The Future?

[Christopher Bcmma Cook]

Posted this on the EL board yesterday, thought i would share it here incase some people dont go on there lol plans slightly changed, the additional 10 league matches are aborted let me know what you think

Proposal for the future of British Speedway - in many aspects going back to basics and growing the sport from the bottom up, rather than trying to accommodate change just to try and attract about 10 GP riders to compete - who are expensive and unaffordable in the current climate with low crowd, no investment and no direction. My ideas are for riders who want to ride in Britain who are not potentially associated to the GP series, offering lots of opportunities to "earn" with lots of meetings with some diversity to mix it up for the fans.

- All teams consist of 6 riders built to a maximum of 38 points, no restrictions on how a team is built I.E. no draft riders etc. I will use 6 teams as an example for this post for what teams could look like using the latest averages from today. Reserve to ride at 5 & 6

IPSWICH WITCHES

1. Scott Nicholls

2. Gino Manzares

3. Nico Covatti

4. Ben Barker

5. Adam Ellis

6. Danyon Hume

KINGS LYNN

1. Mads Korneliussen

2. Kai Huckenbeck

3. Robert Lambert

4. Richie Worrall

5. Lewis Rose

6. Josh Bailey

SOMERSET

1. Troy Batchelor

2. Jake Allen

3. Josh Gracjzonek

4. Charles Wright

5. Arthur Sissis

6. Zach Waijknecht

POOLE

1. Krzysztof Buczkowski

2. Kyle Newman

3. Jack Holder

4. Bjarne Pedersen

5. Bradley Wilson-Dean

6. Oliver Greenwood

GLASGOW

1. Hans Andersen

2. Nike Lunna

3. Richard Lawson

4. Paul Starke

5. Danny Ayres

6. Fernando Garcia

RYE HOUSE

1. Edward Kennett

2. Ludvig Lindgren

3. Rory Schlein

4. Kasper Lykke

5. Ben Morley

6. Rob Banford

LEAGUE STRUCTURE

Two Leagues split between "Northern/Southen" yes some tracks are closer to others but it can work. 12 teams

British League Northern - Belle Vue, Leicester, Coventry, Wolves, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Workington, Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Berwick & Edinburgh.

British League Southern - Ipswich, Kings Lynn, Swindon, Lakeside, Poole, Kent, Plymouth, Peterborough, Somerset, Rye House, Isle of Wight, Eastbourne.

Race each other once Home & Away then top 6/bottom 6 race each other home & away (additional 10 meetings) whoever is top of the bottom 6 wins the Regional Shield, only 4 of the top 6 can qualify for the play-offs.

Top 4 from each League race off against each other end of season play-offs for overall British Champion, each winner of the regional league declared regional champion. You can only guest riders during the league from the other region, during play-offs you can only guest from riders who are not involved in the play offs.

League Race format is 15 fixed heats with no nominated heats, highest average rider at no.1, second highest at no.3, lowest two riders at 5 & 6, points 3-2-1-0, no protected races.

Example Ipswich vs Kings Lynn

1 - Nicholls/Manzares vs Korneliussen/Huckenbeck

2 - Ellis/Hume vs Rose/Bailey

3 - Covatti/Barker vs Lambert/Worrall

4 - Nicholls/Barker vs Lambert/Rose

5 - Manzares/Hume vs Huckenbeck/Bailey

6 - Covatti/Ellis vs Korneliussen/Worrall

7 - Nicholls/Ellis vs Huckenbeck/Worrall

8 - Manzares/Barker vs Korneliussen/Rose

9 - Covatti/Hume vs Lambert/Bailey

10 - Nicholls/Hume vs Korneliussen/Bailey

11 - Manzares/Covatti vs Worrall/Rose

12 - Barker/Ellis vs Huckenbeck/Lambert

13 - Barker/Hume vs Huckenbeck/Rose

14 - Manzares/Ellis vs Worrall/Bailey

15 - Nicholls/Covatti vs Korneliussen/Lambert

REGIONAL LEAGUE CUP

Consists of 4 mini leagues of 3 teams racing against each other Home & Away once, Group winner progressing into the Semi-Finals.

The twist is that The league cup is contested over 12 standard heats with two nominated heats, managers must nominate riders for the last two heats in private to make them use their tactical nous - also as a twist this competition would feature a point scoring format of 4-3-2-0 to put the emphasis on team riding.

