Elite League Draft Riders

[Kester]

Perhaps the revised format will provide closer racing and a better product for TV. After all any newcomers watching won't be interested in who is riding but how good the racing is.

 

Speedway very often still provides a terrific night out, where else can you see sportsmen take the risks those boys do week after week? It can be a fairly expensive night out but that has as much to do with things like petrol prices which are out of the sports control as the admission price which is reasonable in my opinion.

 

There are things that could and should be improved but you seem to completely avoid any of the positives, it's still about 4 blokes going balls out same as it ever was and at it's best can be a fantastic spectacle. I get the impression that if there were 10 passes in every race you would complain that there was too much to see. You fell out of love with Speedway but I am not sure why that means you have to try and make everybody else do the same.

 

It's a sport, sometimes it's good, sometimes bad but now and again it's fantastic and for many of us that chance makes it all worthwhile.

 

You're right, it often does provide a good night out. But stadiums are often dilapidated and presentation old-fashioned. I've taken plenty of newbies to speedway, Without exception they enjoyed it, but none of them thought that spending £17 regularly to see it is a good use of their money.

[orion]

Yes but that surely begs the question why was the same not applied to the EL meetings.

Some of the dross on show was even an embarrassment to speedway fans so christ knows what non fans thought of it

Good point but I guess like Football the contract means you have to show a team a certain amount of times and some of those must be home matches .

sidney. If they had stopped bringing back the top riders, the likes of you and orion and others would only have said they were diluting the product that we pay for.

 

 

They have stopped bringing back the top riders ,this year we have lost Freddie and Holder etc .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCB, Still waiting for YOU to point out where I said anything about the PL. Give in, you can't.

[orion]

Give British riders a better chance.........check

 

Reduce the number of hopeless foreign riders learning to ride speedway at our expense..........check

 

Reduce the number of hopeless foreign riders who have already learnt to ride but aren't very good anyway........check

 

Reduce the opportunity of cheque book promoters handing out stupid contracts to above average foreigners on false low averages to ride at reserve which means all foreigners, even the crap ones, ask for and get more money...........check

 

Reduce costs by employing British riders................check

 

Reduce costs by employing LOCAL British riders...............check, eh? ah sorry cancel that one.

 

Gets my vote.

 

I would much rather watch a local (or a least British) rider struggle to make it than see the same wobbles from a foreign rider. It's what I used to do all the time every week and you will have to trust me on this but the satisfaction of seeing two local lads go from juniors to World Pairs Champions is fantastic.

 

Who knows where this could take British speedway.

 

40 divided by 1.5 is nearly 27.

 

To make it attractive the st must have covered around THIRTY meetings!

 

Those were the days eh? 30 home meetings a season and loads more British riders.

Reduce the crowds ..check

[orion]

They might be down, but I doubt it.

 

The point is, provided the BSPA stick with this, in ten years time we will see the rewards with a lot more quality British riders in the league.

I Agree I reckon the crowds will go up thou ..after all who wants to watch Holder etc when you can watch Lee Smart all for the same money .

[stevebrum]

Give British riders a better chance.........check

 

Reduce the number of hopeless foreign riders learning to ride speedway at our expense..........check

 

Reduce the number of hopeless foreign riders who have already learnt to ride but aren't very good anyway........check

 

Reduce the opportunity of cheque book promoters handing out stupid contracts to above average foreigners on false low averages to ride at reserve which means all foreigners, even the crap ones, ask for and get more money...........check

 

Reduce costs by employing British riders................check

 

Reduce costs by employing LOCAL British riders...............check, eh? ah sorry cancel that one.

 

Gets my vote.

 

I would much rather watch a local (or a least British) rider struggle to make it than see the same wobbles from a foreign rider. It's what I used to do all the time every week and you will have to trust me on this but the satisfaction of seeing two local lads go from juniors to World Pairs Champions is fantastic.

 

Who knows where this could take British speedway.

Got to say i agree most definetly. Would rather watch the next generation develop than the likes of the Drymls (no offence to them but they fit my point) earning easy money in reserve berths.

 

Obviously the move is likely to siphon more off the terraces who are getting sick of a weaker product for the same cost. For me, im happier than i expected to be.

