When Did Speedway Stop Being As Good As It Used To Be…

[sparkafag]

It is something I often read on here, that the sport isn’t what it used to be, bikes are too fast now and tracks are poorly prepared. If that is the case when did that trend begin?

 

When did this era of the sport with poor crowds, poor tracks etc start and the last era end, who was part of the last era of the sport when it was entertaining and how well attended was the sport during that era?

 

I am curios to differentiate between what the sport was and where it is now, and what it is that has changed so much and how attendances have changed, how long the "rot" has been set in.

 

Edited May 13, 2016 by The Mockingjay

[Ommer Mon]

I'd track it back to the lack of personalities and 'grudge' encounters. Penhall / Carter or Gundersen / Nielsen encounters and other similar really put bums on seats.Somehow Woffy v Greg hasn't got the same edge to it.

 

So 1990s started the slide for me.

[BWitcher]

It began in the mid 80's when the sport lost a number of it's stars... but I believe the biggest event was the expose on race fixing in the sport.

 

From that time onwards, media coverage was either reduced or non existent. The sport drifted away from the publics attention.. with no media coverage, nobody outside the sport knew who the star riders were anymore or even that the sport was still going in many cases. As the sport lost fans (as all sports do) due to natural causes, such as fans losing interest in the sport, death etc they weren't replaced at the same rate by new fans coming in.

 

As the crowds began to slowly fall, so did the atmosphere at meetings.

 

As the atmosphere at meetings begins to fall.. brilliant races become good races... good races become average races.. average races become poor races. Although it's the same race on the track, it doesn't feel as good as there aren't as many folk around you.

 

Of course this has an effect of making the sport seem more boring, so yet more fans decide not to go anymore and the vicious cycle continues until you are left with a hardcore of support... much of which is aging and will naturally continue to decline.

Edited May 13, 2016 by BWitcher

[Wiseguy]

It began in the mid 80's when the sport lost a number of it's stars... but I believe the biggest event was the expose on race fixing in the sport.

 

From that time onwards, media coverage was either reduced or non existent. The sport drifted away from the publics attention.. with no media coverage, nobody outside the sport knew who the star riders were anymore or even that the sport was still going in many cases. As the sport lost fans (as all sports do) due to natural causes, such as fans losing interest in the sport, death etc they weren't replaced at the same rate by new fans coming in.

 

As the crowds began to slowly fall, so did the atmosphere at meetings.

 

As the atmosphere at meetings begins to fall.. brilliant races become good races... good races become average races.. average races become poor races. Although it's the same race on the track, it doesn't feel as good as there aren't as many folk around you.

 

Of course this has an effect of making the sport seem more boring, so yet more fans decide not to go anymore and the vicious cycle continues until you are left with a hardcore of support... much of which is aging and will naturally continue to decline.

can you shed some more light on the match fixing for those of us who are not familiar with the story

 

 

I didn't attend speedway until late 70s/early 80s, so maybe I missed the golden age of speedway, but one thing that I do remember from them early days was that most speedway people were convinced speedway only had a couple years left max, there were complaints of dwindling crowds and ramshackle stadia and a lack of riders coming through

 

Maybe things haven't improved much since the early 80s, but I don't think they have got much worse, maybe the big names don't ride here like they used to, but we have 3 leagues and some great racing, and if you are willing to pay, plenty of tv coverage.

[foamfence]

can you shed some more light on the match fixing for those of us who are not familiar with the story

 

 

I didn't attend speedway until late 70s/early 80s, so maybe I missed the golden age of speedway, but one thing that I do remember from them early days was that most speedway people were convinced speedway only had a couple years left max, there were complaints of dwindling crowds and ramshackle stadia and a lack of riders coming through

 

Maybe things haven't improved much since the early 80s, but I don't think they have got much worse, maybe the big names don't ride here like they used to, but we have 3 leagues and some great racing, and if you are willing to pay, plenty of tv coverage.

Basically some riders guaranteed their success by bribing their opponents. Particularly when a big name was in with a chance of winning the meeting, someone acting on his behalf would approach his opponents in his next heat and buy them off. Some very big names admitted to it in a newspaper expose and in subsequent video interviews.

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=77333

[Guest]

There was a headline article by the Sunday People in (September?) 1984 that exposed the match fixing in the sport.

 

It might be coincidental or not that around the same time, the Mirror Group who had been great supporters of speedway literally pulled the plug. Speedway was also unlucky that the natural home on TV for armchair followers World of Sport disappeared from our screens in 1985.

[Bavarian]

The loss of Wembley and the White City for the big meetings in London was also in the early 1980's. That's the time when the downward trend started.

[Grachan]

I'd track it back to the lack of personalities and 'grudge' encounters. Penhall / Carter or Gundersen / Nielsen encounters and other similar really put bums on seats.Somehow Woffy v Greg hasn't got the same edge to it.

 

So 1990s started the slide for me.

 

The thing is, I remember reading in Speedway Star back in the 1980s that while Nielsen/Gundersen was a good rivally it lacked the interest of Carter/Penhall.

 

Coverage of the sport dropped considerably during that time. Hans Neilsen's World Final win in Poland wasn't even on tv and I had to get the video just to watch it.

 

I also have speedway stars from 1967, and there is an article in one of those bemoaning that speedway isn't as interesting as it used to be as it lacks the characters it used to have.

 

I reckon the answer is 1930.

