Wolfsbane Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 http://speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.29766 So says the man who, in all probability, won't have to move his racenight. That being said, he's right! Still waiting to see if the new 3 year deal Van Straaten has signed with Ladbrokes takes into account what Chapman's on about. I'm not holding my breathe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimmo Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 I agree that having a fixed race night(s) MIGHT tempt a few top riders back to the UK, but am not convinced that would increase attendances to any great degree. I'm sure we all have things we do in life and are committed to on non speedway nights, as we know them at our respective clubs, which would it make virtually impossible to change. I personally organise and run other social activities on the nights my club doesn't race, and if that long established race night was changed to another on a regular basis, that would be me lost to the sport, and I'm sure I wouldn't be alone. On the other side of the coin of course, a different race night to that they currently have, might suit some better. So I'm sure at the end of the day, it would be a swings and roundabouts situation with to any increase in attendances levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humphrey Appleby Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 It might be reasonable to pick a couple of race nights and insist it's a condition of racing in the Elite League, but I can't see this is workable at Premier League level. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiheke1 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 It might be reasonable to pick a couple of race nights and insist it's a condition of racing in the Elite League, but I can't see this is workable at Premier League level. monday, wednesday and non GP Fridays? The issue surely being not so much the non fixed race night, but the haphazard sceduling? EL Teams to have a proper schedule, one meeting per week with a handful of weeks reserved for postponed matches. EL to release fixture list, and have priority over PL for double up riders on those nights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMungo Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Mondays won't attract many riders riding in Poland and Sweden. Reckon Wed - Fri are the best options. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foamfence Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 It might be reasonable to pick a couple of race nights and insist it's a condition of racing in the Elite League, but I can't see this is workable at Premier League level. Agreed, I think that's all that's needed, it would make things easier for overseas riders and double-up riders alike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveLyric2 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 http://speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.29766 Interesting that Buster's comments don't make specific reference to EL and/or PL - simply 'UK Speedway'!! EL should go Weds/Thursday and PL Fri/Sat/Sun 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humphrey Appleby Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 monday, wednesday and non GP Fridays? The issue surely being not so much the non fixed race night, but the haphazard sceduling? I'd have thought the race days need to be adjacent to each other, and certainly not Mondays and Wednesdays as riders would need to travel off to Sweden in-between. Realistically only Wednesday and Thursdays would work for the Elite League. The haphazard scheduling is obviously not ideal, but is a matter of trying to fit a given number of matches into a fewer number of available weeks, made more complicated by GPs and all sorts of other events that seem to take priority these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcatdiary Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Mondays won't attract many riders riding in Poland and Sweden. Reckon Wed - Fri are the best options. The sensible nights would be Wednesday/Thursday, 50% less flights for a start, PL could then ride any other nights and missing double uppers wouldn't be a problem for either league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobMcCaffery Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 It's probably for the best if the sport makes this change, if only to finally lay the myth that it's going to be the sport's saviour in Britain. I hope enough tracks survive until the time when it's abandoned. Yes, restricting the times the few remaining fans can see the sport - brilliant thinking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMungo Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 The sensible nights would be Wednesday/Thursday, 50% less flights for a start, PL could then ride any other nights and missing double uppers wouldn't be a problem for either league. I concur BCD - it would be the most sensible at face value, but in a recent edition of S/Star, Fridays was mentioned as a possibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyK86 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Don't matter what day of week it is unless promoters do their jobs and promote, also need to work alongside the referee to keep meetings moving so we are not stood around like idiots. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWitcher Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 (edited) It's probably for the best if the sport makes this change, if only to finally lay the myth that it's going to be the sport's saviour in Britain. I hope enough tracks survive until the time when it's abandoned. Yes, restricting the times the few remaining fans can see the sport - brilliant thinking! You're so far out of touch with reality it is staggering. These changes will be massively beneficial for a number of reasons. Firstly it will allow some of the top boys to return if they wish. Secondly and more importantly at this stage it is imperative that the EL fixtures are run on different nights to the PL. Then GONE are many of the problems of continuity. You will no longer be missing 2,3 riders from a team because they riding for a PL team or vice versa. The only time a rider should be absent is when injured or the odd international meet. That will improve things one hell of a lot and give the sport a lot more credibility. If however they make this change and you end up with the EL and PL still running on the same night then its an utter waste of time. Edited November 5, 2015 by BWitcher 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heathen chemistry Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 it wont work, at present clubs have any night to choose from yet still carnt fit all the fixtures in , if limited to 2 nights then no chance it works in poland/sweden cuz they only have about a 15 match league Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trees Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 So says the man who, in all probability, won't have to move his racenight. That being said, he's right! Still waiting to see if the new 3 year deal Van Straaten