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Fixture shambles - An annual event


Hawk127

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7 hours ago, CUFC_Brummie said:

The answer isn't scrapping the playoffs it's ensuring teams get their fixtures scheduled and run well before the cut off date, which should be the end of August, and if they don't there should be serious consequences.

I agree.

Simply state in the rules that the cut off date is the 31st August for the play off and the league positions at that date stand irrespective of the number of fixtures completed/still to complete.

Start the season in April and clubs have five months to complete one home and one away league meeting.

Outside those league meetings you can have regional cup (North/South preliminaries and the top of each division meet in a final October to crown regional champions).

Those who do not qualify for league play off are put into a shoot out cup meeting. One meeting no home and away. Any team that has a eight point advantage is handicapped in the next race with the highest scoring participant going off 15 metres. It is simply a knockout and the winner goes to the next round and the losers lick their wounds. No second chance.

I digress with the above knowing that no one listens but so many on this forum have come up with so many good ideas to make the sport more entertaining with ways to attract new punters etc. yet the collective powers that be think they know what the customer wants. How wrong they are and if by leaving things as they are with no radical changes you believe it’s OK, check your gate receipts next season and let everyone know the percentage fall year on year. With that fall what will you do?

Rather than make the product more attractive, you will probably try and reduce the number of meetings further to match the drop in income. No wonder some are on the brink of closure. The BSPA do not deserve the free pool of ideas that are put forward by loyal supporters on here whose loyalty is being tested to breaking point.

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2 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

The BSPA do not deserve the free pool of ideas that are put forward by loyal supporters on here whose loyalty is being tested to breaking point.

They do not read them, or listen to the ideas and quite honestly prefer not to have them, seeing only negative criticism in feedback.

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11 hours ago, CUFC_Brummie said:

The answer isn't scrapping the playoffs it's ensuring teams get their fixtures scheduled and run well before the cut off date, which should be the end of August, and if they don't there should be serious consequences.

Agree

3 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

I agree.

Simply state in the rules that the cut off date is the 31st August for the play off and the league positions at that date stand irrespective of the number of fixtures completed/still to complete.

Agree and disagree. 

The cut-off should be the 31st August. If any of the teams haven't completed their fixtures and they are in a Play-Off position, they should be expelled from the Play-Offs. 

Allowing a team to maintain a Play-Off position while not completing their fixtures will give teams reasons to not complete them.

If there's 8 teams, top 3 and the bottom club are the only ones to complete their fixtures then that bottom club is then promoted to a Play-Off spot.

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20 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

Agree

Agree and disagree. 

The cut-off should be the 31st August. If any of the teams haven't completed their fixtures and they are in a Play-Off position, they should be expelled from the Play-Offs. 

Allowing a team to maintain a Play-Off position while not completing their fixtures will give teams reasons to not complete them.

If there's 8 teams, top 3 and the bottom club are the only ones to complete their fixtures then that bottom club is then promoted to a Play-Off spot.

I agree there should be a cut off but end of August is far too soon

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5 hours ago, iainb said:

It's happened before, why wouldn't it happen again... I seem to remember a competition final taking place at Coventry on November the 1st in the past, think it was a Sunday afternoon... And didn't Oxford and CH share the cup for 6 months each back in the 80's because they couldn't get their fixtures done? Or am I imagining that/both

You are right about both - Sunday 1 November 1998 was Coventry v Ipswich in the Craven Shield Final second leg. Oxford and Cradley also failed to complete the KO Cup Final second leg in the 80's (1986 I think).

I can only recall one official November fixture after the Coventry one from 1998 and that was at King's Lynn on 1 November 2000, however in the 70's and 80's November meetings took place most seasons. The latest meeting a saw was the Nigel Wasley Memorial on 10 November 1979 at Cradley. The latest league fixture I watched was Canterbury v Crayford on 7 November 1981. 

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1 hour ago, iainb said:

I agree there should be a cut off but end of August is far too soon

This year it was Sept 9th in the Championship which was extended to the 16th

Hardly greatly different from proposed on here but look where we are.....

It is the cup and shield that causes the problem. These IMO should never be running finals at the same time

Hard and fast enforced cut offs required with semi and final set for specific weeks - miss the dates and you are out!