[Kester]

They might be down, but I doubt it.

 

The point is, provided the BSPA stick with this, in ten years time we will see the rewards with a lot more quality British riders in the league. That will make us more competitive internationally.

 

All other things being equal that will mean bigger crowds and if someone could draw a graph of attendances over time I reckon the turning point will be sometime between 2012 and 2014.

 

Time will tell but this is the first time I've seen British promoters do something collectively where the motivation appears to be the benefit of British speedway as a whole, rather than the usual vested interests. Still one or two promoters are keen to look after themselves at the expense of the draft riders but hey, it's a start.

 

I don't see how crowds will improve. By seeing more British riders? I suspect that the number of British riders is having no bearing on attendances. This season we will have a British World Champion, what effect will that have on attendances - I'd wager it'll be none at all.

 

The motivation for this move is cost-cutting, as I have stated before if the intention is genuinely to improve British riders then wouldn't this be done in the PL first?

[orion]

I was thinking more in terms of Garrity (who I watched every week for The Colts) instead of, say, Gormolski. He was good wasn't he?

Very true not in Garrity class .

[orion]

What's stopping Swindon signing holder anyway? Nothing to do with the draft that's for sure or were you trying to make another point?

Why would we want to ? we have Richie Worrall .

[EnglishRoundabout]

Steve actually...

[Aces51]

Why would we want to ? we have Richie Worrall .

I think you might be in for a shock. :-)

[orion]

Steve actually...

Even Better

[SCB]

Are you being intentionally stupid.

 

Where did I say anything about the PL doing anything.

 

Tell that to the Pl clubs who have (have) Danes, Aussies and Argentinians, Czechs and pretty much anyone with a bike in reserve in recent years. Maybe if it'll save money having Brits Glasgow might like to try signing a few for a change for a start.

 

So we try to reverse this trend and you still moan.

Good job some folks just get on with the job that has to be done, and ignore some others.

 

[TesarRacing]

I think this is getting lost in translation now! I don't think Tsunami was referring to the PL in any of his responses, even if it sounded like that to you - that's the way I see it anyway!

 

Move on!

Edited December 19, 2013 by TesarRacing

[waiheke1]

Tbf scb specifically commented on pl, to which tsunami replied about trying to reverse the trend and scb still moaning.

It may not have been tsunamis intent, but I think most would intetpret the redponse the same way scb did.

[Kester]

The AGM statement said.....

 

"This is a major shot in the arm for our young British riders and will fast-track their development, which will in turn encourage more youngsters to enter the sport."

 

Nothing about cost cutting?

 

How do you know the PL wasn't the preferred option for the draft?

 

Like I said, get rid of foreign 'learners' and put Brits in instead. It's a win win.

 

I don't know who you support but would you really want to go and see Gormolski instead of Worrall or Szczepaniak instead of Garrity?

 

As much as I liked Ostergaard's attitude I won't miss him, Ales Dryml comes across as a decent bloke who has served British speedway well but I doubt he will be missed either.

 

The same can be said of several other foreign riders who have filled middle and lower order team spots with commitment and honest effort but in almost every case they will not really be missed.

 

Of course the statement said that, they're not going to make a statement saying 'This is our new initiative. To be honest we put it in place because 4 or 5 clubs are close to going to the wall'. John Cook was very clear with the intentions before the AGM, see his statement earlier in the thread, E I Addio posted it. As I said, if it was genuinely for the benefit of younger riders then it would be in the PL, why do you think it wasn't introduced there - were the EL promoters so desperate to help Britain's young riders they just wouldn't let the PL have such a good idea?

 

And regarding riders, I couldn't give a monkey's where they come from, it doesn't enhance or detract from my enjoyment of a speedway meeting one little bit, and I suspect I'm far from alone in that.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Kester

[g13webb]

Having read this thread, there are quite a few posters on here, that have strong and positives views some, no doubt are representatives of the BSPA. Unfortunately, I cannot share their enthusiasm and feel only negatives will come from the changes that have been made.

