ouch

So true.

Top stars bring people in it’s just the slow death of the sport that makes it seem that they don’t. Remove them and you’ll see a further jump in the drop in attendance. One very vocal critic of the current state of the sport said he’d turn up if his favourite top star was in attendance, no matter how repetitive his appearances. What has been the feedback from your 50 family & friends about attending regularly?

It would indeed. Be interesting to see how long they danced to his tune. You want an average changing - no problem, a guest when it’s not allowed - fine or a foreigner who’s not eligible - go on then. You want what? sorry no. Hey come back, we need you.

Must admit it’s not really aimed at me as I’m happy with my programme and chatting to people nearby. Top of my head would be….. Stats. Home, away, overall, performance at a particular track. News, both local and international for our team of riders. Fixtures and tickets. League table. Race info. Transponder info, passing inc passing after B3 L1, match ups - past and present. Predict the result. Meeting, race, individual scores. Gate performance info. Replays on demand. Votes for ref decisions, best rider and other fun categories. 50/50 raffle available via the app. Car share/coach information for away trips. Ultra local weather forecasts with track webcam footage leading up to tapes up. Pre meeting interviews. Rider colouring pages for young and old. Some kind of speedway themed game, addictive if possible. Meat raffle.

A the NSS we get a race followed by the cool down lap with wheelies, celebration etc. Then the race finishing order is announced both on the tannoy and big screen. Replays come up on the big screen then the two minutes are announced and the riders come out. During the four grading breaks we then have more on the big screen plus interviews and Chase doing his thing. The only addition to all this is the kids game and 50/50 draw at the interval. It would need a big smash or the weather to turn bad for this schedule to elongate. I’m happy with this to be honest and the only addition I’d make would be the introduction of an app giving more meat on the bones about the meeting and to provide more interaction, oh and a meat raffle.

The necessary evil was an often touted phrase back in the day but that went out of the window when the rulebook demanded a guest for a missing number six and after 75% of your fixtures you cannot replace a seventh member if injured, it has to be RR or guest. Unnecessary.

If doubling down was allowed in the 70’s & 80’s then riders would have done it. It wasn’t allowed so they attached their bike to the back of a Citroen and worked part time when not riding. There is no benefit for top league clubs to have their riders doubling down but the lower division benefits greatly and they have more votes at the AGM and thus it came to pass. Short term gain for long term pain, well done guys.

The second division use to be made up of youngest working their way through the sport. Double upping has been around for decades but it’s the double downing that started our current rider shortage. Second division clubs won’t even participate in the RS system but are more than happy to have top league riders on the cheap as it enhances their product. Doesn’t help the sport as a whole but “I’m alright Jack”, the mantra of most if not all second tier clubs.

We get this every year on all the team threads. We would have loved to keep the team together but rules don’t allow it. Losing Jaimon allows us to keep the bulk of our main team intact. ANY replacement for Jaimon will feel second best. We might have wanted a newbie from abroad and things may have gone west. So, given all that and this is the bit we should be debating, out of the candidates that fit our average gap who should we have signed?

We get this every year on all the team threads. We would have loved to keep the team together but rules don’t allow it. Losing Jaimon allows us to keep the bulk of our main team intact. ANY replacement for Jaimon will feel second best. We might have wanted a newbie from abroad and things may have gone west. So, given all that and this is the bit we should be debating, out of the candidates that fit our average gap who should we have signed?

Definitely. When you do match ups with other teams (some rumours) we lose out in every position.

So because Oxford & Birmingham aren’t visiting fans won’t attend the meetings when say, Leicester or Sheffield do? I find that odd.

With new owners it’s a chance for a new beginning and a change in team building strategy. Stop with having riders in for 2,3 or 4 years and look long term so the fans can grow to love them and start to create a family feel to the club, like The Aces. For some clubs speedway can be a numbers game put together on a spreadsheet where they see a number and not a name. It’s not the best imo despite results and being somewhat under the points limit is no bad thing if it allows riders to grow with the club.

The Colts run on Sunday afternoons (or use to on Friday) because most if not all of the competitors have jobs or rely on working parents to help them at meetings. Sundays are ideal with that in mind and even a Friday makes it a far easier fit when considering post meeting travel and maintenance. We can agree that pubs, restaurants, cinemas etc focus on weekends, so why would a small sport like ours want to go up against them? Far better to run when there is less competition. We do have “specials” on Monday and Thursday, it’s called the play offs when the masses come out irrespective of what day of the week it is.

Nights not conducive to the entertainment industry is very subjective. If we took Saturday as THE night and everyone else did the same then you are all competing against each other. You do what’s best for you. In 1976 less than half the teams in the league rode on a Saturday (6). 3 rode on a Friday with the other 10 riding mid week. This was at the height of the sports popularity yet most CHOOSE to open mid week. Moving to alternate nights to gain the biggest crowd happens in all industries. Film distributors will not go up against the blockbusters, bands will serve dates when big hitters are in town and pubs will arrange theme nights on dates to attract the most punters. It’s not a case that Saturday is the holy grail and we need to avoid the negative connotations currently being associated with mid week.