Piotr Pyszny

The budget didn't stretch, either, to meeting-specific race jackets (though I see the British Final managed some). The mostly bodged 1-18 numbers attached to the rear of the individual team kevlars on display at Owlerton were laughable. They screamed 'small time'.

This will be the same Dave Allen, I imagine, who doesn't give two flying f**** about Chesterfield Football Club. Look where they are now. Vote with your feet (as so many have done/are doing). It's the only language the likes of Allen understands. The Allen philosophy: “I only went in (to Chesterfield FC) to invest money; my ambition was to get into the Championship and flog it." https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/may/02/chesterfield-relegation-from-football-league

That's the point. The goon stewards couldn't be bothered checking every bag. They had about as much commitment to their job as most of the riders.

The likes of Cook et al won't get paid at all when, as seems inevitable, some time in the very near future, they turn up to race at an empty stadium - and are left wondering: why doesn't anybody want to watch my sport any more? If the riders so obviously don't give a toss, why should anybody else?

To the casual, occasional visitor, the stadium and the speedway club are one and the same. I'm afraid, as an excuse, "it's down to the stadium owners" won't wash. We'll never go to Sheffield Speedway again. Sorted.

Just in from Owlerton - my first speedway meeting in three seasons. Didn't see anything to tempt me to go more often. Racing way too processional to be interesting. Crowd looked about 1,500. So, pretty poor. Unsurprising, though, given Edward Kennett, Scott Nicholls and Charles Wright were late withdrawals. Not thrilled, either, to discover Owlerton's first bend terracing is now out of bounds. Defending champion Craig Cook should hang his head in shame. A big meeting like this, and a so-called professional speedway rider cannot prepare a bike capable of lasting a lap? Pathetic. Not what we paid £20 for! Glad Erik Riss won the Grand Final, especially off the unfavoured inside gate. Nought out of ten to Sheffield Speedway, who, despite this meeting starting at 5pm, wouldn't allow anybody to take food into the stadium. Not everyone, Sheffield Speedway, wants to eat the sort of tasteless, overpriced fast food invariably served up at speedway meetings. Wake up. It's 2019! Overall, poor value for money. But that's speedway all over these days, isn't it? No wonder its fan base is down to the hard core.

As a print journalist for 33 years (who, incidentally, reported on a speedway club for three seasons - 1994-96 - while chief sports sub at an evening newspaper), I'll say this: The press (and the wider mainstream media) covers the stuff it thinks is going to sell papers and interest a decent number of readers (or viewers/listeners). Choices have to be made because space (or air time) and resources (staff, mainly) are finite. On the whole, there are valid reasons for those selections. As speedway attendances have collapsed (in line, unfortunately, with the fortunes of print publications - but that's another story, as it were), so coverage has diminished. Despite the advent and proliferation of DIY social media, lack of profile in the press (and the wider mainstream media) can't be helping speedway. I imagine millions have no idea what it is.

To gain listed status, a structure has to be deemed of 'special architectural or historic interest'. I'm not sure any of the speedway stadia you list fall into either category (other than for followers of the sport). Possibly West Ham? Football hasn't fared terribly well, either, despite its greater popularity, when it comes to grounds acquiring listed status. The odd stand here and there, yes, but not (I suspect) an entire stadium. Listed status is no guarantee of evading the wrecker's ball. Wembley's Twin Towers had Grade II listing, and look what happened to them. Many architecturally important (I hesitate to use that over-employed, therefore now meaningless, adjective iconic) football grandstands designed by Scot Archibald Leitch have been razed. For example, at Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Southampton and Sunderland.

Martin Dixon.

I went to one or two meetings that last season. Often, the nearest spectator was 50 yards away!

Redcar does, of course, have a town centre. Mind you, the track is on the eastern edge of Middlesbrough. It's 'Redcar' in name only (a political thing). Be better off conducting a survey in central Middlesbrough.

Well, I started watching football in 1971. Post-1990, I'm struggling to remember the last 'aggro' I saw at a game - which is a reason for the socio-economic profile of football followers (not to mention the age - older - and gender - more women and girls) changing so much during the last three decades. I can relate to your other reasons for not watching Football League matches. I switched (mostly) to non-league football a long time ago. In common with so many, I ceased attending speedway meetings regularly, in my case circa 2008. Used to enjoy visiting Owlerton a couple of times a season.

When you say "for decades", I presume you mean the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties? Those three decades aside, football hasn't had much of a problem with violence, on or off the field, tribal or otherwise. As I said before, you need to update your prejudices. Otherwise, I'll have to conclude you simply don't know what you're talking about. Out of interest, when did you last attend a football match, non-league or Football League?

That's certainly my recollection of watching speedway at the County Ground, while working in Exeter (1997-98). The grandstand was the last vantage point you'd pick. Did the OP refer to a "thrilling" evening? Wow. Can' recall too many of those at Exeter. It was mostly follow-the-leader, everybody-strung-out-after-one-lap stuff on a gaters' track where passing was virtually impossible (as poor Joe Screen discovered during Pete Jeffrey's testimonial meeting). Most of the opposition riders seemed beaten before they started. I remember one National League/Division Two stalwart telling me: "Exeter? That's not speedway."

