British speedway: it's not all bad, you know!

[TonyMac]

It's rare that I attempt to in any way defend the BSPA for its many perceived failings, but as a fan of numerous other major sports it's fair to say that speedway is not alone in causing angst and bewilderment among its followers and, just perhaps, we are all guilty at times of being over-critical of officialdom and what is served up in the name of sport and entertainment.

Take football. It continues to price itself out of the financial reach of the average man and woman on the street and attending Premier League games now costs an arm and leg. Then there's the overpriced kits (three versions at any one time) and other merchandise clubs pump out to further rip off their loyal followers. Premier League chairmen/owners are widely regarded as the greediest bunch of governing parasites in world sport.

People question the integrity and nous of some running Premier, Championship and National tracks. But look at the disastrous club ownerships that The Football League has stood by and allowed to wreck and ruin - my own club, Leyton Orient, almost went to the wall a year ago at the hands of our then psychopathic Italian owner, who treated us like his personal play thing with almost fatal consequences until the O's were saved in the high court.

County Cricket has just entered another desperate new phase of trying to reinvent itself, with the newly-proposed '100-ball' brainwave set to be introduced in 2020 in an effort to attract new, younger fans and mums. It's a franchised based scheme, with a select group of players (not including the best English Test and one-day cricketers) chosen to represent new teams representing cities rather than counties. This, though, will effectively kill the current T20 domestic competition brought in in 2003. The ECB and county bosses are being publicly hammered and ridiculed for dreaming up yet another new format for a game that already has 5-day Tests, 4-day County Championship matches and two one day tournaments.

Cricket clubs and the ICC at world level have spent fortunes improving their pitches and outfields but they still can't control the weather and, like speedway, matches are often postponed or abandoned after just a few overs play.

These two national sports are awash with billions of TV money yet still, it seems, they couldn't organise the proverbial p*** up in a brewery.

How many different 'World Championships' does boxing have these days?

In recent years cycling has been totally discredited for harbouring cheats who take drugs to enhance performance. Which race teams and riders can be trusted?

Greyhound racing has literally gone to the dogs, with more and more tracks closing year on year.

I don't know enough about other sports, such as rugby and ice hockey, to comment here about where they come up short but you can rest assured they too will have their critics and be hampered by decisions (and indecision) taken by their respective rulers.

 'Who cares about other sports, speedway is all we're interested in', I hear you scream!

I hear you, loud and clear!

But remember, there is a lot wrong with many other sports, too, including those with huge financial resources and tens of thousands more followers, and speedway is by no means alone in struggling to satisfy its loyal supporters.

Should we keep questioning and challenging the BSPA and FIM (I would add the SCB, too, but they are toothless and have virtually ceded control of the sport to the men and women who run the tracks)? Of course.

No-one could argue that speedway couldn't be much better organised and administered, and badly needs to offer more variety in its formats and competitions. The ridiculously over-complicated rulebook needs to be torn up and re-written in the simplest terms. Doubling-up and guests must be eradicated ASAP. There has to be more emphasis on British youth development, with team places made available to the best prospects.

But speedway is plagued by many problems (bad weather; lack of stadium ownership; ill effects of the GP and other domestic leagues) beyond its control.

So all things considered, while it doesn't solve problems to acknowledge the fact, we're certainly not alone among sports fan calling for more sanity and things to be run better.

Speedway? It ain't so bad after all!

Edited May 14, 2018 by tmc

[iris123]

32 minutes ago, tmc said:

It's rare that I attempt to in any way defend the BSPA for its many perceived failings, but as a fan of numerous other major sports it's fair to say that speedway is not alone in causing angst and bewilderment among its followers and, just perhaps, we are all guilty at times of being over-critical of officialdom and what is served up in the name of sport and entertainment.

Take football. It continues to price itself out of the financial reach of the average man and woman on the street and attending Premier League games now costs an arm and leg.

