Ben91

A naive view to take John. Most Speedway riders know what goes on on the forum and what is being said about them. Hope this move works out well for Adam and he stays safe, sound bloke.

People have been losing their jobs all year because of the virus. Why should a Speedway rider be any different? If the club paid for the suit they should be given it back perhaps but what good is a bespoke suit made for a rider and covered in his sponsors. While race suits aren’t cheap if my club was in that bad a position that they had to ask for them back then I’d be concerned. As for a signing on fee, that is down to the club and the agreement in the rider’s contract about the conditions of it being paid. Thriving and Speedway don’t go together. Sadly they haven’t for a long time.

Herein lies the problem. 2021 isn’t 2020, the world has changed. Everyone has had to adapt their way of living. You can’t even go to the shops now without wearing a mask, a minor detail but it would have seemed alien just 12 months ago. Yet Speedway in Britain seems to have taken the, “we’ll just carry on with what we were planning for 2020,” approach. Self-interest of some who are too stubborn to have to do a bit of work team building to a new limit will cost other clubs. But ultimately these kinds of issues can kill off the clubs that were already struggling and are asking for a lower points limit so they can cut their cloth accordingly. Then the stubborn club will die too because they won’t have anyone to race against. Self-interest is the cancer that will kill British Speedway.

Very true. From what I’ve seen online there are a number of football fans of my club who, despite having bought season tickets and being allowed to attend now, simply aren’t doing so because they feel unsafe for one reason or another. The bulk of those are in the older, more vulnerable bracket. A lot of stalwart Speedway fans seem to fall into that age bracket. I can’t see costs for the fan ever going down sadly. The majority of teams are tenants in their stadiums and landlords will want their going rate of rent regardless of the standard of racing being held there weekly.

It will be interesting to see how the BSPA dress this up if it is the case. They’re notorious for not announcing attendance figures, what happens when teams are allowed to open at half capacity but have to put the message out that they don’t usually fill that anyway. One thing that could hurt the sport however is firstly, having to police social distancing, this means employing stewards and secondly facilities. Toilets, food and beverage outlets are not as plentiful as at most football grounds and some of the lower football league sides are having trouble on this front already.

Every Polish club will offer contracts with the two leagues only clause inserted. If they show solidarity in that respect they’ll get their wishes because they pay best on the whole. Loophole exploited.

Supply and demand. People are interested in football regardless of the off pitch antics and politics. Therefore it will always generate revenue and money talks. Speedway, not so much. The mass media won’t waste their time on something nobody is interested in and without exposure to the mass public it is harder for the sport to entice potentially interested people. It’s a vicious circle unfortunately.

Sadly I don’t think the organisation has much to do with it. Football is one of the most popular things in the world. Speedway isn’t.

Just because a track is in a populated area that doesn’t mean it will automatically draw fans. It has to be remembered that we like Speedway on this forum, we wouldn’t be here otherwise. But to see teams like Stockport outdrawing Belle Vue shouldn’t be a surprise really. Football is a much bigger concern.

Hopefully they’ll accept that the world has just been through the ringer and be happy to be able to go back to watch any speedway at their track.

You may be able to watch it on the ITV player. I’ve never used it to go back and watch episodes of quiz shows but would assume they can be found on there. Edit: https://www.itv.com/hub/the-chase/1a7842a1665 A link to the episode.

As with all quiz questions, they’re easy if you know them. The question did at least narrow down the options by asking which commonwealth country Ivan was from. Brought a smile to my face hearing Speedway mentioned I must say.

I’ve only attended the Emirates as an away fan but it left me underwhelmed. The place was devoid of atmosphere, although that could be down to the home fans I guess. I went to one of the test events at the new Spurs ground and it’s easily the best of the “arena” style football grounds that are popping up now. The fan experience from variety of hospitality options available in the concourse to the atmosphere and views of the pitch were very impressive.

Imagine trying to run a speedway team out of Wembley now. The promotion would be bankrupt before the end of the pre-meeting parade.

