DaveWayne

I doubt Sunday would be an option with stock cars and bangers running regular Sunday meetings throughout the year. As they also run some Saturday nights on other weekends, there wouldn't be enough time to prep the track for those Sundays either.

The lowest I have paid anywhere this year is £18, but most tracks you are looking at a minimum of £20. Buxton promoter once told me that at his 'domestic' meetings he rubs 6/7 lesser formulas as he knows their 'pay to race' fees will cover his outgoings, so any paying spectators are profit. F1 meetings would have 'payouts' of around £4-5k in start and prize money on top of the other costs. Crowd sizes vary wildly depending on the formula with literally just a few hundred at some non-F1 meetings, up to several thousand at bigger meetings. The fact that you think speedway has higher outgoings surely suggests that the prices should be higher, so the fact that admission to both is similar is a positive for speedway.

You do realise there are 2 GP riders in the other semi as well ? One who has a very slight mathematical chance of a bronze medal, and the other in a fight for a guaranteed place in the series next year. Why would it have been OK for them to race last night, but not fair for the Belle Vue riders ? Common sense would have been for the semis to start a week later, after the final GP.

Not entirely true. The lesser formulas that don't attract much of a crowd pay to race, but the bigger formulas don't. They also receive prize money for placings, some formulas get 'start money', and also the F1s get free admissions for 3 mechanics.

Depends on the meeting format. Usually 10-15 races at 5-6 minutes each, so 60-90 minutes in total. So yes, probably 25-40p per minute.

I'm intrigued to know what people think they should be paying to watch professional sportsmen, including some of the best in the world ? As well as watching speedway, I am a regular at stock car racing and football. My football team are in League 1 (3rd tier), and the match day ticket price is £30. Stock car racing, depending on the formulas racing as there are different levels, varies generally from £20-25. When it is a bigger meeting, such as the British Championship or the European the the prices is closer to £30, and this weekend is the World Championship with advance tickets at £42 and on the day price of £48. In comparison to this, I don't think that £25 is too high a price for top league speedway, and would expect an increase for the play off semis and final.

Could yes, but haven't done to any of the other play off contenders this season. Closest they came was 18 against Sheffield, but on average they have only had just under 10 points home advantage over the other 3.

These were not fixtures that were moved. The 2 unridden matches were scheduled for 28th August (Sheffield) and 4th September (Oxford) in the original fixture list. What were they supposed to do ? Look at the weather and say "oh look it's going to be sunny next Thursday, let's bring that Ipswich match forward a month in case it rains in late August" ? Blaming the clubs for the poor weather is laughable. If anyone is to blame it is the SCB/BSPA for issuing a fixture list with matches finishing just 4 days before the first scheduled playoff fixture, not the individual clubs. The original fixture list should have included a 1-2 week gap between last scheduled league fixture and first playoff to give a contingency period for any rescheduled matches.

The match that hasn't been ridden was programmed for 28th August but it was rained off, so even if all other matches had been ridden this would still have missed your deadline. People are constantly blaming the clubs but does anybody know who actually sets the fixtures ? Surely this is done centrally by the SCB or whoever based on information provided by each club ?

I'm not sure what table you are looking at, as the one on British Speedway shows Sheffield on 1127-942 and Ipswich 1123-947. In my calculations Sheffield are already 9 points in front.

I fully understand the team mentality. Admittedly I don't go every meeting, but Sheffield are still my team and I have been watching them for over 40 years. I am also a season ticket holder at my local football team so I know the hurt when your team doesn't perform, and expect that anger to flow on here. That wasn't the moaning I was talking about. It is the people who constantly complain about the way the sport is run, fixture planning, guest riders, playoffs, etc. It isn't the 1970s/1980s. The sport has changed and it is far better to embrace what you have and try to enjoy it, than spend all your time harking back to the good old days as they are never coming back.

Wasn't there so can't comment on the actual performance. Just saying that you can't assume that Sheffield would have finished top. Anything could have happened last night that could have affected performances today. It just seems that every season, supposed supporters of speedway seem to want to spend the whole time ripping it to pieces and finding fault with it rather than enjoying what we have. The table is what it is, the playoffs are what they are. Whether you agree with them or not, that is how the sport functions now. Better to embrace it than vilify it. Speedway is a secondary sport to me as I was brought up on 4 wheeled motorsport and spend my weekends travelling the country watching stock car racing. By the same token as many on here say about speedway, stock car racing is nowhere near the sport it was in the 70s and 80s, but you can either let that get you down and moan about it, or you can enjoy what you have while it is still there. I have said for a while that stock car racing has 10-15 years left as either environmentalists or H&S will bring it to an end. I don't want to be sat there when it is all gone wishing I had done more, I would much rather get the most out of what is on offer while I still can.

But had Sheffield won the home leg, then maybe the Ipswich riders would have been a bit more up for it tonight and wouldn't have lost, so the table would still have looked the same as it does now.

This aged well. 😉

Home advantage in play offs ?