MattK

It just says Elite League 20 Meetings and the cost of the season ticket is the equivalent of 20 standard entry fees (£340) although the price does include a programme "worth" £3 (yes, £3) and entrance to the play-off semis, but not final.

The usual BSPA answer is to lower the points limit. Wouldn't be surprised if it's 32 for eight teams and another two points lower for each additional team.

I can see any team wanting to step up into the debacle which is the current Elite League without significant financial incentives and I can't see any of the existing eight teams wanting to share what little cash exists with new sides. Maybe they are planning on teams riding each other home and away more than twice?

Plausible denial. By continuing to follow the happy path, the Swindon management can avoid any criticism when the stadium doesn't get built, instead placing all the blame on to the developers. However, if they were to now start bemoaning the lack of progress and calling into question the development, when the stadium doesn't materialise people will point the finger at the speedway management asking why they didn't do more to ensure the stadium got built.

The main problem with most advertising is that it's very hard to accurately measure its effectiveness. However, there are more direct ways of promoting speedway, but in my experience promoters aren't interested.

Speedway does nothing to attract new fans, so by definition is existing fans will age over time. Couple this to the fact that speedway is run by old men, the presentation, music etc. are straight out of the 70s, then you can see why youngsters are not attracted to the sport.

I would say that gates at Swindon this season have been as low as 7-800 when we were struggling, up to as much as 1500 after Ward signed. The exception was when we did £5 entry and as many as 2500 turned up. To put these figures in perspective, five years ago 1500 would have been considered a fairly average attendance.

Agreed. I think the real challenge for BV is whether they can attract 5 figure crowds to "lesser" events like GP Challenges and World U21s, as the SWC will only come round once every for our five years at best.

Wow, I didn't realise that. The SWC must be a licence to print money for BSI with so many large stadiums keen to host events.

Most international meetings are hosted by the highest bidder, so Belle Vue will simply have to outbid the likes of Kings Lynn, Poole, Leicester and Berwick. Given that BV will have the largest capacity, they should be able to comfortably outbid the likes of Kings Lynn to host a SWC qualifying event.

No. He rode most of the season as a secondstring and struggled when he had to move up to heatleader, averaging only 5.45 in those five meetings.

Cradley must a licence to print money. I'm sure someone will step in.

Ronnie Russell is stuck in the middle of a tug-o-war between Kent and Oxford who both want him as their team manager.

Wouldn't it make more sense for the EL to run on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and the PL on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? That gives clubs a choice of three nights with which to negotiate with landlords, local councils etc. and still avoid clashes.

Your main problem with Fridays are the number of clashes with PL teams. Most EL teams have three or even four riders racing in both leagues so if you were doing to move for fixed race nights wouldn't it make sense to keep EL and PL apart as much as possible?

That attitude is fine, as long as British speedway is the top priority for riders. The problem you'll have though, is that it isn't. There are basically two schools of thought. Your approach will eventually see British speedway as an amateur sport held at a handful of tracks. Not necessarily a problem in itself, as it will be sustainable, but with a much reduced schedule of events, similar to what we currently see in grasstrack. The other approach is to work around the other leagues and individual meetings in order to make British speedway (or Elite League at least) attractive to the top riders. The logic is that this will help retain, or not attract, the best riders and in turn bigger crowds. The problem at the moment is that we have a halfway house between the two. Clubs stubbornly refuse to compromise their race nights, which in turn put off the top riders and subsequently means dwindling crowds.

Here is a perfect example of Harris turning left. Compare the two heats below from the Latvian GP: What is the difference between Doyle in Heat 13 and MJJ in Heat 16 (battling for second with Batchelor)? Nothing, they make an almost identical pass of the rider in front. What is the difference between Harris and Batchelor? Batchelor gives his rider room, whereas Harris turns left on Doyle. Heat 13 (lap 4): https://youtu.be/QHvfyfpAzmk?t=51m50s Heat 16 (lap 2): https://youtu.be/QHvfyfpAzmk?t=1h3m53s

I totally agree. Harris is the king of turning left on another rider. The term "racing room" doesn't exist in his lexicon.

Classic Sam!

It's £554k from borrowing and £193k diverted from other budgets. The report states "If Members are supportive of the approach then the existing commercial terms should be reviewed to ensure that the additional investment being made is recognised." This suggests that at least some of the cost will be passed on to the speedway club. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/19388/item_16_-_capital_programme_proposed_increase_belle_vue_sports_village

The problem is, nobody actually wants the new stadium to be built (other than speedway fans). The developers don't want to built it, the council would prefer more houses and the new residents certainly don't want a motorsports stadium on their doorstep.

In practice promoters are the only ones who stand to lose (financial) from an independent body which makes poor decisions and negatively impacts their businesses. An independent body sounds great in theory, but I'm not sure what people expect them to do which would be materially different from what the BSPA does today.

I disagree. I think we have a lot of clout. We could protest over and over to any potential plans to demolish the Abbey and build houses. Just look at Oxford, the GRA have a white elephant that they don't want to run as a stadium, but the council, thanks largely to local pressure, resolutely refuse to grant planning permission for houses. A "deal" with the speedway would mean we would not oppose any plans to build houses in exchange for a down payment on our own new stadium.

I think our best option is to think outside the box. The fact is, Osbourne has no intention of ever building a new stadium and has used the plans simplyto get planning permission for houses. This means for me, we need to cut some kind of deal. Let's say the land designated for the proposed new stadium could site 200 houses. That's close to £20m in profits. The speedway should back plans to build houses instead of a new stadium, in exchange for a share in the profits. A 10% share would mean £2m for the club to go off and build our own speedway stadium without any ties.

The facilities are being built by Manchester City Council, who are also borrowing the money to pay for the development. It will then be leased to Belle Vue Speedway. I would love to know how David Gordon convinced a local council to borrow £6m and use it to build a speedway stadium with all the inherent risk involved being taken by the council, when here in Swindon our council is so broke then are suggesting that people may have to start picking up litter and mowing grass verges, as they council can no longer afford to do it.