Structure

[enotian]

One of the major problems in speedway at the moment is that not all the relevant powers pull in the same direction.

 

Surely for the good of the sport everyone should pull together and do what is best to increase the profile of the sport. However, there are so many conflicting interests the administration of the sport seems more like a war than a cohesive unit seeking to better the sports standing and future.

 

In my opinion we need a set structure in which all the interested parties can gain what they require out of the sport but obviously there will have to be some compromise.

 

As I believe the way to increase the sports profile is through holding large events with the highest standards (both racing & presentation) I'll start with the grand prix. BSI or whoever has the rights for the series must seek to increase the number of rounds preferably to 16. This should include reaching destinations outside of Europe (America, Asia, Australia).

 

It's not feasible to do this for one off events but these are big places with big populations. Why not have an Australian and Commonwealth GP in different Australia cities on consequtive weekends. An American and Inter-Continental GP in the USA etc etc.

 

Attracting crowds in these non european events might be a problem at first so to establish the series why not seek a tie in with other motorsports series. i.e. Hold the GP on the Saturday night before the Japanese Moto GP on a custom built track within part of the road racing circuit. It's a loss leader but if you can price them to attract 10k supporters who are primarily there for the Moto GP you've still got an event which enhances the sgp series.

 

To do this kind of overseas tour and to return to the modern stadia (not neccesarily as big as the Millenium stadium but all seater with the facilities expected of a professional sport) developing custom built tracks is important. Yes at the moment they are not ideal but surely it is not impossible to develop!? Rock concerts assemble and disassemble stages in these arenas within a day. I appreciate a speedway track is more involved but that should be the aim. Something you can pack away and move to the next venue.

 

The only problem I have with the current GP format is there isn't enough riders in it. How is speedway supposed to attract a worldwide audience if there are only ever 5 or 6 countries represented? But you have to balance that with having the best riders in the series. The solution? Have a qualifying event either the night or afternoon before the gp. If you finish in the botton 4 of the previous gp you have to do the qualifier along with 4 home nation (where possible) wildcards and 8 invitational riders. Effectively meaning you'd be back to 24 regulars. If you're running two meetings in two days you might attract more overseas visiting supporters and it's potentially two gate receipts to cover costs. A qualifier would also be allow for track problems to be addressed before the big event.

 

I'd also like to see spg teams develop. This seems to happen now but are referred to by the individual rider. Surely sponsors would prefer to be in the team name like Rothmans Honda or Marlboro McLaren.

 

Afterall no sport like it or not can operate at the top level without attracting substancial sponsorship and if the series has to be known at the "Thingmebob SGP" then so be it.

[enotian]

Although the sgp should be the speedway flagship there should also still be room in the calender for international events.

 

I'd like to see the world cup remain as a week long speedway festival (preferably held in one country) but would also like to see the format rotate over a 4/5 year cycle.

 

One of the great things in speedway is the different formats.

 

So one year have a proper 4 team tournament.

 

The next year have the world cup decided over a pairs format allowing more countries to take part. I think a formula similar to the knock out grand prix format of 2004 would be ideal to run a pairs meeting over. The country represented by the rider finishing last is out or have to avoid finishing last in their next heat etc leading to a grand final between the two best pairs.

 

The following year have a world cup on an individual 20 heat traditional format. In the space of a week have 4 qualifiers with the top 3 going direct to the final and the next 4 going into the last chance race off for the final 4 places in the grand final. The winner of the grand final, over 20 heats, is the world cup champion.

 

Finally I'd look to have a genuine 7 or 8 rider team world cup tournament played out over a test match format with the top two countries meeting in a grand final.

 

Variety is the spice of life and using the different formats should allow a greater array of countries to be involved at some stage aiding the development of the sport into new markets whilst keeping the annual world cup fresh.

 

The Under 21 world cup and individual championship should also be retained to assist in the development of future gp talent but surely sending young riders making their way in the sport to all corners of the continent to qualify is counter productive. Why not base both events in a single country each season?

 

As I say the way to attract sponsors, TV coverage and spectators is to promote large scale events.

 

And speedway is probably the only motorsport to have genuine international team competition in its various formats which must be a unique selling point!

[Kevin Meynell]

BSI or whoever has the rights for the series must seek to increase the number of rounds preferably to 16.  This should include reaching destinations outside of Europe (America, Asia, Australia).

 

The obvious question is how will you fit-in domestic league matches if the SGP goes to any more rounds? The next question is where is the money coming from to run all these extra rounds? By all accounts, the last Aussie GP lost a fortune, and I'd think some of the current GPs are financially pretty marginal.

 

It's a loss leader but if you can price them to attract 10k supporters who are primarily there for the Moto GP you've still got an event which enhances the sgp series.

 

Ultimately though, unless you have plans to develop a particular market, it's a waste of time and money. The existing speedway markets need a lot of more development before anyone even thinks of trying to expand into other territories.

 

The only problem I have with the current GP format is there isn't enough riders in it.

 

There used to be more riders in it, and it was costing too much. The reduction back to 16 riders was clearly to reduce costs and to improve the changes of hosting a non-European GP.

 

This seems to happen now but are referred to by the individual rider.  Surely sponsors would prefer to be in the team name like Rothmans Honda or Marlboro McLaren.

 

Speedway (at a professional level) is primarily a team sport based around national leagues. The SGP is really only (moderately) successful because the participating riders are linked to domestic teams. Break that link, and the SGP will probably cease to exist.

[Trees]

One of the major problems in speedway at the moment is that not all the relevant powers pull in the same direction.

I think the 3/4 main leagues work pretty well together, it's the 5th league that, the GPs, that are the bug bear.

 

Totally opposite to you Enotian, I'd rather see only 6 GP's, making each one special for the fans and special for the riders instead of turning them into a GP league.

 

BTW Enotian, do you attend league racing?

