RobMcCaffery

Oh the irony, coming from a Poole fan

No, we can't afford spectators like you (I refuse to use the term supporter) who want to take the sport to its doom just so they can say "I only watch the best names". The rest of us want good racing...... I wonder if it's cheaper to just supply people like you with air flights to Poland rather than fly the riders in. Then we can get along with a sane sport. - and a far more readable forum.

I thought the new Pope was Argentinean........

Meanwhile, in the real world.......... It is in the BBC's remit to serve its audience and given those restricted budgets the decision is usually taken to feature what is by far the nation's most important and popular sport. The problem with then saying "No, spend part of that on speedway" is that you then have to explain to rugby, athletics, ice hockey, basketball, and supporters of innumerable other sports why speedway is getting coverage. By the way, sending one reporter and a radio link around the country isn't that expensive and often stations use their colleagues from other stations around the country. You clearly are clueless how the industry works. I don't agree that football does have that divine right but ask the vast majority of people and you'll get a different answer. It's all very well shouting demands into the wind, but why should speedway get special treatment just because you're shouting loudly? I was trying to keep personalities out of it but yes, I was referring to Vic Morgan with whom I once spent an excellent evening in the press box at Exeter. He was working for the beeb and I was fouling up the race fanfares..... Re banning of the media by certain football clubs - it's becoming obvious that they see them as rivals to their websites! I worked on a station about 20 years ago (not BBC) where speedway got a good place on its output - but only really because I was involved there (on a volunteer basis) and liked the sport. We also had a local councillor who covered women's football - until it was realised it was his excuse to get near to young women........

Bryn used to have an agenda but it ran off with his life

I'm p[leased to agree with you on Scott. Unfortunately he doesn't have a current title to help sell him. Sadly an appearance on QoS is only a chance for the sporting establishment to tick a box and patronise the 'little' sport. The work needs to be done at a lower level, encouraging local radio coverage, so building foundations and hopefully have young talent moving up through the BBC journalistic structure with a liking and respect for speedway. It's only by an accumulation of small wins that we can start a momentum that will rebuild the sport's reputation. We have a huge hurdle to explain guests which will always look stupid to a seasoned journalist unless they've been taught the reason for their existence. Slack discipline over rules (yes, I AM talking again about the EL Play-off final) and poor, convenient rather than principled decision making are also key areas. We have to be cleaner than clean, provide an entertaining, value for money product and.....work damn hard!

I hope you all have a great party up there, have great speedway, both tracks make a mint and you prove that it is possible to race-off for a league title AND apply the rule book ;-) I wish I could be there....

Sadly it's too often about 'getting a result', not giving value for money. Speedway's decline is due to many small factors as well as the major ones - price, value for money. Until some respect is shown for the fact that £18 pays for 15 heats of speedway, not 10 heats of mud sliding it's not going to start to recover. People could put up with wet meetings when there were 30 a season and cost far less in real terms. Not now.

Ask Sam Ermolenko, Jason Crump and Gary Havelock. I think a few others went on A Question of Sport over the years. In Sam's case they fawned over a Rugby Union player who had just recovered from a broken wrist, expressing huge sympathy for his injury. They turned to Sam (this was after his severe long track crash) "Sam, I understand you ride in a different country each day..." There is a Farcebook campaign to get a speedway rider on A Question of Sport. The fundamental problem is finding someone within the sport who could handle themselves well, away from the track. Tai has worked hard but how many others, especially British riders could hold their own elsewhere on TV?

I dare say they'll keep going until they find a track not in Latvia prepared to take the risk.

Excellent analysis. Many thanks.

That the best you can do? Pathetic. Not bitter - just experienced and angry about how people have been treated. You go through what I and my friends have done and you'd wake up. As I was saying about the types that speak for Rye House in this forum...............................

Fascinating to see how many 'experts' can't even get the BSPA Chairman's name right......

