BWitcher Posted September 19, 2015 Report Share Posted September 19, 2015 No reason the Premier League can not be 7-days a week still. For the Elite League (joke name) if going one day a week is to attract the big names, I wonder if Wed or Thu night may be better. The problem with a Monday night is the GP boys would then have to race Sat (GP), Sun (Poland), Mon (UK) and Tue (Sweden). Sigh. The elite league name is 100% correct. Unless you can name a higher standard league in Britain? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woz01 Posted September 19, 2015 Report Share Posted September 19, 2015 In an ideal world EL would be run on Wed-Thur that gives top riders a break on Monday, Friday and some Saturdays. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humphrey Appleby Posted September 19, 2015 Report Share Posted September 19, 2015 It really is amusing how people throw out the same old arguments 'money, money, money'. Some of these GP riders race in the Danish League, the Czech league. They are most certainly not being paid mega bucks for those meetings. Maybe, maybe not. The Czech League is only a handful of meetings each season, so can easily be squeezed in for a bit of pocket money, but I don't think really features many of the top riders anyway. The Danish League races on 2 or 3 different days, including Fridays, so the 'one race day' argument doesn't really hold up there, and I'm not convinced the money would be so bad in that league either. The Danish League is also set-up around a club based structure with basic purpose built stadiums that are either supported or leased at very low cost from the local authorities. So they can get away with running a short league programme on convenient dates, not least because most Danish riders are very much part-time, whilst the others are close enough to other European speedway countries to pick up other paying meetings. The longer summer nights in Denmark may also influence attendances at midweek meetings. What works for Denmark cost-wise, cannot be assumed to work for Britain which is starting from a different economic and geographical basis. Maybe Britain could consolidate top-level racing on a couple of days per week, but to what purpose? It can't afford the top riders anyway, and neither did they draw the crowds even when they were riding in Britain. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiheke1 Posted September 19, 2015 Report Share Posted September 19, 2015 Can it really not afford the top riders? The likes of woffy mjj pawlickis kk thj have all ridden here in the last couple of seasons, which when you add to the likes of puk zagar Holder kildermand aj Doyle janowski etc. is a decent portion of the world's best. Properly marketed and run the sport should surely be capable of doubling current attendances (arguably 3 or 4 times more) which would surely cover increased costs associated with better riders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starman2006 Posted September 19, 2015 Report Share Posted September 19, 2015 (edited) Can it really not afford the top riders? The likes of woffy mjj pawlickis kk thj have all ridden here in the last couple of seasons, which when you add to the likes of puk zagar Holder kildermand aj Doyle janowski etc. is a decent portion of the world's best. Properly marketed and run the sport should surely be capable of doubling current attendances (arguably 3 or 4 times more) which would surely cover increased costs associated with better riders If you wanted ALL the big boys back here you would be paying something like £20 admission. The big boys don't want it, they are very happy with there lot riding in Poland Sweden and the GP's. Why would they want to increase there travelling to come and ride here for a pittance compaired to what they get abroad for less travelling. You might get a few but the majority will not come over. Even Tai said no, and i would expect him to do the same next season, Got to tell you something... Edited September 19, 2015 by Starman2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveLyric2 Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 We've already got 9 of the current GP riders in the EL. All EL teams, except Wolves, have at least one GP rider. Any more would likely increase admission to around £25/£30 but would it generate better racing and more fans - and would it be currently sustainable? Imo, NO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiheke1 Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 Tai said no under the current fixture list. Didn't he indicate he would be interested if there was one race night? We've already got 9 of the current GP riders in the EL. All EL teams, except Wolves, have at least one GP rider. Any more would likely increase admission to around £25/£30 but would it generate better racing and more fans - and would it be currently sustainable? Imo, NO.Really? So adding a gp rider to a team would nearly double that teams costs? I find that hard to believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobblytriers Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 If you wanted ALL the big boys back here you would be paying something like £20 admission. The big boys don't want it, they are very happy with there lot riding in Poland Sweden and the GP's. Why would they want to increase there travelling to come and ride here for a pittance compaired to what they get abroad for less travelling. You might get a few but the majority will not come over. Even Tai said no, and i would expect him to do the same next season, Got to tell you something... Is it possible that could change in the not too distant future? Aren't we reading that crowds are down in Sweden and that some Polish clubs are in financial difficulty? Maybe a few more will come back when, or if, continental speedway goes a little pear shaped. On that note, why is it that we have to dance to the tune of the Poles and Swedes? They always seem to get first dibs on where and when riders race. (or maybe I've got that wrong ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shale Searcher Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 (edited) It's possible that if speedway takes a downturn in Eastern Europe, Sweden, then the money on offer, or its regularity will drop, the riders therefore will look to good ole Blighty to earn there corn..... What our response would be is the deciding factor on whether speedway survives in the UK, personally, I'd tell all of them, except the ones currently riding here on a regular basis to go and get stuffed!!! Edited September 20, 2015 by Shale Searcher 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveLyric2 Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 It's possible that if speedway takes a downturn in Eastern Europe, Sweden, then the money on offer, or its regularity will drop, the riders therefore will look to good ole Blighty to earn there corn..... What our response would be is the deciding factor on whether speedway survives in the UK, personally, I'd tell all of them, except the ones currently riding here on a regular basis to go and get stuffed!!! To be honest I might say the same to a couple that are already riding here!