uk_martin

Rumours eh? It was BT's to lose, and they sure made sure they lost it. As did Sky before them.

a) what's wrong with offering cheap alcohol? Pubs have been promoting student nights on just that basis for years. Ibiza holidays are promoted on the back of cheap alcohol too. Damn, that word "promoting" again. So alien to the "sport" of speedway b) £17ish for an adult at speedway and free for kids, and Birmingham are threatening closure because not enough are coming through the door at those prices. Cricket charges £25 for adults and £7 for kids and is regularly sold out, If that's not a failure for speedway, then what is? That fasle myth that mikebv blows out of the water so well, that Polish speedway is cheap for the fans. It may look like it to us but it isn't to the Poles. Wherever you go, entrance to speedway is about the same as 4 or 5 pints of beer down the pub, whether that's in Poland or in the UK. You get better value and more bangs for your buck in Poland though. I've seen parades of classic cars, demonstrations of other sports, parachutists, aerobatics displays overhead, and all sorts in the mini-break after heat 10, It's a simple thing. Polish speedway is not cheap, but you get great value on track with the best riders for your money and you get value added additions added to the mix to send you home happy and wanting to come back for more. And it works.

"Multiple offers? Wow! Between who? If the competition was between Eurosport and Premier Sports, they chose the lesser of the evils. Not exactly the same as competition between BBC ITV C4 & Sky Sports, is it?

It's dead easy to praise someone who gives you something for nothing, innit? Your new best friends. Wait a minute though. Birmingham (one amongst many) were running with "Kids for a Quid" in one guise or another since 2007. If lowering the price, or giving admission away for next to nothing was the answer, then the terraces would be awash with young people in their late teens and early 20's now, wouldn't they? I mean, how many 17-20-year-olds are at Berwick now, having been bitten by the bug in their pre-16 years and are now paying full price at the gate? How do you answer that one without sounding negative? I know that the answer to the same question at Birmingham will result in a big round number. Basically, the experiment that everyone hung their hopes on has failed. (just waiting for the "I know someone who knows someone who came in as a kid for a quid" smartarse who just wants to be contrary) Sadly in the rush to the bottom of the admission price barrel has resulted in promoters taking the eyes off the ball when it comes to quality of the product. Whilst Rugby, Darts and Cricket have reinvented themselves time and again, and now have full venues, and attract competition from TV stations for the broadcasting rights, speedway still tries to offer the same old same old 1950's product without any thought to new ways of doing things. And all for the fear of losing the 70-80 year old "regular" fan base that's kept the sport going. There will come a day however when it'll be time to crack some eggs to make an omelette...

If I book a table, then that's between me and the club. Nobody else needs to know. Contrary to that, and completely outwith the the courtesy of confidentiality, and the good practises of privacy protection, that website has no rights to publish peoples names on thee internet. Simple as. Especially as they don't even ask anyone's permission to use their name on their web site. And if they are as cavalier about people's privacy, they are probably equally cavalier about data protection, so god knows what protects people's credit card information from being accessed by those who aren't entitled to it. It's not scaremongering, it's common sense. I don't want any budding burglar to know that my place will be empty for a set number of hours, and they can help themselves without worrying about me returning. And I don't want someone hacking my credit card information from that web site's database either. Fill your boots if you are happy with that lackadaisical attitude towards your personal security, but it ain't for me.

Maybe they are more computer savvy than they are given credit for...and also savvy enough as not to trust a third party ticketing web site with a shoddy attitude towards online privacy and probably data protection?

I'm sure that the £1 refund is worth a great deal more to some than it is to others. I seem to recall one Brummies fan choosing to drive to Leicester all season when the re-opened, instead of following the Brummies, just to save £1 a week on his admission. No doubt those eager to save 100 pennies will also print out their own race cards so that they won't need to buy a programme too

The message from their last couple of press releases suggest that every penny counts. The Brummies are the ones asking for charity on their Just Giving web page. I wouldn't hold my breath for charity to come the other way.

Exactly how much do you want to pay?

So will Birmingham be the first victim of the sport's general failure in cultivating a younger audience?

Eh? So YOU do all the grafting, and Terry Russell gets all the profits from it? Is Russel / SlowSpeed still in business? He used to have the worldwide television rights to distribute Polish Speedway, which he used purely to stop anyone outside of Poland from seeing it...but obviously, that cornerstone to his business is no longer in place, so I wonder if the business is still going?

Or if you bought a season ticket? Or if you donated to the Just Giving pot? A lot of fans, many of them pensioners, could be having to resign themselves to writing off a lot of their own money.

Prophetic.

Now I'm confused. Is this the same meeting that we're talking about here? By "second half" are you referring to heat's 5-9, after which point the meeting was abandoned? According to Speedway Updates, only 2 races out of the 9 had any overtaking at all - https://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/20052/redcar-championship-koc-02-2021

2021 - Forget Covid, it'll be the Year of Traffic Congestion

Why not upload it on here then for everyone else to see...I'm sure that they are bound to agree with you if the video is that conclusive.

Damned good point, bloody well made.

Feeling really sorry for all the Redcar fans whose long journey has been totally wasted. I'm sure that the Brummies will have a Just Giving web page set up to raise funds for the unexpected refunds... It seems to be the way that things get financed there these days. I took a walk to the stadium this evening, but my heart sank when I saw the farce outside the stadium. Given that the weather forecast was for rain showers, with one thing and another I just gave up and went back home again. It makes you wonder how many of those who persevered and paid to get in will ever want to go again. "Elite Sport" they call this??? What a joke.

Don't forget to use your jumpers to represent the starting gate / finish line.

Why not have a "team" of 7 such riders? You could have 1 x RR plus 6 x guests to suit any given track. Makes you wonder if the old rule about facilities not being available for riders who have never ridden for you didn't have a virtue.

Interesting question....just who do the FIM and FIME think that they are, daring to have their meetings at weekends? Don't they know that we British have three teams, yeah, count them, THREE teams, who these pesky World and European tournaments interfere with. How dare they! About time the FIM and FIME got their priorities straight. Because WE say so, innit?

It's a rule that the Brummies came a cropper under in 2007 when Emiliano Sanchez was unable to ride in his first fixture and the Brummies had to track a 3 point NL reserve. I'm pretty sure that I saw the rule still in the book around 2010(ish) but it doesn't appear to be there now, as has been witnessed by Sheffield on Monday and Birmingham today fielding guests for riders who've not ridden for these two teams before. I was just interested when the rule was dropped?

It was a change to the rules made in recent years that allowed for today's situation to crop up. Up to recently (not sure exactly when) you weren't allowed a "facility" for riders who had never ridden for your team. The Brummies came a cropper under that rule in 2007 when Emiliano Sanchez missed the first meeting and we had to use a 3 point NL reserve in his place. Now imagine if the Brummies (or even Sheffield last Monday) had to track 3 point NL reserves instead of "proper" guests. But as has been said elsewhere. The FIM & FIME fixtures have been known for months. And like in many previous years in the past, nobody cares about these when setting up British fixtures. The sport's organisation is a joke.

Wrong. Much more recent than that.

As a matter of interest, when was the regulation that prohibited a Guest or RR facility being given for a rider that had never ridden for a club, removed from the rule book?