Would it be worth pointing out that the average attendance in the PL rose from 35,821 last season to 38,275 this season?No,probably not.Leyton Orient nearly went to the wall,so it is almost as bad as speedway innit

[f-s-p]

A few years ago I spoke with a Finnish TV chief (mine at the time as well ) and he said that all UK top footy is on TV and stadiums are still over 95 % full.

But thats not why I replied, been waiting to air this... Lauri Markkanen is the next Michael Jordan in NBA Chigaco  Bulls. So there's been something about his every game during the winter. Now the fun thing with NBA is that the worst team gets the first draft during offseason. So teams like Bulls dont let their best players play, but bench them, so they would lose and finish as low as possible to get a better pick in the draft. And when they bench players, they bench millions in pay. This happens every year when about 60-70% of the regular season is done.

This actually got so bad league wide last season, that the league president or similar issued a statement that stop this crap or hefty fines will follow.

[mickthemuppet]

43 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Would it be worth pointing out that the average attendance in the PL rose from 35,821 last season to 38,275 this season?No,probably not.Leyton Orient nearly went to the wall,so it is almost as bad as speedway innit

Attendances given out by the clubs are not correct so I would take that with a pinch of salt and would think the average attendance might not have increased at all in the PL. 

Accrington Stanley were very successful in division 2 yet their average attendance was below 2000 and one home match was below 1000

[iris123]

4 minutes ago, mickthemuppet said:

Attendances given out by the clubs are not correct so I would take that with a pinch of salt and would think the average attendance might not have increased at all in the PL. 

Accrington Stanley were very successful in division 2 yet their average attendance was below 2000 and one home match was below 1000

And I suppose you will now tell me that record revenues are also false???

Hamburg weren't successful in the Bundesliga.They got relegated,but still 2,000 turned up for training last week

So ok,you have convinced me that football is on the way to being as poor as speedway

[mickthemuppet]

Revenues has nothing to do with attendances

Please tell me where I said football is on the way to being as poor as speedway

[orion]

Just now, mickthemuppet said:

Revenues has nothing to do with attendances

Please tell me where I said football is on the way to being as poor as speedway

Massive Whoosh .

[steve roberts]

24 minutes ago, orion said:

Massive Whoosh .

...that's another 'Whoosh' from Orion. Loosing count the number of times that particular phrase he registers? Hate the term myself.

[Tsunami]

2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

...that's another 'Whoosh' from Orion. Loosing count the number of times that particular phrase he registers? Hate the term myself.

Doesn't even know now when to do it. Thinks it is funny. 

[RobMcCaffery]

It's sad (that was edited!) that a serious attempt to make a point about the relative state of speedway in response gets petty point-scoring drivel from the usual suspects. 

Tony mentioned that he couldn't comment on ice hockey. I don't have involvement with that sport these days but their league structure until recently has been similar to ours, with a small top division supported by a middle section of around a dozen clubs but then, unlike us, regionalised hockey in the third and fourth tiers. I noticed when taking a look at the structure during the winter that their second tier appeared to have self-destructed with the former members now picking up the pieces in the regionalised minor leagues. 

Yes, we're not the only sport with problems but we are the only one where it ios pressures from overseas that are damaging the sport domestically. I've said before the BSPA has its great limitations but I rather feel sorry for them trying to face up to the onslaught of Poland, BSI and One Sport and having to surrender weekends for the top tier in response. They weren't really equipped for the battle. 

Football is a sport apart, if only for the money. You only have to look at the success of Manchester City and Chelsea, backed up by virtually unlimited subsidy from private individuals and their businesses to see that the sport side is rapidly disappearing. Sadly football has been relentlessly hyped so far in the 25 years since it sold its soul to Murdoch that normal economic factors are long gone. Despite protests the clubs can practically charge what they like and run up debts with impunity that they can walk away from, just creating new phoenix clubs where necessary when it gets too bad. 

