moxey63

I always believe less is more. A team visiting once a year is all you need. As for Elite League needing its top men, I personally look at a team line up more than who is its top rider. It is a team spor afterallt, the GPS are for the star names... Only the like of Kenny carter and the always weak Halifax proved otherwise.

For a business that's losing so much money every season and that in itself is putting the future of speedway at risk, surely any savvy boss would want to cut his highest paid workers without shutting down the factory. It makes sense, cutting back the top paid men (they will probably decide it themselves, eventually) to make Britain get back on a sound footing. We cannot survive as we are right now. Another season will arrive next year, and we'll be no better off. Time to start drawing up plans... for the future.. that'll be a lot brighter... without the men who think they are doing us a favour by riding here!

That's another thing Elite League speedway has to contend with... people can watch other racing for free on the internet or satellite. In the old days we wouldn't have noticed how weak, how stale our league was, cos we had no other product to compare it with From what I've witnessed these past few years, Premier League is much better entertainment than EL. We should try to maintain British speedway using the PL pay scale. When a rider chooses to race in three different countries within the space of 48 hours, surely it's not these cherubs we should be asking to show the hunger and loyalty to drag British speedway from the knacker's yard.

Perhaps the EL promoters who cry about losing money every time they open their gates, perhaps they should use a bit of common logic and think about stepping down, losing their few remaining star names and secure a rosier future for them and the whole sport. We had the early year problems with GP riders, tracks that had a GP star couldn't race this date or that. Now they, the little princesses, want to hold Britain to ransom, telling track bosses when they should operate. Britain should make a fresh start, a brave one I know, and plan a sport that can rely on boys who actually want to be here. It would certainly begin to create a product that would only grow. Britain could be great again.

Promoters don't want to move up when their team is promoted is an old excuse. They don't feel they can afford the stars on their gates. But the stars have all but gone. The EL is too high as regards its operating costs. Despite the lack of stars, crowds have also dipped in recent years, and so the clubs haven't noticed much of a break even. Though some love the Play-Offs, it has allowed seasons to be directed towards making the final two. I feel all that precedes the Play-Off semis is taken as a take-or-leave proposition by fans. Teams visiting twice a season also reduces the need to attend both matches, especially when money's tight. If the proposed new set-up were were tailored to Premier League standards, both divisions, then what would the problem be? If an EL team is losing £100,000 a year, what objection would it have of the whole league agreeing to reduce its high earners, to help not just save the club but the sport as well. Without the so-called stars, both divisions could be evened out so neither league is that different.

One race night is not possible. I won't explain why, but most already know why. Promotion and relegation will work. I also believe having teams meet just once home and away would create more interest. Fans wouldn't tend to miss a team if it's the only chance they had of seeing the visiting riders the once. Speedway needs tidying up. Right now it feel as if everything is in the air and the sport has no real direction. Everyone knows it needs a overhaul. With two leagues, promo and relegation, perhaps even SKY could regain their interest.

The KOCup had that Man-O-Man race introduced. Think it was that Jon Cook's idea. Blame him. Also remember rider bonus points were sneaked in during the 1995 competition. The KOCup gradually lost its true meaning and attraction when the Play-Offs were introduced, the promoters in their wisdom having two aggregate competitions within days of each other. A KOCup Final could be staged in July or August. Belle Vue won the 2005 KOCup, their first in 30 years, but it was completely overshadowed by defeat against Coventry, the previous week in the Play-Off Final. Was a bit like the let down everyone experiences after that Lord Mayor's shindig thing.

They say promotion and relegation wouldn't work. They spout off every year about losing thousands of pounds on the team they've fielded. What have they got to lose? I recall the 1991 Promotion and Relegation season, the likes of Oxford and Swindon and Eastbourne coming to Belle Vue and really trying to stave off bottom place, and automatic relegation. It was a different scenario, more exciting than the current Play-Off set up we have. It would work. Two leagues, paying bread and butter guys.. it is possible. Let the stars go off and play ball elsewhere. A believable product... speedway could be that... finally!