[AndyM]

Totally agree with Kevin about the risks from divorcing GP from their grass roots, but still interested in the notion of sponsored GP 'teams' - which could in theory be the result of a collaboration between, say, UK and Polish league teams. Wasn't Jimmy Nilsen going to set up a team of GP riders a couple of years ago? Did anything ever come of that, because I haven't heard anything since.

[Kevin Meynell]

still interested in the notion of sponsored GP 'teams'

 

I feel that GP teams would take the sport in the wrong direction. GP series in most other sports represent not only the pinnacle of competition, but also the highest technical level. For example, F1 bears little relation to karting (arguably the lowest-level of open-wheeled single seat racing), which is why constructor teams have to exist at the different levels.

 

By contrast, speedway is technically pretty much the same from the BCL to the SGP, and quite frankly that's much of its appeal. If the SGP riders started riding totally different machinery to the riders in league competition, it would end-up losing it's relationship to what the average spectator watches domestically. Sure it might make the SGP participants richer, but it wouldn't be speedway as we know it.

 

This said, I think that the BSPA, PZM and SVEMO should collectively run the SGP anyway.

[enotian]

I think the 3/4 main leagues work pretty well together, it's the 5th league that, the GPs, that are the bug bear.

 

Totally opposite to you Enotian, I'd rather see only 6 GP's, making each one special for the fans and special for the riders instead of turning them into a GP league.

 

BTW Enotian, do you attend league racing?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes I'm a Diamonds supporter have been since too long ago to mention. All I can remember of my first meeting was Joe Owen vrs Martin Yeates but I've been a regular since 1986. And yes I love my league racing especially as it's normally a close match at Brough, even when we won the Premier League, I don't really recall the Ian Thomas all conquering Lada Diamonds, although my only experience of top flight speedway (apart from on Sky) was seeing Denis Sigalos' Wolves hammer the 84 Diamonds.

 

My only problem with league racing is that I can't see how it'll attract new supporters to speedway? Any ideas yourself?

 

It's a bit clouded up here in Newcastle as everyone is obssessed with the barcodes so everything else plays 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc fiddle but to my mind you've got to get in the media and with all the will in the world you'll be lucky if your tabloids would even print the result of the play off final, the biggest domestic meeting. Apologies if that's wrong as I don't read them myself.

 

As I've stated I think you need big events to attract the type of media coverage which will attract new supporters and sponsors. I'm basing this on the increase in public interest in cricket after the Ashes and Rugby Union after the World Cup win and I seem to recall football was in not to great a position until Italia 90 and a certain bloke crying brought it back to a wider audience.

 

So that's my rationale. Personally i wouldn't mind speedway remaining a marginal sport as it's cheap and I never have to worry about getting a ticket so that suits me fine. The only trouble is that I can't see how long it will survive at the current level and of course I think the riders deserve better for what they risk just to keep me entertained for 2 hours a week.

 

A 6 round GP series just won't attract a major sponsor. They'll only get there exposure 6 times for a start. Why bother.

 

You might have a point to less meetings making them more special by why not apply that to league racing.

 

My idea would be to have a genuine European League to give the gp riders another 20 meetings per season to fill their calenders. The Euroleague would consist of 16 teams (4 from Britain, Poland & Sweden and say one each from Denmark, Czech Republic, Germany and Italy) on a four team tournament basis. Each team would have only 5 home meetings and would ride at each of the opposing 15 tracks. Ideally I'd see the teams being an extension of the grand prix teams essentially using the Euroleague as further exposure for their sponsors and for development in terms of machinery and future riding talent.

 

Under these proposals you'd only be able to see gp riders on British soil at roughly 21 meetings per season which would make them special events.

 

The Euroleague teams would be made up of gp riders plus the best of the rest from the domestic leagues. I'd hope that the link to gp teams would self regulate the team strengths but some form of points limit might need to apply. I think the 4 team tournament style meetings usually lead to closer finishes and the double point tactical ride or whatever it's called pans much better in that format. You'll all doubtless moan about there being no team riding in this format but personally i think that's a redundant argument as you don't see proper team riding in league matches except for maybe a couple of times per meeting max!

 

I also think the format is geared more to a play off final. I'd like to see the top eight teams in the league qualify for the play offs with 2 semi finals a last chance run off and a grand final all being run over a week just like the current world cup.

 

As I keep saying you've got to make these things into events which will attract more than just the supporters of the two/four teams involved. No sponsor is just going to want to sell their products in only Manchester and Coventry. You've got to move with the market forces.

 

Of course these proposals would mean domestic speedway would be greatly changed. Ideally, I'd hope that the exposure gained by the expanded higher profile gp series and euroleague would help domestic speedway by bringing speedway to a wider audience and making more sponsors wanting to be involved at the lower level also.

 

Realistically, experience shows that the money usually stays at the top so any domestic set up would have to live within it's means.

 

For a start running a league with different promoting factions just isn't working. It's a radical approach but I'd like to see all the promoters form one promoting company. Each promoter gaining shares in proportion to the assets they contribute at inception. The biggest plus being that all riders are centrally contracted hence removing the possibly illegal transfer system currently in place which only seems to prohibite new tracks from opening due to the cost of aquiring a team.

 

The promoting company would then decide on which venues they'd want to utilise there assets at. Some will be owned by the company some won't. Once the operating tracks have been finalised the promoting company would appoint a "supremo" at each venue to represent that track. Essentially it would be a status quo as the promoters of Newcastle would want to be involved in running Newcastle rather than another track. The benefit of the situation would be that each promoter would now have to act in the best interests of the whole company rather than just their own track. It's a subtle one I admit.

 

I'd say that without any gp standard riders taking part the domestic league would be run at Premier League level so young riders like Simon Stead and Chris Harris would be the star names whilst gaining experience in the euroleague at the same time. Former gp riders like Havelock and Louis would also be No1 heat leaders and also allowed to ride in the euroleague to add to the number of meetings they'd have per season.

