MattK

What actually was the proposed new rule and why was it considered unacceptable? Does the SCB not have similar concerns about many other rules which could be considered restriction of trade and/or discrimination?

Wouldn't Nicholls and Kennett be excluded from an amalgamated league by virtue of the same rule - presuming one big league is at Championship standard?

Smart people are already gearing up to recycle batteries: https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-batteries-recycling-analysis/metal-recyclers-prepare-for-electric-car-revolution-idUKKBN1DH1DS

Tesla already boast a 300+ mile range and charge to 80% in around 40 minutes. Don't forget, this technology is in it's infancy.

That's old fashioned thinking. The future is an electric car, charged overnight from your home installed powerpacks, which are charged during the day from photovoltaic cells attached to your house. Likewise, companies like Nationwide are plan to fit PV cells to the company car park, so you can charge your car while you're at work. The idea of "filling up" your car at a station you have to travel to will seem decidedly 20th century.

That is one way of looking at it. Another is that TV is still the best mechanism for getting your sport in front of millions of eyeballs. It is then in the gift of the promoters to put on a spectacle which makes armchair fans into pay on the gate fans. Just look at UFC. They use TV coverage excellently, not just to showcase the live fights, but to do build-up (when was there ever a build-up programme to a speedway meeting), reality-style training series, "best of" programmes etc. The consequence, they sold out the O2 Arena in minutes when tickets went on sale earlier this month for a fight card which doesn't even contain a championship bout.

They have no intention of building a new stadium in Swindon, it was merely a ploy to get planning permission for houses.

I'd imagine that a very high percentage of that was used to keep Swindon afloat.

Is this a symptom of fixed race nights causing more clashes with televised meetins?

Interesting to see that Google Maps have an updated aerial view of the stadium showing the encroachment of houses. Then: https://binged.it/2BuDFoF Now: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Swindon+Greyhound/@51.6064152,-1.7960524,681m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x487146ec9d041661:0xba6156c784b03b90!8m2!3d51.608415!4d-1.791763

This would be a perfect opportunity for a forward thinking promoter to partner with a bike manufacturer, come up with a design which has crossover appeal (therefore looks more like a dirt bike than a speedway bike) and promote a race series using standardised machinery.

Presumably, the key is loyalty to the team. I've been to the greyhounds at Swindon and enjoyed myself, but I wouldn't go every week. Similarly, people without team affiliation may well have the same experience of speedway.

Looking at the calibre of the teams, I'd predict that he finishes in the top three come the end of the season.

Who's Byron Becker?

I think the BSPA have actually made two very bold and correct decisions recently (Nicholls/Kennett and Byron Becker). Their problem is not properly explaining their decision-making process and logic to the public.

There is no new stadium. These plans are simply designed to free-up the land that the proposed new (old) stadium was supposed to be built on for housing.

Is the council actually delivering the houses which are in the local plan? This is the main area that developers use to get their plans approved on appeal.

Please, fill in those of us who are less informed

How would that help? If you have more riders in each category than team places, you are guaranteeing that some riders will be without a team (as the points limit effectively does). If you have the same number of riders as team places, you will have to lock some riders out of the league.

You don't think the current world champion might: a) Be a bigger draw b ) Have more demands on his time than say Ben Barker?

Does anyone know if the Championship team voted on this rule being re-instated?

No it wouldn't. You can't change the rules AFTER most teams have completed their teambuilding. I agree that these kind of rules should be agreed in advance, so it would be interesting to know the timeline of when this rule change was proposed.

Maybe they felt with the number of number of unsigned British riders, it wouldn't be appropriate to support the visa application of a foreign rider who doesn't meet the current requirements?

Click on Plans and Documents at the bottom and then on the next page tick the box and click Proceed

There were 126 (I make it 129) unique riders in both leagues last season.