A ORLOV Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 Swindon on sky three times in August TV schedule just released by sky Mon 8th Aug Coventry - Swindon Mon 22nd Aug Swindon - Poole Mon 29th Aug Wolves - Swindon followed by Wolves Kings Lynn Wed 7th Sep Poole - Kings Lynn Mon 12th Sep Belle Vue - Poole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aces51 Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 (edited) Swindon on sky three times in August You'd think the Aces weren't in contention for the play offs the Sky coverage they've had this year. Prior to 2015 I had assumed it was because of our poor teams but can hardly be that the last two years and particularly now we're top of the league and got the best track in the country. Edited August 5, 2016 by Aces51 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
remembertheracers Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 (edited) As a summer sport little credence is paid to those (the fans) who want to watch regular racing particularly during the peak holiday period. What do you get, very little. The gaps between home meetings is unsustainable from a business perspective and is it any wonder that supporters are drifting away and doing other things. What has gone wrong? Rider such as Hancock turning their back on meetings and depriving some of the most loyal supporters the opportunity to watch him race. No excuses, time to amalgamate the leagues and find riders prepared to commit to British racing and stop pandering to those riders chasing the money on the back of fewer meetings. If the polish and other leagues want to pay top dollar then good luck to them, what ideally we should see is commitment to the sport in this country and if that means a return to riders who have other jobs and do not rely totally on speedway as an income then so be it. It worked before so why no now? If you had an increased number of meetings, would the riders need to look elsewhere? The answer if you want track experience is maybe yes but Financially it is probably questionable if you do a full breakdown of costs. I would love to see the the profit and loss account and balance sheet for the so called top riders and analyse the income etc. As long as the gp riders dictate the terms nothing will change until someone stands up and says enough is enough. I may well be six foot under before the majority of the powers that be have the balls to stop the decline. Agree totally. We have the spectre of a double header at Wolverhampton next week, Poole held two meetings in as many nights and in August Swindon have just two home meetings. A business model doomed to fail. Edited August 5, 2016 by remembertheracers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A ORLOV Posted August 6, 2016 Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 Just looking at the Swindon home scheduled meetings and I see we have got another 3 week gap between the meeting on the 4th and the next being the 22nd. And unless we get to the play offs this will be our last home meeting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnglishRoundabout Posted August 6, 2016 Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 Agree mate, but save your money and get down the OTA and watch some proper racing! Of course it depends where you live and the perils of the M5 on a Friday night, but I am amazed how few Swindon fans attend the OTA, especially as the Rebels outfit contains 3 Robins this season. The racing is almost always top class and the facilities are pretty good too. Maybe the ridiculous 'summer break' will tempt a few down in the next couple of weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecoombdog Posted August 6, 2016 Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 Of course it depends where you live and the perils of the M5 on a Friday night, but I am amazed how few Swindon fans attend the OTA, especially as the Rebels outfit contains 3 Robins this season. The racing is almost always top class and the facilities are pretty good too. Maybe the ridiculous 'summer break' will tempt a few down in the next couple of weeks. You are bang on about the M5. I always needed to leave at 4 to get there on time. Leave at 5 and it was pusing it! Used to love it down there tho. Hope next Saturday is a miserable day for you mate! COYS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnglishRoundabout Posted August 6, 2016 Report Share Posted August 6, 2016 You are bang on about the M5. I always needed to leave at 4 to get there on time. Leave at 5 and it was pusing it! Used to love it down there tho. Hope next Saturday is a miserable day for you mate! COYS! An alternative route for you to consider coombers is Trowbridge, Frome, Wells. A little further but absolutely no traffic at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecoombdog Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 An alternative route for you to consider coombers is Trowbridge, Frome, Wells. A little further but absolutely no traffic at all. Thanks mate, I will look into that. Don't have as much reason to get down there these days but bored at Swindon this season so would be good to see some good racing again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grachan Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 The fixture list is ridiculous. I can only really take my son to speedway on a Thursday during school holidays. I said to him we would go during the summer holidays. We've just been away and I've checked the fixtures. How many meetings on a Thursday between now and the end of the school holiday? None whatsoever. This, surely, is a period when crowds might be larger, too. I don't know who worked out the fixture list, but it's shocking. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecoombdog Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 The fixture list is ridiculous. I can only really take my son to speedway on a Thursday during school holidays. I said to him we would go during the summer holidays. We've just been away and I've checked the fixtures. How many meetings on a Thursday between now and the end of the school holiday? None whatsoever. This, surely, is a period when crowds might be larger, too. I don't know who worked out the fixture list, but it's shocking. Exactly the same with me and my 4 year old. They love having us stand there in March and October when it's freezing and wet but decide to give us most of July and August off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hagonshocker Posted August 7, 2016 Report Share Posted August 7, 2016 ' I am amazed how few Swindon fans attend the OTA' Think there may well be a fair few more next year.