Rye House 2018

[Mattfordfan]

7 minutes ago, Jonny the spud said:

Was that from one of your well placed connections?

 

or are you sitting at home making stuff up as usual ?

I'm being serious. 

I hope it's not true as I don't want to see Rye House go. 

[Mattfordfan]

5 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

guess you haven't checked out the averages before posting that garbage 

Just passing on the rumour's at Poole. I have heard Szczepaniak will be leaving but I have also heard Grajczonek will be leaving.......Rumours though. 

I hope we don't sign either and Rye House remain in the league.

[Steve0]

27 minutes ago, PHILIPRISING said:

MY guess is that we are heading for one league ... the question is how many tracks will be in it?

Just one - Poole!  Then they can get back to winning ways even with a team that is performing worse than last years (currently)

[Authorised]

I posted this on 1st Sept last year in a thread called Jason Doyle. It was my last post on this forum, such has been my rate of decline in interest in the sport, but my tune hasn't.

I am sure the problems of Rye House are more complex that race night alone, but the whole marketing strategy of the BSPA is ill thought out. It is a sad day for the sport, again.

On 9/1/2017 at 11:04 PM, Authorised said:

Fixed race nights only serve one purpose. "Global" superstar riders. But do they really put more people on the gate?? If Doyle was appearing at Edinburgh or Glasgow, could I get friends who have been once a year to go and see him win by half a lap? No.

 

Monday and Thursdays are all fine and well, if you are self employed or retired, or a Polish or Swedish speedway fan. It is no good if you work 9-6 all days or have a young family. I have followed the sport for nearly 40 years and this will be the first season with less than double figure meeting attendances and I have to be honest, I don´t miss it as much as I thought I would.

 

If you have a home meeting every other week, and then throw in a rain off or two, people will find better things to do. Fixed nights on Monday or Thursdays may make riders unaffordable. I would much rather see 4 riders competing closely, and socialising with fans post meeting or doing local promotion activity - at whatever level, than a big shot, tweeting from the airport, off to go and earn another quick buck.

 

As other sports look to "stretch their playing week", be it Rugby League on Thurs to Sunday, Rugby Union from Fri to Sun, or Football all 7 days.....it amuses me that a sport was there before all of them in being a 7 day sport. You could take in a couple of tracks a week from the Midlands if you wanted, and there is nothing like an intensity of a consecutive night Cup Final (Glasgow, Edinburgh), or a 2 fixture Easter Monday (Cradley, Coventry). The sport will lose something special, but it has lost a lot over the years.

 

I wonder how much of the crowd drops are due to fans "doubling up" at multiple tracks during the summer months, and now, not. As anyone in marketing will tell you, it costs a lot more to get a "new" fan than to retain your existing one. I was first on the forum in 06-07, when I called for an independent BSPA. The Sport has since struggled through decision making with no real back up or research. Matt Ford once called for less meetings similar to Poland, and then during the winter, called for more!

 

I believe Speedway should have the intensity of a 7 day sport, low gate prices and lots of racing.....similar to say, NBA. It would probably be directly employed riders only, but if you also got them doing promotional work, it can suceed. If that means losing the last couple of GP riders, then so what? British Speedway needs to prioritise it´s needs over that of the GP or Monster Energy.

 

If BSPA were a promotional and marketing body, they would ask, "What do fans want", not "What do riders want to fit into Swedish and Polish schedules".

 

[Pinny]

another one bites the dust. And nothing will be done about it, similar to when Birmingham closed. The bspa will say they will help the club in all ways possible, but wont . 

Every season the fans are ensured the season after will be the start of something new, and it never happens just seems to get worse and worse.

doesnt help how speedway in the UK is still dated in the 70s/80s , yet in Poland and sweden etc the presentation is miles ahead.... get with the effing times for god sake.

[2ndbendbeerhut]

56 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

Maybe we can increase the size of the Premiership and include Sheffield and Ipswich to the league.

