moxey63

Steve, it isn't the tractor grading as such. But when you turn up at a meeting expecting to see the action straight away, and then are expected to wait sometimes an hour for them to sort out the track, it wears thin. Then after that, there's the longer than normal tractor grades between races to sort out something they've had days to sort out. And don't forget, as a programme contributor I didn't pay much of the time, and I stopped attending. Of course, it isn't just about tractor grading.

How many of us will reach our death beds regretting our wasted hours at the speedway watching mostly track grading? I honestly think back now and feel it was only out of habit I attended for so long. Still love the sport, and its history, but can't be bothered with the modern stuff. It ain't the speedway I fell for. Most on here saying they've stopped attending and don't miss it, are merely echoing what I've been saying for yonks. I was only warning back then the sport needed a big shakeup. Look what level it's down to now.

As a spectacle, speedway is superb. But in that sense, it's a bit like Boris Johnson. It's only when you stay with it a while you realise it's having you over. Nearly 100 years of team racing and British speedway has never been further from that boast. After the a while, the razzle-dazzle wears thin and you just want something you can believe in.

The problem started 20 years ago when clubs were allowed to operate double up and down riders, who had no link with the other club. It has got to the point now where riders are getting more out of the sport than the fans by having a team at every port. The supporter needs to feel the rider is part of them, their team, not some fly-by-night who is clock watching or afraid of being injured because he has another race date later on. It has got to the point now where riders choose the track based on its race day and not the club. It is no way for a team sport to exist. Speedway has reached fourth division short -termism.

I think you could be right. The sport is just being patched up now, just to get the next match, week or season complete. No long term plan. Stop trying to attract new fans without worrying why the old ones have vanished. The old ones more often than not used to introduce the old ones. You couldn't sell the sport on Dragons' Den the way it's set up at the moment. Imagine trying to explain the team set ups, or what is the top league and what is the second tier. Why have so many riders riding for different teams have the same name? It is pathetic. It's like that parrot in the Monty Python sketch.

You are right. Speedway's decline began in 1981... the second year of the Tory rule. But the sport's fortunes gradually picked up in 1997, when Labour won power, and two years' later it had a live match on TV every week. I believe public awareness increased. In the last 13 years of Tory rule, going back to 2010, I believe the sport has suffered a rapid decline. I know it's merely an opinion... even a coincidence. But I remember someone mentioning it once, reading it somewhere, that speedway prospered during Labour governments.

I read somewhere that speedway often flourishes during Labour governments. I gather speedway today resembles the current party we have in charge.

Chapman is just another in a long line of promoters that threatens to pull out when things go against him. Didn’t he do it last season? It does so much damage to the sport. We had one like him at Belle Vue for years, threatening this and that, with the track closing every winter. It never did. I initially worried sick about the statements... but you just become distanced from it in time and, do you know what, realise that putting so much effort, affection and energy into something that might not be there next week, you concentrate on something that will be.

That Look At Life film you mention is brilliant. Though made in the early 60s, and at a time speedway was at a low ebb, I think the sport was in a much better position than it is now. However, the Bikes Without Brakes documentary came over as quite pessimistic. Remember, the sport hadn’t found the golden ticket at the time, and they made the programme just before SKY handed millions over for a decade and afforded us hours of live airing, which the sport had never had. That was the best chance for speedway to kick itself into shape and try to attract newcomers. Despite briefly attracting wider interest during SKY’s initial years, sadly the sport blew that chance and has fallen into a much more precarious state than before that Bikes Without Brakes film from 25 years ago.

Anyone got this on dvd?

Speedway racing can be the best form of entertainment. But going trackside to watch the spectacle becomes slightly samey if you don't have a dog in the race, a team in the true sense of the word or a favourite rider. How can you possibly turn up at a track and support what is often a list of seven men thrown together simply because their average fits... and the track's race day, which also allows them the to race for at least one other team? The sport has lost its characters, its personalities and, more importantly, the reason most of us tagged on in the first place - the team thing. Now it seems so much like Formula 1. If I would have wanted a sport like F1 to follow, I would have followed that. In fact, growing up, I used to get annoyed when people asked "speedway - is that Barry Sheene?" I wasn't at all interested in motorcycling, never have been. I told them it was league racing and not about individuals. Speedway was special, it was about my team, Belle Vue. It wasn't just about motorbikes. I didn't want to support one individual, as motorcycling and F1 required much of the time, I wanted to follow a team. In doing that, you got your own favourites in that team, at times not even its star man. But, now, speedway isn't anywhere near that. I see riders gaining the most from it nowadays and get the feeling they'd ride anywhere. It isn't about loyalty now. They just want a team place for next year. Maybe it's always been the case. But I genuinely think the way the sport has gone in the last two decades - an over reliance on doubling up and down, has killed off the team thing that most fans fell for. Although it's seen as being popular, the play-off system has also killed off reason to have six months of warm up matches just to get there. Then , after a few matches of higher than average crowds that the PO Finals drag from indoors (where've they been all year?), we end the season thinking the sport is in better shape than we thought.

