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Tai Woffinden's Views On Single Night Racing In Uk


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We need to accept we are a feeder country to sweden and poland/ Like South American footballers migrate to Europe to play we should just accept it and do whats right for UK fans. i.e tracks have a regular race night using riders who can combine working with riding and turn up every week. If a rider can earn abroad then fine, but that means no BL. their choice..

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Squads are ideal in principal but a financial non-starter. I'm not convinced riders would accept a "pay as you play" deal and retainers would cripple clubs.

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Bigger draw back than the lack of the GP top boys, is, in my opinion, the regular absence of the current contracted riders. All well and good for Leicester and Eastbourne to want to run on Saturday nights, but how often are they able to run without wholesale changes due to clashes with international events?

 

A set race day (say Monday) would be a tough step to take, but I think in the long term it is the only way forward.

Yea it's a joke team's at the top level still trying to ride on Fridays and at Weekends meaning 3 or 4 changes per match .

 

I said it for ages, change it to one or maybe two race days with say 8 teams no Eastie etc . As you say it will be tough but it's about people get brave and gave it a chance .

The EL is finished as a top level speedway and has been for a few years.Who wants to pay Top admission money to watch a tired Woffy going through the motions.Everyone knows that single night speedway won't happen in Uk.

Swindon had a big crowd to watch him do just that the other week .

Edited by orion
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The maths are simple

 

A rider earned 4 times approx. yes FOUR TIMES in Sweden and Poland than England.

Ride in Poland on Sunday.

Rest and maintain machinery on Monday

Ride in Sweden on Tuesday,

The riders must laugh at watching the knackered riders rushing to Sweden on Tuesday after riding in England on Monday.

They would only need to score 3 more points on Tuesday to cover 12 points in England on Monday.

As pointed earlier as great as AJ was at Lakeside or Nikki P at Eastbourne it had very little difference in the crowd levels.

 

Lost some respect in Woofy do put gun against the head of BSPA ( as they are likely to pull the trigger)

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Squads are ideal in principal but a financial non-starter. I'm not convinced riders would accept a "pay as you play" deal and retainers would cripple clubs.

Also Riders would lose form if not riding regularly. You could not expect a retained Rider after, say six weeks, coming in to the Team to replace an injured Rider and hitting top form straight away.

 

I don't think the idea would work.

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The maths are simple

 

A rider earned 4 times approx. yes FOUR TIMES in Sweden and Poland than England.

Ride in Poland on Sunday.

Rest and maintain machinery on Monday

Ride in Sweden on Tuesday,

The riders must laugh at watching the knackered riders rushing to Sweden on Tuesday after riding in England on Monday.

They would only need to score 3 more points on Tuesday to cover 12 points in England on Monday.

As pointed earlier as great as AJ was at Lakeside or Nikki P at Eastbourne it had very little difference in the crowd levels.

 

Lost some respect in Woofy do put gun against the head of BSPA ( as they are likely to pull the trigger)

 

Do you have any source to verify this claim?

 

I would think over a full season a rider won't earn that much less in England then in Sweden.

Our Elitserien starts in May and ends in September, your season starts in March and ends in November.

For a rider in Elitserien it is a maximum of 14 meetings +play off (if his team finishes top 6,

which is at the most another 6 meetings (4 meetings for a team that finishes top 2).

 

As for the squads, team are only allowed to have 7 riders with average that is greater then 0,500 + two

guest riders that are permanent the entire season. A guestrider also have to be Swedish and cannot rider

for another team in the same division. Riders with an average at 0,500 does not take up one of the seven places in the squad.

 

Take a look at Smederna's squad: http://ta.svemo.se/Public/Pages/TeamSections.aspx?TeamId=234

There are 9 riders in the main squad, Oliver Berntzon and Johannes Stark does not count due their

low season entry average. PK, Zorro, Berntzon, Eklöf and Henderson are rivals for the three mandatory Swedish

positions in the lineup while Kenni Larsen, Davey Watt*, Mikkel Michelse, Grzegorz Zengota and Pawel Przedpelski

are rivals for the remaining 4 positions for each meeting.

 

Squads can only changed during the mid-season transfer window, except for injured riders who are expected to be

away for 4 weeks or more, which can be temporarily replaced during their absence (with some restrictions regarding

average for the replacing rider).

 

*Davey Watt is a temporary replacement for Grigorij Laguta until Laguta returns from injury.

 

For more info see this thread.

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One night for BEL speedway will reduce crowd levels, if speedway fans are like I was in my younger days!

