Paul Johnson

scunny speedway fans are very fickle, half of us like to see racing and watching talent come through, we like to see them come to us and get better each week, birksy, tofty, tj,blackbird, ryan,nike, as rob likes to bring through untried riders, many recommended by other riders because they know rob and the track will benefit their careers. now the other half are not prepared to watch them start off, or even understand what rob is doing, our plight is on facebook in various posts,giving reasons why they arent attending, and rob seems to me he cant win either way, ie."so much for weening the new blood, why bring him into the team when he could use his many riders from the amatuer scene"?. so rob brings im matt williamson last year, josh bates before, ellis perks this year, at the time all good points scorers in the nl, then they say, "well waht do you expect when you have rubbish reseveses going round half a lap behind or fall off all the time or havent won for 50 odd starts" "im not paying to watch them do that"

every time we have double headers, this year and before, 3/4s of the crowd leave after the main event, they have paid £2 to watch another 15 heats of speedway at nl level but wont watch it, 2 bleeding quid and they moan about the standard of racing.."im not paying to watch that rubbish," so i cant see the crowds flocking back in to pay whatever it costs to watch us in the nl, again the die hard core would pay to watch me granny race a monkey if it meant we were watching racing, , i also agree about the polish population, its too dear compared with home and i think they are used to going in "proper stadiums" , a couple came once last year and sat in front of us, we got chatting and they said the facilities are very very basic compared to torun etc.

it has to be because we arent winning at home, the results arent happenning, the floating fans are reading the updates or telegraphs website and saying "lost again",also its been aprill since we tracked a full 1 to 7 and by reading various posts on bsf and facebook people will not pay to see a guest who dosent score what he did for his team the previous visits or r/r, the ones who stay away dont not care or realise the damage they are causing to the club, all our ideas in the scorps meetinfs would have helped more for next year, maybe not enough time to implement for this year, it was brought up iin the meetings about an "all in price" same as the greyhounds, as the outsider said, you turn up with say £18 and thats for entrance, programme, burger and a drink, it sounds better when you pitch it to some, ive had positive reaction from friends who like that idea, they ask how much is speedway? and i say,£15 to get in, then you need this then you need that and you can see them working the price out and saying thats a lot, so if you said just bring a twenty pound note you will be sorted. i was positive that once we won our first meeting at home the crowd would come back,but now we have just short of 2 months left i think its too late for them to teturn,

tbh there hasnt been that many big job losses in scunthorpe in recent years , maybe like mentioned above, government cuts? i think that as of now the crowd there are now are the "die hard" ones who will go no matter what, the 200 that have disappeared are the ones who think results matter and wont pay to watch a team sat at the foot of the table, some of those maybe decided because thomas and ash were not there then im not going, especially with ryan not starting the season again.i saw people i know turn up because ryan was back in then not been since he got injured, also with josh out too they dont seem to have a "favourite" to cheer on, ( a la, ash, tj, tofty, howe) i said before we ahve to go 1 more year for nike to develop like ryan, then the fans cant behind him, a big hitting number 1, like mr barker who should be guarenteed to score 10 or 15 everywhere he goes,start the season in good form then the crowds will stay through the season, instead of dwindling off like now, that would pay his wages,go for it big time ,if it works, great, if it dosent work then scunny dosent want speedway

no

i think it should be.. the rider, his mechanic and one quest of the rider, ie, wife or girlfriend that get in for free, track volunteers on the day and the volunteers who helped out at the amatuer meets (most of the time its the same people) who get in for free, i know some who get in at scunny because they "know people", at a time when scunny need all the money coming in as possible it should be clamped down on.

o dear scarra not good news it, seems like people need very little excuse to not attend speedway but need something big to get them back.. i honestly think people have stayed away from scunny because of birksy. tj and ryan not being there, to some extent josh, because the fans need to have a"scunny man" to cheer on, wilcko is one of those but he has just come back to us but probably not held in high esteem as those four, not knocking him, i think he is a briliant team member and would have him in my team all day long, nike needs one more year then will benefit like ryan did, i know rob dosent like to build with a "big" number 1 but i would do it and say "one more year, if it goes wrong then ok we close", i know josh is on a high average 8.36? but id go for ben barker, josh, ryan,wilcko,tofty, nike and a 3 pointer reserve,(clegg?,rose? greenwoods?), if it dosent work then fine, but if it does and it gets crowds back then thumbs up,draw a line on this season rob, luck isnt on our side this season,go for it next year and watch em come back,

scunny, to some its all about winning and not being entertained, but i suppose its there money, they are entitled to stop away but its going to stop it for us die hard ones who like to watch anyone one a bike

dont worry about assets, there wont be any left when we close down next year.

i know, for some reason i keep doing that, then try and correct it, must of slipped through

if you read robs statement or davids comments in the speedway star david wasnt expected to ride again this season,so rob built a new team, he want dropped or surplus to requirements,or released, we cant wait for him to decide if he ready or not. even when glasgow first rang him he said he wasnt sure if his shoulder was upto it, if he had said yes the first time i dont think tis would all kick off, its just ironic timing, also the only reason you were entitled to use a guest was because of stuart robson doing the same for coventry, david may of signed for glasgow but who is he an asset of? wolves or scunny?,,,, anyways rob helped your wishes and got nothing, if we beat newcastle it would make the next round that more spicy.

