month or so. I wonder why?

So are we saying then that Speedway clubs don't get anything out of the Sky deal? It is just that pre season when there was a 'will they wont they' debate about Sky there was lots of discussion about how the sport desperately needed the money.

It is just a shame they do not broadcast in HD, watching the Grand Prix last month on it was so poor, even as a standard definition, it was not as good as some channels.

I really do hope so. I really enjoyed the SEC last year, and it was great to see such strong support for it from the fans this year. This is what speedway needs, and British interest would be brilliant, even if not held in the UK.

Sorry because I am sure this has been discussed, and I have done my best looking over the 20 pages of this thread, but cannot see the answer as to why there are no British riders in the SEC, can anyone help please. Thanks.

Sorry I looked for it but could not find it, obviously I did not look hard enough.

Well I have just watched the new revamped European Championship, and have to say I really enjoyed it. I also love the fact that it is to be run over 4 events spread over the next two months, and as far as I can see all the points carry on to each event. Sponsored by Nice it has so they say very attractive prize money, so nice to see a new sponsor prepared to put some more money into the sport.

I will be on holiday in Tenerife this Saturday (4th May) and cannot get Eurosport where I am staying. Is it possible to watch it on line, or any other options? Thanks.

While in previous years I would agree with you I think Charlie has been really good this season. She seems so much more relaxed, and has more of a rapport with the riders, able to laugh and joke a little with them, and she is certainly very pleasing on the eye.

I always enjoy Sky's coverage of sport in general, including Speedway. I have to say that I like the improvements brought in this season. I appreciate 'Inside Track' may be old hat to experience speedway fans, but I think it is very interesting for those of us not as familiar with the in's and out's of riding. What I especially enjoyed however was the 'Around The Grounds' coverage. At first I was hoping they had a full camera crew at another event, to cover it if their advertised match was called off, but unfortunately that did not seem to be the case. They did however have at least one camera man at each of the other matches and gave us regular updates and brief interviews with riders or managers, which nicely filled up the time between the longer gaps between races.

Have you approached Travelling Man shops? They are a specialist games shop, with four locations in Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and York. They may take 12 copies, only 3 per shop.. Also Leisure Games in London, they have a shop, but sell a lot online.

I have been a specialist games fan all my life, and also as a Speedway fan, I would pay £18 for it, as having read the basics it looks like a well thought out game. I am just looking into how to buy it, and will be placing an order. It is never going to be a mass market game, but for the specialist games market, of which there is quite a large 'sports games' following, without the purchasers necessarily being fans of that particular sport. So on that basis £18 will be a fair price to those kind of buyers. I wish you well with it.

I agree, very enjoyable. I also liked the fact that they kept giving the sponsors plenty of plugs. This is important if we want them to keep pumping money into the sport.

The British Eurosport website has just published it's schedule for the 23th March, and no mention of Speedway. I do realise that they can and do change their schedules at a moments notice.

Yes. You don't have to be an Aces fan, and they are friendlier than some on here.

Well if it is half as good as Robs previous forum it will be well worth it. I wish it all the best.