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How about a 10 week Premier League season?


DC2

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On 10/16/2019 at 11:03 AM, Grachan said:

A 2 month Speedway season? You cannot be serious!

Maybe do like other sports, though, and be home one week, away the next.

way too sensible . that would also spread the costs over the season for the fans . ...my , are we lucky , paying good money to watch riders earn a very healthy wage  while they screw the sport into the weeds and whats left is taken by the need n greed  in charge of the sport .

man you ,  get 60.000 fans a week or so i was told. . my reply was . no they dont , the get 60.000 every two weeks . football does it , why not speedway  and sack off all those 3/4/5 week breaks in the middle of summer !

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Doesn’t matter how many fixtures or when really if people will not turn up to watch, it’s ok having these great crowds for the play off finals but where are those fans in the months before hand? Can’t tell me Swindon have been getting crowds like tonight all season long!
Same for all clubs in this same scenario and look at my own club Lakeside, packed out for the final meeting. Where was all those fans when we needed them?

People need to start backing their clubs properly and not just when they feel like it.

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8 minutes ago, marko said:

Doesn’t matter how many fixtures or when really if people will not turn up to watch, it’s ok having these great crowds for the play off finals but where are those fans in the months before hand? Can’t tell me Swindon have been getting crowds like tonight all season long!
 

 

That’s the whole point. A ten week season with weekly home meetings would keep the enthusiasm for fans to attend rather than the current over-long, stop-start season with three or four week breaks between some fixtures and April and October rain offs which causes fans to lose interest.

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I think this is a very good idea.

No need to panic, that speedway would be all over and done with in just ten weeks a year. There would still be more speedway in the UK before and after the 10 week league season. Each club could decide for themselves on how many other meetings and how long a season they would want to run (individual, Pairs, Regional Teams comps, maybe a k.o.-cup, and of course the national Championships and international events).

But the League would be an uninterrupted action packed 10 weeks in the summer time. I'd like it like that ! :) 

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In order to solve a problem, first you need to understand what the problems are. Judging by the comments on here. Comments like “too few fixture”, “not enough variety”, “poor standard in the top league” “doubling up/down” “excessive use of guests” etc. 

When you look at some of the problems, the main cause is too few riders to go around, to fill the number of teams wishing to complete in the current league structures, so how do you solve the problem, well unless you find 50-100 new rider of the required level, the problems will never be solved. 

This year the Premiership was made up of 7 teams, meeting each other twice at home and twice away, 24 matches (12 home/12 away). The Championship was made up of 11 teams, meeting each other once at home, once away, 20 matches. Plus, the National development League. All these fixtures take place between March & October  

To solve these problems the sport, needs to get radical, why does each leagues fixture’s need to be over 6 months. To expand on an idea put forward in this thread, why not have a 12-week season for each of the two main leagues.  

Championship League: - 12 teams, 22 matches (11 Home/11 Away) at the same level as now. But here's the radical bit, it runs from March 28th till June 12th (11+ weeks), teams involved can run any night they chose including Monday & Thursdays, but all fixtures must be completed by June 12th. On the weekend of June 20th-21st you hold the Championship Play-off finals at a neutral venue (National stadium? assuming Bell Vue are not in the League), this could be 2 semis on the Saturday and Final on Sunday, or 2 semis and Final on the same day. Teams based on Averages, with Total team average limits. 

Premiership League: - Made up of 10-12 teams, 18-22 matches (9-11 Home/9-11 Away) raced Mondays/ Thursdays from July 1st- Mid September (7th/14th) with Plays-Offs run as they currently are. 

Each Premiership Team can sign up to two riders who did not take part in the Championship League e.g Doyle, Batchelor, Iverson, Lambert, Fricke, Musielak etc. The remainder of each team will be made up by way of a draft system based on riders' averages in Championship league fixture. Not based on total team averages. 

The draft 

The top 10-12* in the averages are grade 1, the next 10-12* grade 2 and so on. The first year would need a bit of fine tuning, but the second year the Draft would work on the principle of the team finishing bottom would have first choice in round 1, Promoters could do a bit of horse trading with other promoters around positions in each round of the draft. 

*Numbers dependent on numbers of teams in Premiership. 

National Development league: - would run as it currently does from April to September at the level it currently runs at but split into two competitions, National trophy Apri-June, National League July-September. Some Championship teams could run a team in the National League once the Championship is Finished. 

Theoretical Leagues: - 

Championship :  Birmingham, Berwick, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, Newcastle, Poole, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Somerset.  (NB I would be tempted to replace a team with Peterborough due to their problems running fixtures in August). 

Premiership: Belle Vue, Ipswich, King’s Lynn, Swindon, Wolverhampton plus up to 7 teams who could race on Mondays & Thursdays between July 1st and October. Rider & Stadium availability would determine how many teams would make up the Premiership. 

Championship teams not in the Premiership would have the option of running Open meetings or a junior team in the National League between July & Oct, Riders not picked up in the Draft could race in the National league subject to National league pay rates (if you're not good enough to get a team spot, don’t expect a big pay-packet from a national league team spot).  Again, Rider availability would be a determining factor. 

From a rider point of view, the big boys can ride abroad and have 18-22 meeting in Britain between July-October, Riders willing to commit to British Speedway or only ride in Britain will find a team place in the Championship (March- June), and subject to how well they perform, a team in the Premiership (July-Oct). 

From a fan’s point view, you have a season that still runs from March to October, with meetings every week, the team you support may not run every week from March to October, but when they do it will mean something. And theirs's nothing to stop fans of Premiership teams attending Championship matches between March & June and vice-versa. 

Premiership: 3 months of Meetings, with a home Meeting every week, with teams made up of riders of a better quality than the Championship, two top riders + 5 of the best championship riders on current form. All trying to reach the play-offs. 

Championship: 3 Months of Meetings, with a Home Meeting every week, a Meaningful League with the target of getting to the play-off finals, and with riders who are trying to get their average as high as possible to get a better pay-rate in the Premiership. 

Edited by pvm
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