 

If say the promoting company decided to operate 26 tracks (I think there were 25 Elite + Premier tracks last season) that would be too many for one big league.

 

So i would split the season in half. The first half would be a split into 2 regional leagues. Northern & Southern would make sense in terms of cutting costs and attracting away supporters. The first half of the season would be spent trying to become regional champions or to finish in the top half of the regional table.

 

Because the 2nd half of the season would consist of the top halfs of each regional division forming the first division whilst the two bottom half finishers would end the season battling it out to become 2nd division champions. You could easily change the names so as not to make one sound inferior to the other if that's your want!

 

The beauty is if you haven't had a great first half of the season you start again from scratch at the halfway stage with the chance of winning some silverware by defination against a lower standard of opposition (ie they also finished in the bottom half). It effectively would give you two seasons in one.

 

Obviously in sport there always has to be someone who finishes last but at least under this system you'd spend the 2nd half of the season riding against teams at a similar standard.

 

Obviously there'd still have to be a points limit but i'd make it simpler to make team changes by rounding up/down averages to either .0 or .5 i.e if a rider averages 4.37 and is british and under 21 he's rounded down to 4.0 if he's foreign or over 21 it's rounded up to 4.5. That means there will be alot more riders on the same averages making team changes easier which would hopefully reduce the need for guest riders a pet hate of mine.

 

The promoting company should also take control of the conference league standard racing as that would effectively be building their rider assets and should be run accordingly ie without so many old hands a genuine under 21 league with maybe 1 old hand per team. Remember under 21 gives you 6 seasons of action to make the grade at the higher level.

 

These are basically my ideas as to how domestic speedway could fit in harmoniously with a higher profile gp series which I feel is the only way to take the sport to a higher level.

 

Hopefully if anything it's raised some debate as to whether both domestic speedway and gp speedway can co-exist.

 

 

e

[Kevin Meynell]

And yes I love my league racing

 

Would you love it so much if half your team was missing every two weeks because they were riding in a GP?

 

My only problem with league racing is that I can't see how it'll attract new supporters to speedway?  Any ideas yourself?

 

If anyone had the answer to that, the sport wouldn't be in the state it's in. This said, the SGP is not the answer either - it exists to create cheap programming for armchair television viewers who'll never go down to their local track. Even that would be fine it were a self-contained series, but at the present time it's adversely affecting domestic speedway which is the lifeblood of the sport.

 

A 6 round GP series just won't attract a major sponsor.

 

It depends on how it's marketed. The Ashes series was only five matches, and that attracted a major sponsor.

 

The problem with the SGP, is that it's something and nothing at the moment. Running more GPs and with more riders has not proved to be financially successful, so that's put paid to any plans (if they ever existed) to run a standalone series with regular rounds. Furthermore, even the current nine rounds provide far too much repetition, which is I think why the SGP organisers have never managed to build-up audiences beyond a certain point.

 

The SWC was a good concept and has the potential to be much better, but unfortunately it's been appalling promoted. We're therefore now back to a format that's little different to the old days.

 

You might have a point to less meetings making them more special by why not apply that to league racing.

 

IMO, the SGP would be a lot more interesting if it only had six rounds. I guess you could stretch it to eight if you added a couple of non-European rounds outside the European season, but it should certainly be no more than that.

 

My idea would be to have a genuine European League

 

I've long thought this would be a better way to promote the sport, provided television and sponsors could be brought on board (see http://www.meynell.com/speedway-articles/euroleague.html).

 

A 4TT format is not really suitable for an extended league programme because it means each team is only riding at home once every four meetings (with obvious consequences for income and expenditure). However, the principle of a European League is fine.

 

One possible format would be to choose the four financially strongest tracks in (say) Britain, Poland and Sweden/Denmark (for a 12-team) and have them ride exclusively in the European League. You could divide them into national divisions (British, Polish and Swedish), and have them ride home and away twice against the teams from their own division/country (12 matches). Teams would also ride home and away once against the teams from the other divisions (16 matches), so that long-distance travel would be minimised. You could further minimise travel by having teams ride two foreign teams per trip, so that would actually only mean 4 long-distance tours per season.

 

At the end of the regular season (28 matches), the winner of each national division would qualify for the Semi-Finals (the 'playoffs'), along with the runner-up with the best record. The winners over two legs would race-off in two-legged Final for the Championship.

 

Such a format would be a bit different to a straightforward league competition, but it's designed to maximise the number of matches against local opposition, and to reduce the amount of travelling necessary. In addition, the divisional format would ensure that every country would have a team in the 'playoffs', as well as a providing a climax to the season. This would be essential to keep television and sponsors happy, particularly in each national market.

 

If say the promoting company decided to operate 26 tracks (I think there were 25 Elite + Premier tracks last season) that would be too many for one big league.

 

I think there needs to be at least two levels of competition in Britain. I could envisage a scenario where the BEL is watered down a bit so that it's attractive for the more successful BPL teams to join. Equally, I could envisage the remainder of the BPL being merged with the standalone BCL tracks and pitched at a slightly lower-level than now. Another scenario might be a handful of BEL teams joining a European League, with the remainder joining an enlarged BPL. However, I think one big league is non-starter on financial grounds.

Edited November 1, 2005 by Kevin Meynell

[Mylor]

...... it exists to create cheap programming for armchair television viewers who'll never go down to their local track.

Careful Kevin.

You run the risk of alienating supporters in Cornwall, North Wales and two thirds of Scotland. Sky/EL and the SGP's are effectively all we have within striking distance. As far as 'local tracks' are concerned you are rather spoilt for choice in the Midlands but don't fall into the trap of thinking it's the same for all of us.

[Kevin Meynell]

You run the risk of alienating supporters in Cornwall, North Wales and two thirds of Scotland.

 

I'm certainly not suggesting that a television-only competition shouldn't exist to cater for fans who aren't near local tracks - far from it. I simply disagree that the SGP is necessarily the best format.