I would regularly attend at Perry Barr on a Monday and Blackbird Road on a Tuesday, finishing my week at Brandon on the Saturday

Virtually every week at the first two, and all but the first Saturday in the month at home

The idea of single night speedway would allow for only one meeting per week, and for those unable, or unwilling, to travel, one meeting every other week

In the "good old days" Saturday night was speedway night at Brandon, and similarly throughout the UK, teams were at home every week - so, it was habit-forming and little else got in the way of speedway spectatoring

It helped too that teams were virtually unchanged from season to season, so that fans became attached to their favourites, many of whom were local and known personally to a lot of spectators

And with a full programme of league and cup racing, together with regional team competitions and individual meetings, there were enough meetings in the UK for the riders

I honestly believe that the way forward is to step back to this scenario, and let those who want to commute to and from continental Europe to race do so

As long as there is a level playing field of rider standard, it doesn't really matter at what level that is - do the star-packed Swedish teams provide better racing because of their rider make-up? - I'm not certain they do

I well remember the merger of the National and Provincial Leagues - it won't work, they said - but it did, in a very big way

As far as TV is concerned, do away with live transmission in the UK, so that those who want to watch speedway have to pay at the turnstiles - by all means have a "match of the day" type magazine programme, showing edited highlights, so that the sport is still visible to potential fans

If it means going "semi-professional" then so be it

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One night for BEL speedway will reduce crowd levels, if speedway fans are like I was in my younger days!

I would regularly attend at Perry Barr on a Monday and Blackbird Road on a Tuesday, finishing my week at Brandon on the Saturday

Virtually every week at the first two, and all but the first Saturday in the month at home

The idea of single night speedway would allow for only one meeting per week, and for those unable, or unwilling, to travel, one meeting every other week

 

Most fans can only afford to go one once so that's not a problem .if you want to watch more then is nothing stop you watching the PL and NL on other nights .

 

Speedway can't go on as it is and we can't go back to the good old days so let's give it a go .

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The Tai article in the Speedway Star is not unlike other articles in the past from other riders and for a few years many riders have found the British schedule too hectic being on more than one race night in the Elite League and over the years we have seen many a rider drop the Elite League due mainly to the race nights like Pedersen, Hampel, Jonsson, Holder, Lindgren and many many more.

 

 

For some they see British Speedway as a way of riding different tracks and earning extra money and if they can fit it in then they will. Some however want to ride here but it simply doesn't work out working in one place for half the money they can get in another place and have to rush through the night waiting and taking flights and sleeping in vans that is no real life for anyone, especially a professional sportsman riding a machine.

 

 

Tai like many others want to ride here but if it means they are going to be drained mentality and physically through travelling across Europe and back in 48 hours for three different meetings then riding on different nights has to be dropped and stick with a reliable agenda of Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday racing with the odd Saturday night meeting has to be easier for travelling and for health.

 

 

For years I have posted my ideas about how the leagues should have switched direction and in the past few years it has become more and more relevant that with a few changes over time these ideas need to be adapted more and more if British Speedway wants to see the top riders like Woffinden, Ward, Holder etc racing here and maybe even appearances from riders like Hancock, Sayfutdinov, Pedersen, Laguta etc.

 

 

Basically you have an Elite League with about 8 teams on Mondays only which is what Sky insist on, a Premier League with the rest but these are split into two groups, North and South.

 

Then you have a British League which is the center of the plan and rules in this league will determine most things as every track in the EL and PL builds a team to the same standard and these teams are split into two groups which are selected accordinjgly.

 

 

The teams that with to enter the EL then have s Star Squad list which consists of 4 riders of which they can use any two along with 5 of their British League riders to compete in the Elite League. This means that all tracks have roughly the same amount of meetings at home and away but tracks competiting in the EL will have two teams of different standards to firld.

 

Some may only want to watch the EL while some may want to watch both but with the chances of Woffinden v Hancock or Pedersen v Ward on the bill, I'm sure it would attract a decent crowd and in the British League the racing could be better as riders are of a more equal standing.

 

 

 

The details I'm not going into here but I have this all done out and will be passing it on to a few people for their views and opinions and one will be Tai Woffinden.

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One night a week for EL yes let's make it Saturday ,kids have no scchool better for young famiies the future fan base of the sport hang on the powers that be gave it to the Olsen Circus.

'Fraid so!!

 

However we could go back to Saturday Night Racing.

 

For those who want to watch the GPs (Circus) - they are only on Eurosport - so - why can't folks set up and record their GP. They can then go to their Club Meeting on a Saturday Night. Watch the GP when you get home, fast forward through the adverts and 'Bob's your Uncle - problem solved. Plus side of that - you don't have to watch the adverts - RESULT!!!

 

Worth a thought anyway.

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Do we need Sky live league meetings?

We're trying to get people through the turnstiles, whilst Sky live broadcast encourages stay-at-home fans

No more live Sky as a starter!

 

They need the money SKY put in.

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