Stock Car fans are in uproar because they like Stock Cars so think they should be racing at Silverstone.

I know of a rich man who has a nice house and a poor man who has a not so nice house.

I used to work with a Polish guy, huge Speedway fan, wouldn’t even think of going to Rye House to watch a meeting. Said he’d tried one meeting at Arena Essex in the Elite League, because it was the top league, found it boring and attending in Britain was a waste of time. The bottom bit is also a bit of a misconception among British fans. The very best stadiums in Poland, the purpose built ones are head and shoulders above most that we have to offer but the others aren’t that much better in terms of facilities. The tracks offer better racing generally however.

It was run in tandem for a season or so. Andrew Silver was doing a really good job with the Raiders side but then there was a parting of the ways and the downhill spiral accelerated. Moving into the top tier the novelty would have worn off over time even with a weekend race night. Rye has the potential to be a fantastic motorsport facility but the local area isn’t populated enough to make top tier Speedway financially viable long term. Yet another gym and yet another all purpose football pitch probably won’t work out either. John Warner sports centre offers both facilities and there are plenty of gyms in the local area that are more easily accessible.

Landlords will still want a set level of rent which creates the knock on effect of promotions needing to charge a certain price to pay the bills. There are fans who won’t attend unless they’re seeing the “best” racing here (despite that stopping around 20 years ago). Those riders won’t be happy to standardise equipment to a level for the UK only because they don’t race in the UK only. While it’s a nice idea it’s something of a minefield I suspect. I feel we need to go semi-pro and take a hit quality wise short term to move forwards long term.

None of which has anything to do with the fact that the track at Rye House is being ripped up for no good reason in 2020.

Perhaps nobody put their hand up and made enough noise to the right people when people from other sports were doing so? Speedway would come under the motorsport umbrella, it isn’t a big enough concern for anyone to be handing it a million pounds. Especially when the sport probably haemorrhages money hand over fist. Maybe the sports handed money had to show they could pay the loans back over time and Speedway couldn’t provide such evidence.

No, it isn’t.

He often finishes last too though, the ladies appreciate that...

They may not care, you’re right. But it is short sighted if they don’t. That short sightedness and self-interest could come back to bite them. If Poland is suddenly the only country where the Speedway is good the knock on effect is that over time Poland will be the only country where people care about Speedway. It is easier to kill the popularity of something than increase it. They may have always been well supported but looking to the past is a sure fire way to ruin the future. Look at football, England won the World Cup using a 4-4-2 formation in 1966 and it tooK the best part of 40 years for the national team and those at club level to stop being stubborn and realise this wasn’t the only, nor the best way to be successful any longer.

It’s quite simple logic too. If Poland take the monopoly on the sport then ourselves, Denmark and Sweden will fall even further behind. Less fans means less future riders. A vicious circle which continues to get smaller. That means in 15-20 years a Grand Pix full of solely Polish riders with maybe the anomaly of a breakout natural talent from another nation (a Zagar, Vaculik etc.), but these anomalies will encompass the interest from the previously strong Speedway nations too. It no longer becomes a World Championship because the World is no longer interested, only the Polish. You and I might be interested still because we’re already speedway fans but the next generation won’t be because they won’t have the same exposure to the sport here as have/had growing up. Poland being the mega power closes the shop, if interest in the sport there wanes as as it continues to do here, for example, then the sport as a whole suffers. A slight tangent but look at darts, it was always a reasonably big concern in Britain, the sport has actively looked to increase its fan base abroad. That has led to more players from more countries, in turn leading to more interest, that means more tournaments in more countries, bigger sponsorship etc. A snowball effect. Whether you like the sport or not, darts is massive now in more countries than ever before. Speedway is currently doing the opposite. Let’s not kid ourselves that the Poles want to have all of the pie for the good of the sport as a whole, they’re being selfish. As we can see from our own leagues, self-interest is one of the biggest flaws in Speedway moving forward. How it can then be seen as a good thing because it’s happening in Poland now too is short sighted.