People though let them get away with it because football is simply too important to them, and they will put up with anything and pay anything for their 'fix'. I use that last word carefully. 

Yes, UK speedway's in a state, but it's far from being all the BSPA's fault. With skills which they sadly don't possess they might have been able to deflect some of the harm done by foreign pay-days but. in reality they were on a hiding to nothing. 

It might help if the 'supporters' who mouth off here might actually see the bigger picture than whingeing about 'watered down' leagues and accepted that structural change is sadly vital and on the whole we simply can't afford to pay the top talent, although some are somehow finding the cash. More fool them. 

It's time for the genuine speedway fans to stand by their sport, make allowances and for those who are simply in it for championships and the 'glamour' of names to let the rest of us try to enjoy what we still have and work to rebuild the sport rather than play pathetic 'whooshing' and 'fishing' games in this forum. The BSF should be a sounding board for ideas to rescue and rebuild UK speedway. Sadly it seems that's beyond the playground mentalities of too many 'heroes' hiding behind their hilarious false names.  

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by RobMcCaffery

[iris123]

2 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

It's sad (that was edited!) that a serious attempt to make a point about the relative state of speedway in response gets petty point-scoring drivel from the usual suspects. 

Tony mentioned that he couldn't comment on ice hockey. I don't have involvement with that sport these days but their league structure until recently has been similar to ours, with a small top division supported by a middle section of around a dozen clubs but then, unlike us, regionalised hockey in the third and fourth tiers. I noticed when taking a look at the structure during the winter that their second tier appeared to have self-destructed with the former members now picking up the pieces in the regionalised minor leagues. 

Yes, we're not the only sport with problems but we are the only one where it ios pressures from overseas that are damaging the sport domestically. I've said before the BSPA has its great limitations but I rather feel sorry for them trying to face up to the onslaught of Poland, BSI and One Sport and having to surrender weekends for the top tier in response. They weren't really equipped for the battle. 

Football is a sport apart, if only for the money. You only have to look at the success of Manchester City and Chelsea, backed up by virtually unlimited subsidy from private individuals and their businesses to see that the sport side is rapidly disappearing. Sadly football has been relentlessly hyped so far in the 25 years since it sold its soul to Murdoch that normal economic factors are long gone. Despite protests the clubs can practically charge what they like and run up debts with impunity that they can walk away from, just creating new phoenix clubs where necessary when it gets too bad. 

People though let them get away with it because football is simply too important to them, and they will put up with anything and pay anything for their 'fix'. I use that last word carefully. 

  

 

 

 

As ever,the person doing the petty point scoring is you !!! You have your usual attempt at putting someone down,then go on to agree with the point that football in your words is 'a sport apart'.What you should have said was it was foolish to use football as an example,as I was pointing out.But thanks for backing up my point

[f-s-p]

Regarding football someone said that France is the closest when it comes to reality in finances, but are not that close.

Jokerit from Helsinki has been in ice hockey KHL for 5 seasons now and been subsidised by Rotenbergs and Timoshenko for roughly 10M € a a year.

[Trees]

12 hours ago, f-s-p said:

A few years ago I spoke with a Finnish TV chief (mine at the time as well ) and he said that all UK top footy is on TV and stadiums are still over 95 % full.

But thats not why I replied, been waiting to air this... Lauri Markkanen is the next Michael Jordan in NBA Chigaco  Bulls. So there's been something about his every game during the winter. Now the fun thing with NBA is that the worst team gets the first draft during offseason. So teams like Bulls dont let their best players play, but bench them, so they would lose and finish as low as possible to get a better pick in the draft. And when they bench players, they bench millions in pay. This happens every year when about 60-70% of the regular season is done.

This actually got so bad league wide last season, that the league president or similar issued a statement that stop this crap or hefty fines will follow.

And did it work?  

[f-s-p]

Never read about it, so I guess it did.