I used to watch Everton play Liverpool when I lived in that 'great city'. Never a problem. Perhaps it's a Sheffield thing?

Segregation of supporters isn't required at virtually any level of non-league football, and fan violence at League football has all but disappeared. You need to update your prejudices!

I recall watching football at Fleetwood in the late 1980s. You could still see remnants of the speedway track in the stadium layout. Never went to Craighead Park (Glasgow). The track surrounded Blantyre Celtic FC's pitch. Apparently, the old square corners problem. Barrow started out racing round Barrow FC's Holker Street pitch. Anecdote suggests the track was narrow, dusty and not conducive to passing. As a schoolboy, I watched Halifax at The Shay. Can't recall a huge amount of passing. Still, the racing was better than at Exeter (round Exeter RUFC's pitch). I lived in Exeter for a couple of years but only rarely went to the County Ground, where it was virtually impossible to overtake. Once you'd become accustomed to how fast the riders went, compared to everywhere else, there was very little else to see. Liverpool Chads raced at Stanley Stadium, used also for a time by Liverpool Stanley RLFC. Stamford Bridge (at Chelsea FC)? New Brighton (at New Brighton FC)?

Oh, I am. Like thousands of others since the early 1980s, I stopped attending meetings because I felt speedway no longer represented value for money. I put my disposable income into other, less amateurish sports.

Thanks for all that, THJ. I appreciate your passion and commitment to the cause. It's odd, though, isn't it, that Cumbria still cannot muster a single, fit-for-the-21st-century sports stadium. Not one! There are plenty of instances (eg Brighton, Exeter, Huddersfield, Hull, Middlesbrough, Stoke) elsewhere in England where a new sports stadium has had a galvanizing effect, on both its occupying club (or clubs) and the wider community. They're much more than vanity projects. They make a real statement about a place, and its ambitions. Why, in your view, have Derwent Park attendances for speedway fallen so drastically? When Comets reopened, Derwent Park was the place to go and there was a real buzz about speedway. I know because I attended several meetings when in that neck of the woods. However, on my last visit, in 2017, talking to the people around me on the first bend terrace, the atmosphere was one of gloom and despondency.

Actually, I've never understood the appeal of fishing (fly or otherwise, in the Derwent or any other river). But thanks for trying to 'second guess' me. From an outsider looking in (though I did work four years in west Cumbria), it seems strange football, rugby league and speedway (I'll disregard Workington Rugby Union Club because, owing to its sub-100 crowds, it's an irrelevance) couldn't all be accommodated at Workington's new stadium. A missed opportunity, and likely the death knell for speedway in the town.

No, I'm not confused. I'm aware BNFL (and others) are taking office space at the proposed new stadium. My informed source advised Derwent Park also will become a site for activity related to the nuclear industry. It won't be retained for speedway (or any other sport).

Millom Amateur Rugby League Club (the average National Conference League crowd at Devonshire Road is circa 250) were playing Red Star Belgrade in the Challenge Cup. If the racing is so wonderful at Derwent Park, why has everybody stopped attending meetings? Since reopening, Comets have managed to reduced attendances from 4,000 to 400. Even by speedway's lamentable standards, that's some going. As for my bad planning, I haven't arranged any aspect of my life round speedway's fixture list since 1996. Since 2008, I doubt I've attended more than 10 meetings. Another lapsed supporter of a failing sport, unlikely ever to return to watching regularly. I'm afraid your remarks about the new stadium for Workington typify the small-mindedness, limited horizons and paucity of ambition so apparent in west Cumbria. Good luck in your sporting backwater.

I'm not sure laughably shambolic speedway - its days surely numbered in Britain - is in any position to poke fun at other sports. Last time I was at Derwent Park to watch speedway, a perfect summer evening in 2017, the crowd numbered about 450 - and that included a hundred or so following the visitors, Glasgow. There was barely a single genuine pass in the entire meeting. Absolute rubbish, frankly. On four subsequent occasions I was over in Cumbria for long weekends, Comets didn't even have a match to watch! I note, despite Workington FC's desperate struggles this season, recent crowds at Borough Park have been 504, 476 and 379 (they're official attendances, by the way; I'm guessing speedway is too embarrassed to reveal how many punters pass through its turnstiles). Is level eight football, I wonder, more appealing than level two speedway? I was told last week (by a source close to Workington FC) Derwent Park has been earmarked as a site for nuclear industry support facilities. Once Reds and Town depart for the shiny new stadium, and a much brighter future, the bulldozers will move in to Derwent Park and raze the place. Isn't the vandalized dump that is the Northside training track sufficient to accommodate what little interest in speedway survives in Workington?

The Rugby Football League is having talks with Matchroom at present, as Eddie Hearn confirmed in a TV interview during the recent snooker event in York. Hearn described rugby league in Britain as "on its knees". So, not in quite the same parlous state as speedway, which, as far as I can tell, is merely waiting for permission for the life support machine to be switched off. Leyton Orient are top of the National League. In all likelihood, heading back to the Football League.

Followers of all sports - not just speedway - have an interest in what participants earn because, to a greater or lesser degree, their admission fee helps cover the wage bill. It's hardly the same in less extraordinary walks of life.