 

Having said this, speedway has never had universal support across the country (just as rugby league and shinty don't). I'd think that most fans only follow the sport because they happened to have spent their formative years in areas where there were tracks. That's not to say that you shouldn't try to appeal to a completely new audience, but I suspect that you're more likely to succeed where there's some history of the sport.

 

As for the extremities of the country, it could be argued that London is one of the bigger markets without a track.

[enotian]

Would you love it so much if half your team was missing every two weeks because they were riding in a GP?

 

It depends on how it's marketed. The Ashes series was only five matches, and that attracted a major sponsor.

 

The problem with the SGP, is that it's something and nothing at the moment. Running more GPs and with more riders has not proved to be financially successful, so that's put paid to any plans (if they ever existed) to run a standalone series with regular rounds. Furthermore, even the current nine rounds provide far too much repetition, which is I think why the SGP organisers have never managed to build-up audiences beyond a certain point.

 

The SWC was a good concept and has the potential to be much better, but unfortunately it's been appalling promoted. We're therefore now back to a format that's little different to the old days.

 

 

A 4TT format is not really suitable for an extended league programme because it means each team is only riding at home once every four meetings (with obvious consequences for income and expenditure). However, the principle of a European League is fine.

 

I think there needs to be at least two levels of competition in Britain. I could envisage a scenario where the BEL is watered down a bit so that it's attractive for the more successful BPL teams to join. Equally, I could envisage the remainder of the BPL being merged with the standalone BCL tracks and pitched at a slightly lower-level than now. Another scenario might be a handful of BEL teams joining a European League, with the remainder joining an enlarged BPL. However, I think one big league is non-starter on financial grounds.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Just a couple of points to pick up on if you don't mind?

 

Under what I'm proposing no team would ever have 2 members missing every other week because gp riders wouldn't ride in domestic speedway just gp's, internationals and euroleague matches. Part of the reasoning behind my ideas are so that such conflicts of interest are reduced.

 

I know I know domestic speedway is only good because it has the top riders in it.......... I don't agree with that I think speedway works best when all the riders competing are of a similar standard making it just a little more unpredictable. Can someone point out why it's so important to have the big stars riding week in week out from a spectator point of view?

 

Remember you shouldn't view this from your own personal perspective. Just because you might like to see Greg Hancock or whoever ride every week doesn't mean it's for the best for the sport as a whole.

 

Next, the Ashes test matches are scheduled to last 5 days each so effectively the sponsors were getting 25 days of exposure. And I think the Ashes can guarantee slightly higher media coverage than speedway.

 

My suggestion to improve the gp series was to add a qualifier the day/afternoon before each gp. Would being able to see two meetings per weekend make more people willing to attend? Would this be enough to cover the marginal additional cost? I don't know but with a wider variety of riders/nationalities it would be less repetitive (repetition doesn't seem to bother fans of other gp series) for you and would give TV the possibility of more live action for not much more cost.

 

I sense that you just don't want a gp series but surely you must agree that it is more likely to attract the attention of a wider market for both spectators and sponsors? Remember there was no Elite league on Sky Sports until the gp had made the breakthrough. You seem to reminise of a time before the gp when everything was a bed of roses! That's not my recollection. Certainly not of the last 25 years anyway.

 

You might be right that the swc is badly promoted but i'm talking about improving it making it something people will look forward to seeing. Just because it's not done properly at the present doesn't mean it can't be done. Yes I am an optimist. I just think top class international speedway is something which would attract a wider audience. The examples of Rugby Union & Cricket point to the general public responding to the national teams rather than seeking out their local club.

 

My idea for a 4tt euroleague would mean only 5 home matches per season. Obviously you wouldn't operate a track for just 5 home matches. What I had in mind was that the euroleague would merely share a track with a domestic team on 5 occasions. Say Belle Vue, Coventry, Poole & Wolves for arguments sake were Britains entrants. All 4 tracks would have teams in the domestic British league with a full programme of matches at that level. But on 5 occasions during the season there would be a seperate euroleague match against 3 opponents. The Belle Vue euroleague team would essentially be nothing to do with domestic team. Much like Boston riding at Kings Lynn. 2 different promotions operating from the same track but in different leagues.

 

You don't say why you think domestic speedway should be run at two levels? Anyway my domestic structure wouldn't be one big league it would be two regional divisions (must help lower costs?) which also act as qualifiers for a 1st and 2nd division. It's a quasi form of promotion/relegation but I just think it would give more teams a chance of winning a trophy. There'd be 4 league titles up for grabs and even if you'd struggled early season and not qualified for division one you get the chance to start from scratch to win the 2nd division against other teams who'd also struggled. It must at least offer more variety than a 10 team Elite league?

 

As I've stated previously I wouldn't mind speedway continuing as it is but the trouble is I just can't see that happening. The sport as a whole needs to see more revenue flooding in via supporters and sponsors. The costs just aren't going to decrease. Stadium rents will go up, riders pay rates will go up that's just economics. The only other alternative would be to downgrade. But I just can't see watching speedway in a farmers field with limited facilities being the way forward.

 

I myself prefer league racing to the grand prix but from a growth point of view you need a product that you can sell to as wide an audience as possible. Domestic league racing just doesn't have that potential. Sorry but it's true.

[Kevin Meynell]

I know I know domestic speedway is only good because it has the top riders in it.

 

I didn't say that. In fact, I don't think that British speedway necessarily needs the top riders at all.

 

However, what is unacceptable is an external competition that regularly takes riders away from the leagues, yet provides little benefit in return. It's acceptable with the likes of test cricket, because that provides the revenue that keeps the county clubs afloat, but not in speedway where the bulk of the rider wages are paid by the league teams. When riders can make a living by riding in the SGP alone, that should be the point that it longer has to compromise.

 

Remember you shouldn't view this from your own personal perspective.

 

Far from it - I'm looking at the bigger picture which would mean that Oxford probably wouldn't be seeing the top riders every week.

