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Plan to save the Sport


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On 8/23/2018 at 6:00 PM, BWitcher said:

It's clear big changes need to be made to arrest the decline in the sport's fortunes in the UK and some outside of the box thinking is required. I've put together a plan to revamp both the league and cup competitions that should bring all the ingredients we, as fans, crave. Drama, excitement, tension, unpredictability.

LEAGUE

4 regional leagues, 5 teams in each, each team has two home matches and one away. One of the home matches results won't count. A coin toss decides, all the coin tosses are done live online in the final week of the season to give it an exciting climax.

Top team from each league and the bottom team qualify for the playoffs. The top teams race each other three times, one at home, one away and another at one of each others track decided by a coin toss.. Boy the live coin toss could revolutionise the sport.

The bottom teams do the same.

3rd place in the top team play-off league races 2nd place in the bottom teams play-off league in the Grand Final. 15 heats, neutral track to be decided by the National Lottery draw on the first Saturday following the conclusion of the final fixture. The THIRD number drawn will count. If this number is not 1-20 then the FIFTH number is used followed by the 4th, 2nd, 6th and 1st if necessary. In the unlikely event no number of 1-20 is drawn, the track allocation is postponed till the following Saturday's lottery.  

Now onto the Grand Final itself. At the conclusion of Heat 15 a live coin toss. Whomever wins it can either 'keep the score'.. or reverse it! What a twist! i.e. you lose 38-52 but win the coin toss, you reverse and win 52-38! TV will love it and the match is kept alive till the very end. It gives team managers a valuable role to play and the tension as they make their decision will be palpable. It will create great online discussion as fans debate if their manager made the right call.

CUP

I think for the Cup Competition it needs to offer something different. 16 teams to take part, 4 will miss out. Take the combined starting averages of teach team and then divide by their average age, the closest teams to 2.22 are entered, the others miss out. Seems the fairest way.

Standard 15 heat matches, but the races begin in the pits, all riders have to be pushed to the pit gate, they must NOT start their engines prior. At Wolves the action would be frantic for example as they have a long way to go around the back of the pits. Fitness of your mechanic is crucial in this respect.

Once they hit the track the bikes can start as quickly and efficiently as possible and the race begins. The four laps begin once they cross the start line for the first time.

Points are awarded as 4 2 0.5 0 for the initial race to the pits gate. Then the standard 3 2 1 0 for the actual race.

Anyone finishing more than 0.37 seconds ahead of the first opponent (not a team mate) immediately behind them gains extra pts equivalent to the number of seconds (to 2 decimal places) they beat them by over the 0.37 seconds.. If the opposing team has both riders excluded both remaining riders score an extra 0.86pts. This will encourage riders not to give up and just cruise round and provide gripping racing for the fans. 

Barry Briggs homologated stop watches can be sold at track shops to enable the fans to participate in the timing.

For example Thorssell wins 0.50 seconds ahead of the second placed rider he'd score an extra 0.13pts. Plus his 3 for winning. If he won the race to pit gate he'd score 7.13pts for that heat.

Tactical substitutes are allowed for both rider AND mechanic and can be used when a team is 8.64 pts or more behind. They can be used as many times as they wish but if you use a rider more than once he must begin the race with his helmet unfastened. Only when the green light comes on can he begin to fasten and it must be fastened before he can be pushed away by his mechanic.

All mechanics must wear standard footwear. However, if a mechanic is used as a tac sub for a second time he must wear only one shoe.

Mechanics must wear Barry Briggs homologated footwear.

 

 

League. Quickest way to kill the sport imo.

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20 minutes ago, BWitcher said:

Really Starman?

Care to explain? Most others seem quite positive.

You're happy with the Cup rules though?

It will be a waste of time having reginal leagues.  You might as well have  a north and south leagues play off in each and a grand final. Then the National league, and then an Academy league. Again perhaps a K O Cup for north and south then a grand final. You have to remember, fans can easily walk away now, so unless its made interesting it will fail
Poland and the GP's have done a good job in killing British speedway.  I said that would happen years ago. Riders have no need to ride here which is very sad. Only Doyley has stayed loyal and if Chris Holder had not had his issues so would he have done.
As many have said, big big AGM this year, get it wrong and it will be last person out turn the lights off.