No thanks ... Ipswich are quite happy where we are thanks. Think Sheffield will say the same.

[Bald Bloke]

Only 2 leagues next season.A big one and a NL one. The whats called championship now used to be a huge league. It's dwindling away. One top league and £15 maybe ?

[westhamboy66]

Don’t underestimate the damage fixed race nights have done to British Speedway.  BMR are far from blameless and their naive attitude in ignoring the fans view hasn’t helped at all. They clearly learned nothing from Len Silver in their first season. As soon as the fixed race nights were announced BMR should have threatened to leave the league. Of course Swindon, Kings Lynn and Poole sit pretty with their race nights retained and tough luck for everyone else. I hope it’s not the end of Speedway at Rye but looking at the state of the stadium compared to the shiny KTM dealership building I take no pleasure in saying that BMR have never had a clue what they were doing. 

[Steve Shovlar]

28 minutes ago, Matt Ford Fan said:

Just passing on the rumour's at Poole. I have heard Szczepaniak will be leaving but I have also heard Grajczonek will be leaving.......Rumours though. 

I hope we don't sign either and Rye House remain in the league.

But you were not within 100 miles of Poole. You are in your bedroom in somewhere like Peterborough. You have never been to Poole. You talk utter crap. Utter utter crap.

[Whisperer]

Just now, westhamboy66 said:

Don’t underestimate the damage fixed race nights have done to British Speedway.  BMR are far from blameless and their naive attitude in ignoring the fans view hasn’t helped at all. They clearly learned nothing from Len Silver in their first season. As soon as the fixed race nights were announced BMR should have threatened to leave the league. Of course Swindon, Kings Lynn and Poole sit pretty with their race nights retained and tough luck for everyone else. I hope it’s not the end of Speedway at Rye but looking at the state of the stadium compared to the shiny KTM dealership building I take no pleasure in saying that BMR have never had a clue what they were doing. 

Errr they did threaten to leave the league

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

1 hour ago, jchapman said:

I feared a few clubs would hit the wall this season after seeing the outcome of the AGM.

When I was in 'the club' I was always amazed at the amount of ideas coming from promoters which increased costs and when ever I had an idea that increased revenue they would turn their nose up.

Seems the boat has now sailed and nothing but a complete reset will fix the mess the sport is now in. 

When the whole lot collapses I may put a plan together for a few clubs to break away and start a new league based around British riders on club supplied equipment with standard engines.

Numbers drawn out of a hat for who rides what bike before the start of a race with team selections made after practice.

From there the sport can grow again.

This is pretty much the only way now, there will be many who kick and scream and I’m sure some will walk away altogether but the sport is all but dead as a professional sport in Britain and a complete reboot is needed, i have often mooted the standard equipment route only to get shot down by the righteous, I’m not sure about club supplied equipment done by a ballot but it should certainly be looked into, the biggest challenge will be to convince the riders but really what choice do they have, in the meantime the bspa have got to do what they do best and come up with a short term solution and get rye house and the other teams through to the end of the season 

Edited June 27, 2018 by THE DEAN MACHINE

[rocket007]

54 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

I'm gonna defend the BSPA a bit. Yes they are a p!$$ poor organisation but the issue has to be with the naivety of Rye's promoters. 

Us fans have been screaming for fixed race night's for years. Now we've got them there is always going to be teething problems. 

In hindsight we should have gone with 3 night's rather than the 2.

I think we should stick with fixed race night's and add the Friday to it.

Belle Vue and Somerset would obviously prefer. Hopefully Rye House can return in 2019 and go with Friday too. 

Maybe we can increase the size of the Premiership and include Sheffield and Ipswich to the league.

With such a change thing's have to be tried and tested. 2018 has failed, hopefully 2019 will be a progressive season.