 

I'd turn the argument around and suggest that it's the BPL fans that generally think the SGP is a good thing, because it doesn't affect their league. If you had to put up with an irregular fixture list and missing riders, then you might have a different opinion.

 

I think the Ashes can guarantee slightly higher media coverage than speedway.

 

I think many of the current series sponsors were signed-up when the SGP only six consisted of six rounds, and in any case, many are on a per-GP basis.

 

My suggestion to improve the gp series was to add a qualifier the day/afternoon before each gp.

 

It's a reasonable suggestion, but the problem would still be that the extra riders would need paying. Clearly a line-up of 24 riders was not cost effective last year, which is why the numbers were cut (and that in itself shows that the SGP is not the success that many believe).

 

I sense that you just don't want a gp series but surely you must agree that it is more likely to attract the attention of a wider market for both spectators and sponsors?

 

I have nothing against the principle of the SGP, but I believe it should be run for the benefit of the national leagues, not a private individual. I've nothing against that individual who saw an opportunity to make some money, but the current setup is not sustainable for speedway as a whole. I also think that the current SGP is not particularly well promoted, and is far too repetitive, but that's another issue.

 

You seem to reminise of a time before the gp when everything was a bed of roses!

 

Errr.. but how exactly has the SGP improved things? It has one prestige round (at Cardiff) that draws 35-40,000 fans. That's still fewer than the last World Final held in a big stadium (Munich, 1989), and not a great deal more than the 1991 Final (Gothenburg). The other rounds, with the exception of Copenhagen and Wroclaw, draw 10-15,000, which is no better than the latter-day World Finals or pre-BSI GPs.

 

The only major advance is that it's now on pay-per-view television, and there's perhaps more media exposure (although not a lot) than before. Well that's great, but is that translating into higher attendances or more sponsorship for domestic tracks?

 

The examples of Rugby Union & Cricket point to the general public responding to the national teams rather than seeking out their local club.

 

There has never been much interest in rugby union or cricket at a club/county level. The national teams are everything in those sports, whereas club competition has always been more important in speedway.

 

Domestic league racing just doesn't have that potential.

 

That might be true, hence the idea for a European League. I honestly don't think the SGP will ultimately cut it, because it doesn't offer enough variety, and it's fundamentally at odds with speedway's existing infrastructure (which is based around team racing).

 

You don't say why you think domestic speedway should be run at two levels?

 

Quite simply, costs and logistics. There are unfortunately several problems with your proposal...

 

The first problem would be completing all the regional league fixtures on time, so that teams could split into 1st and 2nd divisions. Given speedway's record, it just isn't going to happen, and invariably teams will end-up riding meaningless fixtures weeks after the cut-off point. The BEL has proved incapable of finishing the regular season fixtures before the 'playoffs' for the last three seasons, so what hope for getting the preliminary programme completed after only half the season?

 

The second problem is that it would be fixture scheduling nightware. Having to plan half-a-season worth of fixtures at short notice would be next to impossible in a sport where every team rides on a different day and other external factors need to be taken into account. Furthermore, fans need to know in advance when meetings are going to be held (particularly during the holiday season), so they can plan which ones to attend.

 

The third problem is that many of the poorer teams would simply end-up spending more to try and compete with the richer teams. Either that, or matches will end-up totally one-sided with obvious consequences for attendances.

 

The fourth problem is that basic pay rates would increase substantially for the former BPL teams (remember the home team pays the away riders as well). That would be enough to push many of them over the financial knife edge.

 

It must at least offer more variety than a 10 team Elite league?

 

It would, but it would not be financially sustainable. It would be better to work on expanding the BEL, and to try and get more teams into the BPL.

Edited November 1, 2005 by Kevin Meynell

[enotian]

Kevin,

 

Firstly thanks for indulging me but can I just say just because something doesn't work right at the moment or might be hard to acheive doesn't mean that it is worthwhile doing or doing better.

 

I'm guessing Bill Gates' first crack at an operating system wasn't too hot.....

 

Would you agree that most of your reasons for disagreeing with my proposals are because it hasn't worked in the past due to a lack of expertise or application.

 

I don't find that acceptable. Why can't you arrange a fixture list within a couple of days? Sure there'll always be some excuse for someone not wanting to ride at someplace for some reason or another. It's all rubbish. There is no valid reason why a fixture list can't be drawn up within a day or two. let's try to have some sort of professionalism.

 

Ditto with the ability to finish matches. If a team can't arrange a meeting by the cut off they forfeit the match and it just doesn't get run. Now you'll say the supporters lose out by losing a match. Hopefully the penalty will act as a deterent.

 

The whole point of the new structure is that there won't be any reason other than bad weather to not run a meeting. With a more structured and concise international calender all riders at the domestic level should be available and if they're not you ride without them. Again this deterent might make promoters turn to riders who are going to be available.

 

Seems to me that British speedway is the maker of many of it's own problems. You can't please all of the people all of the time. Sure riders would ride in every league going to earn more money but why should british speedway bend over backwards to help them out? Seems to me that British domestic speedway offers more meetings than any of the other leagues so let's start flexing some muscle and if riders decide to concentrate on Sweden and Poland then so be it.

 

See your point about people arranging holidays around away tours but again this is a minority element. As I say you can't please all the people all the time and I feel the added excitment of two pinnacles to the season would overide it.

 

Don't get your point about costs. Without the top 20 riders from the elite league there can't be many left to drop down and those that do would generally be No.1's in the domestic league and paid as such but the points limit would mean they'd be spread across the teams. Essentially the domestic league would be pitched at Premier League level. Yeah you might have one or two more expensive riders but I can't see it being significant and also I think there'd be more meetings (say if there are 26 teams operating split in two thats 24 matches in the 1st half of the season and 24 in the 2nd half and the better riders would also ride euroleague matches for another 20 meetings) which could be factored in to reduce pay rates. Plus by running the first half of the season on a regional basis travel costs will have been reduced. Essentially once you're in the 2nd half of the season you'd only have travel outside your region 6 times. That's all relative to location I suppose.