Speedway is so far behind F1 because it has tried to be the same. It has gone from a team sport to just a bunch of individuals pretending to represent a team.

If you gave Tesco 16 years' service, entertained customers and made them come back for more... won a world title... lost a world title after shattering your leg on a sharp bit of trolley the store left in your way, needing 200 stitches, but didn’t claim compo... shattered your arm after fall on the soaking wet Tesco floor because you were forced to work in those conditions, and the injury meaning you couldn’t stack shelves as fast as before... then yes, shopping should be free.

Without the fans to pay for even an inexpensive motorsport, which you suggest speedway is, then competitors will have to turn amateur. Might not be such a bad thing.

Not even Boris can take the blame for speedway's state - he's got enough on his plate with what he's done with the country.

Think they're gonna have to re-invent speedway again next year. Replace the Play-Off with Last Man Standing Cup.

Speedway is failing, not only due to, but because people who are really just fans with money are running the sport. They are called promoters. Obviously they do so because they love speedway, but at the same time they don't see the problems with it. We are all speedway fans, and when someone offers a suggestion or criticism of the product, it tends to get the speedway fan's back up. A lot promoters plough wads of money into the club just to keep it afloat. It shows their intentions are well and good. When the well runs dry, cash runs out, the track is placed into trouble. Then someone else rides in to the rescue, another speedway supporter with money, and we repeat the previous process. The sport needs to cut its cloth accordingly. It needs a genuine root and branch review of why it has sunk this low. I know the pandemic has given it a right old bruising, but we've been travelling in this direction for years, and yet the sport relied on a make-do attitude of focusing on the end-of-season play offs, which mean nothing if the track folds in the winter. Look at many of the established clubs that have gone by the wayside. Their success means nothing to history if the sport doesn't survive tomorrow.

So true. There are vast numbers of fans who don't attend anymore, could fill many stadiums and are there to be won back. Promoters, or, let's face it, the people who think they know what they're doing, never seem to want to find out why crowds have leaked so badly. By crowds leaking so badly, the promoters lose money and the track's future becomes cloudy. Covid hasn't helped, but this day has been coming for years. A questionnaire on the internet, that could be sent to your email address, would be a start to try and get some lost fans back. Like me, ex-fans still stay in touch. But as time goes by, the sport you first attended begins to look so different to the one we have now. Some fans may have just got out of the habit of attending. Promoters left it so long to re-engage with them. There has been an urge to re-event speedway for too long, bring in younger fans. Obviously we need new fans, but I would say most people who attend speedway were introduced by an old fan, friend or family members.

I feel the only ones having fun from current day speedway are the riders, who still have a great living from the sport. The punters aren't getting value for money. Matches contain line ups, not for serious league or cup rivalry, but more as a testimonial type thing. The riders can still have a great week, the matches they ride. I read a rider the other day, a rider I admire, saying he felt bad for inflicting defeat on another rider and stopping his maximum - because it's his team mate at another team! When you have so many team mates at other teams, surely the feeling by fans of being connected to that rider is one of the sport's problems, especially in the dwindling leagues.

I expect riders who have ridden years for a club clouds my judgement by appearing for different other ones every season.

They always try to attract new fans while alienating old ones, when, going on history, it's the old ones who introduce the new ones. Speedway is now like football matches at school, when teams were never constant as long as you had two sides. I can imagine wartime meetings were like they are now - make do with whoever wants to ride, let all tracks choose whoever is available. And they expect fans to build up a bond with a team of make-do riders that won't be there next year and... at this rate, nor will the track. It is a team sport first and foremost. Why does it feel like it's set up merely for the individuals? I don't trust the folks who run it here, either. For years they went on about losing so many thousands of pounds a match, but admitted they funded the losses from their own resources. And then we ask why the sport is in its worst state... ever. Even the 50s weren't like this.

Bored now. Let's get back on topic.

Have you got that long-covid?