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Rob Godfrey Listening.


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It was great to the see the piece from Rob in the star, and his thoughts and how he feels the fans have to be listened to.Carried on from what Phil said,Rob says that we all have to come together and try and move the sport forward great really as Rob is after all a fan as well.He mentioned the black and white helmet issue as an EX it would be great to know what the fans want. It cannot all be done of course, it will be interesting if Rob can get some positive feedback from this article.Some praise also to Rob who has created a great product at Scunny,and surely a big event is due there at some stage the track outstanding what about the British Final in the future.?

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As a race-track, Scunny can be, and usually is, great. But....

 

For a big BSPA meeting, the place simply doesn't (yet) have the infrastructure to handle the attendance we would hope to see at (say) a British Final. Sightlines aren't great all around, and more stands and/or higher terraces would be needed.

 

The question of a big FIM meeting was answered last season, when the stadium was deemed currently unacceptable by the FIM inspectors, and Rob (quite rightly) chose not to spend money the club presumably don't have to bring it up to scratch.

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I found Rob Godfrey's statement very strange, He say's "I'm asking fans who read Speedway Star to start writing in." If fans put some ideas forward me and my fellow promoters can look and see what we need to do this winter." I agree it's good for fans to write in to the Star but it does not have a letters page every week and can only publish a few letters when it does. The reason I found his statement strange is he obviously has no idea this forum exists, please can someone tell him about the BSF where he can find all the suggestions anyone could want.

Edited by oldtimer
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The reason I found his statement strange is he obviously has no idea this forum exists, please can someone tell him about the BSF where he can find all the suggestions anyone could want.

 

I've no idea about Speedway Star's circulation figures but, by my reckoning, this forum has had just over 1,600 members visit it since 1st June and just over 1,000 members have actually posted something. Considering a proportion of the forum activity is from fans who no longer attend, the BSF clearly represents a minor subset of spectators. Perhaps reaching out via the Speedway Star is an attempt to establish opinion from a larger majority?

 

Undoubtedly many of the thoughts and suggestions made on here will be echoed by ALL fans of our sport so I do agree that it is puzzling why he, and all other promoters, wouldn't want to embrace this forum.

Edited by Tkdandy
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I've no idea about Speedway Star's circulation figures but, by my reckoning, this forum has had just over 1,600 members visit it since 1st June and just over 1,000 members have actually posted something.

Statistically, 1000 out of the numbers that must attend speedway in the UK each week (circa 40k I'd estimate) is actually a pretty sizable amount.

 

<post removed>

Oh the irony.
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Undoubtedly many of the thoughts and suggestions made on here will be echoed by ALL fans of our sport so I do agree that it is puzzling why he, and all other promoters, wouldn't want to embrace this forum.

 

Plenty of reasons (most of them daft) why most promoters won't embrace this forum.

 

To be fair to promoters (and riders), sometimes when they've have made the effort to explain anything here, the less constructive posters have swiftly put them off making any further effort by immediately trying to dredge up any past grievances rather than giving the promoters (or riders) a bit of time and confidence to explain even more.

 

But that's about their only worthwhile excuse for not taking some notice of what's written on here ... instead, too many of them can't be bothered to delve a tiny bit into understanding how internet forums work in any subject (not just sport) and so they quickly end up dismissing everyone on here as a negative keyboard warrior.

 

Those promoters won't go anywhere near admitting it but some of the grumbles and frustrations that get discussed here (guests, rider replacement, weather-affected meetings) were being discussed on speedway terraces up and down the land many years before the internet even existed !!

 

It's just that in those days, most chat like that was with the fans of your own club (with just a little bit added to it from away fans, or if you had a chat with home fans when you made any away trips) and the promoters didn't hear much of it so therefore could remain blissfully unaware about the extent to which it was going on.

 

Now there are much more convenient and quicker methods like this forum (or facebook) for supporters of different clubs to have the same discussion all at once ... also, the topics they're discussing remain in the public domain instead of ending as soon as everyone left the stadium in their different homeward directions at the end of a meeting.

 

It all adds up to another case of those in charge of the sport appearing dreadful at not keeping up with the ways that most other aspects of the sport have been using technology to help their involvement.

 

Take last year's original version of the Premier League Riders' Championship at Sheffield where during what proved to be the terminal rain delay for that evening, at least 2 experienced club officials totally ignored the usual rule about mobiles being banned in the pits so that they could check different weather websites for useful rainfall radar information (at this stage, only 5 heats had been run so 7 more were needed to reach the minimum 12-heats necessary for declaring a champion).

 

Meanwhile those in charge of the meeting appeared to be no better informed than simply hoping the rain would clear for long enough to mop up and carry on !! ... the farce ended when someone in charge clearly did give the riders the nod that it was going to be abandoned but didn't co-ordinate that info round the rest of the stadium.

 

Therefore, virtually everything in the pits was packed up into the vans before anyone got round to telling the crowd it was officially off !! ... of course, by the time that announcement was made, any of the crowd paying any attention to the packing-up in the pits had every right to wonder why the hell they hadn't been told the same info as the riders at near-enough the same time.

Edited by arthur cross
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SS also said that Ashley Birks will be carrying out his own fan survey to find out what they want. Nice to see a rider taking on the challenge, the more I see of this lad the more I'm impressed. On telly last night Pete Adams also said that the guest rider situation needs to be addressed so maybe some are listening after all. I think the prospect of losing the Sky money may make some promoters wake up. Hopefully anyway.

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Rob Godfrey might listen but I can think of a fair few that won't.

 

They are listening though. Have a read of the various threads. The play-offs are great - they're in. There's no way around the guest system (especially for #1s) - you've got them. Two leagues, keep the total average low to give every team a chance - that's how it is. Spread the top riders around - sort of got it, if you forget the turbo twins. Keep artificial help-the-hammered schemes and the t/r is fairer than tac subs - bingo.

 

Most of us are in favour of some of those but against others. There's no way everybody will agree to everything. At the end of the day the promoters are the ones risking their cash so, rightly, they should be the ones making the rules.

 

What is needed is a way to make sure those rules apply equally to all teams, are stuck to and the same punishments handed out to transgressors, whoever they are.

Edited by Vincent Blackshadow
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Oh yes, silly me. Of course they are listening. We all love watching teams operating rider replacement and with a couple of guests in every week, watching our team lose despite scoring more race points than the opposition (I bet Rye House fans were thrilled last night), seeing our favourite riders sidelined because they have an average 0.01 points too high, watching 15 heats take 2 hours to complete with no second half and no other entertainment other than Now That's What I Call Music 46 being played on repeat. Having meetings called off because it might rain (happened twice at my local track last year), seeing our own riders destroy our own title ambitions by riding for our closest rivals, not being able to make team changes because the riders haven't ridden enough matches - by the middle of June.

 

We love it so much that I can turn up to a meeting at 7:44 p.m., park in the car park, walk in through the turnstiles without queuing, stand in the same spot every week amongst the same faces, never see anyone new at the track more than once and wonder if I will have a sport to watch next season.

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in the speedway star edition that asked why speedway in this country was not doing 'too well'..

 

rob godfrey came across as someone who had his finger right on the pulse,,

 

shame he wont get listened to,

 

shame he wont get to be chairman of the bspa...

 

great night at scunthorpe, and when you attend you feel that your custom is valued and respected...

 

dont feel that at too many tracks..

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