NO WORD FROM THE BSPA

[Midland Red]

1 hour ago, Stoke Potter said:

Thank you.  It's the truth but some people won't see it.

We are now agreed that the bikes are a bitch to ride around British tracks but not 'round BV.  And that's somehow the fault of the bikes and not the tracks?

Bikes/engines have evolved, British tracks, generally, have not.  To make the situation worse, we still have people creating sub-optimal tracks from new, why???

Are the riders really going to give their absolute best around a track they don't enjoy? 

More tracks like BV means more rider enjoyment.  There are several potential positive side-effects of that.  I'll let someone else list them...

Every time the subject of BV as the best track gets raised, you always get people saying " well I saw decent racing at Plymouth, Redcar, X, Y, Z...", you even get people claiming they say see decent racing at Wolves!  :-)
Well, each to their own, but if you want the absolute best racing spectacle for the fan and, more importantly, the layman off the street, then you need the perception of speed combined with real racing and that's the secret of Belle Vue.  I'm also convinced that's why Polish Speedway "wins" in terms of crowds.

Open your eyes people... The future is NSS-shaped!  ;-)

So . . . your answer to our problems with UK Speedway is to build 16+ new tracks

Get real

[Stoke Potter]

2 minutes ago, Midland Red said:

So . . . your answer to our problems with UK Speedway is to build 16+ new tracks

Get real

No, it probably needs to be closer to 40+ in the fullness of time.

[waytogo28]

40 minutes ago, Stoke Potter said:

No, it probably needs to be closer to 40+ in the fullness of time.

Do you think we can find the extra 250,000 new fans to fill these stadiums regularly? That's a tenfold increase on the support the sport now has in the UK. Or will the 100 supporters at each track pay a lot more to get in?

Edited July 16, 2018 by waytogo28
additional point made

[Buttons]

4 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

At less than 300 metres, Gustrow provided some great action at the weekend.

Absolutely, there was some great racing one of the best meetings on TV for a while.

 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

Sometimes wow just about covers it 

[Stoke Potter]

9 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Sometimes wow just about covers it 

From time to time I tend to throw in something for the a certain faction of the BSF to bite on.  The likes of Tsunami, etc. rarely fail to have a good old chomp on it, looks like you've joined them.

The fact is if you don't fix the tracks the sport will continue it's long slow death in this country.

New engines won't fix the fundamental problem the sports faces and, if by some miracle, you got one introduced over here it would effectively end British participation at the top level of the sport.

Incidentally, aside from "tea & biccies", I've still not seen Tsunami's solution to fix the sport in this country............................................

[winstoncigar]

I don't know about 'tea and biccies' but the idea that you would find any sane person willing to invest in a single new speedway track (let alone dozens) is 'pie in the sky'

 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

33 minutes ago, Stoke Potter said:

From time to time I tend to throw in something for the a certain faction of the BSF to bite on.  The likes of Tsunami, etc. rarely fail to have a good old chomp on it, looks like you've joined them.

The fact is if you don't fix the tracks the sport will continue it's long slow death in this country.

New engines won't fix the fundamental problem the sports faces and, if by some miracle, you got one introduced over here it would effectively end British participation at the top level of the sport.

Incidentally, aside from "tea & biccies", I've still not seen Tsunami's solution to fix the sport in this country............................................

There is a job just made for you waiting at ACU house rugby 

[adonis]

15 hours ago, Stoke Potter said:

Thank you.  It's the truth but some people won't see it.

We are now agreed that the bikes are a bitch to ride around British tracks but not 'round BV.  And that's somehow the fault of the bikes and not the tracks?

Bikes/engines have evolved, British tracks, generally, have not.  To make the situation worse, we still have people creating sub-optimal tracks from new, why???

Are the riders really going to give their absolute best around a track they don't enjoy? 

More tracks like BV means more rider enjoyment.  There are several potential positive side-effects of that.  I'll let someone else list them...

Every time the subject of BV as the best track gets raised, you always get people saying " well I saw decent racing at Plymouth, Redcar, X, Y, Z...", you even get people claiming they say see decent racing at Wolves!  :-)
Well, each to their own, but if you want the absolute best racing spectacle for the fan and, more importantly, the layman off the street, then you need the perception of speed combined with real racing and that's the secret of Belle Vue.  I'm also convinced that's why Polish Speedway "wins" in terms of crowds.

Open your eyes people... The future is NSS-shaped!  ;-)

Most of the tracks we are using today have provided the level of  entertainment  required to put bums on seats ,    . so what changed ?  . 

[Hawk127]

34 minutes ago, adonis said:

Most of the tracks we are using today have provided the level of  entertainment  required to put bums on seats ,    . so what changed ?  . 

Over powered machines, riders with no track craft and inflation making it far too expensive for riders and punters. Promoters who no longer promote and took the easy money from TV. All gone wrong at roughly the same time. As one politician once said ‘back to basic’ and that is where it needs to go before it can move forward.

[Stoke Potter]

1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

There is a job just made for you waiting at ACU house rugby 

Sorry, they wouldn't be able to afford me!  ;-)
But if only someone in ACU House would recognise the fact that the tracks are a fundamental problem, then we might get somewhere...

1 hour ago, adonis said:

Most of the tracks we are using today have provided the level of  entertainment  required to put bums on seats ,    . so what changed ?  . 

I would take issue with that and actually say that most of them rarely, if ever, have been able to attract truly decent crowd levels on a consistent ,repeatable, basis.

I well remember complaints about crowd levels back in the 80's...

