Speedway 2018

[BluPanther]

800 to a 1000. Ask scunthorpe how many they get, ask workington how many they are currently getting. Speedway crowds are never going back up, only going down I'm afraid. Fans are old and waiting a visit from the reaper.

Sounds a bit Grim ...

[spanner47]

On the assumption they'll be no TV money in the future, the top riders wont be here. North and South would be the obvious thing to do, but riders would still have to ride in both leagues to make up the numbers. But clubs wont change their race night, it would be financial suicide for most to do so.

So put the Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday clubs into one league and the Thursday and Saturday clubs into another.

Luckily that's also two equal leagues, but would the handful of clubs in the 1st division that can get crowds of 1,500 to fund a half decent side want to weaken their teams to comply with the poor relations that only get a few hundred?

Will they try and improve the product for the few? Of course they bloody wont, they've been diluting the sport for years, and will continue to do so.

[balderdash&piffle]

North and South conferences makes sense , with play-offs between the two at the end . With two conferences you haven't got the " we finished top of the league , so should be champions " argument . We can still have doubling up if necessary , but from one conference to the other , same with guests .

Then hopefully it would be thought out properly when clashes are a possibility in the play offs .

Doubling up, is one of the major problems, needs to be got rid of. could you imagine a Glasgow Rangers player doubling up with Celtic, i's a bl**dy nonsense. Nick Morris riding for Berwick and doubling up with Swindon, the two teams meet each other in the play offs, who does he ride for

Bucking the trend Redcar crowd is up 25% this year , track is good , racing good & promotion treat the crowd well with a smile not a scowl as in previous seasons...

Put a number on that,25% of what figure. 4 fans attend 25% increase there are now 5 attending

[Paulco]

Doubling up, is one of the major problems, needs to be got rid of. could you imagine a Glasgow Rangers player doubling up with Celtic, i's a bl**dy nonsense. Nick Morris riding for Berwick and doubling up with Swindon, the two teams meet each other in the play offs, who does he ride for

 

We're all very aware of that , but the governing body opened that Pandora's box and there's no reason to think they'll close it . So clubs have to try their best to work round it no matter how difficult that becomes . Sadly it will kill the sport eventually .

[balderdash&piffle]

We're all very aware of that , but the governing body opened that Pandora's box and there's no reason to think they'll close it . So clubs have to try their best to work round it no matter how difficult that becomes . Sadly it will kill the sport eventually .

I think the clubs , that is owners and promoters, need to get their heads out of the proverbials and smell the coffee. They are the problem, speedway needs radical change, and they are the only ones that can change it. So unless they come to terms with they are the problem, then yes speedway is doomed

[Baldyman]

What is it though that will get new fans into the stadiums? If that don't happen it's still going to die.

Edited September 5, 2017 by baldyman

[GS550]

• Create only one league.
• Have a North-South divide for the first part of the season

 

 

Sorry, but personally I find regional league splits boring. I want more teams and more variety, not less. So personally I would just not bother going at all.

 

Yes to all one league though.

[KN1]

Five man teams similar to Denmark

 

10 Teams - 50 riders needed..

 

Salary cap in place.....

 

Rough Rider Levels as many riders could be in several categories such is the number of DU's....

 

No1. Current No1 Rider in Premiership/No2 Heat Leader Level in Premiership (£1500 a night)

 

No2. Current 3rd Heat Leader Level in Premiership/No 1 rider in Championship (£1250 a night)

 

No3. Current 2nd/3rd Heat Leader Level in Championship/2nd String Level in Premiership. (£1000 a night)

 

No4. Current Second String at Championship Level/Reserve in Premiership. (£750 a night)

 

No5. Current National League Heat Leader Level. (£500 a night)

 

Total £5000 a night..

 

Each team will need to find £10000 to pay for home and away match.

 

Two fixed nights per week, one home, one away (make it same teams, same week to add a bit of interest)

 

800 adult fans paying £15 needed to pay riders and VAT man per meeting..

 

Top man gets £3000 a week..

 

Home and Away twice equals 36 matches, then....

 

Split into top five and bottom five, (points scored thus far carry into it similar to Super Eights in Rugby League), that will deliver a further 8 home and away once matches per team..

 

Top four from both Groups then go into respective Semis...

 

Winners race off in Grand Finals...

 

The "Ivan Mauger Trophy" for the Winners of the Top Group and the "Peter Collins Shield" for the Bottom Five Play Off winners. (Many non Speedway fans will still recognise those two names)..

 

Finalists will run 48 matches in Total..

 

Meaning 24 weeks of continuous home meetings....

 

Throw in a Cup Comp of Eight Teams (top Eight from previous season) and the Finalists will run a further six matches meaning a 54 match Season...

