Speedway Star Item

[YerRopes]

 

So your wifes view isn't really relevant.

 

She ain't really that bothered. There in is the rub.

 

My point about the admission price is whatever the cost, you will struggle to attract NEW fans unless the perception of the sport is changed. Should some marketing genius change the perception of the sport, people will pay.

 

 

You miss my point entirely...

 

I would go more often if it were cheaper as Her Ropes would be more inclined to go, she does enjoy it, but to her it ain't really worth the money..

 

BTW...she is a tad pissed off that you regard her 'view' as irrelevant..

[Fromafar]

Not seen one fan said everything is Hunky Dory or there nothing to worry about so your telling lies to start off with . what has been said if going moan about rules at least come with something that is workable bar going back to the old days so a few over 70 years come back or a brain dead idea to rid the uk of the remaining riders that the fans pay money to see .There are clubs in the pl who no star riders in there side who find themselves in big trouble due to small crowds ..

 

Yea like Hans ,AJ ,Holder ,Freddie etc really smashing it up ...what myths people put up .Of course in the old days you never had the likes of Hans Nielsen winning easy

Have you not,that doesn't mean a lot to me !!

[SCB]

Repeat : Premier league clubs are looking to lower costs

No Premier league club will be willing to up their costs to compose a league some way between Elite and Premier.

Its either Elite or Premier not Premier with a few of your favourite Elite league riders thrown in.

As Matt k says anyone with a lone average of over 6.5 in the Elite league would be a casualty.

Its hard buts that's where we are at !

As much as today's Speedway Star comment was on the state of British speedway got the impression that the future of Speedway Star may be running parallel with it.

What problem is one big league at PL level fixing? Berwick are still buggered, Workington are in trouble. Redcar still riding in front of 350 people, Scunthorpe still in a mess.... Or do you think Coventry, Poole, Swindon and Lakeside turning up will get 1000s of people to turn up at Berwick, Workington, Redcar and Scunthorpe?

[Fromafar]

What problem is one big league at PL level fixing? Berwick are still buggered, Workington are in trouble. Redcar still riding in front of 350 people, Scunthorpe still in a mess.... Or do you think Coventry, Poole, Swindon and Lakeside turning up will get 1000s of people to turn up at Berwick, Workington, Redcar and Scunthorpe?

while I agree with your post these clubs you mention are not the only clubs in a mess .I think a few more Clubs could be added to your list.

[SCB]

while I agree with your post these clubs you mention are not the only clubs in a mess .I think a few more Clubs could be added to your list.

I could have listed any random 5 clubs, they're all in the rubbish.

[Humphrey Appleby]

Gather from your posts your not a Philip fan all you do is criticise his posts on any subject IMO .

 

Philippe is in a more privileged and influential position that most of us. As the proprietor of the only industry magazine (at least in Britain), he's in the position to ask the difficult questions and his views would carry some weight within the industry. For example, with respect to the way speedway has sold itself both domestically and internationally, is the sport being well served by these arrangements, and how do they compare with equivalent sports?

 

Writing stuff like 'the sport is at crossroads', 'where do we go from here', 'something must be done' is all very well, but we've all known that for at least 20 years and it doesn't solve any problems. What it needs is an in-depth expose of how the sport is run, what the costs and revenues really like (i.e. how much are tracks losing), who is taking what out of the sport (if anything), and then what can the sport afford to do? Polling random suggestions from riders and fans will not get you any distance towards the answers because most of them don't understand the organisational and financial realities.

 

Other questions like is the sport selling itself as well as it could to television and sponsors and should it be making money out of its premier events (as with other sports) also need to be asked. For example, all county cricket clubs lose money on their operations, but they're subsidised from the revenue generated by test matches and ODIs which goes to the governing body rather than some private American corporation. Okay, speedway is not cricket, but Philippe has not once questioned the cosy arrangement, and can only parrot that the SGP is good for the sport, despite the fact the organisation is quite clearly comical in many respects.

 

I do accept that in such an incestuous industry like speedway it's not possible to be as critical or investigative as in other sectors (not least because some members of the BSPA were shareholders of the Spar's publishing company, and of course now there's a business relationship with the SGP), but for many years it was a symbiotic relationship in that the tracks needed publicity as much as the Spar needed to cooperate with the tracks, so I don't think it should have been completely impossible to have been a bit more hard hitting at times. Of course, with the advent of Internet, the sport is much less reliant on traditional forms of media, so the Spar probably has less potential to be influential these days.

