IainB

I've never seen anything quite like that, the riders seem really invested in their clubs (until they go and ride in a different country of course ). In my mind I was comparing it to what I saw on Saturday night when Poole won at Leicester and the Poole riders sheepishly came out from the pits to clap at their fans, no criticism of Poole, well done to them for doing it. The riders got close to the fans but not too close until a photographer wanted a photo of them in front of the fans, it all looked a bit awkward... a bit different though when you've got a crowd of 600 in front of you celebrating as opposed to the 16 or so at Leicester Is Freddie underperforming though? Probably a little bit yes, but I would suggest that these days the Ekstraliga has a stronger line-up, in the heats that Freddie rides in and the tracks that Freddie rides on than in the GP's

To compare Speedway to cricket, all the Speedway competitions are the same, just with a different name, the format is always the same 15 heats, 4 riders, 4 laps, 3,2,1,0 point scoring. Yes there is a pairs event and a 4's event but these are one off's. There's no variation... oh excuse me, you can't tac-sub in a KoC match... that's it, really? That's the vision?!? How about a competition where the matches consist of devil take the hindmost races, 1 lap dashes? Saw a number of these at Stoke, I think, and they were quite entertaining. You get 3 first bends per race, which generally where all the action happens and a match race, which can also be quite entertaining, just thinking out loud but it's something different.

You can see this by the crowd that Cardiff attracts, as a bit of Speedway purist, I go to watch the event because of its importance (World Championship round), the racing and the atmosphere. The downside (for me) is that there are a lot of people at the event that are p1ssed up on the booze, it's generally ok as I can move to seats away from these annoyances but I've never seen anybody p1ssed up at a league match. This is born out by a "discussion" I'm currently having on the Leicester thread about various issues with Speedway in general and some with Leicester in particular. There are some people that seem to think that because there is Speedway at their track that everything in the garden is rosy and that the sport doesn't really need promoting that much. The if you build it they will come style of promotion. Clubs should never be happy with their attendances unless they're playing to full houses. I'm not sure that many do dislike them, they probably don't like them when they're at the start or end of the season as fixture fillers but some of the biggest attended meetings I've been to were Individual meetings held in the height of summer on Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons. World Championship Qualifiers, Rick Miller Testimonial, Golden Hammer, Pride of the East etc. etc. These events used to carry some history and prestige... until they were stuck at the end of the season with weakened line-ups and the punters saw through this. Isn't this basically what Buxton, Somerset & Scunny were/are?

Looks like the same crowd numbers the Speedway used to get The place is looking good though!

They seem to be big merchandise wearers at Leicester though, you see no end of people wearing the stuff

I stand corrected, a prog board, badge and pre-order scarf

But do the Foxes and Tigers outsource their merchandise? As for Jaybea the only League Championship winning merch that I could see was a badge... or a scarf that can be pre-ordered with delivery from the 24th of November!!! That in my book is rubbish!

I haven't but I will do... Anyway I thought that's what these discussion forums were all about. I'll let you know what the reply is and we can discuss it some more. Blimey... this sounds like a coup I just wonder why the Bates got involved with Leicester (Don't get me wrong, I'm glad somebody has) when they already had an interest in Sheffield... was it to give Josh a team place? Isn't Damian Bates also on the BSPL Management Committee? Maybe he's got too many fingers in too many pies to give them his full attention, a bit of plate spinning going on maybe?

Yes, you can certainly tell that Dan & Joe have done a lot of laps around the track when you watch them.

You can suggest all you like... can you tell me what I am allowed to comment on, on this discussion forum? Should I run my posts by you first for moderation? You're not going to like this but what a ridiculous thing for the club to do to just sell the merchandise rights with no say on what is or isn't produced. In most other industries that produce merchandise this is a major income stream. Interesting what you say about the club not being the main source of income for the promoter at 90% of Clubs, that is probably one of the main reasons why the sport is in the state it's in. I wonder what the game plan is for the promoters of a club? Is it benefactor, self satisfaction, play thing, profitable business, love of the sport? I've always thought that some kind of fans cooperative would be a better operating model for minor sports clubs. I've been attending speedway since the late 70's and have watched it deteriorate year on year for every year since then. I was at BP on opening night and have watched the crowds decline since then. The current promotion will inevitably leave the club at some point in the future along with the messiah. yet I'll still be there... undoubtedly with less people standing around me.

100% agree, I thought the racing was far better when we were in the top division and put this down to the quality/skill of the riders on view. Scott Nicholls departure has been of severe detriment to the entertainment value on offer so far this year imo. There's only really Bomber and Scott that I have seen pass with any regularity around BP in the middle tier league.

I do accept it, I have no choice other than to I just don't get who decides that we (most teams) aren't going to put our strongest line-up out to try and win the event. We've not even treated it as a development opportunity by sending Chris Harris out and only giving Tom Brennan 1 ride. Is it a matter of the federations are told what the pay rates are for the meeting and then each federation approaches the riders to see which ones will accept the booking?