 

Just 800 fans to make it pay (not including Sponsorship) Surely achievable and with only five riders per team this should give plenty of replacements for injury and loss of form ...

 

(Who knows it may mean an end to G****s)..😉

 

Championship made up of six riders per team, ten teams, riding different nights from the Top League, four Brits per team minimum, two reserves must be NL (non heat leader level) U21 years of age or less than three years experience. .

 

Anyone from Top Division except No1 rider can DU...

 

Salary Cap and resultant admission based on Premiership Cap as one more rider per team could be 40% less which would be £3000 per match meaning 600 punters at £12 to pay riders for both home and away matches and VAT...

 

Those numbers must be doable. .?

Most riders would probably bite your hand off to get those pay rates.

[leander]

Doubling up is here to stay, I would think, as is two divisions.

 

Scrap promotion/relegation. Its never worked in the past and I can't see it working now. Some times simply can't afford to be promoted, and others will find it impractical. Can you imagine two teams in the playoff, one of which wants to drop down to the championship, the other not wanting to be promoted. A case of how can we lose without appearing to be trying to lose!!!!

 

If premiership team wants a double up rider then sign two for the same position. For example Belle Vue sign Richie and Steve Worrall to share the same position. Guarantee them a minimum number of fixtures (injury permitting). Then if Glasgow are riding the same night they use Steve and if Newcastle are they use Richie. It should then be far simpler to avoid fixture clashes. just need to make sure that, for example, if Belle Vue are at home on a friday and Newcastle are at Edinburgh, then Glasgow don't have a fixture.

[balderdash&piffle]

Doubling up is here to stay, I would think, as is two divisions.

 

Scrap promotion/relegation. Its never worked in the past and I can't see it working now. Some times simply can't afford to be promoted, and others will find it impractical. Can you imagine two teams in the playoff, one of which wants to drop down to the championship, the other not wanting to be promoted. A case of how can we lose without appearing to be trying to lose!!!!

 

If premiership team wants a double up rider then sign two for the same position. For example Belle Vue sign Richie and Steve Worrall to share the same position. Guarantee them a minimum number of fixtures (injury permitting). Then if Glasgow are riding the same night they use Steve and if Newcastle are they use Richie. It should then be far simpler to avoid fixture clashes. just need to make sure that, for example, if Belle Vue are at home on a friday and Newcastle are at Edinburgh, then Glasgow don't have a fixture.

Absolutely not, doubling up was a stupid idea that has caused many of the problems, it simply has not worked to benefit speedway. It is of little use to stick ones heads under the blankets, and simply hope it will sort itself out, it will not. Sort out the problem or suffer the consequences. There is little difference between Premiership and Championship nowadays, so one big restructured league, and retain a development league to feed the new league

[screm]

Doubling up, is one of the major problems, needs to be got rid of. could you imagine a Glasgow Rangers player doubling up with Celtic, i's a bl**dy nonsense. Nick Morris riding for Berwick and doubling up with Swindon, the two teams meet each other in the play offs, who does he ride for

Put a number on that,25% of what figure. 4 fans attend 25% increase there are now 5 attending

 

I don`t see doubling up being as much of an issue if the top leagues goes to fixed night racing, if the status quo remains then doubling up will still be the problem next year as its been this. For example if Nick Morris re-signs for both Swindon and Berwick, and the top leagues goes to Monday and Wednesday`s, then there should be only very minimal fixture clashes which will hopefully eradicate the need for as many guests.

[mikebv]

Most riders would probably bite your hand off to get those pay rates.

But surely affordable for most teams?

 

Five man teams in the top division dividing up £10k a week for two home and away meetings between them...

 

Six man teams in the second, with it basically being 'four and two juniors' dividing up £6k between them..

 

Run with fixed nights for both ten team Leagues, two home, two away per team, and a heat leader DU could earn a good few grand a week and race a minimum 72 matches, even in a team with no Cup or Play Off matches...

 

One thing is for sure...

 

Charging circa £17 - £20 entrance fee will NEVER work if you want to bring a crowd in regularly..

 

Speedway is a tiny, tiny minority Sport which needs to start to build a fan base again either by bringing back those who no longer go or attracting new fans...

 

A maximum £15 price point I would say is the most it can ever reasonably request given its 'status'..

 

Paying out to less riders per meeting will help it to deliver that and deliver a surplus of talent to replace riders through the Season..

 

Riding circa 72 times on 'good' pay rates would encourage plenty of riders to take part too I would suggest. .

Edited September 5, 2017 by mikebv

[Baldyman]

So what's going to get new fans through the gates? You can change what you want, but until new people go through the gate, it's still going to die.

[GS550]

One thing is for sure...

 

Charging circa £17 - £20 entrance fee will NEVER work if you want to bring a crowd in regularly..