Why should Rye have to be a Friday night track. We have always been either Saturday or Sunday and that is where we need to be. Although the BSPA haven't help matters with the FRN, most blame must lie with the Rye promotion. We had a reasonable Stadium with good viewing, decent Bar and other facilities. Now, the entrance(car park) is like walking on the moon, and once in the Stadium it is an awful mess and shambles. The so-called improvements are actually worse now than before, and how the H&S have passed some of the construction is a joke. This is more of a reason for Fans staying away rather than the FRN. This is why I don't go anymore as there is just nothing to look forward too. Parking and viewing are just not enjoyable and not worth venturing out for. The BMR Promotion need to take a good look at themselves, restore the Stadium back to being reasonable, drop back to the Championship and restore Saturday night Speedway. Only if this is implemented, will fans start to return.

[Trees]

All this talk of one big league, the Championship promoters won’t go for that will they?  It’s them and us .....

[Argos]

It’s odd that there’s been no rumours that Rye riders have not been payed 

Edited June 27, 2018 by Argos

[Arthur54]

5 minutes ago, Argos said:

It’s odd that there’s been no rumours that Rye riders have not been payed

there were rumours at Poole tonight

[Mattfordfan]

51 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

But you were not within 100 miles of Poole. You are in your bedroom in somewhere like Peterborough. You have never been to Poole. You talk utter crap. Utter utter crap.

That's your opinion. 

[Bald Bloke]

1 hour ago, jchapman said:

I feared a few clubs would hit the wall this season after seeing the outcome of the AGM.

When I was in 'the club' I was always amazed at the amount of ideas coming from promoters which increased costs and when ever I had an idea that increased revenue they would turn their nose up.

Seems the boat has now sailed and nothing but a complete reset will fix the mess the sport is now in. 

When the whole lot collapses I may put a plan together for a few clubs to break away and start a new league based around British riders on club supplied equipment with standard engines.

Numbers drawn out of a hat for who rides what bike before the start of a race with team selections made after practice.

From there the sport can grow again.

I can't see anything but one major league, and the NL.. Teams just can't afford to pay riders as they do now. The crowds don't allow it..The pay in Poland is such that the top guys are asking big bucks (for the UK) to ride.

Take Lynn. Bangers/stox attract good crowds.Maybe  £14-£15 to get in. Not far off of speedway prices. The drivers pay to drive !! .The winners get a £10 trophy...and a lap of honour.

Meetings last 4 -5 hours...Pretty good VFM..The kids love it.

If it wasn't for this I suspect Lynn would be in trouble.

We have got to cut our cloth accordingly. Some riders will say that the money is not there, so they will have to earn elsewhere. Some supporters will turn their back... If it is a semi pro sport at first then so be it. If you cut down rider costs(in the uk),some will work for less money. My mate, hes 58 now lol, says you can ride a Weslake all season and service it twice !! ..How many meetings back in the day where great with the lower powered  bikes. Still good racing, and you could have dirt on the track..

[Steve Shovlar]

2 minutes ago, Matt Ford Fan said:

That's your opinion. 

And just about everyone elses on this forum.

[Mattfordfan]

Just now, Steve Shovlar said:

And just about everyone elses on this forum.

[tigerjak]

With regards to the way forward I cannot understand why UK speedway has not gone down a conference style system like the NFL so there is an element of local competition but also have some outof comference matches so that every so often you get to see one of the big nakes from outside you conference racing at your track and you race at thiers, it works perfectly for American football, then at the end of the season organise play offs again as per NFL, just having a few local meetings will not encourage a lot od fans as to speedway having a future if it is literally a handful of meetings every year  as this seems to be the problem with a lot of clubs now, not enough fixtures to make speedway a "habit" for fans or to cover the annual leasing costs of a stadium. Whether Rye House have gone to the wall or manage to survive, this season's stupid number of Championship fixtures and the "only way to have a decent number of fixtures is to ride twice against the same opposition" in the Premiership does not excite anyone TBH, actually live in Ipswich by the time the next local fixture happens it wil be FOUR WEEKS between home fixtures, how do you instill any enthusiasm in new fans if they cannot look forward to seeing the sport otherr than once a month?