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Eastbourne 2020


Hackett

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Its a weird scenario, they were smashed out when the mask wearing in the tracks was compulsory but ppl hadnt been out for 15 months and the weather was gd.

Now the leisure pound has more freedom to be spent elsewhere, 9,000 crammed into lingfield last sat for ub40 and 7 races, it was about 27 quid to get in.

Idont fear for eastbournes future, the other 2 are bang in bother tho i feel.

 

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16 hours ago, old bob at herne bay said:

They must have mystic meg as  a weather forecaster, and whilst a contributory factor, the more likely major reason is the clash with the Speedway Circus at Lublin.

But has Meg done a forecast for Lublin on Saturday night?

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:D

Not sure mystic meg operates outside of the UK ........ and the SGP riders seem to be able to ride on mud ankle deep in water if the "Race Director"  tells them.

Think the novelty of being able to go out again to watch a meeting post Covid Lockdown has worn off.... people have realised what they have been missing (or not) and the attendances have sunk to a plateau  now waiting the the p.offs. For my part I have attended 2 local meetings this season, seen enough start gate gardening to completely clear my field of weeds. 

Nothing that will entice me to attend every week, or even venture to other tracks .

 

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4 hours ago, ruckerroo said:

Its a weird scenario, they were smashed out when the mask wearing in the tracks was compulsory but ppl hadnt been out for 15 months and the weather was gd.

Now the leisure pound has more freedom to be spent elsewhere, 9,000 crammed into lingfield last sat for ub40 and 7 races, it was about 27 quid to get in.

Idont fear for eastbournes future, the other 2 are bang in bother tho i feel.

 

is that a quid for every variant of UB 40 there is now, those Campbell Brothers and the UB clans :D

Good point though, plenty of people now doing things they haven't done in 18 months and Speedway on a damp night wouldn't top the list; too easy to say "lets wait until its sunny and warm".

It seems no one is denying the weather round Arlington was bad last week, nor that the forecast for this week is the same.

We, least of all us Brummie fans; even know yet what the future holds or whether we'd have raced on Saturday.

More time for the Masons to make a decision over the weekend , Eastie may have lost money they can't afford to lose anyway with weather and GP; and that's about as conspiratorial as it needs to be.

 

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5 hours ago, ruckerroo said:

Its a weird scenario, they were smashed out when the mask wearing in the tracks was compulsory but ppl hadnt been out for 15 months and the weather was gd.

Now the leisure pound has more freedom to be spent elsewhere, 9,000 crammed into lingfield last sat for ub40 and 7 races, it was about 27 quid to get in.

Idont fear for eastbournes future, the other 2 are bang in bother tho i feel.

 

Don't be to sure on your last part of your post. 

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8 hours ago, ruckerroo said:

Its a weird scenario, they were smashed out when the mask wearing in the tracks was compulsory but ppl hadnt been out for 15 months and the weather was gd.

Now the leisure pound has more freedom to be spent elsewhere, 9,000 crammed into lingfield last sat for ub40 and 7 races, it was about 27 quid to get in.

Idont fear for eastbournes future, the other 2 are bang in bother tho i feel.

 

Thats a very good point that not many people including promoters have considered.

The start of the season there was not too many places/social events open so it was one of the stand out places to go for a night out

Now the country has come out of lockdown and the social scene has opened up it would be interesting to see if a lot of clubs attendences have dropped from that point onwards, ominous signs if gates have fallen nationwide if thats the trend. 

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13 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

Totally agree. Running 2 teams was a step too far for Eastbourne this season. I'm sure the UK promoters expected a post Covid boom.

I do truly believe your last sentence is 100% spot on....

Amazingly I still think they see the sport they run as some way "relevant" and "meaningful" and that the Speedway starved fans would simply just have rocked up in their 1000's post lockdown..

I can only presume they dont understand how little engagement fans truly have in the leagues they run given the lack of credibility and kudos of competing in, or even winning, any of them...

The day they do realise this may never dawn on them obviously, but it surely has to at some stage soon...

If it never does then you have to fear for the future of the sport in the UK dont you?..

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58 minutes ago, mikebv said:

I do truly believe your last sentence is 100% spot on....

Amazingly I still think they see the sport they run as some way "relevant" and "meaningful" and that the Speedway starved fans would simply just have rocked up in their 1000's post lockdown..