Example - Poole vs Somerset

1 - Buck/Newman vs Batch/Allen

2 - BWD/Greenwood vs Sissis/Waijknecht

3 - Holder/Pedersen vs Gracjzonek/Wright

4 - Newman/Greenwood vs Allen/Waijknecht

5 - Buck/Pedersen vs Batch/Wright

6 - Holder/BWD vs Grajz/Sissis

7 - Buck/Holder vs Batch/Grajz

8 - Pedersen/Greenwood vs Wright/Waijknecht

9 - Newman/BWD vs Allen/Sissis

10 - Buck/Newman vs Grajz/Wright

11 - BWD/Greenwood vs Sissis/Waijknecht

12 - Holder/Pedersen vs Batch/Allen

13 - Nominated Heat

14 - Nominated Heat

BRITISH CUP

4 clubs to obtain buys into the 2nd round from both North & South divisions leaving 16 clubs to battle it out in Round 1, all teams go into the same hat and draws are done at random - all meetings are 2 legged knockouts and this competition provides the opportunity for northern/southern clubs to clash.

To keep things interesting points will remain 3-2-1-0 but will run over 12 standard heats with a heat 13 nominated race.Highest average at no.1, lowest at no.6 - the rest can be slotted anywhere else in the team.

for example, Glasgow vs Rye House

1 - Andersen/Luna vs Kennett/Lindgren

2 - Ayres/Garcia vs Morley/Banford

3 - Lawson/Starke vs Schlein/Lykke

4 - Lunna/Garcia vs Schlein/Morley

5 - Andersen/Starke vs Kennett/Lykke

6 - Lawson/Ayres vs Lindgren/Banford

7 - Andersen/Lawson vs Kennett/Schlein

8 - Starke/Garcia vs Lindgren/Morley

9 - Lunna/Ayres vs Lykke/Banford

10 - Andersen/Ayres vs Kennett/Morley

11 - Lawson/Garcia vs Schlein/Banford

12 - Lunna/Starke vs Lindgren/Lykke

13 - NOMINATED

SUMMARY

If you look at a team that go all the way in all competition, you have 32 League meetings, a potential 6 play off meetings at the end of the league, 4 meetings from the League Cup Group, then a further 4 meetings from semi/final. Moving into the British Cup even if you get a buy in round 1 you then go into the last 16 so thats 8 meetings

A total of 54 domestic club meetings. those who fail at the first hurdle get 38 meetings.

COMMERCIAL TERMS

All competition should have a Title Sponsor, there is no reason why the regional leagues cannot be sponsored by a betting company who get exclusivity on betting rights for domestic speedway, someone like BetFred, Bet365, PaddyPower etc.

The League and British Cup competitions should also attract a lower-level sponsor - there are loads of opportunities, for example British Cup could attract a power-tool company like Metabo, Milwakee, Snap On etc. and the League Cup could get an energy drink sponsor or an oil company etc. it would really be easy to get if you don;t ask for crazy money.

TELEVISION DEAL

I would personally explore having an online speedway channel, first of all I would partner with a broadcaster either Sky Sports or BT Sport and sell League rights only - agree a fixed number of race nights exclusively live with the broadcast partner.

Then utilise a pay-monthly online channel where selected meetings from the remaining league fixtures and cup competitions are streamed live.

Take the 24 clubs, if each averaged 1,000 spectators thats 24,000 people, if 20% of these people signed up to the online channel at a pay-monthly £4.99 to get exclusive online streaming of meetings, interviews with riders, features on teams, re-runs of old meetings etc. etc. That is a monthly revenue of £23,952 or (£287,424) annually which potential to grow if marketed correctly against marketing the sport correctly and increasing attendances/popularity.

I am sure most speedway fans would happily pay £4.99 per month (which is not a bank buster) if it can guarantee some decent content, which could include say 10 additional meetings per month LIVE, interviews with riders, team features, maybe could introduce a chat show etc. It could also hold archive footage of meetings, can re-run classic meetings, and if savvy enough - could have a fanzone section where those supporters who are techy advanced can submit their own videos - maybe of a fans day out view, traveling to an away meeting, their own interview with club riders etc. it would pack the content out on this basis without paying the fan.

thats my 50 pence worth of input, speedway in my opinion in broken, and as with anything you build a foundation first, i won't meet a girl tomorrow, marry her the following day then build a relationship after.

Also out of interest - who would win the above example meetings lol

[ekimba]

Love this, I would be all for it, maybe that's because I am a PL fan and not too worried about seeing GP stars, but this could save us in the long run IMO

[Christopher Bcmma Cook]

I think a few people on the EL board obviously want to see the odd GP rider which I can understand but until clubs can get in 2-3,000 spectators and the sport works commercially as a whole, its just not viable.

May I also add that I would make the British Final like a mini-Grand Prix series and have it run over 3 meetings.