May i ask how many meetings a week you go to ??

 

I don't currently live in Britain, and my nearest speedway track is probably several hundred miles away. However, I've spent enough time and money following the sport over the past 35 or so years to have an opinion, and as a subscriber to the Spar I think that qualifies me to comment on articles in the magazine. However, it's actually the people who no longer go to meetings that you should be asking - not those diehards that still do.

 

The organisation of the sport has always been something of a joke, but the ongoing comedy aspect was partly why I used to continue to go. That said, it was a cheap form of entertainment and you generally knew there would be a meeting each week between mostly full-strength sides. The sport started going wrong when hobbyist promoters started to predominate, costs were allowed to increase above inflation and the ability of the sport to sustain them, and riders were allowed to ride in multiple competitions with conflicting fixture lists. I personally got sick and tired of paying 15 quid or whatever, to stand around on a terrace with a dodgy PA and indeterminable delays between every heat, and then have the incumbent promoter publicly insult the intelligence of the mugs who did turn up.

Edited August 7, 2015 by Humphrey Appleby

[waiheke1]

 

Well the Elite league big hitters still trounce the 2nd string riders as the gulf is so wide. In a stronger PL (Mid way between current PL and EL) would like to see riiders like Simon Lambert as a reserve as opposed to NL level riders...

Again, I know my idea is way off perfect!

 

I stand corrected, the EL is a great product on the up...

Taking holder as an example, in his first three home and away meetings this season his record against second strings was 12-11 in his favour.

Yet you propose Harris, who is a point better in the el than cook who averages 10 in the pl, to race against pl riders and say that would be more even?

Everyone agrees improvements need to be made, but there are enough things genuinely wrong without people making things up that have no basis in fact.

[PHILIPRISING]

I do accept that in such an incestuous industry like speedway it's not possible to be as critical or investigative as in other sectors (not least because some members of the BSPA were shareholders of the Spar's publishing company,

 

WHEN I and four others was offered the chance to take a redundancy package from IPC which included ownership of Speedway Star in April 1989 we had less than a week to agree otherwise my colleagues (though not me) would have been made redundant and SS closed down immediately. Pinegen was an off-the shelf shell company that we acquired and we went ahead but had little working capital. We sold 20 per cent of the shareholding to four 'outsiders' only one of which was a member of the BSPA because he (Terry Russell) was desperate to ensure the magazine's survival, for which we are eternally grateful.

 

Terry sold his shareholding back to Pinegen within a fairly short space of time but never at any time tried to influence us in any way. In fact our relationship with the BSPA over the years has been fractured to say the least.

[Mike.Butler]

...and despite all this the IOW are still apparently rejoining the party!

[topsoil]

My own personal opinion is that speedway could do itself a lot of favours by giving the fans more entertainment. I've been to a number of different sporting events over the summer, away from speedway and the one thing I noticed is that all the events provided some sort of pre-match and interval entertainment. It doesn't need to be expensive, for instance some of the ones I've seen were fans racing in zorba balls, not expensive to hire, fans running about and crashing in bumper balls, same applies, even daft little things like fans quizzes, keeping the public entertained during gaps in proceedings, of which there are plenty in speedway, with track grading etc. The actual sport of speedway, for me, was no less exciting than some of the other sports I've seen this year, but it does let itself down by not keeping fans happy in my opinion.

You take any first time fan, I don't think they will be concerned about guests, rider replacement, doubling up or anything like that. To them it will be four riders in a race. Hopefully they see close, fast racing. But they also want their money's worth, to be entertained. Give them plenty to keep them interested, not long gaps between races, watching tractors go round and silence. And give them a packed racecard. Fifteen heats, junior racing, second half racing whatever, they need more for their money.

[Lord Skid]

Sky's involvement was the kiss of death for our domestic Speedway, just admit it, the Sport as we knew it is finished, can't believe the SS is still profitable with the amount of Supporters around, but don't panic a white knight called GTR and his trusty steed Briggo, are going to save it, would like to know how many Meetings the compulsory dirt deflector have saved, now that the Riders have made them almost useless by fitting softened rubber rings.

