cinderfella

Yes can't but wonder why the publicity is so lacking? Are fans, if they turn up, going to be surprised or left disappointed by the line up. I know of quite a few folk who were going to travel but have made other arrangements due to lack of info on participating riders.

I don't know if I've missed it somewhere but have the names of all the riders participating in the meeting actually been announced anywhere? Seems to so little info about what should be a biggish meeting.

Why are we all surprised by his moronic statements? this is the guy who slagged off King's Lynn fans during last season's play-offs conveniently forgetting that they, like fans from every other speedway team, all generously donated to help him in his time of need after his accident. The guy obviously has to keep himself in the spotlight somehow so making crass statements is obviously his way of feeding his ego.

Well if proof was needed the BSPA do things the hard way just look at the Championship Shield groups. Workington sadly withdrew thus leaving the Borders group with just 3 teams in it. Rather than leaving it they BSPA move Newcastle into the Borders group and as a result all three groups have been changed rather than just leaving it with the one group change. They really do like messing with the sport for goodness knows what reason.

Which brings us back to the age old idea of using stock engines made my well known manufacturers and/or cutting the engine capacity. We all see from other form of motorcyle sport that small engines can be just as fast. It would be interesting to know how many British riders took up the Gerhard-GTR engine offer. I can't say I noticed many.

If that is the case then questions must surely be asked of the BSPA/SCB of themselves as to why a lucrative contract with Sky was not renegotiated. I'm sure Sky would have handed out warning stating things such as lack of teams in the so called top league and lack of big GP names wasn't helping any. Broadcaster know what they want and it has to be said they know more about a lot of sports and attracting new customers than many sporting ruling bodies. I know when i worked at Sky they requested the green helmet colours because the Sky remote has 4 buttons and the plan was to actually have each rider wear a camera and the viewer could then pick which riders view he could watch from during a race. Sadly the support for the idea never came to fruition from within the sport and I'm sure that didn't endear the bosses at Sky. Sadly these days domestic speedway on television is limited to PL meeting and both the broadcaster and speedway authorities both failed to realise that the majority of both teams and fans are in the CL and I'm sure if they had shown some CL matches (which let's face it feature about 95% of the same riders as PL matches anyway) they would have had a bigger following.

Yes it's almost a kick in the teeth to the current volunteers. The statement reads like Glasgow don't have fok doing these jobs efficiently. I wonder if promoters ever about seeing things through a volunteer's eyes? I did my bit for many years ago and then wanted to enjoy my speedway. Yes a lot of volunteers get in for nothing but how much of the racing do they actually get to see? Track rakers rarely get to fill in their programmes between races as they are raking the track with a tractor trundling past when results and times are announced and likewise with folk selling raffle tickets etc when folk come up and talk to them. I suppose it's all down to personal choice of how you want to spend your time at a speedway meeting but promoters should realise there is more to it than getting in for free.

Can you really see councils spending on leisure facilities when the majority of them are crying out for more money to meet their education, social care etc budgets? Speedway is a business first and foremost but sadly when it comes to the AGM too many of the owners/promoters are blinkered and vote in their own interests rather than looking at the bigger picture which impacts on the future years of our sport.

There is if you stupidly pay over the odds to bring in riders in pursuit of winning trophies. One promoter was quoted at the beginning of last season saying his aim was to see the continuation of the sport in the area with sensible budgeting rather than spending money, that wasn't there, on buying success. The problem there is do fans want to see the a winning team and then possibly walk away if that doesn't happen or are fans happy to see their sport continue at whatever level? I'd like to think real speedway fans would rather watch their local team whatever the level rather than be glory hunters only going when the team is winning.

Has anyone else noticed the number of comments being deleted from the Speedway GB Facebook page? Running scared me thinks and obviously can't handle the negative posts and sensible suggestions being made by the paying public.

What a load of short-sighted, jealous folk there are about calling themselves speedway fans and gloating because a team's owners comes out and makes a statement. Sure Glasgow spent on trying to put a winning team together but what a lot of folk so blinkered they can't see past their own team is that the Glasgow Promotion also invested heavily in the community around Ashfield. When they bought the stadium they also guaranteed the continuation of the areas junior (equivalent of English non-league) football team and the money spent on the work on the stadium was mostly done by local companies employing local people. Yeah if the Facenna's walk away because of losses it's more than speedway that loses out. Think about the greater picture rather than gloat!!!

Think if you spoke to most Glasgow fans it would be one rider they felt under performed and that had a knock on effect on the team

Actually I considered Artem Laguta as rider of the year and as the one to watch but I assumed this was for British riders or within British speedway.

Rider of the year - Woofy Most impressive team - Worky Team rider of the season - Paul Stake One to watch - Drew Kemp Bulldog award (Best British rider) - Charles Wright Meeting of the season - GB v Australia at Glasgow only because it was an International Test match again on British soil Surprise of the season - Worky's performance Underperformers (Team) - Glasgow Unluckiest rider - Lewis Kerr Newcomer of the season - Drew Kemp

Quite agree when you consider the Shield started the season and then the KO Cup started in April/May. As been said elsewhere you really have to examine thing when you can get one team completed all it's competitive fixture in August and now others are going to be struggling, through no fault of their own, to complete theirs. As regards alternative race nights we have to consider that the BSPA changed the goal posts mid season and stopped some teams racing on alternative days.

Re season ending dates, lets remember we had more rain-off at the beginning of this season than ever before so we were always going to be playing catch up. Just one other point, and this is as a speedway fan not a Scot, how many teams postponed fixtures because dates clashed with the World Cup or other football matches and thus wasted good, available dates?

So is there a valid argument that the teams must finished their regular league campaign before the teams for the play-off are decided so it's a level playing field? In which case we should go back to just a regular season and then if wanted another wee money making Mickie Mouse competition for the teams with guests? If we go to one league there probably wouldn't be time for a play-off based title decider anyway. Just out of interest were the winners of the CL play-offs not meant to race against the bottom PL team for the right to race in the PL next season? My old memories keeps trying to tell me I read that somewhere pre-season along with all the stuff about Glasgow being unbeatable.

Maybe the Aussies are learning from the Poles and telling their riders what to do and where their priorities should lie. Maybe time we learned to do the same?

I was never particularly a fan of Stewart Dickson when he 'took' the job as I, like numerous others, thought the way Ian Steel was treated was abysmal. But in fairness to Stewart he did learn from those with more experience around him not just about tactics and rules and regulations but also about getting the track right, the truth in that borne out by the fact he has helped so many other teams this year.

How dare you!!!!! - mentioning Cami brown in the same post as all those Tigers' greats

As one of Glasgow's main sponsors through his Plumbing Merchants anything is possible. But if he does return I can't see Glasgow being flushed with success and and hope will go straight down the pan.

There is no way I'll defend Bumber but was the main reason for Rye's closure not the enforced change of race night which really affected the crowds numbers coming through the gates?

Glasgow made some serious errors this year but appointing him as manager has to be the biggest mistake in the history of the club.

It's some of the British riders I'm more worried about coming back to Glasgow next year.

Now here's one for you to ponder over - Any team that reached the play-off couldn't use a guest from another team that reached the play-off. Glasgow are now out so do Glasgow rider become eligible to take guest bookings again?