Too right Colin And we could re-introduce a Cup competition, involving all clubs (who'd be of similar team strength). It is quite an exciting prospect, but we are just daydreamers. The men with the power seem to have been more interested with driving stars and fans away (don't know what came first). But surely they know it makes sense.

Good post Kevin In my view, all British speedway is closer to Premier League standards these days. I don't know if the promoters have purposely done this to cut costs, but what better chance than now to sort out the league set-ups over here. We should concentrate on a competitive and professional product, perhaps even promotion and relegation - cut out the stars who are threatening to quit - and make it an all round enjoyable being. A season-long battle for promotion or fight against relegation is more mouthwatering than keeping a few big names. I know there'll be cries of "It won't work!" but it has never been given a real opportunity. A team that gets relegated wouldn't have to make wholesale changes (losing star names, world stars) and perhaps could keep the basis of the side to try and make a quick return. Just an idea.

When something is given away for free (I know we pay subs etc).. but it is freely available, whether on our TVs or other devices, it lessons the value for the consumer. Speedway being so widely available to watch from the comfort of your armchair is a problem and will determine the desire to attend a live match - even the travelling a few miles may not seem worth the hassle. Speedway being so availbale, and we all cry for more coverage, well, it's like the free newspaper - you don't really give it a value... apart from they are the ones you usually see littered across the carparks and streets. The ones you have to buy are usually taken more care of.

Five year plan? That will be, providing we actually still have speedway in this country and make the SWC Final, not to say win it... that would make it 30 years since we last won it! As for asking Kelvin Tatum for advice... he may remember, being one of the winning team, what it was like to actually achieve something in the national side. It really is an embarrassment. We don't expect to win the WTC every year - it isn't the 70s after all - but nowt for a quarter of a century... That is simply not good enough. And, without sounding too tough on the national team, 1989 was only achieved because others lost star names in that opening race crash. You'd have thought most England, Team GB fans would be used to failure by now.

With TVs, computers and the latest phones, I think kids have enough in their own rooms to sneak a late night for. The times kids had to be in bed by early evening is nonsense. Many are up to the early hours playing computer games. If people won't attend speedway on an off night, what does that tell you? Speedway fans suffer OCD.

The Joker would only be allowed in cheap TV gameshows and minor sports. Poland should feel robbed this morning, and Germany were denied chance of making last week's "celebration" of top-class speedway when they were the only side that couldn't use Joker in the QR, and they missed out because of it. Speedway, by allowing such dross rules, has sold itself out a little and will never be taken seriously while this is in place. Some, however, for the sake of enriching their lives with the excitement factor for the briefest of moments, will love the Joker. How the sport looks to people it needs to begin to attract... well, we'll be no doubt discussing that on the next occasion a track shuts down. I prefer a serious storyline in my soap opera. Speedway reliance on the Joker/Golden Double, is like the dead star coming alive again in a shower scene of that American soap, Dallas, to try and boost flagging ratings. It can't be serious. Rosco's statement of a 5 year plan is a chuckle. Brits usually have masses of potential but seem to lack hunger and seem to have made it at 15, with three or so gleaming bikes and a nice vehicle with their names decorated on it. Winning is the hardest part to achieve and hunger for, if you already have the smartest things you should be aiming for.

What a terrible rule the joker is. Best team unable to utilise it. But how many times have we witnessed that?

Please excuse me... but I would prefer a full seven-side line-up without riders being brought in when somebody is riding somewhere for another team. Have other riders below the seven that have a link with the club (an asset etc) but let's get away from making it a rider free-for-all by allowing them to ride for more than one team. People would say this would be breach of employment law, but didn't Simon Stead sit out a Sheffield match recently, as it was World Cup week? Was it his choice or at the behest of SWC.

Back in the 80s, a fan, with studious attitude, actually wanted me banned from every speedway track in the country, simply for pronouncing Olly Tyvainerains name wrong! I argued with him, having copped a look at his programme, that at least I knew how to spell the Dane's name!