[orion]

When speedway in Sweden and Poland got bigger and more important than the uk

[RPNY]

I wouldn't say it's no longer as good as it used to be. Our top league in the UK is weaker, but as a whole I wouldn't say Speedway is any worse these days. Some of the racing we get now is out of this world. There's just a gulf of the standard (riders racing, facilities, whole package basically) between the Top Level such as GP's etc and the league racing we get.

Also, people always say there are not the big names anymore but you always hear that. Heard it when I first started watching about Penhall etc then same when Nielsen/Ermolenko/Hamill left the world stage, same now Crump, Gollob, T Rik have gone. We all look back with rose tinted glasses...

[iris123]

I'd say Bwitcher has it pretty much in a nutshell

 

A couple of other things that maybe haven't helped

 

1.I remember Terry Betts saying that the sport started to go downhill during the 70s as sponsors became important and It changed the mindset of the riders according to him.They went from being team riders to being individuals in a team.Their own performance was of utmost importance because they needed to attract or retain sponsors

 

2.The drop in rider numbers.Riders,instead of representing 1 or maybe 2 teams slowly started to represent 3,4 or 5 teams.This had the effect of taking team spots away from other riders,making it harder for youngsters to make the breakthrough and also as Tai recentlysaid(the latest of many) it led to burn out of the top riders.When riders like Hefenbrock are ,or in his case were, doing 80 or more meetings a season form has to suffer and there is less a feeling that any rider is really part of your team.He is just passing through on his way to another country and another team

[RobMcCaffery]

For me, the day I once too often saw a true racer open the throttle and head for the outside line, only to lose ground horribly. About the late 80s.

[Gresham]

For me it coincided with the general introduction of lay down engines and bikes looking like advertising hoardings.

 

Also tracks just before then were getting slicker and slicker.

 

I also think Ole Olsen had a major say in how tracks developed....for the worse imo.

 

As for match fixing...what sport doesn't? Match fixing has been documented in so many sports...yet people still go to watch them.

 

I'd be interested to know what percentage of people watch the sport live, who used to pre mid 80's, to those that got interested after those years?

 

I'd guess it's a lot less, as I see more faces in the 50's and over category at tracks.

 

I also notice, especially on this forum...many who seem besotted with what their team are doing, and whether they are winning or not.

 

It seems they are more interested in their team winning, than for the love of speedway racing itself, as a spectacle.

 

I get the feeling that's a modern phenomanom, as you get that in football as well. Fans only turning up in numbers when their team are winning.

[sparkafag]

If Speedway is assessed in blocks could you argue the Rickardson generation produced a standard of speedway/entertainment that would stand up to anything that has ever been produced?

 

I would say that generation spans from late 90s through to Crumps retirement. During that time the standard of racing stands up to anything IMO, iconic GP’s at Bydgosz, Gollob and Nilsen, Loram in Sweeden, the introduction of the World Cup, you even had grudges and fights or is time just kind, are they considered part of when speedway was great, or do they fall into the part where it stopped being good?

[iris123]

Think,as Bwitcher has already pointed out that the actual standard of racing is still very good,it is just the whole feeling around the sport that it isn't very important any more because of the medias lack of enthusiasm and the lack of crowd enthusiasm....

[E I Addio]

The thing is, I remember reading in Speedway Star back in the 1980s that while Nielsen/Gundersen was a good rivally it lacked the interest of Carter/Penhall.

 

Coverage of the sport dropped considerably during that time. Hans Neilsen's World Final win in Poland wasn't even on tv and I had to get the video just to watch it.

 

I also have speedway stars from 1967, and there is an article in one of those bemoaning that speedway isn't as interesting as it used to be as it lacks the characters it used to have.

 

I reckon the answer is 1930.

I would go along with that. I can remember going to Hackney in my schooldays and there were some old boys there then telling me it wasn't as good as the 1930's when there was the interest of different bikes, before everyone rode JAPs. Like most other things in life our perspective changes as we get older.

[BWitcher]

I would go along with that. I can remember going to Hackney in my schooldays and there were some old boys there then telling me it wasn't as good as the 1930's when there was the interest of different bikes, before everyone rode JAPs. Like most other things in life our perspective changes as we get older.

 

Exactly.

 

My Grandad would tell me it wasn't as good as when he went in the 50's.

 

My Dad would say the same about the 70's.

 

I now say it's not as good as in the 90's.. and so it goes on.

 

It's one of the 'myths' that some keep peddling, even though it's easily disproved.

 

The other 'myth' that seems to be creeping in now is this notion that the majority of fans 'suddenly' only care if their team is winning. That isn't a modern phenomenon, it's always been the case that a team attracts higher crowds when they are winning than if they are losing.

[iris123]

I am pretty sure that someone once posted an article from a 1930s speedway mag that was alarmed that the sport wasn't what it once was,less than a decade after it was introduced into the country

[AndyJ]

For me, the day I once too often saw a true racer open the throttle and head for the outside line, only to lose ground horribly. About the late 80s.

 

Agree 100%. Saw that happen far too many times as Kirky Lane after the track was "improved". The big blasts around the outside in the Joe Screen, Kai Laukkanen (during his first spell with the Aces) and Jason Lyons era were breathtaking to watch. Races where a fast starter hugs the inside line, almost guaranteeing success, are a complete bore fest for me. Really hope it isn't too long before the new Belle Vue track delivers a decent outside racing line...

[steve roberts]

The loss of a speedway in London.