life is about doing favours for each other.... glasgow wanted david howe.... rob said "ok no problem, if you want him this is what i want in return, please dont use a quest on friday"... rob felt let down by a promotion maybe new to speedway? dont know who the new owners are, dont care really, i agree nothing illegal has happened, its just the backing down on a verbal agreement(if there was one) thats upset him, if you lot really wanted to field the best team on friday, then you must of been scared of getting beat.... and if deals are broken then other teams may run scared of helping glasgow in the future.

tell it how it is.... as in .. speak his mind,maybe why refs fine him so much

sorry gaz that wasnt meant specifically to you, i was speaking generally, like i said we believe rob and glasgow will believe your management,to be fair maybe it should of been kept between then selves, but like i said, rob will tell it how it is...

if rob himself repeated on here what he told us, would you still deny there was a gentlemans agreement?,,, obviously yes, because us scunny fans will believe rob, you glasgow fans will be on the side of glasgows.... if you know rob then you know he will tell you straight what he thinks of things, swearing at the ref, our riders not riding the track he prepared for them. , what i heard was that davids signing was based on glasgow not going with a guest, but r/r , they agreed then when signed they went back on the "agreement" .. i wish the meeting was videoed then people could hear what he said (unless it got edited out)..didnt rob request a song from barry when the meeting was getting started? sorry i posted when rob was typing then saw he had posted.... sorry rob

it was your post earlier gaz... "i didnt hear what rob was saying" what i meant about quesing

its the "gentlemans agreement" that got broke thats rattled rob.. to me if someone didnt hear what he said then he or she shouldnt second quess what was said. i believe rob knew that glasgow were planning to use a guest but asked for a favour by saying they could david this week instead of after the match, a gentlemans agreement was agreed last week with lakeside regarding ben barker and ashley birks i believe, its not about what "scunny have done it before", its about promoters talking deals over the phone, and thinking you have people who you can trust, of course glasgow were in the right to use a guest as the bspa granted the facility, did the mangemaent go back on their word as i dont think david would have been with glasgow last night if they hadnt agreed..... could someone explain why berge did hand gestures to the crowd coming off bend 4 please?

i didnt think rob said that david wouldnt go to glasgow.... he said "he didnt expect david to ride again this year", then he heard that he wanted to go to glasgow and it was ironic that it was scunny on friday, so he gave permission for dave to go on loan as he had to problem with david wanting to ride again but asked (i quess the manager) that if i lend you him please dont use a quest for sarjeant," so for rob to ok davids move glasgow must of done a gentlemans agreement which they have backed out of? hence the "win at all costs" i also think that sarjeant was missing because he was doubling up, he wasnt missing got he got injured as he would of been missing any way, with the summers incident at the tapes... seemed to me that he did delay the start because his bike stopped, he was the primary cause of the stoppage ,if his bike hadnt packed up then everthings hunky dory, the ref put the red lights on to halt the start? , maybe to stop all the riders revving up etc?

would r/r scored as many as covatti? i doubt it as someone said to me ,david howe and the reserves would be allowed as r/r..feel sorry for NIke, he looked really fast getting 2 race wins to start off, joked about him getting 18 points, guess i put the mockers on him..... he did a wheelie to celebrate his 2nd win and fell off the back, totalling his bike and i think his 2nd one too, it went hurdling the fences in heat 11.it was an entertaining but in incidents... like the first poster stated....also who is to blame for the quest? glasgow for using him or the bspa for allowing? rob said his wasnt happy with the win at all cost glasgow,

i worry if the fans dont go for this meeting then they wont return full stop, unless we get to the play off final, then it will be too late. to some the results matter most even though almost all the matches so far have been entertaining...... cue the " i pay to watch a winning team" i know we lost some fans because of thomas and ash going but we have a cracking set of lads riding and all of them wanted to ride for us so we should get behind them, they will appreciate the support and every rider there loves scunny and the people, rob WILL close speedway if the crowds continue as they are, its not just sustainable at this level

davids at number 2, nico quests for sarjeant according to scunnys website

can we get him now please?

wasnt "proper second halfs" the fastest riders and 2nd fastest competing in a mini match, hence why times are written down, ? and young up and coming riders having a spin?

ben barker to guest for us again tomorrow,and whenever he can, except next friday when he rides for berwick, no ryan or alex so its r/r and another quest,..... i must say the crowd was very very poor, hoping its just because its was a cup match or maybe because we rode against newcastle before.. a la sheffield last year,im hoping its not because of the results,(which i fear it is,, im thinking that "fans" stayed away and monitored the scores on updates etc and wil lthink "yep we won, ill go back on friday". to me and others i stand with the result dosent matter as long as we try, and the racing is top notch, which most on here have said it is every week, the die hard fans go each week but week by week they disappear and when that happens we end up with what we had on friday, which is unsustaintable for the club, and they are ruining it for the ones who go to be entertained and dont want to lose it again,im quessing the ones who stay away dont realise the costs in runing a club or dont care if it closes.

if barker scores double figures then yes, i agree