 

Speedway is a tiny, tiny minority Sport which needs to start to build a fan base again either by bringing back those who no longer go or attracting new fans...

 

A maximum £15 price point I would say is the most it can ever reasonably request given its 'status'..

 

 

I disagree. A round costs more than that these days. Speedway has been in the teens per match for donkey's years.

 

People spend a fortune on trainers and all sorts of crap without a care. You're under-selling the sport. I want a better product and I will gladly pay twice or three times the current pitiful "in the teens" tiny amount. I don't want to be charged a pittance to watch some stripped down bare product.

 

Lets face it, this is 2017 and a fiver's lucky if its worth a quid these days. I saw a guy the other day casually put a twenty quid note in a charity box.

 

And I don't want split regional mini-leagues either as has been suggested. I want more teams, more variety, not less variety.

[mikebv]

 

I disagree. A round costs more than that these days. Speedway has been in the teens per match for donkey's years.

 

People spend a fortune on trainers and all sorts of crap without a care. You're under-selling the sport. I want a better product and I will gladly pay twice or three times the current pitiful "in the teens" tiny amount. I don't want to be charged a pittance to watch some stripped down bare product.

 

Lets face it, this is 2017 and a fiver's lucky if its worth a quid these days. I saw a guy the other day casually put a twenty quid note in a charity box.

 

And I don't want split regional mini-leagues either as has been suggested. I want more teams, more variety, not less variety.

Then why are the largest crowds for most tracks the £10 BT nights..?

 

If Woffy and Dudek had been there and the tracks charged £25 the crowd would have been almost non existent...

[GS550]

Then why are the largest crowds for most tracks the £10 BT nights..?

 

If Woffy and Dudek had been there and the tracks charged £25 the crowd would have been almost non existent...

 

I disagree. People will pay for a decent product and these days twenty quid is a pittance.

 

Anyway, if you read what I've said I'm talking about what I want.

Edited September 5, 2017 by justere2cgoodspeedway

[Baldyman]

Stick the price up to 30 quid a meeting, that will get them flooding back😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵

[leander]

Absolutely not, doubling up was a stupid idea that has caused many of the problems, it simply has not worked to benefit speedway. It is of little use to stick ones heads under the blankets, and simply hope it will sort itself out, it will not. Sort out the problem or suffer the consequences. There is little difference between Premiership and Championship nowadays, so one big restructured league, and retain a development league to feed the new league

There are (by my reckoning) currently 33 riders doubling up/down between Championship & Premiership. I'd just love to know just where you can find enough riders to fill the vacancies that will be caused, even before any injuries etc. And don't say the National League. I very much doubt there are actually 33 riders in the national league that aren't already riding for somebody else. A lot of the current crop of 2.00 Championship riders have struggled to make in impact.

 

Reduce the numbers maybe. Introduce Polish type squads for the championship. Better. Fans can relate to different team lineups if the riders are part of a squad. And it would reduce the number of guests which is really the crux of the problem with double uppers/downers missing meetings.

[Moranboys]

 

I disagree. People will pay for a decent product and these days twenty quid is a pittance.

 

Anyway, if you read what I've said I'm talking about what I want.

20 quid might be a pittance to you(are you loaded or well paid job?),but for a lot of people, especially families, then 20 quid or more would probably finish the sport for good, and don't forget its the youngsters who need to be targeted as they are the future.

one thing that would help to entice more families would be a good club mascot.i went to the ice hockey at sheffield last week and their mascot steeler dan really does get involved with the kids, dancing etc with them and its a great atmosphere and while i,m not a massive fan of all the razzmatazz the kids and mums and dads really enjoy it and get into the spirit of things.maybe if the mascot mingles with the crowd and dishes out a few sweets etc then it may help the attendances a little.we haven't even got one at owlerton.o.k we've tried face painting etc but something needs to be done to make this sport more attractive to newbies.

[Paulco]

20 quid might be a pittance to you(are you loaded or well paid job?),but for a lot of people, especially families, then 20 quid or more would probably finish the sport for good, and don't forget its the youngsters who need to be targeted as they are the future.

one thing that would help to entice more families would be a good club mascot.i went to the ice hockey at sheffield last week and their mascot steeler dan really does get involved with the kids, dancing etc with them and its a great atmosphere and while i,m not a massive fan of all the razzmatazz the kids and mums and dads really enjoy it and get into the spirit of things.maybe if the mascot mingles with the crowd and dishes out a few sweets etc then it may help the attendances a little.we haven't even got one at owlerton.o.k we've tried face painting etc but something needs to be done to make this sport more attractive to newbies.

Braehead is the same . While it's hard to take on board ice hockey ideas in relation to speedway , they do a lot right while speedway struggles to grasp the concept of entertaining the public .