Fortnightly Speedway

[TonyM]

Taken from the EL section looking a whether there would be enough quality riders to expand the EL to 12 teams

 

If you could afford / convince Holta, Gollob, Hampel and Jonsson to return then yes. But will that ever happen? Not likely unless the league cuts back its fixtures and teams only ride at home once every other week. Maybe thats the inevitable answer if we want a stronger league!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I have long thought that fortnightly speedway has a number of benefits including attracting back some of the top riders who wont / cant commit to the current UK schedule

 

The main arguments against seem to be:

1) Clubs must place a block booking for stadiums

2) Cost structure is based on x number of meetings

3) Fans will get out of the habit of coming

 

Cant comment on the first on although I doubt many clubs would lose access to their stadiums but may have to to pay more per meeting

 

The cost structure argument was probably valid in the 70s with the pile it high sell it cheap nature of the sport, but things have changed and I would guess clubs are less dependant on crowd numbers than they were and the income generated from a meeting would not necessarily cover the variable costs of staging ie much more dependant on TV / sponsorship money which tends to be per season not per meeting. Some may also argue that whilst total attendance may drop, average meeting attendance may rise with more floating fans being able to attend regularly. The same could be said for riders with income being less dependant on pts x meetings given the higher maintenance costs which mirror the number of meetings ridden so would not necessarily be much if any worse off

 

If people really think 3 is true then how do people ever remember what to do when March comes round - what this argument is really about is breaking with tradition and 'selling speedways soul' something apparently far worse than the current death by a thousand cuts that the sport is currently going through

 

So if combined with sensible scheduling, greater use of doubling up rules for riders who wanted to (and would still be fresh enough to do so) it could work, feel free to say why not

[Ron Butler]

Taken from the EL section looking a whether there would be enough quality riders to expand the EL to 12 teams

I have long thought that fortnightly speedway has a number of benefits including attracting back some of the top riders who wont / cant commit to the current UK schedule

 

feel free to say why not

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

......or to agree? I feel this is what you prefer, Green.

Edited November 8, 2006 by Ron Butler

[AndyM]

Actually, I've thought less might be more for some time. Increase the anticipation and promote the fixtures better - and have more dates in the event of rain-offs. Trouble is that stadium owners would then charge higher rents (hence your block bookings argument), so there is a possibility that you could have stadium sharing in some cases to keep costs down.

[TonyM]

......or to agree?  I feel this is what you prefer, Green.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry, badly phrased - "feel free to add your opinion its an open forum"

 

Dont really have a preference whether posters agree or disagree Ron, more to the point does the post move the debate forward, particularly in this section which is depressingly low on topics and posts

[Adder]

I posted something along these lines back in about March time and got slagged off by all the sad so and sos who, without a weekly trip to speedway during the summer, evidently have no lives!

[Adder]

Indeed my posting was:

 

 

 

"I was sat watching last night's meeting on Sky and I have to say that although it was great to have speedway back on our screens the meeting itself was of a poor quality and would have done nothing to encourage new supporters.

 

The track was not good and I am most definately not having a pop at Reading here as to me the conditions were to blame.

 

The track slickened off quickly and no significant watering could take place as it would have just frozen in the elements and iced up the surface.

 

This leads me to the main thrust of my point.

 

Should we be holding Elite League speedway meetings in such conditions?

 

Here is my proposal:

 

The teams in the Elite League meet each other ONCE home and away and not TWICE as they do now.

 

This would mean that the fixture list could be accomodated during the 'summer' months and not having to race this early in the season in brass monkey weather which benefits nobody.

 

This would also mean that team would probably only ride at home every other week.

 

This would get rid of 'fixture fatigue' amongst some fans who frankly either get bored going to home meetings every week against the same opposition or simply cannot afford it now that Elite League Speedway is not a cheap night out anymore.

 

I think crowds would increase as a result of this and would engender much more 'anticipation' amongst fans for their home matches.

 

I think the current format of having to race a massive FORTY fixtures in the league before adding on the play-offs, KO Cup, Craven Shield etc dilutes the quality of the sport.

 

Open to you'all for discussion!!"

[RogH]

Football and rugby fans are used to their teams not being at home every week, so speedway might follow suit.

 

It might allow speedway to concentrate it's fixtures on one or two nights a week, as in Sweden and Poland rather than the disjointed system now in place.

 

Also there would be no place for the meaningless fixtures that so often clog up the fixture list.

 

Open for debate.

[coma]

I must admit I would prefer weekly fixtures given the choice but feel that the league should really head to 2 mights per week for all teams.

Wednesday & Thursday would be the obvious choices as they avoid clashes with the GP, Sweden & Poland and are consecutive nights, meaning the riders only have to fly in and out once per week. If SKY wanted to stick with one Monday match per week then that would work well and teams could still ride at home every week or near enough.

In theory, changing meetings to every other week will tempt more riders over but it will also increase costs considerably. I would guess the very least would be a 50% increase on the gate price. Now if you only go half as often then you could argue thats a 25% reduction but the truth is that most people would moan like hell about it.