 

The point of keeping up with the Jones' doesn't ring true either. The points limit would prohibit that to a large extent plus my suggestion of all the promoters amalgamating all of their assets into one promoting company would mean there'd be no transfer fees as essentially each rider would be contracted to the league centrally and be allowed to move without a fee. Again the one big promoting company would be responsible for ensuring each franchise lived within it's means. You could even go to the point of pooling all revenues and distributing equally whatever was best for the company as a whole as it would be the returns of the company as a whole which would be shared out amongst the shareholders. Some tracks might not be as profitable as others but without them the whole company would be worse off. If a particular franchise was unprofitable and couldn't be turned around then it would be disposed of and perhaps a different venue sought.

 

You say the gp can't afford more riders and doesn't attract many more fans than the old one off finals. My point is make the product something a wider audience will want to see. Let's have better marketing let's try and get all those motorsports fans who follow other series aware of sgp. I'm confident you see more action in a 3 hour speedway meeting than you do in a season of formula one! And it's more spectator friendly by which I mean you can see all the action in one field of view. If you're saying speedway can't attract more supporters because it isn't as good as other sports well end of discussion?

 

The idea of expanding the elite league has a major problem! Where are the riders going to come from? The 10 teams in there at the moment struggle to find good enough riders as it is. Yes the points limit/standard can be lowered but that means you get a wider spectrum of ability which isn't condusive to close racing. You'll have Leigh Adams up against James Burkinshaw for instance with no disrespect to James.

 

I'm not talking about implementing these plans for the start of 2006. I'm viewing this as the way ahead a strategy as to how speedway can grow to survive and the measures that may have to be made to make this possible.

 

My proposals are based on the following assumptions, let me know which ones and why you don't agree.

 

Speedway is improved when there is a close proximiting between the standard of riders competing. Therefore any structure must seek to maximise competition levels whilst also allowing for development of new talent.

 

A properly organised well run bona fide gp series has the potential to reach the largest possible market meaning if marketed correctly and the product is good there is greater chance of attracting new supporters and sponsors into the sport.

 

All interested parties must work in harmony. By continually making life difficult for each other nothing will ever be achieved. Therefore any structure must seek to minimise any conflicts. And yes the gp series should contribute towards rider development as without new talent coming through it could never prosper.

 

I assume domestic speedway will benefit from a higher profile gp series but at the same time realise that this is not a given and therefore feel any domestic structure must be able to exist within it's means.

[Kevin Meynell]

I'm guessing Bill Gates' first crack at an operating system wasn't too hot.....

 

Many would say his later attempts weren't too hot either.

 

Digressing slightly, Bill Gates never really developed any operating system. He bought a CP/M knock-off from an unknown company, which became MS-DOS. Windows started out as IBM's OS/2, and Windows NT was (allegedly) ripped-off from DEC's VMS.

 

Why can't you arrange a fixture list within a couple of days?

 

Speedway unfortunately has one of the most complicated fixture lists - largely through necessity. It's not simply that tracks ride on different days (and not all potential race nights may be available), but the fixtures need to be interleaved so that each track gets a home meeting more-or-less every week (which also means they'll need to ride away at least once per week on average). Where tracks have the same race night, it becomes even more complicated when they ride each other, as one will have priority. Finally, tracks have certain preferences as to when they ride against certain opponents (e.g. neighbouring teams scheduling their clashes on a bank holiday to maximise crowds).

 

All this is hard enough to factor in if you're planning for the whole season, but it becomes even more difficult if you don't know in advance who the teams will be. I also still think that it would be unacceptable to fans, television and sponsors to not know in advance who'd be riding where during the second-half of the season.

 

There is no valid reason why a fixture list can't be drawn up within a day or two.

 

In a perfect world that's true, but there are often many external factors to take into account. I once did the fixtures for a local league, and you invariably ended-up having to factor in other events (e.g. cricket matches) happening at teams' grounds, teams sharing the same ground (which meant they both couldn't play at home the same week), and so on..

 

With a more structured and concise international calender all riders at the domestic level should be available and if they're not you ride without them.

 

But that is one of the major problems - there is no structured coordinated international calendar. This said, no matter how coordinated it is, if you pack it full of GP and other international events, there simply won't be enough dates available to run domestic league matches.

 

I'd agree that British speedway should run without riders if they can't commit to a full season, but it's not acceptable to track them for some meetings but not others. That would be even more detrimental than not including them at all, because there would be no continuity and supporters would pick and choose their meetings.

 

Seems to me that British speedway is the maker of many of it's own problems.

 

I don't think that is in dispute.

 

Sure riders would ride in every league going to earn more money but why should british speedway bend over backwards to help them out?

 

I never suggested it should - quite the opposite in fact. It should run without SGP riders and those that cannot commit to ride in every British fixture. If that means losing a few of the so-called top riders, then so be it.

 

See your point about people arranging holidays around away tours but again this is a minority element.

 

But it used to be more. Many people have given-up because meetings are chopped-and-changed at a moment's notice these days.

 

In any case, it isn't just about the fans. Television and, to a lessor extent, sponsors need to know the fixtures in advance as well.

 

Without the top 20 riders from the elite league there can't be many left to drop down

 

It's a fallacy to believe the top riders are always the highest paid. Often the second strings are on as much money, and they'd of course be scoring more in a 'weaker' league.

 

The points limit would prohibit that to a large extent

 

The points limit does little, if anything to reduce costs. There would still be competition for the heat-leader standard riders in an enlarged league, and the points limit would largely be irrelevant as a cost control mechanism.

 

I still also think there would be a lot of mismatches in the regional leagues, as there were the last time there was one big league.

 

plus my suggestion of all the promoters amalgamating all of their assets into one promoting company would mean there'd be no transfer fees as essentially each rider would be contracted to the league centrally and be allowed to move without a fee.