Why on earth would you sign a rider for £10k, nobody buys riders any more, that's just money going out of the club. Clubs need to be bringing money in. Making and selling your own merchandise shouldn't be astronomical you can get a custom t-shirt done for around a fiver and sell them on for £20, that's a healthy profit by my reckoning. Not to mention exposure for the sponsors and some promotion/publicity as people wear them around the city. You could probably get them done cheaper we do live in a city with many hosiery factory's. Why would a club sub out their merch and have no say in what should be produced and when, perhaps they do have a say in which case Jaybea should be doing more. They even sub out some of their production of team shirts to a Polish company by the looks of it. Why wouldn't you as a club be saying, right we need a load of League Championship merchandise to cash in? I comment as and when I see fit both positive and negative. Just recently I have praised the signing of Ans Andersen, the speed at which some of the matches have been completed and even acknowledged when there have been some good races. In fact I'm the ONLY one on here singing the praises of the club actually winning the bloody LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP... while the rest of you want to keep it a secret!!!!!! I support he club by paying my £17 week in week out, I follow the club away and was there in Glasgow on that historic night... with about 40-50 others. But no, let's keep the double a secret, let's not make any merchandise, let's not promote the club, we don't need any more fans, we've got a nice comfortable amount coming through the turnstiles that does us just nicely thank you very much, even though 75% of the stadium is empty. Everything in the garden is rosy. A lot of the problems I see are sport wide, it just happens that Leicester is the track I go to most often, so it gets mentioned on the Leicester thread. I have criticised the track in the past, as many many people have, I don't think I've ever criticised any of the staff. I will openly admit and it will come as no surprise that I am no track preparation expert, I have never prepared a track in my life... I have though, seen hundreds of Speedway meetings over the years and know what a well prepared Speedway track looks like. We could probably go on for pages discussing track preparation, all I know is from my experience, is that generally what the riders like and what produces good racing for the fans are often 2 very different things, most riders would love a track that enables them to make a start and clear off at the front, why wouldn't they, it's easy money. Imo the track has not been the same since Glyn Taylor's services were dispensed with. I have no idea who does the track now and what their credentials are, where they have come from and how many tracks they had prepared before they came to Leicester. I will continue to make posts, both positive and negative, you may agree or disagree with them, that's fine, it used to be a free world. ATB Iain

I remember the admission being around 75p in the late 70's at Leicester, there's been around an 8% increase year on year to get to today's prices... which would have made it a better investment than property

I'm not mechanically minded at all so a lot of this talk is going over my head regarding compression and fly wheels etc. If methanol has been used as the fuel since Speedway's birth, which I assume it has, hasn't technology caught up now to provide the same effect/power from petrol engines. Doing a quick google search it says a Speedway 0-60 is 3 seconds, a Superbike 0-60 is 2.5 seconds. Probably a lot more to it than that...

Saw a young lad wearing one last night funnily enough... he was with his dad, I thought to myself I wonder if you realise you're dad is a cheapskate lol

Nobody has mentioned that about the merchandise. Why on earth are the club not responsible for their own merchandise? Why would they not be interested in promoting their success? I have no vendetta against the club, don't be so melodramatic, I just point things out that I think could and should be done better. Hoping that somebody might take the ideas on board and start promoting the club. But all I get are responses from people on why stuff can't or shouldn't be done. I don't know if you've noticed but there's room for another few thousand people in the stadium but I suppose you enjoy it there being only 25% full? What I don't understand is why a certain number of people on here think the club is totally beyond constructive criticism.

And built with no thought as to where the sun would be setting lol

Just like British Speedway

They should give Chris Morton a call... when you're starting off from such a bad base that turd needs a really good polish, there's obviously a fundamental problem with the shape/ track proportions at Leicester but the surface and preparation is all they can realistically work on. In the last week I've been to Peterborough, saw a track record but not 1 good race that I can recollect, been to Birmingham, watched the "racing" through clouds of dust, watched the Sheffield match on TV, absolute garbage... and Leicester last night, 2 good races out of 15. As for Morris, he's plateaued and got as good as he's going to get for me, which is OK, not everybody is going to be world champion and he still does a good job.

Just like they do for Longtrack/Grasstrack

Of course it wouldn't... Even if that was the case why wasn't there a range out for Christmas 2019? Or ready for the 2020 season? The club did nothing! I've seen people walking around wearing 2020 GP T-shirts with the original (cancelled) calendar on the back! In fact you can still get one for £4 and they're probably still making a profit. https://speedwaygpmerchandise.com/2020-helmet-tour-t-shirt/

Moonshine

So who decides that it's going to be a "mickey mouse" event? With all respect to those that turned out for this meeting they are hardly their nation's strongest line-ups. If GB were serious about winning the event surely Woffinden, Lambert & Bewley would have been selected. Zmarlik, Janowski & A N Otherski for the poles. As it was an FIM(E) (whoever they are) event surely the riders would have been compelled to ride. Or was it down to the host club promoters to assemble the field? In which case should it have been FIM(E) sanctioned? Somebody somewhere has decided that this event should have a weakened field, who and why? Adam Ellis missed the match at Leicester on the 10th of July as he was riding in the semi. Was he compelled to take part by the FIM(E) or did he miss the Leicester match because he'd been booked for this meeting first?

His fall in Heat 15 was because he was busting a gut to get by Worrall to salvage a draw. They could still be racing now and he still wouldn't be able to get by. I thought it was a good match score wise but the racing was almost non existent! Heats 9 & 10 were quite good tussles. Otherwise everything was settled after bend 2 of lap 1. Unbelievably the announcer was yet again blowing smoke up the messiah's bottom during the interval when trying to get positive comments about the track from Kennedy. It maybe very nice to ride on, I don't know, but to make a pass on it's almost impossible, or was last night, that's why Morris had to pull his kamikaze move in the last "race". Still at least it was all over quickly... another 92 minute meeting. Well done to Poole.