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3 hours ago, Starman2006 said:

It will be a waste of time having reginal leagues.  You might as well have  a north and south leagues play off in each and a grand final. Then the National league, and then an Academy league. Again perhaps a K O Cup for north and south then a grand final. You have to remember, fans can easily walk away now, so unless its made interesting it will fail
Poland and the GP's have done a good job in killing British speedway.  I said that would happen years ago. Riders have no need to ride here which is very sad. Only Doyley has stayed loyal and if Chris Holder had not had his issues so would he have done.
As many have said, big big AGM this year, get it wrong and it will be last person out turn the lights off.

I don't think I could have made it any more interesting.

How about if Jerran Hart does the coin toss live from his prison cell?

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12 hours ago, ancient mariner said:

How about a figure-of-eight shaped track?

Flat track racing at King's Lynn had that. Sounds exciting but with strung out racing and relatively slow riders, it was more boring than strung out speedway. Needs to be much more radical changes.

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9 hours ago, BWitcher said:

I don't think I could have made it any more interesting.

How about if Jerran Hart does the coin toss live from his prison cell?

To be honest I think before we do anythink else we  must get Jerran Hart released from prison .In speedway terms he our Nelson Mandela and if  we can secure his released or break him out I think all speedway problems will be  at a end as he will  bring all the fans and clubs together .

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Great ideas.  But I still think there's room for a tactical 'Triple Jeopardy' joker.  Can only be played one in each meeting by each team.  Unless the lower placed league team is over 10 league points behind with 40% of fixtures still to race.  Then they can opt to use the feature twice if there's a sun break.

The nominated rider (purple helmet) will score Triple points for that heat.  Then be called to the centre green for the 'jeopardy' section.  A coin toss.  Correct call - the riders points total is doubled.  Wrong call - they have to do the next race on foot.

Can't believe Starman's negativity, there's no pleasing some people.

Edited by Kester
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How about a 16 heat match format. The first 15 heats serve as the build up to the climax of the meeting the next heat wins it heat 16. If it ends a 3-3 then you'll have run off races until a team get a heat advantage up to a maximum of 4 run off heats. If these are all drawn races the result is decided by physic mini pig named bob and which team coloured trof he eats from. 

Think of the excitement and drama your team could be 30 points up but still lose in the dramatic heat 16.

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33 minutes ago, Spl77 said:

How about a 16 heat match format. The first 15 heats serve as the build up to the climax of the meeting the next heat wins it heat 16. If it ends a 3-3 then you'll have run off races until a team get a heat advantage up to a maximum of 4 run off heats. If these are all drawn races the result is decided by physic mini pig named bob and which team coloured trof he eats from. 

Think of the excitement and drama your team could be 30 points up but still lose in the dramatic heat 16.

Love Bob the psychic mini pig - this trough OR the other trough. Terrific TV. Go for this BSPA, because I guarantee it WILL attract a new generation or two o fans eager to see their team take home the bacon! Or be taken home by the bacon.

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Good to see the positive ideas flowing, I'm sure a combination of them all could bring something to revolutionise the sport.

Only Starman has picked out a negative with his dislike of the 'regional' league. Good to see he is in favor of the remaining proposals though.

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8 hours ago, ch958 said:

with blindfolded riders getting radio instructions from the pits

I've said many years ago something similar...

Like 'It's a Knockout', (but maybe not like 'Jeux Sant Frontieres' due to Brexit),  we should have hessian sacks put over riders helmets so they cannot see what's in front of them..

Each rider then has a buxom wench dressed as a milk maid allotted to them, standing on each bend, to shout "Left! Left! Left!" to them as they come past...

Each rider carries some coloured water in a bucket on his handle bars (the water being the same colour as his helmet cover) and each buxom wench has two pails hanging from a wooden pole across her shoulders...

After four laps the rider puts what left of the water into his milk maids pails..

She then runs to the tapes with the pails of water and decants them into one of four designated, red, blue, white and yellow tubes...

The rider with the most water gets three points, the second two etc...

Imagine the excitement build as all the maids decant their pails into the tubes?

Stuart Hall may be unavailable to do the commentary though...

Could be a winner...

Edited by mikebv
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13 hours ago, mikebv said:

Imagine the excitement build as all the maids decant their pails into the tubes?

This is what is really needed. Building up the excitement and variety of ways in which the race winner can be calculated. After three laps a female rider should take over the bike for a final lap ( or perhaps another three ). True gender balanced racing. Of course, they could be self-identified in their gender "on the day".

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