 

I think this is perfectly sensible, but it could equally be applied in a two or three-tier structure.

 

My point is make the product something a wider audience will want to see.

 

Well that's fine, and it's what (I imagine) BSI have been trying to do. However, I believe the limitations of the SGP format is why interest has not developed beyond a certain level.

 

I equally don't believe you should promote a competition at the expense of domestic speedway (which develops the riders and pays the bulk of their wages), unless domestic speedway benefits from it. After 10 years of operation, I'd have to say the benefits of the SGP are neglible, and possibly even detrimental to the rest of the sport.

 

The idea of expanding the elite league has a major problem!  Where are the riders going to come from?

 

You develop them! There are plenty of riders around, so it's a matter of bringing a few up to top-league standard.

 

You could quite easily mandate that teams include a certain number of developing riders (as they do in Poland), and you could even alter the heat format to give them slightly easier races. Provided the top-class riders are shared around fairly, it shouldn't really matter.

 

A properly organised well run bona fide gp series has the potential to reach the largest possible market meaning if marketed correctly

 

I'd argue that a league competition has more potential. Football is the most widely watched sport in the world, and that's entirely based around team competition.

Edited November 3, 2005 by Kevin Meynell

[Trees]

I never suggested it should - quite the opposite in fact. It should run without SGP riders and those that cannot commit to ride in every British fixture. If that means losing a few of the so-called top riders, then so be it.

I 100% think that riders who will only commit to part of a season in Great Britain should be given a wide berth, we don't need them, they are not good for team spirit, for the fans or for the clubs! Why should they be allowed to "use" our league for practice if they can't give their all for a club!

[TonyM]

Speedway is improved when there is a close proximiting between the standard of riders competing.  Therefore any structure must seek to maximise competition levels whilst also allowing for development of new talent.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

TOTALLY agree

 

 

All interested parties must work in harmony.  By continually making life difficult for each other nothing will ever be achieved.  Therefore any structure must seek to minimise any conflicts.  And yes the gp series should contribute towards rider development as without new talent coming through it could never prosper.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't get me started, I'm in enough trouble with Tsunami already

 

I assume domestic speedway will benefit from a higher profile gp series but at the same time realise that this is not a given and therefore feel any domestic structure must be able to exist within it's means.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hopefully, but history would suggest otherwise

 

 

Enotian, some good ideas but perhaps a little too drastic and unworkable for the foreseeable future

 

Whilst a European league works well in some sports, football and rugby have almost reached this point, these are sports with large player bases to draw from and where there are strong domestic league structures. Speedway both nationally and internationally has a much greater ability gap spread over far fewer participants. In reality a sixteen team league with 7-10 man squads would require 112-160 riders and IMO the gap between a rider ranked in the top 20 is massive to a rider ranked in the 80-100 range let alone 150+

 

I would encourage / accommodate the top riders to ride in all the top leagues throughout the speedway world and have sensible structures underneath these leagues to develop national talent. If we look at ‘rider pools’ rather than any existing structure IMO the UK should have a top league with about 6 teams – these could justifiably be termed Elite, made up of the GP riders, ‘top’ overseas riders and doubling up riders from the next tier down. 6 teams needs 42-60 riders and with this number most riders would be competitive

 

I would follow this structure down which would look something like this:

 

Division 1 – 6 teams – 42-60 riders, GP riders, overseas riders and riders doubling up from div 2

 

Division 2 – 10 teams – 49-70 riders, no GP riders, top riders to double up into division 1 sides, lower order riders doubling down with division 3 sides

 

Division 3 – 10 teams – 49-70 riders, top riders to double up with division 2 clubs lower order riders doubling down with division 4 sides

 

Division 4 – however many sides (hopefully 20+) split regionally with a national playoff system at the end of season

 

The reason divisions 1 and 2 can both live with 10 clubs is that riders would probably ride in more than one national league (as with the current EL) whereas division 2 sides would probably have more national based (though not exclusively British) riders. Division 4 would have a British only focus similar to the current CL

 

IMO the above structure (and reduced fixtures for any individual side) should encourage more tracks to run multiple sides to get a similar number of fixtures in a season whilst those clubs that rent stadiums may say fewer more evenly matched meetings are what they are looking for

 

Riders would ‘have’ to double up to get their required number of fixtures and this would allow riders to move up the scale in a less risky fashion than at present

[enotian]

I still also think there would be a lot of mismatches in the regional leagues, as there were the last time there was one big league.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The last time there was one big league it contained all the top (now known as gp) riders and matched them against young 16 year only novices.

 

With a domestic league pitched at Premier League level I'd imagine the top riders would be the likes of Joe Screen, Gary Havelock who although still great riders are no longer at the level of the big gp stars and you couldn't fit them all into one team. Plus an amalgamated promoting company would see no merit in tracking sides which couldn't compete.

 

 

 

 

I'd argue that a league competition has more potential. Football is the most widely watched sport in the world, and that's entirely based around team competition.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes but there is a football team in every town around the world more or less. It's a bit extreme in the North East but the Diamonds would find it very difficult to attract non speedway fans from Sunderland (it's only 10 miles away) as they just wouldn't want to support a Newcastle team.

 

That's the limitation of domestic leagues in terms of attracting a new audience. Even in football there are maybe less than 10 clubs which have global brands meaning they attract supporters from different geographical areas.

 

I see markets such as Italy and Spain and Asia as key development areas. They all seem to have a healthy interest in motorsports so why not speedway. As I keep saying it's the best one!

 

But with all the will in the world how are you going to sell Eastbourne vs Peterborough the Japanese public? You'd even struggle with Wroclaw v Luxo Stars it just doesn't mean as much to a wider audience.

 

Sure an expanded gp series wouldn't feature a Malaysian or even Spanish rider but whose to say it wouldn't in the future. Speedway does not appear to be as expensive to get into compared to many other motorsports and it's something the gp organisers should try to develop. I'm sure they'd love to focus alot more on Antonio Lindback's Brazilian heritage to give the sport a higher profile in South America.

