NEW LOOK FOR STAR

[martinmauger]

"This has happened with a couple of other magazines to which I subscribe. I suppose that they think that paper is 'green' after the stuff about plastic. Certainly the paper envelopes biodegrade in the post ."

"Of course one of the problems with getting a subscription copy whether plastic or paper packaged is when the royal mail cwu members go on strike!! If the postie decides not to deliver on Saturday then its into the next week before I get mine." 

And me, 'courier deliveries' never are arrived at all, Royal Mail is as above.  One interesting point: on the odd ocassion my Star hasn't arrived at all, like the next Tuesday or so (!), a replacement by 'the man of few words but very efficient' Dave Fairbrother is sent in a brown envelope, always arrives the very next day and, yes, I have shared this info with the Star / Pinegen. 

Supposed to be 'Speedway Star section' but, as stated, there's no queue to take over from Godfrey, who I don't agree with all the time, or any promoter for that matter.  At one time I wanted to be an SCB referee then a team manager and made official enquiries, or if a load of numbered balls line up in my favour, a team & track owner / promoter, nowadays - not so much.  I've been into speedway for far too long, or so I'm told (!), but not enough to take on the enevitable & prob endless grief & hassle of becoming an official or team owner, very few do....

Edited November 26, 2022 by martinmauger
spelling

[IainB]

29 minutes ago, phillwhitewasmad said:

What specifically are you pointing out

Specifically, the year on year decline of the sport in this country, probably the most tracks closing down in shortest amount of time and culminating in last season, the worst in the sports history imo all under his watch. Look, if you think he's doing a great job, that's fair enough, can you specifically point out any improvements he's made to the sport in this country?

[stevehone]

29 minutes ago, iainb said:

Specifically, the year on year decline of the sport in this country, probably the most tracks closing down in shortest amount of time and culminating in last season, the worst in the sports history imo all under his watch. Look, if you think he's doing a great job, that's fair enough, can you specifically point out any improvements he's made to the sport in this country?

but isn't that down to individual tracks and possibly their own business model?

some clubs will be let down by their landlords too, what can the BSPL do about that?

if some clubs want to pay well over the odds then it's their choice, and hopefully this year things can be reigned in by controlling guarantees to riders .. in my mind that's what has been one of the biggest issues over the years as riders know what they'll get whether they score 0 or 15.

 

[IainB]

1 hour ago, stevehone said:

but isn't that down to individual tracks and possibly their own business model?

some clubs will be let down by their landlords too, what can the BSPL do about that?

if some clubs want to pay well over the odds then it's their choice, and hopefully this year things can be reigned in by controlling guarantees to riders .. in my mind that's what has been one of the biggest issues over the years as riders know what they'll get whether they score 0 or 15.

 

What's the point of the leader then? I don't think riders being on guarantees has affected crowds much do you?

Edited November 26, 2022 by iainb

[bigcatdiary]

30 minutes ago, stevehone said:

but isn't that down to individual tracks and possibly their own business model?

some clubs will be let down by their landlords too, what can the BSPL do about that?

if some clubs want to pay well over the odds then it's their choice, and hopefully this year things can be reigned in by controlling guarantees to riders .. in my mind that's what has been one of the biggest issues over the years as riders know what they'll get whether they score 0 or 15.

 

And how on earth does a governing body control guarantees, have you never heard of sponsors or brown envelopes.

[bigcatdiary]

5 hours ago, racers and royals said:

Presumably they only have sole authority within the SCB rulebook- the BSPL were no doubt interpreting a rule one way and  when the SCB  got involved interpreted it another way- typical  badly worded rules !!!

8 Chapters out of 20 are controlled by the BSPL, it’s interesting that nearly all the problems come from those 8 chapters.

[phillwhitewasmad]

2 hours ago, iainb said:

Specifically, the year on year decline of the sport in this country, probably the most tracks closing down in shortest amount of time and culminating in last season, the worst in the sports history imo all under his watch. Look, if you think he's doing a great job, that's fair enough, can you specifically point out any improvements he's made to the sport in this country?

In fairness I don't feel he's doing a great job but do think he's doing the best he can with the hand he's dealt. All the clubs closing down are not his fault but the fault of poor ownership and unscrupulous other individuals or those just wanting to cash in on an asset they own . There are no improvements that have been made but don't feel this can be aimed at the individual it's more about the collective who in the main only concentrate on their individual business and not the sport in general. You can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink

[phillwhitewasmad]

2 hours ago, iainb said:

What's the point of the leader then? I don't think riders being on guarantees has affected crowds much do you?

