macinter

How many posters on here are aware of how it came about that the BBC showed coverage of the last one off world championship final? It might come as a surprise. Sorry if some of you are not too interested

I don't post on here very often these days nor have I read every post on this subject so apologies if someone else has already posted something like mine. The overwhelming issue as regards speedway is, in my view anyway, because so many are unaware of the sport even down to something as simple as to what is is and where it is staged. If I ever say anything about Arena Essex and the Lakeside Hammers, people, for the most part, just haven't got a clue what I am talking about. TV on its own has yet to overcome this issue as most people just flick through the channels looking for something that might interest them, which for the most part means skipping over the speedway racing bit. Unfortunately, until we overcome this problem I'm afraid our sport will continue as a minority attraction.

Personally I would like to see some thought given to an alternative to the tapes for starting races. With one televised race last season taking four attempts to get started it doesn't really help much towards attracting new fans to our sport. I wonder how many potential newcomers to speedway might have been watching that race, got fed up waiting for it to start and just switched off watching on TV or left the stadium. But I would be surprised if many fans would vote to change the starting method as speedway is a bit set in its ways sometimes, as per the hullabaloo when the world championship changed to a GP system.

I think it is an almost excellent magazine with just a little too much of days gone by. Please stick to more current affairs as I am sure there is plenty of news out there, although it must be a touch difficult during the close season. Why not some reasonably comprehensive articles on our young riders who look as though they might have a speedway future. How did they get into speedway and what do they think it needs to get it more into the public domain for a start. Perhaps, with all due respect, us old codgers have just too much influence on what passes as speedway news.

Got to stop repeating myself.

Because its tennis. Posh sport. Not hard to figure out. The BBC is supposed to be an impartial organisation but it is about as impartial as Donald Trump. This is the mob which has twice awarded their "prestigious" trophy to a member of the Royal family.

The really important thing is that Tai gets some much needed publicity for our sport.

In my view the life of speedway racing in its present form is limited because the product does not attract youngsters, apart from the riders. We have a sport which is rooted in the past, as most oldies are really and I should know because I am one of them. And as you get older it becomes more and more difficult to accept anything new. Things such as pop music, for instance, sounds like total crap, perhaps because most of it is anyway, but it proves a point. And I have yet to read or hear of anything which is likely to improve this situation, as even Tai winning his second world title failed to attract the majority of the UK press or TV stations. A glimmer of hope may be the introduction of the new track at Belle Vue but it is hard to comprehend how this could make a huge difference outside of Manchester. On this forum most of the conversations appear to be conducted mainly between men over sixty which is OK on the bowling green but not on the speedway track and the stark truth is that unless speedway gets a foothold with the younger generation it is not going anywhere, even with Tai striving mightily. I thing that first of all speedway should set a date when two riders racing against two riders is transformed into four riders racing against each other. Which means the end of speedway as we know it and the introduction of a new format. We can then get rid of daft gimmicks such as Jokers or tactical riders as they are sometimes called. Individual meetings, in my opinion anyway, almost always provide better racing and if speedway is going to survive every view must be taken into account. And I still believe this to be true even on top of some top class racing in the play offs. Comments appreciated, even if they are critical. We need to have a proper civilized debate about where we go from what is just about nowhere at the present. In the face of some fierce opposition the GP's have begun to transform world championship racing, it is now time for the domestic version to take along hard look at where it is going.

Perhaps if teams were only allowed to use "tactical riders" a certain number of times per season it might help to make this rule slightly more acceptable. Then team managers would have to do some "tactical" thinking.

I suspect this might be something under active consideration as suggested by Tai Woffinden.

It is difficult to see how promotion and relegation will work. For a start if Edinburgh win the PL they will not want to move up to the EL whilst Glasgow remain in the Premier. It will mean goodbye to their most attractive league meetings, a stone cold financial fact which cannot be disputed. Regional speedway seems a much more healthy proposition.

But the best riders don't always serve up the best entertainment. There have been some dull GP's with little or no passing and the youngsters at reserve in British domestic speedway are serving up some really good close racing. A bit hairy at times but they sure give it everything.

OOPS!! I left half my post off and what I should have said was eight teams in three fairly local regions racing against each other twice which gives fourteen regional meetings. The top four in each division would then go on to form a nation wide Elite league of 12 teams and race against each other once. The bottom four would form a Premier League and do likewise. I would expect to attend more away meetings using my suggestion than I would under a national league of 24 teams.

A single race night is very likely to be a non starter in British speedway. I think we should accept that we cannot afford the top flight riders and get on with promoting speedway at Premier league level throughout the UK. If Sittingbourne and Stoke could be persuaded to race at this level we could possibly have 3 regional leagues with eight teams in each. Play offs, which would incorporate teams which finish top of each region would then be meaningful and, apart from those play offs, clubs wouldn't have to travel the length and breadth of the country. With Peterborough hosting Newcastle in April being far and away the most entertaining speedway meeting on the box this year there is no need for the top riders to make our sport entertaining. Meetings would cost less to stage. Entrance fees could be reduced and we could have speedway on practically any night we wanted.

I think speedway has to concentrate on promoting our world champion like mad, as much as it takes to get the press and TV to take notice that we do have world champions. After the football World Cup fiasco and the cricket and rugby international teams not doing too well, plus with our cyclists and tennis players having problems and likewise with some of our best athletes, speedway needs to promote Tai like blazes. He is a natural in front of the cameras, something which was neither Mark or Gary's greatest skill and even his tattoos, so disliked by many of our older fans, will appeal to youngsters, who don't have the abhorrence of our oldies of such body decorations. We have a potential superstar on our speedway tracks, with a personality to match and it would be a massive tragedy if this chance, perhaps speedway's last, was just allowed to fade away. It would also be a betrayal of Tai. We all have the potential to do something, even if it seems so minor it doesn't appear worth it. Ask your newspaper for more news about Tai, or write to the BBC and make them aware of his brilliant charity work as well as informing them of his fantastic ability as a speedway rider. Posting on this forum won't do it, nor can the Speedway Star, but we fans can and should. We owe it to Tai, he has done the hard bit, we should be doing the easy bit even if in the end it all comes to nothing. We just cannot let this massive chance go to waste without even trying.