Ben91

The fast track format was horrible. If the riders are in the meeting they have to be in the meeting properly. And no differing ways of calculating averages for me, it’s just unnecessary complication.

It sets a bad precedent. Why should they get a pass because they’ve potentially bitten off more than they can chew by signing up for all the leagues. Teams should want to compete in and win the KO Cup, the second it becomes optional it devalues it for everyone.

The idea that tracks have to have a meeting every week is pretty archaic. You can have too much of a good thing, especially in the current economic climate where people can’t afford to attend every week. I can’t think of any mainstream team sports in which a team has a home match every week either. People are not going to forget about speedway or stop going if there’s not a meeting every week. Look at the patchy fixture lists we’ve been exposed to in recent seasons. There’s a huge novelty factor at Oxford at the moment. The top tier team will become the novelty in 2024 and the Championship team will not be as attractive, especially when fans are picking and choosing meetings. Eventually the top tier novelty factor will wear off too. My concern is that they’re overreaching by making this move.

At NDL level they did. But the top two divisions are supposedly professional, so if you sign up you should be signing up to the full schedule. Treat the competitions with respect, otherwise why should anyone else. As we’ve seen with the Jubilee debacle.

Hopefully not. It devalues that competition if teams are picking and choosing whether they enter it or not.

It is a lowering of standard absolutely. But it is being framed as such to re-establish the difference in levels between the top and second division. Something that it is important to do as there have been too many blurred lines between the two for around a decade now. The problem for customers will be that they won’t see that reflected in the pricing. Overall I think it’s a good move for the sport but again has been done in a bit of a wishy-washy manner.

Hopefully this seemingly barmy idea works out for Oxford. I can’t see how fans will be able to afford to attend meetings in enough numbers to make all the teams break even. I can’t see how they’ll be able to fit all their fixtures in, especially if the Chargers compete in the full version of the third tier. I also think not using the Cheetah’s name that fans identify with for the Premiership side is an error. I wish them well and want to see speedway thriving. I worry that this could jeopardise a track that so much hard work went into bringing back to the sport however.

It will help things by clubs finally cutting their cloth accordingly. Though as Fromafar says those lesser riders will naturally put their wage demands up too. Clubs aren’t closing because of the standard of riders. They’re closing because of the standard of promotion and running of the sport in the main.

You build to the standard available. If that is “NDL” riders then so be it. The problem is of British Speedway’s making, so the sport here has to fix its own mess. Sadly that is done in the form of papering over the cracks with more doubling up generally.

Another example of the sport pandering to riders. If you’re a late starter then your route to the top may be slightly harder. Get on with it. The competitor should bend to the rules of the sport, not the other way round.

You’re not wrong there. Head and shoulders the best rider in the world right now.

The change of point scoring system in the GPs has taken away the importance of squeezing every point out of a meeting and placed the emphasis on reaching and winning finals. Therefore it’s no coincidence that Zmarzlik does what he needs to in the heats and then comes on strong for the clutch heats. IMO the scoring system should be changed back. It puts more jeopardy on every race of the series for each rider. In theory that would produce more competitive racing.

Talking about speedway on the speedway forum.

Any ambitious rider will look to conquer tracks they have previously struggled on. For me, on similar averages I’d take Flint over Vissing any day. There’s a lot more potential upside to Flint if it goes well.

Ellis on his current average should be a highly sought after commodity next season. To write him off at 27 is frankly ridiculous.

It was a horrific incident. Adam Johnson and his loved ones have been in my thoughts a lot recently. As have everyone else who witnessed it. Not knowing much about Ice Hockey, to my mind there seems to be a lot of conjecture about what happened and finger pointing, none of which is good for anyone. Some people perhaps commenting purely with the intention of stirring up controversy or using a man’s death for internet points. These things have to be handled on a case by case basis. Hopefully we never have to deal with something like this in speedway. If we do we can only hope it is dealt with in the correct and a respectful manner.

Someone who loves speedway. Manchester is a great city and there are many things to do in a variety of guises on its doorstep too. It’s not as if people are being asked to spend a week in Sittingbourne.

It’s unsustainable. Oxford have obviously done well on their return to the sport but sadly the answer to everything these days seems to be over exposure, as they’ll find if they do decide to run three leagues. People would have to pick and choose their meetings and then it’s likely all three teams would run at a loss. It’s certainly not worth jeopardising an entire track just on the off chance it makes it easier for a handful of riders to reach a league that is already unsustainable.

It wouldn’t change the existing pathway. Riders just wouldn’t have to go gain experience of other tracks. If one track can make three teams work then fair play. But running one team seems a stretch for most places at the moment, so three is a recipe for disaster in my eyes.

You’d like to think that is the case. One track running in three divisions is a recipe for disaster.

Things should be kept as simple as possible. Convoluted rules turn most people off. None of this “if you best rider is a Sagittarius he can be your rising star but only if he eats two packets of chocolate buttons with the machine examiner before each meeting” rubbish.

The last speedway book I read was Tai’s and to put it bluntly it was rubbish. Nobody should be releasing a book mid-career. If Jason Crump, Tony Rickardsson or one of the top names from the sport of the last 20-30 years (now retired) fancies writing an autobiography they can take my money.

The issue there is that they’d rather open a track where there is no desire for one to save face rather than fix the current mess, I’d say.

If things are that dire that Scunthorpe have to move up to the top league then it’s time to admit a single “professional” division is the way to go. Forcing clubs to operate beyond their means just to keep a TV deal and a few world class riders here really isn’t worth it.

Cocaine has always been the realm of the professional classes. See the 1980s. Drugs are more readily available now but to say the majority of under 30s are partaking is a huge stretch.