2005 And Beyond

[dtc]

All the decisions for the 2004 season have already been made.

But the rumour mill is in full swing for 2005;

the Elite League having another two teams promoted from the Premier league. Conference teams springing up all over the place, and promoting teams to the premier league

It is now time the BPSA looked at the competitions in each of the leagues.

Here are my ideas:

 

Elite League and Premier League

 

League

One home leg and one away leg against all other teams in the league.

 

Play offs

First round second v fourth and third v fifth one leg with home advantage to higher placed team.

Winners of the first round one leg again at higher placed clubs track.

Final at a neutral track (preferably in the league they don’t ride), one leg.

 

Trophy

the El split in to 2 by region the Premier into 3 or 4 . the top two teams in each group go into semis and a final (all 2 legs)

 

KOC

Two leg competition aggregate winner to go thru to next round.

British Team Championship

An FA cup style competition Both Premier and Elite teams in a one leg Knockout Cup. Full teams, no dispensations.

Although this may look unfair, last year Edinborgh would almost deffinatly have beaten Ipswich.

 

One Off Competitions

ELRC PLRC EL and PL Pairs PL fours etc... All to be at neutral tracks

 

 

Conference League

 

Clubs can enter as many or as few matches as they wish but MUST complete any competition they start at the beginning of the season.

 

League

Depending on the number of teams (potently 20 plus) and to cut down on travelling expenses split the country in 2 (North and South.)

The winners of each league are crowned Northern/Southern Conference League.

Two leg final for UK conference league Champions.

Champions this would give each team 9 or more home and away matches.

 

Trophy

The conference leagues split into groups of around 6 by region. Two leg Matches home and away. This competition is for clubs who either cannot fulfil a complete conference season due to restriction on their track or standalone teams who wish to make up meetings.

 

KOC

Two leg competition aggregate winner to go thru to next round. Initially done by Region final between the winner of the northern and winner of the southern rounds.

 

CLRC Fours ETC at a neutral track possibly one of the larger EL tracks.

[born_2b_mad]

OK some fair points there but your idea for the Conference League would not be suitable for the Stand Alone clubs like Wimbledon, Mildenhall, Weymouth, Plymouth etc.

 

Maybe next year we may see a new Fourth division which will be strictly amateur.....hmmm heard that one before!!

[JamieSealeyRacing]

in 2005 i might be riding for a conference team as i will be 15 in july

[NJT]

Hopefully Trelawny will be back at a new home.

[Guest SwineTown]

in 2005 i might be riding for a conference team as i will be 15 in july

Good luck - hope to see you on track soon!

[Guest Snow White]

Yes it is only the begining of the season. But look at the fixtures problems and how long it took to release them for all the leagues. Pre-planning at earlier stages will reduce tensions and confusions.

 

So my proposals are :- 1) A European Cup. Winners of the respective leagues on a knock out basis home and away.

 

2) A British League 1 and 2. This will help all potential fans to follow the sport more easily. The option at the end of each season for the winner of Division 2 to be promoted, or a team struggling to drop down.

 

3) The Conference League to limit riders ages and payments. Use it for what is meant. If they cannot conform then they have to move up or out. (Now that is controversial)

 

4) An independant fund (financed throught the turnstiles, supplement of 20 pence) for the Speedway riders benevolent fund. It is fantastic to have benefit meetings, but when anyone gets seriously injured its for life. The one off meeting is great but the money soon goes. The riders entertain and are paid for their efforts, but some not so much as others. Anyone injured deserves all the support we can give them.

 

5) Promoters to be limited to one venture.

[strongbad]

dtc, i'm intruigued by your idea for a British Team Championship, but perhaps if a PL Team was drawn against an EL Team, the PL Team automatically gets home advantage. That way it would even it out a bit, and allow for some upsets.

[JT]

Right here we go lets get the innovation side of the brain ticking!

 

First of all the 'Tactical Ride' rule MUST be scrapped and almost certainly WILL be scrapped following the shenanigans of the last month.