Wasn't it the Dugard family who have stated relatively recently that they have effectively been subsidising the Speedway at Eastbourne for something in excess of 30 years??

Edited July 17, 2018 by Stoke Potter
more info added

[ouch]

Somerset has provided becent racing during this “modern era” and that’s only 300mtrs. 

When Glynn was digging up Leicester the other year, I don’t know if the cost is huge but if the shape of tracks need altering would a benefit meeting help cover it as was done with the air fences?

Also, surely surfaces can be altered to make for better racing?

[B.V 72]

Lots of fans on this thread seem to think that if all tracks were like the NSS the sport would have a chance to be saved etc.If thats the case can anyone tell me why the crowds are down big time at Belle vue this year.Great track,great racing, great modern stadium,good riders parade,good teams (play offs last 3 seasons), great presentation, slickly run meetings, inbetween race entertainment (chase),good sound system,good announcer/mike people interviews with riders etc,chats to managers and captains before meeting,Riders after meeting conference in the bar after every meeting Aces and Colts,.At least 10 extra meetings (the Colts at £10 good teams champions last year contenders this year) if fans want more meetings.What else can a club do to get people through the gates i am at a total loss what can be done to save British speedway.It just does not seem to tick all the boxes in what people want in entertainment anymore.The fans are out there but they only seem to turn up at bank holiday/ play off meetings etc they dont seem to want a full season or regular speedway.Perhaps there are to many other things to do these days and/or less disposable income in most peoples pockets so they have to spread it around on the other things they want to do.

 

Ps  people seem to want to spend their spare money at the weekend and defo not on a Monday night but how do you get round that with BSI etc and Poland hogging the market.

Edited July 17, 2018 by B.V 72

[Vincent Blachshadow]

19 minutes ago, Richard Weston said:

Makes you wonder if the phrase I have highlighted has something to do with the problem.

I would also add, that in most leagues it doesn't awfully matter if you miss a team coming to your local track – you know damn well they will be back later in the season.

It used to be the case that repeat visitors during a season were a rarity. Now a single visit to your home track by an away side is a rarity.

 

Can't be. We've been told over and over that the play-offs are great, people hanging off of the rafters for a couple of matches at the end of the season. The fact crowds are down in practically all of the qualifying matches makes no difference.

[moxey63]

1 hour ago, Hawk127 said:

Over powered machines, riders with no track craft and inflation making it far too expensive for riders and punters. Promoters who no longer promote and took the easy money from TV. All gone wrong at roughly the same time. As one politician once said ‘back to basic’ and that is where it needs to go before it can move forward.

That's the way it's gone. In the 70s and 80s riders used to have to ride the track as much as the bike. The racing may not have been that much different, but what you were watching back then had a sense that the riders were actually working their guts off for every point, a sense of unpredictability that the track would either cause a mistake or the rider would begin to tire. Back then, when a rider bagged a decent score, you knew he'd earnt it. Nowadays, it seems they just rev on a smooth track, and not even the suits get dirty. 

[moxey63]

17 minutes ago, Vincent Blachshadow said:

Can't be. We've been told over and over that the play-offs are great, people hanging off of the rafters for a couple of matches at the end of the season. The fact crowds are down in practically all of the qualifying matches makes no difference.

Play-Offs have done more damage to the sport in this country than they have helped it. Just my thinking, but for the benefit of a couple of bumper paynights for the semi-finalists and finalists, what damage has it done to the season, a season containing merely qualifying matches where teams practice, duck and swerve, just to attain their best line-ups in time for a top-four place... which is half of the league in the top flight.

[Argos]

So this topic is “NO NEWS FROM THE BSPA”  Could I suggest that The Speedway Star asks the Chairman or Vice Chairman (Who is really running the Sport) for a in-depth interview on there views for the future of the Sport, If they refuse make it Public that they refuse, If that was the case it would say a lot about them, Over to you Phillip  

[acef]

On 7/16/2018 at 10:15 AM, Bryce said:

This is a huge part of the problem. Just look at the situation with Friday night fixtures being removed. One promoter (and a MC member at that) seems happy to potentially force up to 3 clubs out of business just so he can have a better choice of guests.

Which is completely out of order. I'm sure the whole forum knows who we are talking about and he has a BIG voice on the committee. 

Its exactly this type of scenario that needs to stop. 

Quite literally, 3 clubs could potentially fold just to protect his own business 

[acef]

22 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Yes they are bitch but that tells you the bikes are at fault not the track the reality is we can’t make the tracks bigger so it’s the bikes that have to change, the riders and the tuners have dictated the engine direction because there is no controls in place, Warsaw ,Cardiff, horsens and gustrow are all small tracks and they seam to enjoy them, the problem is a lot of modern day riders learnt with the throttle only working one way, maybe it’s time to go back to speedway school, personally I preferred the tight technical tracks but I was riding engines that were fit for the purpose, i keep getting told it’s progress and engines have evolved, evolved into what ? Evolved into engines that need wide open spaces and no hint of rain, progress ???? We are going backwards 

The sport has developed. The sport has moved forward. The equipment is better than its ever been. 

The bikes are not the issue. The tracks are. If it works on the continent then it's the tracks that must change. The sport of speedway can't be different in one country alone. Its has to be uniform and unfortunately GB doesn't fit the in the jigsaw with the current state of the circuits. 

[GWC]

Peter Collins made the comment some years ago that since moving to lay down engines the majority of UK tracks are not wide enough to provide fast and safe racing.