has signed with Ladbrokes takes into account what Chapman's on about. I'm not holding my breathe. He moved his race night years ago from Saturday ..... You're so far out of touch with reality it is staggering. These changes will be massively beneficial for a number of reasons. Firstly it will allow some of the top boys to return if they wish. Secondly and more importantly at this stage it is imperative that the EL fixtures are run on different nights to the PL. Then GONE are many of the problems of continuity. You will no longer be missing 2,3 riders from a team because they riding for a PL team or vice versa. The only time a rider should be absent is when injured or the odd international meet. That will improve things one hell of a lot and give the sport a lot more credibility. If however they make this change and you end up with the EL and PL still running on the same night then its an utter waste of time. Would like to think it would be good for TV too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhamboy66 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 It's probably for the best if the sport makes this change, if only to finally lay the myth that it's going to be the sport's saviour in Britain. I hope enough tracks survive until the time when it's abandoned. Yes, restricting the times the few remaining fans can see the sport - brilliant thinking! Completely agree Simon Wigg was an advocate of having common race nights. What he failed to understand as does everyone who attends meetings without paying i.e riders, promoters etc is that there are so many spectators who attend multiple tracks each week. Going back a few years the top flight contained clubs like Reading Monday, Ipswich Thursday, Oxford Friday, a huge amount of clubs running saturday,in fact only tuesdays were blank. I used to attend maybe four or five top flight fixtures in a week and guess what i used to see the same faces at most of them. Speedway has,unlike Football, fans that aren't content with one match every two weeks and are quite happy to attend neutral fixtures. Wind the clock forward to today i watch the same amount of meetings but almost exclusively in the NL plus as many Rye House meetings as possible and i still see fans faces that visit multiple tracks. Yes it may encourage those riders who have fleeced British speedway with their over the top financial claims only to come back, then not to return and effectively kick the sport in Britain when its down. Crump, Hancock, Pedersen etc are all guilty, sadly even the current British World Champion does nothing to promote the sport in this country. No the crowds overall wouldn't increase and how long would it be before the so called Elite was down to six teams. I hope it isn't tried but if it does go ahead it might cut out all the top paid riders and bring the sport to some sort of realistic financial approach and save British Speedway. The approach that the NL and PL take is generally correct. Just by having limited nights racing for me is a sure fire way to bankrupt most top flight clubs. Just lucky for Kings Lynn that they would be one of the clubs unaffected but then who is the Chairman of the BSPA? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfsbane Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Something has got to give and in all honesty it'll have to be decided by the folks whose money is involved. They've got to make a decision whether they want: # To lose the fans who can't be doing with a change of racenight. or # To lose the fans that won't attend if the top boys aren't riding and who MAY be enticed back if the racenight is more suitable to their schedule. Stick or twist, it's a toughie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humphrey Appleby Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 (edited) Simon Wigg was an advocate of having common race nights. What he failed to understand as does everyone who attends meetings without paying i.e riders, promoters etc is that there are so many spectators who attend multiple tracks each week. Simon Wigg tended to advocate ideas that were best for Simon Wigg's interests, and often involved spending other peoples' money. His ideas were not all without merit, but it was patently obvious that most were simply unworkable or unaffordable for the day-to-day sport. I think John Berry also made this point in one of this books or columns (can't remember which now). Going back a few years the top flight contained clubs like Reading Monday, Ipswich Thursday, Oxford Friday, a huge amount of clubs running saturday,in fact only tuesdays were blank. I used to attend maybe four or five top flight fixtures in a week and guess what i used to see the same faces at most of them. Speedway has,unlike Football, fans that aren't content with one match every two weeks and are quite happy to attend neutral fixtures. The main reason for running on different nights was so that tracks could stage weekly meetings, which would not have been possible if everyone ran on the same day. This is to some extent still true for the Premier League, but the concept of weekly racing long ago went out the window in the Elite League. I'm also not convinced there will be that many fans attending multiple meetings each week nowadays. It's just too expensive in terms of admission and travel costs nowadays, quite aside from getting to midweek meetings with today's traffic. Equally though, the latter argument would also apply with the purported midweek race night(s) for the Elite League. I think the question has to be asked what is expected to be achieved with fixed race nights? The fact remains is that with few exceptions, Friday and Saturdays nights remain the optimal race nights for attracting spectators, yet British Speedway seems to be bending over backwards to accommodate the GP and other commitments of top riders that it can't afford anyway. It seems an odd way of doing business. If promoters want to spend money, then they should be spending it on making the product more attractive, not on expensive riders that most of the public has never heard of anyway. The 'super league' concept has been tried and it did nothing to improve the fortunes of the sport - things need to be tried another way now. Edited November 5, 2015 by Humphrey Appleby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevH Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 If promoters want to spend money, then they should be spending it on making the product more attractive, Surely that should involve trying to get the best riders in the world to race on a regular basis? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 (edited) If you have fixed Race Nights in the Premier League - depending on what nights they are - you will force certain Tracks to close. If that is what everyone wants - go ahead. Landlords at various Tracks will not be told by the BSPA which Night they can hold their Dog Meetings - and why should they - they are the Landlords. In a Utopian World it would be a very good idea to have a dedicated Race Night for all three Leagues - unfortunately this is Great Britain not Utopia. Edited November 5, 2015 by The White Knight 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.