I can only presume they dont understand how little engagement fans truly have in the leagues they run given the lack of credibility and kudos of competing in, or even winning, any of them...

The day they do realise this may never dawn on them obviously, but it surely has to at some stage soon...

If it never does then you have to fear for the future of the sport in the UK dont you?..

I think the last 18 months have changed peoples lives forever. Many have lost family and friends, their jobs and in some cases their homes. It's impossible to carry on as normal. I know my relationship with my premier league football team will never be the same. I'm a lot more reluctant to hand over vast sums of money anymore. I'm sure a lot of speedway fans feel the same. For the sport to have any chance of survival, first it must learn to live within its means.

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3 hours ago, mikebv said:

I do truly believe your last sentence is 100% spot on....

Amazingly I still think they see the sport they run as some way "relevant" and "meaningful" and that the Speedway starved fans would simply just have rocked up in their 1000's post lockdown..

I can only presume they dont understand how little engagement fans truly have in the leagues they run given the lack of credibility and kudos of competing in, or even winning, any of them...

The day they do realise this may never dawn on them obviously, but it surely has to at some stage soon...

If it never does then you have to fear for the future of the sport in the UK dont you?..

I genuinely don't think many fans have a clue what league "their team" is in or who they're against these days. The majority of fans don't seem to be the anoraks on these forums, they don't seem to care about the ins and outs. They just want to see 4 bikes racing.

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Re the Birmingham fixture, OK I'm in Brighton 30 miles away but it has not stopped raining since I got up at 5.30 and doesn't look like it will stop for a while.

I think its the best call both financially and weather wise..

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36 minutes ago, Richard Weston said:

Torrential rain in Arlington area this morning. Eastbourne’s Forecaster spot on - again 

Can they do the BBC?

Im a project manager in new build construction, I could do with a forecast that accurate on a daily basis..

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14 hours ago, cityrebel said:

I think the last 18 months have changed peoples lives forever. Many have lost family and friends, their jobs and in some cases their homes. It's impossible to carry on as normal. I know my relationship with my premier league football team will never be the same. I'm a lot more reluctant to hand over vast sums of money anymore. I'm sure a lot of speedway fans feel the same. For the sport to have any chance of survival, first it must learn to live within its means.

I think we had the product a few seasons ago at Eastbourne and clubs like Birmingham  and Kent, with the right balance of good racing and cost, the NL as it was at that time, too successful though for the upper echelon of the BSPA , so they had to put a stop to that. I know this will open up the 'but it's a development league', but it didn't do much harm to for the likes of Brennen, Kemp plus too many to mention.

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4 hours ago, gazzac said:

I think we had the product a few seasons ago at Eastbourne and clubs like Birmingham  and Kent, with the right balance of good racing and cost, the NL as it was at that time, too successful though for the upper echelon of the BSPA , so they had to put a stop to that. I know this will open up the 'but it's a development league', but it didn't do much harm to for the likes of Brennen, Kemp plus too many to mention.

The affordable 'de facto' standard that it would appear all clubs could race at in the UK without the threat of closure...

Or maybe one level up could be affordable? Championship Lite/NL plus?

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22 minutes ago, mikebv said:

The affordable 'de facto' standard that it would appear all clubs could race at in the UK without the threat of closure...

Or maybe one level up could be affordable? Championship Lite/NL plus?

I think when the NL 'peaked' about 5 seasons ago it was probably around the standard of a Championship Lite today, so would be ideal. At one point we had Adam Ellis( on the way up) and Ellis Perks in the team ( and still didn't win the playoff that year). Similar standard today as of then, would still lead to the likes of Brennen, the Thompson's etc improving to heat leader status, and the likes of Abblit progressing maybe more quickly than now, and still leave room for the emerging talent to come in at reserve. Maybe be able to expand the second halves at these meetings and always have SDL and MDL meetings etc after to bring that talent. 

Won't happen though :unsure:.

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All this back slapping and self congratulation   .... " correct call" , ......" Eastbourne's weather forecaster spot on again " :nono:

4 days ago the meeting was called off (Tuesday evening at Kent ) . The reasons later revealed were not just the poor weather forecast ... but other non weather related issues that heve been well aired by the promotion. Far more worrying IMHO than the weather.

So, I put it to you  ...... would the meeting have still been called off if the weather forecast was better ???

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