 

Have it at Poole, Kings Lynn then final round at Belle Vue

 

offer it as a one-off purchase Live on the online stream at £7.99 so people can watch it from all over the UK who are not local enough to travel

[spin king]

 

Posted this on the EL board yesterday, thought i would share it here incase some people dont go on there lol plans slightly changed, the additional 10 league matches are aborted let me know what you think

Proposal for the future of British Speedway - in many aspects going back to basics and growing the sport from the bottom up, rather than trying to accommodate change just to try and attract about 10 GP riders to compete - who are expensive and unaffordable in the current climate with low crowd, no investment and no direction. My ideas are for riders who want to ride in Britain who are not potentially associated to the GP series, offering lots of opportunities to "earn" with lots of meetings with some diversity to mix it up for the fans.

- All teams consist of 6 riders built to a maximum of 38 points, no restrictions on how a team is built I.E. no draft riders etc. I will use 6 teams as an example for this post for what teams could look like using the latest averages from today. Reserve to ride at 5 & 6

IPSWICH WITCHES

1. Scott Nicholls

2. Gino Manzares

3. Nico Covatti

4. Ben Barker

5. Adam Ellis

6. Danyon Hume

KINGS LYNN

1. Mads Korneliussen

2. Kai Huckenbeck

3. Robert Lambert

4. Richie Worrall

5. Lewis Rose

6. Josh Bailey

SOMERSET

1. Troy Batchelor

2. Jake Allen

3. Josh Gracjzonek

4. Charles Wright

5. Arthur Sissis

6. Zach Waijknecht

POOLE

1. Krzysztof Buczkowski

2. Kyle Newman

3. Jack Holder

4. Bjarne Pedersen

5. Bradley Wilson-Dean

6. Oliver Greenwood

GLASGOW

1. Hans Andersen

2. Nike Lunna

3. Richard Lawson

4. Paul Starke

5. Danny Ayres

6. Fernando Garcia

RYE HOUSE

1. Edward Kennett

2. Ludvig Lindgren

3. Rory Schlein

4. Kasper Lykke

5. Ben Morley

6. Rob Banford

LEAGUE STRUCTURE

Two Leagues split between "Northern/Southen" yes some tracks are closer to others but it can work. 12 teams

British League Northern - Belle Vue, Leicester, Coventry, Wolves, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Workington, Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Berwick & Edinburgh.

British League Southern - Ipswich, Kings Lynn, Swindon, Lakeside, Poole, Kent, Plymouth, Peterborough, Somerset, Rye House, Isle of Wight, Eastbourne.

Race each other once Home & Away then top 6/bottom 6 race each other home & away (additional 10 meetings) whoever is top of the bottom 6 wins the Regional Shield, only 4 of the top 6 can qualify for the play-offs.

Top 4 from each League race off against each other end of season play-offs for overall British Champion, each winner of the regional league declared regional champion. You can only guest riders during the league from the other region, during play-offs you can only guest from riders who are not involved in the play offs.

League Race format is 15 fixed heats with no nominated heats, highest average rider at no.1, second highest at no.3, lowest two riders at 5 & 6, points 3-2-1-0, no protected races.

Example Ipswich vs Kings Lynn

1 - Nicholls/Manzares vs Korneliussen/Huckenbeck

2 - Ellis/Hume vs Rose/Bailey

3 - Covatti/Barker vs Lambert/Worrall

4 - Nicholls/Barker vs Lambert/Rose

5 - Manzares/Hume vs Huckenbeck/Bailey

6 - Covatti/Ellis vs Korneliussen/Worrall

7 - Nicholls/Ellis vs Huckenbeck/Worrall

8 - Manzares/Barker vs Korneliussen/Rose

9 - Covatti/Hume vs Lambert/Bailey

10 - Nicholls/Hume vs Korneliussen/Bailey

11 - Manzares/Covatti vs Worrall/Rose

12 - Barker/Ellis vs Huckenbeck/Lambert

13 - Barker/Hume vs Huckenbeck/Rose

14 - Manzares/Ellis vs Worrall/Bailey

15 - Nicholls/Covatti vs Korneliussen/Lambert

REGIONAL LEAGUE CUP

Consists of 4 mini leagues of 3 teams racing against each other Home & Away once, Group winner progressing into the Semi-Finals.

The twist is that The league cup is contested over 12 standard heats with two nominated heats, managers must nominate riders for the last two heats in private to make them use their tactical nous - also as a twist this competition would feature a point scoring format of 4-3-2-0 to put the emphasis on team riding.