 

For the presentational side of things in the Elite League ALL teams should be made to wear team suits made from Kevlar or Nylon, the Colin White and SJP style ones not the Pro Star Pyjamas that Oxford wore this season. Along with this these suits must carry an obvious colour scheme and prominent club logo, in my opinion some of the current teams suits are hard to separate from others and for a new viewer it is virtually impossible to judge which team is which, particularly the Swindon and Oxford ones where the former despite being called the Robins have a palm tree and the latter has a pathetic little logo on the side!

 

One positive from the Oxford presentational side is the uniformed bikes, having all 7 riders with silver bikes is perhaps more obvious to viewers than the team suits, combining both team suits with bikes all the same colour would make it even easier for everyone to spot the different teams.

 

I don't know if this would be practical or what the costs of it would be but maybe making all Elite League riders have different coloured handle bar covers for what ever helmet colour they are, this would again make it easier to determine who each rider is but there is the problem of riders having Billy Hamill style handlebar covers and the potential costs and time consumption of such a rule.

 

Now on to the most important side of things the actual rules and layout of matches!

 

As previously mentioned we must reinstate the tactical substitute rule. As far as matches go I don't think there are any more improvements you could make.

 

The team building front and what riders ride in each meeting is where the most radical changes must be made. As a promoter suggested it is vital that we avoid a situation like that of Coventry - Oxford and that a track reserve at every track at the start of the season two track reserves must be employed, these track reserves must fit the following criteria:

 

-Must be Under 21 and British.

-Must be available at every home meeting at their respective tracks.

 

These riders will enjoy the following benefits:

-There travelling costs (which should be minimal as they are likely to be local) will be funded by the BSPA.

-They must be paid a respectable appearance fee to fund their racing.

 

By employing two riders where possible from the CL squad you will have a rider for each team who will step up when the reserves in the actual meeting have completed their 7 allowed rides or and when like at the Cov - OSM fixture there are no riders left!

 

This rule will be employed in both leagues and would give British youngsters vital experience of being part of meetings.

 

The guest rule MUST be scrapped if the sport is to move forward, how we get round this problem I will leave up to you!

 

What I do feel is important is that we keep the 45 point in the Premier League. However to help encourage promoters using young British riders ALL British CL riders under 21 with no Premier League experience (As a member of a team for 12 matches) will come into the league on a 2 point average rather than a 3 point one. All British riders should benefit from a larger reduction to their average maybe a 10% one and all PL teams should at least track one British rider!

 

I will leave it there for now but and will add to this list as soon as I think of some more ideas!

[Lioness]

dtc, i'm intruigued by your idea for a British Team Championship, but perhaps if a PL Team was drawn against an EL Team, the PL Team automatically gets home advantage. That way it would even it out a bit, and allow for some upsets.

Although I love 'the romance of the cup' in football I can't see it worknig in speedway.

 

Last season Edinburgh, PL winners, rode Wolves at Armadale. I think the score was in the region of 39-51. (Edinburgh got closer at Wolves! )

 

To be honest it was imo one of the poorest meetings I saw last season and Edinburgh-through no fault of their own-were lucky to get 39. I don't blame Wolves either btw just in case it sounds like that! It just wasn't a level playing surface

 

The money difference between the two leagues in speedway is vast as are the restrictions placed by team building averages. WHilst you have that you will not get a decent 'FA Cup' style competition between teh leagues and as we all know clubs wont stick to restrictions to make it a fairer competition.

[Kevin Meynell]

Although I love 'the romance of the cup' in football I can't see it worknig in speedway.

I agree that it won't work if BEL and BPL teams run over the normal match format. After all, it was tried for the BSPA Trophy about 12 years ago, and not only were there a lot of mismatches, but it contributed to the bankrupting of at least one Division 2 team (as those teams had to pay Div 1 rates).

 

However, I do think an inter-league competition would work if you based it on the 4TT format. That might re-introduce some interest to the current BPL Fours, and allow the re-introduction of the old qualifying rounds.