 

An important point is that we all now live in a global market place like it or not. All the big companies have to expand globally to grow otherwise they get chewed up by overseas competitors. It's this global market place that the majority the big sponsorship deals go to events shown around the world.

 

At the moment speedway will find it hard to find attract global companies because it only reaches Poland, Scandanavia and Britain.

 

Anyway don't worry cos it'll never happen. There's nobody with the vision or expertise to market the sport to the level it deserves.

 

I suppose well just carry on conceeding that whoever makes the gate wins and be happy to be the poor relations of motorsport because the others have better PR and image rights to obscure their failings.

 

 

e

[enotian]

In reality a sixteen team league with 7-10 man squads would require 112-160 riders and IMO the gap between a rider ranked in the top 20 is massive to a rider ranked in the 80-100 range let alone 150+

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Part of my idea would be to run the euroleague in a four team tournament format meaning the minimum number of riders required would be 64. (16 teams 4 riders per team). These would be the feature riders anyway. Obviously there'd have to be squads to cover at reserve and the inevitable injuries to avoid having the dreaded guest facility. Say 3 more per squad although I wouldn't put a limit on it but based on average you'd be unlucky to have more than two riders injured at one time. It's hard to say but if we do say another 3*16 riders that takes you up to 112.

 

The current Elite league has possibly 90 riders in comparison so on that basis yes there might be a wider range of abilities and the euroleague might even have a lower standard but remember you'd be picking from a larger pool of riders. The likes of Gollob, Hampel & Holta would be involved not sure about Rickardsson. Plus some riders like Walaszek are genuine star men in there home countries despite never hitting the heights in Britain. And I'm sure the Polish teams at least would make up there squads with young talents like Kolodeij who haven't yet arrived in British speedway (except a spell at Reading I think?). Perhaps you could have a bit of fun allocating actual riders to euroleague teams just to illustrate the standard of the lower ends.

 

I do feel that smaller leagues do lack a degree of variety but yes it is a trade off between the two.

 

I also feel the 4 team format for the euroleague would allow a greater chance of blanket TV coverage. A total of 80 matches across say 8 countries. I'm sure Sky could cover all 20 matches held on British soil while other TV companies would hold the rights in the other countries meaning each match could be covered or at least recorded if not shown live. There'd be an archieve of all matches so in the event of a live match being abandoned a recently recorded fixture which hadn't been shown live in this country but may feature a British team could be shown in its place.

 

And you could also package together a highlights show to keep the viewers right up to date with the league positions which I believe is being discussed on another thread.

[Kevin Meynell]

Whilst a European league works well in some sports, football and rugby have almost reached this point, these are sports with large player bases to draw from and where there are strong domestic league structures.

 

I think that speedway is arguably better suited to a European League than many other sports. Riders are already paid to travel across the continent to different competitions each week, so it shouldn't be much of a step from that to an organised league.

 

In reality a sixteen team league with 7-10 man squads would require 112-160 riders and IMO the gap between a rider ranked in the top 20 is massive to a rider ranked in the 80-100 range let alone 150+

 

I don't think a 16-team league could be supported at the moment, but a 12-team league should certainly be possible. If you add-up the numbers in the BEL, Polish Extra League and Swedish Elite League, then it comes to about 100 riders.

 

IMO the UK should have a top league with about 6 teams

 

The problem is that it's too few teams to form a viable league unless you have an unacceptable level of repetition. Some have suggested that some tracks run a handful of fixtures in an 'elite' league, and then make-up the rest of the fixtures in a lower-level league.

 

Unfortunately, I think such an approach would be disasterous because it would create a perceived inferior level of competition. Casual fans would simply focus on the 'elite' meetings and ignore the rest.

 

IMO the above structure (and reduced fixtures for any individual side) should encourage more tracks to run multiple sides

 

I don't think that tracks running multiple teams is a viable model in the long-term. If you run the majority of fixtures at a particular level, you create continuity and fans will tend to turn-up most weeks. As soon as you start running at different levels, fans will just start to pick and choose their meetings.

 

Whilst the commitment of some BEL and BPL tracks to running BCL teams should be applauded, I suspect it's financially disasterous in most cases. That's why so many tracks are dropping their second teams.

[Kevin Meynell]

It's a bit extreme in the North East but the Diamonds would find it very difficult to attract non speedway fans from Sunderland (it's only 10 miles away) as they just wouldn't want to support a Newcastle team.

 

Okay, but that's a somewhat unique situation to the North-East. There are many Man Utd and (nowadays) Chelsea fans who are not local to those teams.

 

I'd agree that speedway doesn't tend to have any 'glamour' sides that fans from the other side of the country will support, but some teams do have regional support. For example, Oxford gets support from Buckinghamshire and West London.

 

At the same time, I think most interest in the SGP is because fans identify with riders from their teams. I personally find it very hard to identify with any individual sport unless the participants have some sort of local connection.

 

I see markets such as Italy and Spain and Asia as key development areas.

 

Why on earth is there this obsession with trying to break into markets that have no history of speedway (with the possible exception of Italy)? I'd rather focus efforts on raising the profile of the sport in its core markets, or at least the countries where there's some supporters to start with. When the sport is No.1 or No.2 in these countries, that's the time to try and expand.

 

At the moment speedway will find it hard to find attract global companies because it only reaches Poland, Scandanavia and Britain.

 

These countries still collectively represent a big market (125 million). Global companies don't want anything to do with the sport because it's run so amateurishly, and also because it's perceived as somewhat 'down-at-heel'.

 

Rugby League is essentially only played in two counties of England, and a couple of Australian states, yet it does much better than speedway in terms of television and sponsorship money. It's far more that speedway needs to get its act together, than a lack of a market.

Edited November 4, 2005 by Kevin Meynell