Example - Poole vs Somerset

1 - Buck/Newman vs Batch/Allen

2 - BWD/Greenwood vs Sissis/Waijknecht

3 - Holder/Pedersen vs Gracjzonek/Wright

4 - Newman/Greenwood vs Allen/Waijknecht

5 - Buck/Pedersen vs Batch/Wright

6 - Holder/BWD vs Grajz/Sissis

7 - Buck/Holder vs Batch/Grajz

8 - Pedersen/Greenwood vs Wright/Waijknecht

9 - Newman/BWD vs Allen/Sissis

10 - Buck/Newman vs Grajz/Wright

11 - BWD/Greenwood vs Sissis/Waijknecht

12 - Holder/Pedersen vs Batch/Allen

13 - Nominated Heat

14 - Nominated Heat

BRITISH CUP

4 clubs to obtain buys into the 2nd round from both North & South divisions leaving 16 clubs to battle it out in Round 1, all teams go into the same hat and draws are done at random - all meetings are 2 legged knockouts and this competition provides the opportunity for northern/southern clubs to clash.

To keep things interesting points will remain 3-2-1-0 but will run over 12 standard heats with a heat 13 nominated race.Highest average at no.1, lowest at no.6 - the rest can be slotted anywhere else in the team.

for example, Glasgow vs Rye House

1 - Andersen/Luna vs Kennett/Lindgren

2 - Ayres/Garcia vs Morley/Banford

3 - Lawson/Starke vs Schlein/Lykke

4 - Lunna/Garcia vs Schlein/Morley

5 - Andersen/Starke vs Kennett/Lykke

6 - Lawson/Ayres vs Lindgren/Banford

7 - Andersen/Lawson vs Kennett/Schlein

8 - Starke/Garcia vs Lindgren/Morley

9 - Lunna/Ayres vs Lykke/Banford

10 - Andersen/Ayres vs Kennett/Morley

11 - Lawson/Garcia vs Schlein/Banford

12 - Lunna/Starke vs Lindgren/Lykke

13 - NOMINATED

SUMMARY

If you look at a team that go all the way in all competition, you have 32 League meetings, a potential 6 play off meetings at the end of the league, 4 meetings from the League Cup Group, then a further 4 meetings from semi/final. Moving into the British Cup even if you get a buy in round 1 you then go into the last 16 so thats 8 meetings

A total of 54 domestic club meetings. those who fail at the first hurdle get 38 meetings.

COMMERCIAL TERMS

All competition should have a Title Sponsor, there is no reason why the regional leagues cannot be sponsored by a betting company who get exclusivity on betting rights for domestic speedway, someone like BetFred, Bet365, PaddyPower etc.

The League and British Cup competitions should also attract a lower-level sponsor - there are loads of opportunities, for example British Cup could attract a power-tool company like Metabo, Milwakee, Snap On etc. and the League Cup could get an energy drink sponsor or an oil company etc. it would really be easy to get if you don;t ask for crazy money.

TELEVISION DEAL

I would personally explore having an online speedway channel, first of all I would partner with a broadcaster either Sky Sports or BT Sport and sell League rights only - agree a fixed number of race nights exclusively live with the broadcast partner.

Then utilise a pay-monthly online channel where selected meetings from the remaining league fixtures and cup competitions are streamed live.

Take the 24 clubs, if each averaged 1,000 spectators thats 24,000 people, if 20% of these people signed up to the online channel at a pay-monthly £4.99 to get exclusive online streaming of meetings, interviews with riders, features on teams, re-runs of old meetings etc. etc. That is a monthly revenue of £23,952 or (£287,424) annually which potential to grow if marketed correctly against marketing the sport correctly and increasing attendances/popularity.

I am sure most speedway fans would happily pay £4.99 per month (which is not a bank buster) if it can guarantee some decent content, which could include say 10 additional meetings per month LIVE, interviews with riders, team features, maybe could introduce a chat show etc. It could also hold archive footage of meetings, can re-run classic meetings, and if savvy enough - could have a fanzone section where those supporters who are techy advanced can submit their own videos - maybe of a fans day out view, traveling to an away meeting, their own interview with club riders etc. it would pack the content out on this basis without paying the fan.

thats my 50 pence worth of input, speedway in my opinion in broken, and as with anything you build a foundation first, i won't meet a girl tomorrow, marry her the following day then build a relationship after.

Also out of interest - who would win the above example meetings lol

 

Not read all of the answers to the start of this thread.

 

And one question that has not been asked that I thought would have been asked.

 

You have worked out your league structures, but what happens to the likes of Birmingham, Cradley, Mildenhall and Buxton.

 

Are these clubs just kicked out?

[Christopher Bcmma Cook]

There would still be a national league for these clubs to operate in, with hopefully more clubs putting together teams.