While it could be an opportunity for the promoters to shove a load of extra money back into their clubs and raise the whole profile in a similar way to when the football premier league was rebranded a dozen years ago, it just won't happen because the current promoters can't agree on anything. In fact they take great pleasure in bitching and whining about each other at every opportunity and seem to enjoy it.

Personally I would pay £20 per meeting if the quality, presentation, stadium, food, drink, organisation, rules and riders were improved as thats still far cheaper than the footie tickets I buy but I'm guessing I'm in the minority as its still treated by most fans as an amateur smalltime sport and thats its major problem when it comes to moving forward.

[The Third Man]

and what happens to the lesser riders who only ride in england, one meeting a week would not make it worth their while.

[Hazzman]

and what happens to the lesser riders who only ride in england, one meeting a week would not make it worth their while.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes but on the same token, their current job which they do often 3-4 days currently, could become a 6 day a week job with more money and they know what settled days they will be riding.

[AndyM]

We already have a much-reduced rider pool as it is, quite a number of whom ride for more than one club across the three leagues. How long is it going to be before the costs exceed revenues and all but the top riders have no choice but to go semi-pro and combine their racing with day jobs?

[TonyM]

and what happens to the lesser riders who only ride in england, one meeting a week would not make it worth their while.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

As has been posted it is more than likely that the PL will end up semi pro soon anyway and having less meetings may make this easier to manage for those that choose this route, as I put in the original post greater use of doubling up may provide opportunities for those that want to remain full time.

 

I am a big fan of doubling up the lower end of the EL with the top of the PL - how is this any different from a rider riding in either the EL or PL combined with an overseas club other than travel would be reduced. It wont stop the natural development of talent, in fact it may help it as riders would have a smoother progression between the leagues if the EL used the PL to provide a bottom end 'squad' system (say 1 second string and 2 reserves from 6 PL riders). Less meetings per season for each individual club would make this more viable and may in turn spread the costs of 'keeping' a speedway rider between two clubs

 

I fully accept riders would want more 'per meeting' but probably less in absolute terms for the season as their running costs would be reduced - also what percentage of a riders income is meeting based and how much is fixed for the season in terms of 'sponsorship'?

[The Third Man]

Yes but on the same token, their current job which they do often 3-4 days currently, could become a 6 day a week job with more money and they know what settled days they will be riding.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

and you know that their employers would do this for them? and what about the people doing this extra work, thats not an option, all that would happen is you would get an even greater gulf between the proffessional riders riding nearly every night and the amateur ones riding once or twice every two weeks.

 

wont happen, and if it did it would kill speedway as we know it, might even be the end of team speedway

Edited November 10, 2006 by The Third Man

[TonyM]

and you know that their employers would do this for them? and what about the people doing this extra work, thats not an option, all that would happen is you would get an even greater gulf between the proffessional riders riding nearly every night and the amateur ones riding once or twice every two weeks.

 

wont happen, and if it did it would kill speedway as we know it, might even be the end of team speedway

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Lots of things appear to be killing team speedway and home meetings once a fortnight was an idea put forward to try and save some team speedway in this country.

 

The saying "if you keep doing what we've always done you'll keep getting what you've always got" seems to be particularly relevant to speedway and the way it has been run, so any other ideas other than "promoters need to promote better" as to what can halt and hopefully reverse the decline of speedway are welcome

 

The CL in this country is already amateur (so non professional team speedway can exist) and continued cost cutting by PL promoters will soon make that league semi pro at best and some would argue that we already have a vast gulf between the top and bottom of the PL (can Zorro, Topinka et al really be compared with Legg, Bowen etc) and are these lads filling the reserve berths really full time professionals with no other income apart from their speedway earnings?

 

What less meetings per club may allow is for the concentration of the 'pros' with the lower end of the pro ranks also competing with the top end of the amateur ranks in a similar way to how cricket works down from the pros (generally first class counties) to semi pros (minor counties are often a collection of 'club pros' and 'keen amateurs') to amateurs (club cricket which often has one or two club pros playing / coaching). Obviously the main barriers to this under the current system are the fixture congestion and equipment and maintenance costs.

 

I still maintain that equipment and maintenance costs would be cheaper for clubs to provide as a 'team' package and this may also reduce some of the barriers to entry into the sport for potential new riders and allowing a flexable approach to riders in a team if they were on a semi-pro basis (ie a CL team would have to pitch up with say 11 bikes and 7 riders from their squad rather than currently where all of the CL squad have to go through the expense of purchasing and maintaining their own equipment which obviously reduces some riders ability to be competitive)

[Daniel Smith]

and you know that their employers would do this for them? and what about the people doing this extra work, thats not an option, all that would happen is you would get an even greater gulf between the proffessional riders riding nearly every night and the amateur ones riding once or twice every two weeks.

 

wont happen, and if it did it would kill speedway as we know it, might even be the end of team speedway

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I agree

 

I'm sure some of the people who post on here work for the BSPA

 

To many clubs with dog tracks, rugby/football clubs would close as all other sports take priority over nights available for speedway.