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Ben91

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Everything posted by Ben91

  1. I think the redeeming factor is always the bikes on the track. The essence never truly changes. I’d struggle to think of anything aside from air fences becoming mandatory that has been a change for the better here otherwise sadly. Perhaps I’m jaded but it makes me sad to see what the sport has become.
  2. I almost edited the post to take that out!
  3. If you’re a youngster starting out in the sport you should be trying to grab every opportunity going in the name of succeeding not turning your nose up at an opportunity because you might only get three rides. The sport is starting to revolve around the riders. It should be the other way round.
  4. One thing I’ve noticed since I stuck my head back in here recently is that in the main it’s similar names with the same points they had years ago, harking back to the 80s and before. Not criticism, observation. Things often look better in hindsight but the good old days haven’t become the 2000s or 2010s. That says a lot about the state of the sport then, and how it is now. Why aren’t people harking back to the glory days of the Premier League reserves being given grades instead of averages for one season, what about the momentous decision to throw third tier riders into the top division as “fast track” reserves? Or when the Elite and Premier Leagues were rebranded the Premiership and Championship? In reality things are even worse now. The sport is dying out with its fans. The slide needed arresting two decades ago, it’s even more imperative now. But while self interest rules the day it’s a case of squeezing every last penny out of an old nag before taking it to the glue factory.
  5. Which just shows good business sense. Losing money so they moved to a division they could sustain. Most other clubs would (arguably did) just carry on throwing money into the pit.
  6. Why, oh why do people involved with the sport say things like this. As a prospective customer it is such a turn off.
  7. The sport is too far gone now. Undoubtedly there will be lip service changes made in the winter that benefit the higher percentage of clubs that vote for them. We need to rip it up and start again. Alarm bells should have started ringing when the biggest, best run club in the sport (Poole) dropped a division because they couldn’t sustain top tier Speedway. Speedway is cocaine. Addictive, but by the time it reaches the end user it’s been cut with so much rubbish by the dealer that it barely resembles the pure product. Only a few gullible fools can’t see that and carry on with it to get their hit.
  8. You started it. And my dad’s bigger than your dad. Merry Christmas!
  9. What I said wasn’t the exact plan at all. I hope you get a dictionary for Christmas. Look up “exact” and “thriving” when you do.
  10. This highlights every potential solution having an equally valid roadblock. Perhaps this is where regionalisation needs to be considered. It’s a shame and an idea I have long been against but perhaps the way forward is one league split into north and south conferences as is the way in the major US sports. Each has a league winner, then there are also play-offs to crown an overall champion at the end of the season. With more local(ish) meetings riders would have to take less time off of work to race. Particularly handy for tracks that race midweek.
  11. That doesn’t mean the sport is in a good position. There is a difference between trying to make ends meet and thriving.
  12. It isn’t an assumption I’m afraid. There are people saying exactly that or words to a similar effect, on this forum, on a daily basis. The changes made every year are little more than lip service. They are made in the interests of what benefits the majority of teams, that is how they are voted into being. I take no pride in saying what I see. I’m also not someone who looks back saying it was so much better. I became a fan of the sport as a child about 17 years ago and it was in a state of decline then. I’m 29 now and I’m lost to the sport at a domestic level as a regular paying customer. Without wanting to offend older generations, people in my age group and younger should be the type of people Speedway want to have eyes on their product. It really isn’t. Speedway used to thrive in lots of places. Within Britain there is no one place where the sport is thriving. It may be doing better in some places than others but people are not clamouring for Speedway anywhere here. When was the last time a domestic level meeting here sold out? It isn’t my job to fix Speedway. But a start would be clubs allowing a single body to govern them. We know this will not happen though. Being able to point out blatantly obvious flaws and being able to solve them are different things. If you saw a sinking cruise liner you’d probably be able to tell me the problem is that it had a hole in it. But you wouldn’t be able to go and fix it.
