If you want to know what’s wrong with British speedway

[Aces51]

I am one who believes that racing today can be just as good as it was in any period  I have followed the sport, which is since the mid1950's.

There have always been tracks that provided better racing than others, due either to the quality of track preparation or the size and shape.

Hyde Road was acknowledged by many as the best racing track in the UK just as the NSS is now.  On that basis I think it fair to compare the racing at both and my opinion is that the quality of racing at the NSS is as good as anything served up at Hyde Road. 

However,  I don't agree with Grachan about not seeing races in the 70's like the Fricke race at the NSS. Collins and Morton served up many equally exciting races at Hyde Road. 

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, DJWolves said:

I certainly think the last thing supporters and promoters should do is accept the way it is. Speedway in the uk used to be the place where any rider that had any ambition needed to ride. Poland didn’t take over that mantle by just waving a magic wand. It was sustained investment in riders, stadia, and on tracks.

And they didn’t do it by controlling costs by imposing cost cutting points limits. They allowed those tracks that could afford it to build very strong teams. There was a real imbalance between the top and bottom teams in the league and people flocked to see the teams with the big stars. Then other tracks thought, we’ll have a part of that, and they invested in top riders also and they also saw their crowds grow. And so it continued to the point where all the top riders in the sport were riding there and getting well paid for doing so. In this country if tracks wanted to include Darcy Ward, Chris Holder and Bjarne Pedersen or Freddie Lindgren, Tai Woffinden and Jacob Thorsell then other tracks would say ‘we can’t compete with that’ and the strengths are dumbed down to fit the tracks that can only afford the cheapest teams.

This is a great spectator sport and we need to encourage entrepreneurs who will invest to get bums on seats and be encouraged to do so. And then get to the point where half a dozen tracks can get top riders, decent stadiums and tracks and 5,000 through the door 15 times a season. It sounds like a pipe dream just as it did in Poland not so many years ago.

Poland have a huge (and almost insurmountable advantage) in that many of their state of the art stadia is council owned and subsidised, if not wholly funded..

Britain cannot compete with that as its simply not a level playing field..

The issue has been that for many years it tried to (of a fashion), rather than plowing it's own furrow.

And ended up with the usual 'halfway house/not quite fit for purpose' operating model and business plan we have today..

Poland with TV companies tendering against one another to show their leagues at prime time from Friday to Sunday. And national company sponsors out doing each other to be seen around Poland on a well watched prime time programme, give them an enormous advantage that the UK have absolutely no chance of competing against such is the difference in income streams for the respective Promoter organisations..

One top rider in Poland per match can earn as much (and maybe more) as two teams collectively can over here..

You cannot compete with that..

[Bagpuss]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

Possibly, but you have to ask why crowds were bigger surely.Maybe some thing to do with entertainment factor.!

It was the thing to do on a Saturday (or whenever) night when there was only three TV channels and no Netflix, no games consoles,  fewer gastropubs and nightclubs etc etc. Every top rider in the world rode here and the sport had household names through terrestrial TV and newspaper coverage. 

[Yampy]

Get the riders and a bike or two into schools, offer some free tickets out to the kids. It's not like the tracks have not to the space to fill. 

I'm not sure of attendances nowadays up and down the country but surely if each promotion pick out 3 or 4 schools each week and gave them even 200 tickets between them to include a few adults to chaperone them, the increase in Programme sales, food sales and maybe a souvenier or 2 would help. If for every 50 tickets they give away, it peaks the interest of a kid who persuades a parent to bring them along in future, it has to be worth it.

There has to be a "cub" or an asset, even a former rider who could be at the track and let the kids sit on a bike and help sell speedway..

 

[foamfence]

16 minutes ago, Yampy said:

Get the riders and a bike or two into schools, offer some free tickets out to the kids. It's not like the tracks have not to the space to fill. 

I'm not sure of attendances nowadays up and down the country but surely if each promotion pick out 3 or 4 schools each week and gave them even 200 tickets between them to include a few adults to chaperone them, the increase in Programme sales, food sales and maybe a souvenier or 2 would help. If for every 50 tickets they give away, it peaks the interest of a kid who persuades a parent to bring them along in future, it has to be worth it.

There has to be a "cub" or an asset, even a former rider who could be at the track and let the kids sit on a bike and help sell speedway..

 

Bradford used to do that weekly and bus the kids in for the next meeting, it still died and most of them were more interested in making a nuisance of themselves after watching a couple of heats, they never came back.

[Spl77]

Interesting that both Poland and the UK were attracting similar attendance to league meeting in the 70s and early 80s. By the mid 80s the BL was in major trouble through many of the issues that are still present today. The issue now is speedway in the country doesn't have the benefit of a good sponsor like CPL 

[mikebv]

27 minutes ago, Spl77 said:

Interesting that both Poland and the UK were attracting similar attendance to league meeting in the 70s and early 80s. By the mid 80s the BL was in major trouble through many of the issues that are still present today. The issue now is speedway in the country doesn't have the benefit of a good sponsor like CPL 

One big difference in Poland is that they haven't fallen down the trap of training up every other nations best riders to the detriment of their own...

They have learned I would suggest from what the BSPA did and now protect places in teams for Polish lads only..

They know that a strong national team delivers TV coverage, mainstream media coverage and blue chip sponsors..

The BSPA had all that once and threw it away training up American, Danish and Swedish riders..

A few of which were 'world class', but many of which were 'journeymen' seen as a short term fix, but ultimately blocked the potential progress of many a young GB rider..

And the rest, as they say, is history..

Edited December 23, 2019 by mikebv

[hyderd]

23 hours ago, Aces51 said:

I am one who believes that racing today can be just as good as it was in any period  I have followed the sport, which is since the mid1950's.

There have always been tracks that provided better racing than others, due either to the quality of track preparation or the size and shape.

Hyde Road was acknowledged by many as the best racing track in the UK just as the NSS is now.  On that basis I think it fair to compare the racing at both and my opinion is that the quality of racing at the NSS is as good as anything served up at Hyde Road. 

However,  I don't agree with Grachan about not seeing races in the 70's like the Fricke race at the NSS. Collins and Morton served up many equally exciting races at Hyde Road. 

As did Paul Thorp, brilliant round Hyde Rd,dreadful when we moved to the Dog track.  

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by hyderd

[JoeW]

Quote

1 hour ago, hyderd said:

As did Paul Tyrer, brilliant round Hyde Rd,dreadful when we moved to the Dog track.  

 

Last rode for Belle Vue in 1976. Hyde Road closed 1986???

[hyderd]

28 minutes ago, JoeW said:

Last rode for Belle Vue in 1976. Hyde Road closed 1986???

I meant Paul Thorp, will edit it.