The Dog

Bearing in mind that Oxford have no recent crowd attendances to go by, they've taken on some reasonably big earners in Nicholls and Batchelor without knowing how many fans will turn up on a regular basis to balance the books. Its great that we have another club back racing but can it be made viable?

Why not just take the whole Poole team, at least you know they'll be title challengers!!

Missed that. Bugger.

I'd be happy to give Roynon a chance on a 5ish average. A good gater which is a bonus for a second string or reserve because they get the inside gates and once ahead has speed and good track craft. I know he's had injuries but a lot of them haven't been his fault, he's just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, whereas Bates seems to create his own issues.

I'm not sure I'd take Bates on a 4 point average let alone a 6.20. Had too many nasty injuries and missed to much track time for me.

The previous promotion were losing an awful lot of money in the first batch of meetings before the enforced mid-season break and that was with crowds of 400-700ish people so we all hope the consortium have got their sums correct

At Coventry, it was suggested to Mick Horton that he gave away a couple of hundred free tickets to local schools, businesses etc to get them in and interested. Horton said he'd lose money because those people weren't paying. Couldn't get his head around the fact that those people weren't coming in the first place and all he would 'lose' was the cost of printing the tickets....

But will that get the fans through the turnstiles? We had Harris and Riss last season and fans didn't come. I know Coronavirus was still lingering but we need a massive increase in spectators.

I'd imagine Paco is nailed on again, after that I'm scratching my head a bit

Would rather they got the league fixtures completed in the summer months before attempting other competitions. If we have Covid issues again and a stop start season, then we could be struggling to finish either...

Nobody has said that they intend to run a slick track. All that's been mentioned is that if they completely relay the track it may be slick to start with whilst they build the shale up. People are going off on a tangent now with comments like this and it doesn't help anyone

Brilliant post. Without the likes of Laurence and Neil Vatcher and others, there would be no speedway. The closures of clubs is down to circumstances not Laurence who has for the main part, been a manager. To blame Laurence is like blaming Rosco for the closure of Coventry and Swindon or Lee Kilby for his part at Birmingham, Swindon and Eastbourne.

Ellis wage demands were beyond Birmingham last year hence why we didn't have him back. Maybe the new consortium have more available cash and can get the British Champion

Bizarre statement saying that 330k a year is a poor wage...

I'm not so sure about the advertising and presentation being a massive turn-off, more likely antiquated stadia (bar a few tracks), poor facilities and viewing when compared to other sports events or nights out. Maybe the thought of either getting dusty or wet just doesn't appeal to the masses anymore.

I'm not sure where the 50k rental figure has come from or if its correct but I'm sure Nigel will have all the figures he needs to make a decision. He might have very deep pockets and be happy to keep the club going, that is up to him. What I do know is that at present, he is the only person who is willing to take that chance and I hope it works out and it's an enjoyable season at Perry Barr

I never understand it when team managers say that a riders average is inflated. They've obviously rode well enough to earn that average.

I think the Birmingham promotion agree with you totally but if the stadium owners want to enforce those rules, there's not much they can do about it. Like Speedwayfan says, they have tried to reason with the owners but they don't seem to want to see reason. It's the way landlords operate unfortunately.

Speedway in the spotlight, now there's wishful thinking....

Sounds like a done deal to me then which is great news!

I'm not sure what the consortium leader is going to get out of this meeting, surely he has all the information and figures he needs to know whether it's worth investing or not? Fans will obviously want a decent track for a good team to perform on and no increase on the gate. The rest is down to the business men.

Told me exactly the same. He's proven to be a very good rider and a smashing person but last year never really worked for him. Shame because he's a lot better than we saw and he was as frustrated as anyone.

Riss averaged just over 8 so wasn't that bad

Harsh but funny. He was injured a lot tbf..

I would say being near the top of the league all season and reaching the semis would be classed as title challenging surely? Also the reserves and rising stars average are low for a reason, its your heat leaders that need to hitting double figures