MattK

Four of those five are exactly the people who have presided over the slow and steady decline of British speedway. What makes you think they have the answers now? If you want fresh thinking you need people who ideally have no connection with speedway, potentially even from outside the world of sport.

I agree that in an ideal world clubs would have a squad of riders which they dip into in order to cover absences and injuries, but that simply isn't financially viable in the current climate. As for credibility, in who's eyes? Guest and doubling-up (albeit not to the extent we have today) as existed for as long as I have been following speedway. Therefore, I find it hard to believe a significant number of fans are deterred from attending due to the above and as for the wider media, guests and doubling-up are number 435th on their list of reasons not to cover speedway.

I really don't understand the objection to doubling up. It increases the pool of available riders, it makes riding exclusively in Britain a practical option and it reduces costs for clubs in both leagues as they effectively share the fixed costs of a rider. Implementing your suggestion would mean more foreign riders in both leagues, British riders having to rider overseas (and potentially prioritising those fixtures) and an increase in costs for teams. I'm not sure what positive outcomes it would achieve?

There is a third option, decide who your target market is and TARGET THEM. At the moment when you go to a meeting the average age is over 50 and the whole meeting is geared to that demographic (music, presentation etc). That in itself isn't a problem. Over 50s is a perfectly legitimate target market. However, most clubs seem to want to attract young people. They go into schools, increasingly use social media and so on. The problem is youngster like Fortnite, Drake and Supreme. When you go to a speedway meeting you are presented with paper programmes, AC/DC and Wulfsport. The two are completely incompatible. Speedway either needs to promote itself to the over 50s crowd or completely change the way the sport is presented in order to appeal to a younger generation. I know which one is more achievable.

Unfortunately, these are often commercial suicide. You don't attract any new fans by running a junior team, but you do incur additional costs, so you are totally reliant on your main fans attending twice as many meetings. Coupled with that, if your senior team is doing poorly, fans can chose to only attend the junior team, so you are cannibalising your own customers, see Oxford in 2007 as an example. Many teams have tried running both a senior team and a junior team (Swindon, Poole, King's Lynn, Lakeside, Rye House, Wolves (Cradley), Belle Vue, Coventry, Leicester) and yet only a handful continue to do so.

Yes, I think so. Say what you want about Clarke Osborne, he definitely plans the long game. There are tens of millions of pounds worth of housing to be built on the land where the new stadium was supposed to go. I can't see him jeopardising that upsetting the council/speedway fans. For me, the biggest short term issue must be the houses they have built right next to the pits. The noise there must be insufferable during meetings. I still think the best solution is for the club to cut a deal with Osborne, agree for the stadium to be demolished and housing put in it's place, in exchange for a downpayment to the club for a new stadium elsewhere in Swindon away from any potential new developments. I simply cannot see a long term future for the Robins at the Abbey now that is almost completely surrounded by homes.

Not that I am aware. There was a restrictive convenant on the land around the stadium, as it was allocated to commercial use as part of the original North Swindon Development Plan, but this was clearly overlooked when they applied for permission to build houses. I have heard people claim there is a restriction in the planning permission for the brand new stadium which says the old stadium cannot be demolished before the new one is built, but no one can point me to where in the planning permission this is written and I have read all the documents and cannot find any mention of it.

There are a number of reason why, if it is true, it is not being publicised. Firstly, admitting the existing stadium is being demolished before planning permission is granted for the "new" stadium is likely to cause a great deal of consternation - and rightly so. Secondly, it finally put to bed the myth that the old stadium cannot be demolished until the new stadium has been built. Thirdly, no one has any faith that the developers will not knock down the old stadium and simply leave it at that.

Don't think so. He owns half and a group of local businessmen (Mike Bowden, Steve Park and Per-Axel Warensjo) own the other half.

When planning permission for the housing development was granted the stadium was supposed to have been demolished and a new one built away from where the houses now are. It is only after the houses were built that plans have been submitted to redevelop the old stadium.

Technically, Doyle wasn't world champion when he rode for Swindon.

There is no back straight stand mentioned anywhere in the planning application. I don't even think there is room for a stand between the greyhound track and the access road. The only thing I can see is 4 metres of "hard standing" between the track and the road.

On the newest plans, the backstraight is supposed to be parking, so it is interesting if they are starting work on building houses there. The pits will be next to the main stand before the entrance to bend one.

This is the section:

It was "contracts have to be signed" or something similarly vague. If you read the Section 106 document on the original application the clause is in there. Either way, GI obviously met the clause, as more than 200 houses have been occupied - and I'm sure the council wouldn't turn a blind eye to their inactivity.

The only restriction in place was that contracts for the new stadium had to be signed before more than 200 houses could be occupied. Clearly GI pulled the wool over the councils eyes, as far more than 200 houses have been occupied and now the plans for the "new" stadium have been scrapped. What possible leverage the council think they have, given that the housing development is all but complete, is open to debate. The only restriction I can think of is when GI inevitably apply for planning permission to build houses on the site where the "new" stadium was supposed to go.

1.3

I do not have enough information to suggest an alternative. Without details of attendance figures, club's P&L and rider's wage structures any suggestions would be meaningless.

How weak will this new league be? Championship clubs charge a few quid less and don't enjoy bigger crowds than their more expensive Premiership counterparts. National League teams charge significantly less and in turn have small crowds than Championship clubs. I'll admit that one big league may enjoy a slight halo effect of being the "top" league, but I see nothing to suggest that weakening the product and in turn dropping the price will allow for crowd numbers to be sustained, let alone entice fans back.

I don't think anyone will dispute that crowds were bigger 10 years when we has more top riders. Whether this is causation or simply correlation is open to debate. Over the last ten years the league has been gradually weakened and in turn crowds have fallen. What on Earth makes anyone think that a significant weakening of the product will not result in a similar decline in crowd numbers?

Can you give some examples of decisions an independent body would have made which would have been different to the BSPA? How would an independent body give someone like Guy Nicholls the autonomy to run a club the way he see fit?

How much has Matt Ford made from speedway in say the last 10 years?

What is the difference between their Premiership and Championship points money?

Why would Championship clubs agree to one big league? It is likely to increase their costs without any increase in revenues.

You've clearly never been to one of Swindon's famous 24-hour dog races.