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pugwash Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 (edited) Exactly the same with me and my 4 year old. They love having us stand there in March and October when it's freezing and wet but decide to give us most of July and August off. Having that farce, The Speedway WC, in July doesn't help. Edited August 8, 2016 by pugwash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theblueboy Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 Having that farce, The Speedway WC, in July doesn't help. The WC is only for one week so would hardly complain about that. It's not like it can be held outside of the season. The fault lies squarely with promoters. As one of my fellow supporters has alluded to, happy for the speedway fan to freeze in March and October, when families cannot be taken. To have no fixture at all in August is damn right shameful. I now find myself likely to miss the rearranged fixture v Poole, which is a pity, because I schedule my work round speedway. It's a pity speedway doesn't think of me in the same way. Still, the only conclusion I can draw is that promoters are loaded and cash flow is not an issue.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCB Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 The fixture list is ridiculous. I can only really take my son to speedway on a Thursday during school holidays. I said to him we would go during the summer holidays. We've just been away and I've checked the fixtures. How many meetings on a Thursday between now and the end of the school holiday? None whatsoever. This, surely, is a period when crowds might be larger, too. I don't know who worked out the fixture list, but it's shocking. I've been saying for years one of speedway biggest problems is the fixture list but nobody seems to want to listen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grachan Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 I've been saying for years one of speedway biggest problems is the fixture list but nobody seems to want to listen. And while we're at it, there's the league table. You've got one side who've had 7 more matches than another side. How can you judge the league table based on that? Any other sport has all the teams having had a roughly equal amount of meetings each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCB Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 And while we're at it, there's the league table. You've got one side who've had 7 more matches than another side. How can you judge the league table based on that? Any other sport has all the teams having had a roughly equal amount of meetings each. Exactly. Same issue. The fixture list is to blame for no meetings all summer, some teams being 6 or 7 meeting ahead of another. Clashes between EL and PL double uppers and clashes with SWC, GP and SEC. Sort out the fixture list and IMO you solve a LOT of speedway problems. Now if only someone had written some software that just needed tweaking to make this work easily. Say some software that allowed all managers/promoters to log in and say what dates their club CANNOT do, what dates they want certain fixtures and dates they want a fixture but don't care who it's against. The software could then run so at no point is a team more than 2 fixture ahead (or behind) anyone else and the number of clashes are kept to a minimum (bank holidays will sadly mean there will always be some). Would help if teams were signed up by Christmas so the list could be run in early January and released to the public in mid-January. Then NO fixture changed other than because of rain off or extreme circumstances. And extreme means extreme, riders missing is NOT extreme. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shale Searcher Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 Hasn't SCB written some software that can do just that? The uneven, unprofessional way the fixture list is compiled today, especially as there's only 8 teams in the league, is quite laughable.... SCB, couldn't you do a mock up of how the fixture list could be compiled...... Taking into account fixture clashes, GP's etc, obviously you would have problems with no clashing dates to work with, but coy could base it on last season? With all dates already there..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldswindonsupporter Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 This is the classic Catch 22 situation. Riders want to know when the fixtures are before they sign up.....Can't do the fixtures until each team names their riders.....add in the doubling up and the situation is worse than ever! The only way to resolve this is to have riders solely riding in the UK....of course that isn't going to happen but would be an answer and sort all the problems out at a stroke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grachan Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 This is the classic Catch 22 situation. Riders want to know when the fixtures are before they sign up.....Can't do the fixtures until each team names their riders.....add in the doubling up and the situation is worse than ever! The only way to resolve this is to have riders solely riding in the UK....of course that isn't going to happen but would be an answer and sort all the problems out at a stroke. Premier League is just as bad. You have Newcastle having had 12 meetings and Berwick have had 20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ovalman Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 (edited) Hardly any meetings run in March and October but they should be making an effort to run as many meetings in the school holidays to attract bigger crowds. The lad next door loves speed way but isn't allowed to attend if school next day. Very little interaction between riders and fans,especially the kids, and crowds continue to fall with no new stadium in sight. Needs drastic overhaul of Elite League I Edited August 8, 2016 by auntie doris 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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