If you read the article the role is not really a leadership role

[mikebv]

57 minutes ago, phillwhitewasmad said:

If you read the article the role is not really a leadership role

He mentions how getting 'someone' in the role of "leader" is an aim, but that 'someone'would need to have the money to properly "lead the sport"...

His role as far as I can see is more a 'sounding board' for any queries that come to light rather than a visionary who sets out how the sport will evolve...

His influence on the sport will begin and end with his own club Scunthorpe I would suggest, no more than that, similar to how every other promoter influences the sport...

Great to see The Star doing such interesting interviews with those who are heavily involved in UK Speedway's "success", or not, as the case may be...

And good to hear that much of what we often on here complain about is getting some focus on trying to improve..

More open information from those who run the sport would certainly help their image and maybe engage more support for them...?

Edited November 26, 2022 by mikebv

[stevehone]

3 hours ago, bigcatdiary said:

And how on earth does a governing body control guarantees, have you never heard of sponsors or brown envelopes.

but the CLUB can restrict, and if sponsors want to pay that's up to them, but should be separate from the clubs

[stevehone]

3 hours ago, iainb said:

I don't think riders being on guarantees has affected crowds much do you?

no because the supporters don't generally know the situation, but it certainly affects the clubs

[steve roberts]

1 minute ago, stevehone said:

no because the supporters don't generally know the situation, but it certainly affects the clubs

Remember a "pay restraint" was imposed on Hans prior to the 1993 season which led him to move to Coventry and the Oxford scene was never the same again. Unless I'm mistaken the governing body tried to introduce a pay structure but like most things in the sport went the way of many other initiatives in an attempt to curb spiralling costs. Funny, however, that Coventry managed to entice Hans when Oxford failed but outside influences dictated..

[stevehone]

2 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Remember a "pay restraint" was imposed on Hans prior to the 1993 season which led him to move to Coventry and the Oxford scene was never the same again. Unless I'm mistaken the governing body tried to introduce a pay structure but like most things in the sport went the way of many other initiatives in an attempt to curb spiralling costs. Funny, however, that Coventry managed to entice Hans when Oxford failed but outside influences dictated..

of course, there will always be outside influences, but as long as it's not the CLUB having to fork out then they can work within a budget

[IainB]

47 minutes ago, phillwhitewasmad said:

If you read the article the role is not really a leadership role

So what you're really saying is that there's nobody in charge, which would explain everything really. 

As usual with speedway the management setup is really neither one thing or another. If it was a proper limited company there would be a chief executive officer answerable to the board of directors and/or shareholders. But the board only consists of Godfrey, Louis, Ford & Bates... and as far as I know their club assets are not part of BSPL... So what exactly is BSPL? 

[mikebv]

6 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Remember a "pay restraint" was imposed on Hans prior to the 1993 season led him to move to Coventry and the Oxford scene was never the same again. Unless I'm mistaken the governing body tried to introduce a pay structure but like most things in the sport went the way of many other initiatives in an attempt to curb spiralling costs. Funny, however, that Coventry managed to entice Hans when Oxford failed but outside influences dictated..

I remember it was quoted that over £100k was the difference between the "old rate" and the "new rate" for some top class riders at the time, and that some of them simply were not going to ride... 

Hence some got sponsored by "companies" that suddenly sprang up....

And then everyone got paid the going rate...    

[IainB]

15 minutes ago, stevehone said:

no because the supporters don't generally know the situation, but it certainly affects the clubs

What really affects clubs is bums on seats 

[stevehone]

2 minutes ago, iainb said:

What really affects clubs is bums on seats 

absolutely, but if there's not enough bums on seats to cover all the outgoings .....

[steve roberts]

11 minutes ago, stevehone said:

of course, there will always be outside influences, but as long as it's not the CLUB having to fork out then they can work within a budget

...Northern Sports basically went bust due to their outside interests which affected the speedway at Cowley.

[stevehone]

1 minute ago, steve roberts said:

...Northern Sports basically went bust due to their outside interests which affected the speedway at Cowley.

so they paid out more than they had come in?

[steve roberts]

11 minutes ago, mikebv said:

I remember it was quoted that over £100k was the difference between the "old rate" and the "new rate" for some top class riders at the time, and that some of them simply were not going to ride... 

Hence some got sponsored by "companies" that suddenly sprang up....

And then everyone got paid the going rate...    

Northern Sports who owned and promoted speedway at Cowley were expecting Hans to take a pay cut and the difference would be made up by his impending testimonial which he dismissed. The losers were the fans and Hans moving to Coventry was helped by sponsorship...apparently.