 

Sure, the BEL teams would probably still dominate the groups, but having 2-3 BPL teams in each meeting would keep some interest going.

[Kevin Meynell]

So my proposals are :- 1) A European Cup.

 

2) A British League 1 and 2. This will help all potential fans to follow the sport more easily. The option at the end of each season for the winner of Division 2 to be promoted, or a team struggling to drop down.

 

3) The Conference League to limit riders ages and payments. Use it for what is meant. If they cannot conform then they have to move up or out. (Now that is controversial)

 

4) An independant fund (financed throught the turnstiles, supplement of 20 pence) for the Speedway riders benevolent fund.

 

5) Promoters to be limited to one venture.

1) Such a competition already exists (the European Club Champions' Cup), although British, Danish and Swedish teams don't part. However, such a competition can never have any credibility whilst riders ride for multiple teams in different countries.

 

2) I don't disagree with namely the leagues more consistently, but promotion and relegation has been tried in the past, and failed dismally. It will never work until there are more teams wanting to ride in the top flight than can be accommodated.

 

3) I'm not a fan of age restrictions as there have been examples of riders who started late but who went onto become decent riders. In addition, the standalone tracks need to track attractive enough teams to draw sufficient crowds, so there will always be a need for a few old-hands.

 

4) Speedway is already expensive enough, without adding additional 'taxes'. I don't want to sound heartless here, but surely promoters and riders should be properly insured in the first place? Getting injured is an occupational hazard, and it's absolute madness to have to rely on charitable donations if the worst happens.

 

5) I expect that would mean a few tracks closing down, as there doesn't seem to be enough owners to go around.

[Mylor]

1) Such a competition already exists (the European Club Champions' Cup), although British, Danish and Swedish teams don't part. However, such a competition can never have any credibility whilst riders ride for multiple teams in different countries.

Kevin, Just as footballers can be cup-tied, couldn't riders be restricted to riding for just one of their teams in the European Club Championship? It would obviously have an effect on their contractual negotiations but it would be a feasable way forward.

 

I'd love to see foreign club sides here competing for something worthwhile and I'm sure they'd like to see ours too.

[Kevin Meynell]

Just as footballers can be cup-tied, couldn't riders be restricted to riding for just one of their teams in the European Club Championship?

Mylor,

 

I guess so, but then it wouldn't be a test of which was the best team.

 

I think the only realistic way to have a European competition would be to effectively treat it as a separate 'league' where each participating team signed separate riders.

[dtc]

For the Euro Cup:- what about regenal teams like top flight rugby in Wales, up to 5 regenal teams in the uk (Elite teams in pairs) and simular in Poland & Sweeden etc Starting with pools of 4 teams then a Knockout stage?

[Mylor]

I guess so, but then it wouldn't be a test of which was the best team.

 

I think the only realistic way to have a European competition would be to effectively treat it as a separate 'league' where each participating team signed separate riders.

A step in the right direction though, even though we couldn't have the definitive article from day one.

 

It's by no means certain that more than one of a rider's teams would qualify so it may not be so much of a problem.

 

My guess is that riders would gravitate towards their strongest team leaving others less keen to sign them which would ease the way forward towards one rider, one team.

 

It may just work.............

[Kevin Meynell]

For the Euro Cup:- what about regenal teams like top flight rugby in Wales, up to  5 regenal teams in the uk (Elite teams in pairs) and simular in Poland & Sweeden etc

It's worth considering, but I don't think supporters would really get behind regional teams in the same manner as their own. There isn't really any sense of regional identity in most parts of Britain.

 

I would select a number of club sides from each country who would ride in the European Cup/League each season unless relegated. The highest-placed team in each national league that was not already in the competition, would replace the relegated teams.

 

The competition would therefore be run separately to the national leagues, but teams would still be there on merit. It would also get around the problem of adopting a 'UEFA Champions League'-style approach, which can't really work while riders compete for multiple teams.

Edited July 21, 2004 by Kevin Meynell