JC!

Yes totally agree - I went to the cricket at Chelmsford for a 50 over match in September. It was a match with nothing riding on it and started during working hours (2pm) - several thousand in attendance. Good facilities, players accessible for signing autographs etc, picnics on pitch between innings, £15, plenty of the 'grey pound' being spent there. I took my kids to see 'you tubers' boxing on Saturday, thought when I got tickets for them for Xmas 'who will want to go to see that?'. Turns out it was a 13,000 full house, with many unable to get tickets.

Oh I'm certain of that being true, keep 'em coming, very relevant in 2023

There you go with that well considered,wide ranging, bang up to date research. Great anecdote though.... As Pander (legend status at Oxford btw) brought one new punter so let's let every ex rider in free. Staggeringly naive.

Anecdotal evidence , you can get someone out there to agree to pretty much anything. Lots and lots of highly emotional words, all your own (highly subjective) opinion stated as fact. If you need goodwill maybe invite injured forces personnel for free, that or one of a dozen other ideas. They don't fit with your distorted view, you say 'how is failing to make former riders welcome logical or good business practice', no-one that I can see said not to make them welcome - just that they shouldn't automatically be allowed in free. Sadly it's quite transparent that you are not basing your opinion on running a business profitably through any form of meaningful research, how do I know that - 'anecdotal evidence'. Or, alternatively, you are unconsciously biased as you may have a business thats lifeblood is keeping these old memories alive.

Clearly your argument is emotional rather than based in any form of business logic, so best just agree to disagree.

No, it doesn't depend what my interpretation is, it's up to the individual business owner who the feel would bring, say, minimum of the £20 entry fee worth of value by their presence. But you knew that I guess. I would hazard a guess that letting a TikTok/ social media influencer in for free would generate more financial value, but that wouldn't fit the narrative would it? Let's keep talking about the 'good old days' No need to keep repeating yourself, everyone knows that it is past team members (former self employed workers under previous owners).

Ivan Mauger, Peter Collins, as I said 'a handful of legends'.... Would the little lad be delighted to meet someone from the 1979 team who rode there for one season? Of course not.

Did you work at, say, a theatre? Sure they'd just let you in free whenever you wanted even if you just did a 2 month stint. Come on, I know some people keep anyone who ever rode a speedway bike on an untouchable pedestal but, from a financial perspective, this is ridiculous.

Why would a business allow its former (self employed) workers to use its facilities for free, especially in the current climate. Honestly the naivety of some people staggers me, the riders of yesteryear (other than, at most, a handful of legends) got paid and aren't owed anything.

Need to appeal to a younger demographic (see coverage of, basically, every other sport in existence) - these tired old catch phrases and cliches need to be put out to grass. High octane sport and you have a couple of middle age dad dancers going through their shtick for the thousandth time.

How much did he fetch?

40 years on, what an awful day. I knew it was bad on the night and remember seeing the news report in the paper. Sad day for Steve Weatherley also should be remembered. RIP Vic

Michael Warren was a lovely bloke, really down to earth and friendly.

Just a quick point - Romford Stadium now has one stand, which has been extended and will remain. The other has been demolished and will not be replaced, it is designated for car parking. I mention this as the track now has nothing between it and housing (about 40 meters away) meaning any possibility of use for speedway (however remote) is now extinguished.

Well done you. I would have loved to have been around when that didn't happen.

Thanks for your well thought out reply, I understand where you are coming from. Clearly I don't agree, but it's all about opinions.

Looking at a vast majority of the issues that are regularly raised (averages, guests, rules, team strengths etc), I feel that Speedway is no longer sustainable as a team sport in the UK. The 'team' aspect causes too many problems. If you take out the team aspects, you take away a lot of the issues. Each track could hire, say, 3 local favourites (keeps loyalty) to be involved in individual events, with say 9 other invited riders. This would open up the options for a variety of different concepts to keep things interesting to a new public. Off the top of my head, 1 or 2 lap races, pursuits, time trials, side cars, 125cc, 250's, veterans. Clubs could invite top stars outside of GP calendar, with no need for the riders to be tied to inconvenient schedules, and have a major event (Golden Hammer type thing). Maybe they could tour 2 or 3 tracks while over, reducing cost? This would mean that each club could run when it was best for their business, with no need to have a specified number of events each year within the league calendar. While you will lose some of the 'old guard' I feel that this would be more likely to make things easier for new supporters to get involved - no meetings over by heat 8 with a team running away as all categories would be building through to its own final. Probably a bit too radical though for our current promoters to even consider

But they risk their lives just to entertain you - you should be grateful and worship the ground they walk on. Or alternatively just go off and do something else like so many others do. This will be the first year that I haven't attended any meetings since 1974. I am sure I am not missed though, along with the 14 other family members who started off missing a few weeks, then a few more, got out of the habit (because that's what I finally realised it had become, rather than a passion), and have also now stopped going. A friend of mine went to Ipswich tonight and messaged me what had happened, it doesn't even surprise or shock people any more, it's a terrible shame.

You need to buy a regular cap, carefully remove the peak and then sew it on the back. Hope that helps.

Maybe a better option to give the displaced 'Bees' first refusal on all available guest appearances

Paul hit a fence kick board that had been dislodged earlier in the race causing his fall. A shame the referee had not seen it (not a dig, it could easily be missed), could have prevented the tragedy.

Please be careful discussing Kevin Holden, his daughter has kindly posted in the past here correcting incorrect myths in respect of his accident.

Am I the only one who finds it Wellard to believe that Robert72 is Robbie Jackson?

It says 47 earlier in the thread, with a list of them.

He was born in Scunthorpe.