waytogo28

So why not have meeting ( or two ) where those interested in helping to attract new fans can SHARE ideas ( not shout at or be shouted down ) before the end of this season? It is NOT working doing it all "Buster's way" is it? There must be some other compromise, possibly better ways to improve the KLS experience. Hard though it is for anyone to do - changing habits could prove beneficial to the club AND Buster's business.

KLS is in far more than a mess. Any feedback to the club is treated as a complaint or even worse totally ignored. Buster knows best is the rule of law adhered to there, so there will be so-called "Buster Bashers" who question his competence to run speedway in a way that sufficient fans will support. I chose not to go to the Wolves D /H - I have been to a number of others that featured two different opponents ( and would go again - perhaps not at night ). Seemed like business suicide to me. certainly more damage done to the credibility of the club. IF DWH is about to step in as a co-promoter, then yes getting the fan's ( those who still the die hard core ) on your side would seem truly essential. If being a "Buster Hugger" is all that is required for that role, then burning your money would seem more sensible.

How about - "fans see the light" and I don't mean the dawn. Only 23 holidaymakers are likely to be there at the end.

I think they are working on new formula where they have only one match to one of the tracks and find a formula that the BSPA can apply ( and pay the riders for ) that will equate with having ridden the two matches on two tracks. It is no more difficult than the 1.5 on averages for the "higher " league. Just work out the home and away averages for each track over the last matches. Simples and that is another fixture done and dusted. We are lucky to have such competent problem solvers in the BSPA. I remember the football pools being worked out like that during the Big Freeze and we have had very unusual weather problems at KLS.

So why not just pay them double? They don't miss a pay night AND they will be fired up to do well in the first meeting and score well. But as I am not intending to go it hardly matters to me. It will not finish before 11.30pm and I have no intention of getting home after midnight. But Hey! It's British speedway at it's most well organised best!

Some of us can only hope that he is SO stubborn that he will not pay the fine.

There is no way that with Buster's track record of how meetings are run and tracks prepared ( and with the puppet Clerk of the Course ) that these matches will finish before 11.30 pm. Three intervals to fit in! I will be voting with my feet and staying at home even though I do like the new look team. And all because of unnecessary call off's earlier.

That is it in a nutshell for me anyway. What the promoters are "selling" has to be more like that which fans - young or old, new or longstanding - are willing to pay for.

There is NO one answer. IF speedway can re-invent itself for a younger audience then it probably will edge out even quicker more of the old uns ( that's me ) and that is no bad thing but I can't see the BSPA changing dramatically the way the sport is presented or run. Slower bikes, handicap racing , lots of passing with USA style razzamtazz might build a new audience. Hopefully it will because then us old uns can decide if we still want to go. Is it really impossible for the two top leagues to run only on a single different night as that is the simplest answer to the craziness of d/u.

They will be "set aside" as will many of the other matches that "don't matter" much, even when the cut off date is pushed back.

That is so , I am in the 60 years of watching phase and YES there is some truth in the above but we have not yet lost all of our critical faculties about life and speedway. Also speedway has failed for a variety of reasons to attract hordes of younger fans who might have pushed us seniors to one side with their buzzing enthusiasm - and who rarely moan. The criticisms many of us have are genuine and are factors in why the sport is not attractive to young people. It's still run mostly in an old fashioned manner which even wrinkles like me can see. So little has changed in the 50 years except the bike technology. And it has become so more more of a Gate and Go show, which it always was but to a lesser degree. Except at the highest level as in the GP!

tigerowl wrote " When speedway starts alienating long term fans and losing them from the terraces whilst at the same time failing to attract new faces, it is in big trouble". We have reached that point now and wether the riders don't like it nor the promoters, the sport is going down the pan Big Time & Swiftly. Come on BSPA "save" the sport by making it credible and attractive. Doubling Up must go if they want the sport to have a future and reach it's centenary.

mikebv wrote " Must be someone who can market it and run it properly over here to deliver the exposure it (and the riders) deserves?." There's the rub. Within the BSPA there is not anyone who can do that. The promoters have almost all been there for donkey's years and have presided over it's decline and seem devoid of ideas on how to bring about any positive change in the UK. That is why they gave Buster Chapman his chance to "do it his way". There is not enough commercial value in speedway in the UK for anyone to even want to pick up the pieces when it finally folds up.

For me Rosco was very boring and repetitive. Not quite bringing the sport into disrepute but not far off.

At the "Holdergate" meeting there was little or nothing wrong with the track ( as track staff have said ) There was a little drizzle for 15 minutes - after a perfect day of summer weather. It was nothing to do with the weather at KLS that night. Only the riders know if there was a problem with the blending of two types of shale and if that really made it " difficult to turn" as alleged by Holder & Batchelor. At the NSS meeting the weather was much, much worse and affected how the track could be ridden by all of the riders.

If nothing else I hope that we can now end this allegedly deep emotional link to Darcy Ward, just as he has decided to cut his ties with UK speedway. Let's just remember some terrific, thrilling racing he did on track and that we also supported him generously when he had his life changing accident. He struggled with expressing himself intelligently when he was riding and let his bike skills speak for him. Now it's over. Let him Twitter on.

Ward is entitled to a point of view just as are we about, how we see his position. His opinion is nothing to do with now being confined to a wheelchair. We have done the best we can to support him but do not have to go along with his opinions out of pity.

I too like the idea of not kowtowing to Poland ( and Sweden if they begin to exclude in some way riders from the UK ) BUT the truth is we need to make our league as sustainable as possible and as stable as possible. That means asking riders to sign here for a season ( as a priority ). That also means that some will not and we have to go ahead with those who are willing to ride here. It could mean six man teams ( already so often like that ) and a weaker / diluted UK speedway structure. It is that or an even bigger shambles ( now you see him, now you don't as with Jack Holder ).

New team settling in nicely and providing decent racing entertainment home and away without throwing wobblies. Long may it be a team like that for supporters to follow. Thanks Buster.

I feel that Cook's actions affected more than one bloke! It is only a step away from challenging a referee and striking him / her. Cook should be punished but not on such a serious level. A 14 day ban and £1,000 ( or the match fee ) sounds about right. After all a promoter was thrown out of the sport for something similar ( but more prolonged ).

So where is Rosco going when Swindon close down? Is he ready to retire? Assuming Swindon's shiny new stadium doesn't get built.

It seems that his own battle with his "nerves" is a very difficult one to win ( as it is for many people in many walks of life ). I hope he seeks professional help with this as his talent on the bike is undeniable, when he is fully in control of his state of mind. This is one of the most difficult aspects of being fully competitive. Once you believe you are going to lose, you invariably will. Once you believe you cannot win, you probably can't.

Please could TB or his representative scan the alleged certificate and display it on here? No such certificate was issued by anyone with the authority to do so on the night. TB was just signed out of the meeting because the "injury" may have impeded his further riding that night.

I was told that it is £500 a point in Sweden and £1,000 a point in Poland. If it is that with no other payments - in the top leagues only, it is probably viable with their crowds and sponsors.

It hardly matters who is in charge, if it is someone from within the existing "club" of promoters. Buster has done very little to improve speedway in Britain. Unless he and the others have some miracle " save the sport" plan for this winter it will just go on diminishing with less and less supporters attending. It will collapse in on itself and what later emerges may be semi pro riders working on a very different basis than they do today. It is just unsustainable as things are now, whoever is believed to be in charge.