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostwalker Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 Is it possible that could change in the not too distant future? Aren't we reading that crowds are down in Sweden and that some Polish clubs are in financial difficulty? Maybe a few more will come back when, or if, continental speedway goes a little pear shaped. On that note, why is it that we have to dance to the tune of the Poles and Swedes? They always seem to get first dibs on where and when riders race. (or maybe I've got that wrong ) Well compared to last season there is a small difference (~180 average) which can be explained by the unusual bad weather with lot's of postponed meetings. In general the attendance have been pretty stable for quite many years with some fluctuations in both directions from one season to another. Also have in mind that most teams are located outside the bigger cities. Of the 15 biggest cities/municipalities in Sweden, only Eskilstuna (14th biggest,Smederna) is the only one to have a team in Elitserien. Stockholm (biggest city and capital) have a team in div1, Malmö (3rd biggest) have team that finished last in Allsvenskan. Second city Göteborg haven't had a team in almost 10 years. 4th city Uppsala's nearest team is 60km away on a fairly narrow/unstraight country side road. Linköping (5) used to have a team in Div1 but they dropped their 500cc team due to being unable to afford an airfence. 6th city Örebro have team about 50km south in Kumla, then 9th city Norrköping have an Allsvenskan team (Vargarna). Also have in mind that the (relevant*) population of Sweden is about 35% smaller then the population of Metropolitan London... *the population in Norrland (12% of the population) except Gävle (about 100k population) is not relevant due to the large distances to the nearest league track. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinMills Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 whilst I hate footy, theres a "team feel" about the sport, they train together, turn up together, only compete for one club. the speedway scene is just a case of turn up separately, not particularly gel, don't even watch what team mates doing, hardly ever any tactics, half of them don't even know the score during the match, get changed, hop in car, off to next ground, see you next week either for you or against you, its just amateur! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostwalker Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 whilst I hate footy, theres a "team feel" about the sport, they train together, turn up together, only compete for one club. the speedway scene is just a case of turn up separately, not particularly gel, don't even watch what team mates doing, hardly ever any tactics, half of them don't even know the score during the match, get changed, hop in car, off to next ground, see you next week either for you or against you, its just amateur! I think speedway teams can have good team feel as well. Particular Smederna's riders have said that there is a good team spirit in the team. Even if the riders ride in different leagues on different days, the team manager (if skilled enough) can create a "we feel" in the team. I also see it as a good thing that the riders "doesn't know what the score is" (so they claim) since then they might be more focused on just riding. Personally I do think the riders have a pretty good idea about the score, maybe not the exact numbers but large/small lead/trail or more or less even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan_Jones Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 On that note, why is it that we have to dance to the tune of the Poles and Swedes? They always seem to get first dibs on where and when riders race. (or maybe I've got that wrong ) They get their leagues and fixture lists sorted before we do. Riders can organise themselves earlier and, now we have the International Speedway League Bureau, their fixtures are inscribed in the calendar before ours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chalkie Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 Are the loos at our speedways really bad anymore, Not in my experience at EL clubs. Have you honestly not been to The Abbey where the main male toilets consist of one trough which only comfortably takes two at a time and stinks like........well, a toilet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trees Posted September 21, 2015 Report Share Posted September 21, 2015 They look after us women better than u blokes obviously 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinMills Posted September 21, 2015 Report Share Posted September 21, 2015 60% of riders in tonights play offs ride in prem league!!! 7 at poole and 9 at Swindon.....sojealous of Sweden/Poland leagues!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostwalker Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 60% of riders in tonights play offs ride in prem league!!! 7 at poole and 9 at Swindon.....sojealous of Sweden/Poland leagues!! so? almost every Swedish rider in Elitserien (except Lindgren and Jonsson) also rides in Allsvenskan. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fullbore Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 so? almost every Swedish rider in Elitserien (except Lindgren and Jonsson) also rides in Allsvenskan. But there are no fixture clashed between the leagues in Sweden. Niamh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostwalker Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 most of the stadiums in Sweden are owned by the clubs so all the money earned go straight to the club so all profit`s to the club so they can afford to pay better wages and no big rents paid to others Actually not, I think it is only 2 -3 teams that owns their track, however regardless all money earned goes to the club but (some of ) those who doesn't own their track will have to pay rent (or lease agreement in one case). My team Smederna pays an annual rent of about 190'000SEK which is about £15'000. Although it's likely for all teams that races under the Smederna banner which is the main team, the Elit-B team and the youth (80cc) team. The latter have it's own smaller 80cc track located behind the back straight stands. I don't know what goes on in Sweden, but speedway in the UK suffers from poor local (exception of Poole) and national marketing. From what I can see, the sport does very little to attract a new audience, relying on existing fans to take or leave what is on offer. Unfortunately, many have voted with their feet. I think it's pretty much the same here, except that some teams, like Smederna, that are very good at having a presence on social media (twitter, instagram & Facebook) but proper advertising? Not so much except maybe a small advert in the local newspaper on race days. I think it's pretty much the same for the other teams but I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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