[Odds On]

The sport is doomed if it carries on the same plain it is currently on and has been on for many years.....perhaps when a certain Formula One guru allegedly showed an interest in the sport but was sadly neglected things could of been oh so different maybe?...the biggest problem the sport has is that the vast majority of teams don't own the stadium so they lose out on food and beverage takings and also have to have race nights to fall around other more lucrative events in the same stadium.

[Vince]

WHEN I and four others was offered the chance to take a redundancy package from IPC which included ownership of Speedway Star in April 1989 we had less than a week to agree otherwise my colleagues (though not me) would have been made redundant and SS closed down immediately. Pinegen was an off-the shelf shell company that we acquired and we went ahead but had little working capital. We sold 20 per cent of the shareholding to four 'outsiders' only one of which was a member of the BSPA because he (Terry Russell) was desperate to ensure the magazine's survival, for which we are eternally grateful.

 

Terry sold his shareholding back to Pinegen within a fairly short space of time but never at any time tried to influence us in any way. In fact our relationship with the BSPA over the years has been fractured to say the least.

 

Typical shabby Speedway journalism, using facts and putting the truth ahead of somebody's right to a rant!!

[Ben91]

People need to stop suggesting one big league it's a horrendous idea.

 

The simple, simple answer is that the EL needs to go to one race night and use squads. If tracks cannot race on that night then tough, drop out of the EL and race PL. There are plenty that could commit to racing once every fortnight at home on a Monday. They do when Sky are in town. An eight team EL, no B fixtures, just fourteen league matches, then play-offs. How do you fill the empty dates? Run an NL side. Help the future of British speedway. People who want their fix will go to watch NL meetings and have to pay less to get into them too.

 

The one race night in the EL would help the PL too as teams will be able to track their full 1-7 every week because there will be no fixture clashes. British riders will be able to ride in both leagues and that will benefit our riders and our nation's chances on the world stage too.

 

The answers are there but people are too scared to upset an already rotten applecart.

[Grand Central]

I, very often, love to argue. Just for arguments sake.

But even I have to laugh that one of the issues Speedway faces at the current time is the dilemma created by Terry Russell owning a small percentage of Speedway Star 25 years ago.

 

For sheer bloody minded irrelevance that takes some beating.

Well done HA.

[Shale Searcher]

I like watching live speedway, I also enjoy watching the GPs on Saturday nights..

If a club had to run against the GPs on A Saturday night, how many would default to staying at home and watching a GP instead of attending their local track, especially if the weather wasn't guaranteed to be 100% dry???

[Fromafar]

I like watching live speedway, I also enjoy watching the GPs on Saturday nights..

If a club had to run against the GPs on A Saturday night, how many would default to staying at home and watching a GP instead of attending their local track, especially if the weather wasn't guaranteed to be 100% dry???

I think in recent years the weather has played a more significant part in non attendance,Health and Safety and modern machinery seems to mean not much chance of the meeting going ahead or running full course if track conditions are wet at there is any rain about.I for one think twice in these circumstances .Gp's certainly don't help regarding attendances even if it is dry.

[Vincent Blachshadow]

I like watching live speedway, I also enjoy watching the GPs on Saturday nights..

If a club had to run against the GPs on A Saturday night, how many would default to staying at home and watching a GP instead of attending their local track, especially if the weather wasn't guaranteed to be 100% dry???

 

 

Wouldn't a fan go to their team's meeting and record the GP? It's not as if one has to look away from the telly and mute the sound during the News so as not to get the result of the GP.

[Shale Searcher]

 

 

Wouldn't a fan go to their team's meeting and record the GP? It's not as if one has to look away from the telly and mute the sound during the News so as not to get the result of the GP.

If the weather was in the slightest dodgy, why would they waste £££s with the knowledge they might only get 10 races?

[RPNY]

Taking holder as an example, in his first three home and away meetings this season his record against second strings was 12-11 in his favour.

Yet you propose Harris, who is a point better in the el than cook who averages 10 in the pl, to race against pl riders and say that would be more even?

Everyone agrees improvements need to be made, but there are enough things genuinely wrong without people making things up that have no basis in fact.

I don't know or have the time to look at the stats. I've thrown some names out there and I happen to think Holder is far better then Harris but if the stats say otherwise then again I'll hold my hands up.