Deary Me Some people should really seek out their tinfoil helmets. The future of speedway is in very doubt, and despite this, we get ultimate hours of live coverage on TV... Yet, people, who really should give their heads a wobble, complain about a commentator! Where did it all go wrong? How, people, have we come to this?

We had an ideal world, I feel, when Britain was tops for speedway... and yet, promoters still moaned about falling crowds and, subsequently began chopping team-building averages to cut out the big names. I don't know what the team-building average is today, but I bet it doesn't allow for three big-hitting riders like days of yore. Therefore, promoters have long noticed the need for cutting cloth, whether to give themselves bigger profits or lesser losses. When we had big names riding, crowds mustn't have been big enough to warrant them; now, with many gone, the lack of major names over here surely must have lessened British speedway's power of attraction to paying public, a percentage of which probably stopped attending because what was being served didn't maintain the pull it once did. We are at the crossroads right now - do we try to tempt the big stars back, race when they want us to; or do we rid the league (whether it's one big one etc) of the remaining ones, men you know are one step here and one step somewhere else every night of the blooming week? Personally, I would point towards the latter suggestion.

WE, as fans, have differing ideas on how to engineer British Speedway's dramatic upturn, it's recovery. But, it is, unfortunately, all deckchair chatter... We have no powers (apart from no longer attending - and then the men (and ladies) in the drive seat, promoters to their friends, they don't find out why crowds drop, so it is a waste of time this protest). We are, I'm afraid, simply talking behind the backs of parents... telling them how to control their children. They know best. Promoters attitude is: It's our money ... and we'll do what we want.

Not many turned up in Poland tonight, to watch the top stars... Are they (Poles) too used to seeing the top names? Or is it, that TV and the Internet will ultimately bring the curtain down on terrace fans?

Alas, we are what we are today. Until somebody arrives with no particular club loyalty, with priority of a main interest in the spprt as a whole, who has the final nod on the speedway sat nav and the immediate journey, perhaps it will remain a no man's land sport.

Sky money has not been put to any use. In saying that, where could it have gone? Improving stadia is a no-go, with most promoters having no say in venues that somebody else owns. After 15 years of lavish TV coverage, with millions being swilled into the sport, the coffers seem bare. A chance of a lifetime wasted and a sport left in a worse position than before. It really is tragic. We all would prefer steak over bread and butter, but it's what is affordable. We can't afford star namesand need a business plan to see the sport at least survive. I ddon't pretend to have all the answers, it is just my view. But I don't pretend the sport can either afford or persuade the stars to return. We have few stars left, fewer on the terraces who pay for the remaining riders. And there seems to be a make-do attitude, a live for today, lets just finish this season attitude. Everything, with hands over eyes, will be ok... once we arrive at another fresh, new season in 2015.

The main concern is speedway in Britain being staged at all, regardless of racenight. We need a radical re-juggle of the sport in this country or speedway nights at many tracks will be memories. All this freedom of employment stuff means nothing, especially if the riders refuse to race here because they want to ride in Europe instead. They can throw tantrums about freedom of whatever, but if British speedway sets up a league, offers them a chance and they refuse, then they have made the decision. It sounds tough... but the pie-in-the-sky ideas of one race night... it'll never happen, it can't happen. British speedway will be in a lot better position to survive, mend its cuts and wounds, and come back stronger... with riders focused on racing in one country. Premier League standard racing is quite exciting. Well managed, it could be the basis similar to the 1965 reform of British racing. British racing isn't attractive to the so-called big names anymore. Keeping it the way it is, will it ever again turn heads of the top boys? I doubt it. Keeping it the way it is... speedway here will continue to drive away the support... vital and somewhat more important than the stars. Without payers at the turnstile... it'll fall like warm ice. The stars, men below them, speedway nights and even the sport... there'll all be gone. We can't afford the big names anymore, and they have shown where there colours lie. Let's move on...

Exactly! Therefore, people on here must stop doing it. Speedway is less organised... even than the table football we used to play on our wobbly coffee table, back in the 70s.