[orion]

8 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

It's sad (that was edited!) that a serious attempt to make a point about the relative state of speedway in response gets petty point-scoring drivel from the usual suspects. 

Tony mentioned that he couldn't comment on ice hockey. I don't have involvement with that sport these days but their league structure until recently has been similar to ours, with a small top division supported by a middle section of around a dozen clubs but then, unlike us, regionalised hockey in the third and fourth tiers. I noticed when taking a look at the structure during the winter that their second tier appeared to have self-destructed with the former members now picking up the pieces in the regionalised minor leagues. 

Yes, we're not the only sport with problems but we are the only one where it ios pressures from overseas that are damaging the sport domestically. I've said before the BSPA has its great limitations but I rather feel sorry for them trying to face up to the onslaught of Poland, BSI and One Sport and having to surrender weekends for the top tier in response. They weren't really equipped for the battle. 

Football is a sport apart, if only for the money. You only have to look at the success of Manchester City and Chelsea, backed up by virtually unlimited subsidy from private individuals and their businesses to see that the sport side is rapidly disappearing. Sadly football has been relentlessly hyped so far in the 25 years since it sold its soul to Murdoch that normal economic factors are long gone. Despite protests the clubs can practically charge what they like and run up debts with impunity that they can walk away from, just creating new phoenix clubs where necessary when it gets too bad. 

People though let them get away with it because football is simply too important to them, and they will put up with anything and pay anything for their 'fix'. I use that last word carefully. 

Yes, UK speedway's in a state, but it's far from being all the BSPA's fault. With skills which they sadly don't possess they might have been able to deflect some of the harm done by foreign pay-days but. in reality they were on a hiding to nothing. 

It might help if the 'supporters' who mouth off here might actually see the bigger picture than whingeing about 'watered down' leagues and accepted that structural change is sadly vital and on the whole we simply can't afford to pay the top talent, although some are somehow finding the cash. More fool them. 

It's time for the genuine speedway fans to stand by their sport, make allowances and for those who are simply in it for championships and the 'glamour' of names to let the rest of us try to enjoy what we still have and work to rebuild the sport rather than play pathetic 'whooshing' and 'fishing' games in this forum. The BSF should be a sounding board for ideas to rescue and rebuild UK speedway. Sadly it seems that's beyond the playground mentalities of too many 'heroes' hiding behind their hilarious false names.  

 

 

 

Fans don't go anymore because the standard of riders has dropped ..sadly people like you can't grasp that .. there are  not enough genuine fans who are willing to watch sub standard riders .

As has been said to you many times  if you don't this forum and people who hide behind false names  then  don't come on here ..the only  reason you ever used your own name is because in your own mind you thought you were some big cheese  in speedway ..

 

Edited May 15, 2018 by orion

[cityrebel]

Speedways fan base has collapsed in this country, with the vast majority of tracks hemmoraging money. The British public has voted with it's feet, and I can't ever see them coming back.

[George Dodds]

To state the blatantly obvious:  Newcastle and Sunderland in Championship and say Norwich and Burnley in top flight then Premier League average attendance is 10/15,000 different because of size of grounds and fanbase,  promote one or both of those two and replace Bournemouth with Leeds or one of the Sheffield clubs and a massive change in the average ... and the opportunity for some to say that crowds in the Championship have plummeted . "There's lies, damn lies ... and then statistics "

[TonyMac]

Think some may have missed my point about football, or perhaps I didn't make it clearly enough.

My point is that football is Britain's No.1 national sport, is awash with insane amount of cash (especially at the highest level) . . . but in many respects it's as poorly run and administered as speedway, and treats its loyal followers with utter contempt.

Cricket is a much more relevant analogy. Constantly trying to reinvent itself for a new audience it think it needs to appeal to (many women are insulted by the notion that a new 100-ball format is what they crave) , while the bedrock of the game - County Championship and Test matches (outside England) - are teetering on the brink of self-destruction.