  13. You say this as if most of our top tier riders are regulars in the top league in Poland where their imposed restriction is in place. They’re not. Certainly not at Championship level. Brexit has been coming for four years. Plans could have been made. As for European riders coming in the goalposts will now just be similar to those in place for riders outside of the EU previously. We have always had very little trouble with Australians coming in. The above issues have an impact but they are not the reason British Speedway is in terminal decline. They’re just convenient excuses to shift the blame from where it actually should lie and some people actually lap it up and believe it.
  14. There are people who think there is nothing wrong with the way Speedway is run in this country. Unfortunately there are too many excuses and too many sloping shoulders. Why is British speedway in the doldrums? ”Poland.” No. ”Brexit.” No. ”Covid.” No. It’s time people took responsibility rather than looking for something else to blame because they can’t keep their own house in order. The sport won’t be around much longer otherwise. It’ll be one man and his dog at the carcass of the National Speedway stadium still expecting to see Jason Doyle and Nicki Pedersen turn up.
  15. Bang on. And it’s such a shame. The worry for me is the amount of people here who listen to the propaganda and think everything is just rosey.
  16. All this is just more proof that Speedway needs an overarching governing body with no interest in any one team. None of this would have happened if there was someone saying “these are the rules now get on with it.”
  17. Six of one, half a dozen of the other I think. The attitude I always seemed to get from BMR was that they wanted to compete at the top level. I think they tried to run before they could walk too. The fixed race nights did exasperate things but the way our expulsion was handled was terrible in my opinion. I don’t think there was any Lakeside bounce. Our crowds did go up initially but that was due to having the likes of Harris and Nicholls riding for us. That novelty was always going to wear off. Second tier Speedway could have been sustained at Rye House undoubtedly. Taking Rye into the top tier was bad business. Anyone who thinks otherwise, the team went bust. Lakeside’s ultimate demise came after ours, they raced their last home meetings at Rye House. Another thing that sits ill with me. The last heat at Rye House didn’t even feature Rye House.
  18. Not quite the definition of thriving though.
  19. Don’t worry they can all move into the Championship which is thriving apparently.
  20. I think the real issue here isn’t just about saving Rye House. It’s about how the sport as a whole has allowed a circuit owned by the speedway promotion, with no curfew or restrictions about race or practise days to die. I have empathy to Lakeside’s plight but their scenario is different to ours in many ways. In Rye House the sport has lost a venue with fantastic potential to help develop British riders and a track with a direct train line into London literally next door. Efforts were made to save Ipswich and Peterborough who are tenants at their tracks. Nobody helped Lakeside, nobody helped Rye House.
  21. I don’t think the interest is here for a new venture sadly. Or there are too many hurdles I should say. Rye worked because it was already in-situ. There was also some kind of clause on the land that it had to be used for sport I believe. To buy land with planning permission this close to London would take deep pockets, you’d make your money back and then some by building houses on the land, not a Speedway circuit. If you were silly enough to try and do that I suspect those responsible for giving such permission would probably kick you out on the basis that there was a Speedway track in Hoddesdon and it went out of business. Even though that isn’t the full story.
  22. That’s not what I’m saying at all John. Shame that Peterborough and Ipswich who don’t own their own tracks got bailed out and Rye House who had no restrictions weren’t.
  23. Anyone trying to save Rye House has my full support. But. I’m a Rye House fan, I live a stone’s throw from the track. I am a regular contributor to this forum, which is the biggest (potentially only) fan forum for British Speedway. I don’t buy the Speedway Star however. I haven’t heard a peep of any attempts about trying to reopen the track except what I see here. Now this isn’t a “why hasn’t anyone told me” comment. I just think if you’re trying to achieve something like saving a Speedway track you should be looking to garner as much local and online support as possible. By all means use the Star as an outlet, but don’t make it your only outlet because not everyone reads it. Just as not all Star readers use this forum, or Twitter, Facebook etc. I fear that Rye is beyond saving. If there is a glimmer of hope then it needs to be promoted and exhausted properly before it either works or is given up on.
  24. He probably wishes it could be Christmas every day. But the Slade for him is more HMP than Noddy Holder.
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