The biggest problem with our sport is the lack of ‘BUMS on SEATS’. This can be proportioned to many reasons:- Admission has become too expensive, Representing little value for money, Bad Stadiums, Badly prepared race-tracks that creates no close racing hence little excitement , No atmosphere., No equality between the teams, continued underhanded stunts pulled by some promotions purely for their own means at the expense of the sport, the list goes on and on, all of which have a bearing on the lack of support. Fast tracking British youngsters to the top league will not repair any of those problems.

I understand the financial issues the promoters face when putting on meetings and any chance of making it more affordable has to be considered. But fast tracking these Draft riders is not an answer and all it will do is create more loopholes for the same Promoters to exploit.

I believe any rules that promotes British riders is a positive move, but it need to be done in a structured and progressive way. To take riders from the lower league and throw them straight into the Elite league is asking for problems. Talk about out of their depth. Whereas if they were to use the Premier as the stepping stone the transition would have been easier.

Taking on the thoughts of introducing new talent, this should have been done in a structured and progressive way. Like:

A) At the start of each season, each PL club should each have one new British rider at No 7, who had rode in NL but didn’t have PL Av, and would start on an assessed score of 3. Plus one other Brit rider in the 1 to 6, all governed by the points restriction.

 

B)At the start of each season, Each EL club should each have one new British rider at No 7, who had rode in PL but didn’t have EL Av, and would start on an assessed score of 3. Plus one other Brit rider in the 1 to 6, all governed by the points restriction.

 

This way, would have done away with the need of a draft system, as each club could source their own riders, and also eliminate the need of altering the heat format in the leagues. Once we start altering the heat formulas to protect the out of depth riders, then the existing CMA becomes useless. Probably, this won’t become evident to some, until the season starts. But when looking at the proposals, it is said the heat leaders will be racing each more often, as will the 2^nd strings and reserves.. In this situation, the heat leaders will find it more difficult to score points and therefore the CMA will drop. A good 2^nd string could benefit big time and his CMA could soar. Now it gets really interesting. The promoter can, either, drop the high scoring 2^nd String and replace him with a proven star SGP rider within his average, or even change the riding order enabling a star rider to be the 2^nd String. Either way, it will defeat the object of protecting the out of depth rider, that the new heat format was brought in to do.

I wish I could be more positive about this idea, but all I see is problems and loopholes that will in evidently be exploited. We go back to the start of this post about the Bums on Seats, and I cannot see this idea, answering any of those problems.

 

Thanks for your time…..

Edited December 19, 2013 by GRW123

[orion]

 

I don't know who you support but would you really want to go and see Gormolski instead of Worrall or Szczepaniak instead of Garrity?

Nearly every fan would want to see the better ride or player in any sport ..Garrity and Richie Worrall would become el riders anyhow ...change thou's names to Bates and Smart etc and put them with the Poles for a more real view of what is going on .

[SteveLyric2]

Of course the statement said that, they're not going to make a statement saying 'This is our new initiative. To be honest we put it in place because 4 or 5 clubs are close to going to the wall'. John Cook was very clear with the intentions before the AGM, see his statement earlier in the thread, E I Addio posted it. As I said, if it was genuinely for the benefit of younger riders then it would be in the PL, why do you think it wasn't introduced there - were the EL promoters so desperate to help Britain's young riders they just wouldn't let the PL have such a good idea?

 

And regarding riders, I couldn't give a monkey's where they come from, it doesn't enhance or detract from my enjoyment of a speedway meeting one little bit, and I suspect I'm far from alone in that.

PL Promoters didn't want any major tinkering with their team building regulations - and theres more of them so they probably outvoted their EL counterparts!!

[Woz01]

The PL didnt want Brits at reserve hence many of the sides having shocking foreigners filling spots. I know what id prefer to spend my money on, the reserve heats will be entertaining. They can and will take points off each other and im glad we wont have a MJJ/Pawlicki at reserve.

[Mr Blobby]

The PL didnt want Brits at reserve hence many of the sides having shocking foreigners filling spots. I know what id prefer to spend my money on, the reserve heats will be entertaining. They can and will take points off each other and im glad we wont have a MJJ/Pawlicki at reserve.

 

Is that a fact or you just guessing? probably the second one