Belle Vue was an entirely different situation. Kirky Lane wasn't being redeveloped by a business notorious for making false promises to build replacement stadia. The Aces are moving to somewhere better out of choice. The new Abbey may turn out to be better (unlikely in five months) but it's certainly not a move made out of choice! It's not a matter of 'knocking', it's a matter of trying to wake up those suffering from blind faith.

It's also a matter of putting your club above your personal need if you can afford it - rather like a small piece of sponsorship.

Sadly people only seem to want to see their team win, not enjoy a good night's racing. Non World Championship individual meetings have been badly served by unbalanced fields, mass withdrawals and other forms of rider apathy. If those running and competing in the event don't show it respect eventually the fans will fall in line. Guess what the solution is.....

Sadly Paul, when have there not been rows behind the scenes at Rye House apart from in the Russell years? Divide and conquer has always been the management philosophy, although I understand she was finally banned this year... I think we actually agree on all points. Those twelve man individuals just weren't acceptable but sadly this event didn't seem any better. It's a long way from what we enjoyed for so long. Sadly people just assume the way it is now is the way it always has to be and write-off those who point out that it can and should be better as living in the past. I doubt whether they'd take that lazy attitude if they personally fell as ill as the sport is now. The PL has to plough its own course, perhaps in tandem with the NL and just keep well clear from the toxic situation in the upper league as it finally is crushed by overseas demands. It's just about four riders putting on a race, but mixing NL riders with a couple of EL riders and charging extra is just not on. Hopefully lessons will have been learned from the new promotion this year and Rye House can progress. The Rockets were my team for years since Rayleigh days and I do miss it all at times but after the treatment given to Steve Ribbons I couldn't go back. I met up with an old friend last weekend who's got involved on the track side this year after many years away and he tells me that as long as you keep out of the politics it can still be fun. He mentioned how many old faces were still there which is reassuring given the loudmouths who seem to represent the Rickets here and are unrecognisable from the crowd I knew. Hopefully once the Silver influence is finally gone we can meet up there again....

BBC locals run on a relatively shoestring budget and coverage of minority sports seems often to be based on whether someone on the team is into the particular sport. You'd be surprised just how small these departments can be. Another aspect depends on the quality of information given by tracks and the attitude that they show to the station. Speedway has a very real problem with credibility though and it's only a great deal of hard work in some parts of the country that has seen us get the coverage that we have. On the positive side I once met the head of sport for the English Regions (radio and TV) and when asked about coverage of the sport said that he didn't have a problem with it, but ultimately it was down to the local sports editor. So, we have the present 'patchwork quilt' with WM providing remarkable coverage, but then speedway has always been part of the general sports conversation in that area, especially the Black Country. Coventry & Warwickshire, Solent, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire have reasonable records too while Devon & Cornwall share a late show fronted by a presenter well-versed in speedway and who regularly features the night's results. So often it's about having the right person in the right place. We are in huge competition for coverage by the BBC locals' very limited resources and it is up to the tracks and supporters to build links, encourage coverage, not demand it. Having someone broadcastable who can help spread the word and provide material is also very useful. We have no divine right to coverage, unlike football and have to work for all that we get which is why I was so incensed when the previous Birmingham promotion were monumentally stupid enough to ban WM.

I don't think that the riders have to race over those starts again four times unlike speedway riders. Aren't they separate? I can just imagine the state of the starting area in speedway after 20 heats of 4 riders going over a solid starting gate sitting in a trench......

On the same basis then how come the British immigration authorities paid attention to them then? As has been revealed from an authoritative source it's a bungle.

So were Reading. Plenty of others were and still lost their stadium. There's a difference between cautious optimism and blind faith. I hope you are right but I really can't see how given past experience.

This is what you see. Not everyone is necessarily so shallow and ageist.

Retaliation for the problems here last spring? Hopefully just a gesture by the aussies.

Goodbye Swindon and good luck. I suspect you are going to need it unless we see a stadium built in record time in a housing estate with an old people's home coming (still?) and by a developer which has a long history of false promises over building replacement stadia. This time I do hope I'm wrong. Had some good times there. It reminded me of Rayleigh, plus seats and the world heritage site on the back straight. I do hope it's not the end.