This year shield shouldve ended by June and cup by September leaving the whole of last months for a semi and a final in the play offs

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I am at a loss to understand how far downhill the sport has gone. Mildenhall cannot find enough riders for a meeting at Eastbourne and one wonders whether this has anything to do with the alleged rumours over financial condition of the club and the fact that it is supposedly up for sale. Perhaps riders are unsure about being properly remunerated.

Here we are at the end of October and still unfinished business in two of the three leagues.

In the upper echelons of the sport Mr May is whinging in the SS about comments on forums and claiming people don’t know all the facts. Well perhaps if he and his cohorts who run clubs were open, honest and stopped treating fans with such disdain and put the record straight rather than let speculation run riot then they would have no need to ‘blast off’ as he says. The comments on here and elsewhere manifest themselves primarily because none of you at the BSPA know fact from fiction and if it is so frustrating Mr May do something positive about it. You obviously read some of the comments, get some balls and respond.

No one really slags off speedway just those that run it and some who participate or don’t as is the case with riders not bothered about meetings. 

Why don’t you all reflect on what a mess 2018 has been, admit it and then get your own house in order then you would find fans would have little criticism to make on a public forum, but alas for years you collectively have failed miserably. That Mr May is why people ‘blast off ‘ and will continue to do so as long as you treat the punter the way you do. If it is that bad, shut up shop and do something else, but as long as you involve the public you put your head above the parapet and have to be prepared to deal with the flack. Clearly you are having trouble with it.

As the topic implies, it is a fixture shambles which is out of control and gets worse year on year and that sums the sport up as well, a shambles.

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13 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

I am at a loss to understand how far downhill the sport has gone. Mildenhall cannot find enough riders for a meeting at Eastbourne and one wonders whether this has anything to do with the alleged rumours over financial condition of the club and the fact that it is supposedly up for sale. Perhaps riders are unsure about being properly remunerated.

Here we are at the end of October and still unfinished business in two of the three leagues.

In the upper echelons of the sport Mr May is whinging in the SS about comments on forums and claiming people don’t know all the facts. Well perhaps if he and his cohorts who run clubs were open, honest and stopped treating fans with such disdain and put the record straight rather than let speculation run riot then they would have no need to ‘blast off’ as he says. The comments on here and elsewhere manifest themselves primarily because none of you at the BSPA know fact from fiction and if it is so frustrating Mr May do something positive about it. You obviously read some of the comments, get some balls and respond.

No one really slags off speedway just those that run it and some who participate or don’t as is the case with riders not bothered about meetings. 

Why don’t you all reflect on what a mess 2018 has been, admit it and then get your own house in order then you would find fans would have little criticism to make on a public forum, but alas for years you collectively have failed miserably. That Mr May is why people ‘blast off ‘ and will continue to do so as long as you treat the punter the way you do. If it is that bad, shut up shop and do something else, but as long as you involve the public you put your head above the parapet and have to be prepared to deal with the flack. Clearly you are having trouble with it.

As the topic implies, it is a fixture shambles which is out of control and gets worse year on year and that sums the sport up as well, a shambles.

Mr May wants to imagine the world of speedway before the internet when unhappy/ disappointed/disillusioned supporters got together in pubs and clubs and workplaces ( even on street corners ) and aired almost the same kind of criticism/complaints at riders and promoters. Of course "back in the day" there were not so many reasons for complaints to be tossed about! But people are no different now than then and harsh things were said ( as now ). And supporters were still "mushrooms" then ( kept in the dark and covered in bullrubbish ). That is the nature of sport and it's fans, Mr May. Nothing has changed.

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Yet again many of the so-called problems with the sport are aimed at the Premiership clubs, when its the Championship and NL that have all the fixture issues.

A cannot seriously understand how 'fans' can suggest a 'one league structure with freedom to run on days of their choice but with further dumbing down to a level somewhere under the current SGBC standard.  Clubs who find themselves at the bottom end of that league - due to not winning meetings - will lose even more fans and money than they are apparently losing now!

 

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On ‎10‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 5:41 PM, Mimmo said:

I believe Coventry have an outstanding NT fixture at Stoke too.

I assume there are going to be some fines dished out. 

According to Buxton, Coventry declined all Sunday's in October. That's where the SCB should have stepped in and insisted that they take one of the options. Again, it is the SCB that is failing to do it's duties to the sport.

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