[Daniel Smith]

18 hours ago, tmc said:

It's rare that I attempt to in any way defend the BSPA for its many perceived failings, but as a fan of numerous other major sports it's fair to say that speedway is not alone in causing angst and bewilderment among its followers and, just perhaps, we are all guilty at times of being over-critical of officialdom and what is served up in the name of sport and entertainment.

Take football. It continues to price itself out of the financial reach of the average man and woman on the street and attending Premier League games now costs an arm and leg. Then there's the overpriced kits (three versions at any one time) and other merchandise clubs pump out to further rip off their loyal followers. Premier League chairmen/owners are widely regarded as the greediest bunch of governing parasites in world sport.

People question the integrity and nous of some running Premier, Championship and National tracks. But look at the disastrous club ownerships that The Football League has stood by and allowed to wreck and ruin - my own club, Leyton Orient, almost went to the wall a year ago at the hands of our then psychopathic Italian owner, who treated us like his personal play thing with almost fatal consequences until the O's were saved in the high court.

County Cricket has just entered another desperate new phase of trying to reinvent itself, with the newly-proposed '100-ball' brainwave set to be introduced in 2020 in an effort to attract new, younger fans and mums. It's a franchised based scheme, with a select group of players (not including the best English Test and one-day cricketers) chosen to represent new teams representing cities rather than counties. This, though, will effectively kill the current T20 domestic competition brought in in 2003. The ECB and county bosses are being publicly hammered and ridiculed for dreaming up yet another new format for a game that already has 5-day Tests, 4-day County Championship matches and two one day tournaments.

Cricket clubs and the ICC at world level have spent fortunes improving their pitches and outfields but they still can't control the weather and, like speedway, matches are often postponed or abandoned after just a few overs play.

These two national sports are awash with billions of TV money yet still, it seems, they couldn't organise the proverbial p*** up in a brewery.

How many different 'World Championships' does boxing have these days?

In recent years cycling has been totally discredited for harbouring cheats who take drugs to enhance performance. Which race teams and riders can be trusted?

Greyhound racing has literally gone to the dogs, with more and more tracks closing year on year.

I don't know enough about other sports, such as rugby and ice hockey, to comment here about where they come up short but you can rest assured they too will have their critics and be hampered by decisions (and indecision) taken by their respective rulers.

 'Who cares about other sports, speedway is all we're interested in', I hear you scream!

I hear you, loud and clear!

But remember, there is a lot wrong with many other sports, too, including those with huge financial resources and tens of thousands more followers, and speedway is by no means alone in struggling to satisfy its loyal supporters.

Should we keep questioning and challenging the BSPA and FIM (I would add the SCB, too, but they are toothless and have virtually ceded control of the sport to the men and women who run the tracks)? Of course.

No-one could argue that speedway couldn't be much better organised and administered, and badly needs to offer more variety in its formats and competitions. The ridiculously over-complicated rulebook needs to be torn up and re-written in the simplest terms. Doubling-up and guests must be eradicated ASAP. There has to be more emphasis on British youth development, with team places made available to the best prospects.

But speedway is plagued by many problems (bad weather; lack of stadium ownership; ill effects of the GP and other domestic leagues) beyond its control.

So all things considered, while it doesn't solve problems to acknowledge the fact, we're certainly not alone among sports fan calling for more sanity and things to be run better.

Speedway? It ain't so bad after all!

Speedway really is that bad. Footfall through the gate is all you need to know. It may only be £16-18 but rarely delivers value for money.

[TonyMac]

1 hour ago, Daniel Smith said:

Speedway really is that bad. Footfall through the gate is all you need to know. It may only be £16-18 but rarely delivers value for money.

If you think West Ham are worth watching at £50 a pop, think again!

In a supposed 90-minute game of pro football, the ball is only actually in play for about half that time. The rest is taken up with time-wasting, goal-kicks, throw-ins, free-kicks, berating the officials, etc.