Behind closed doors?

[Happy Hunter]

According to the BBC Sport website today the Government has announced that no professional sport, even behind closed doors, will be staged in England until 1 June at the earliest. The government has published a 50-page guidance document detailing how England will begin to ease lockdown measures. Step two of that plan - which will not be allowed to start before 1 June - includes "permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact. The document states that reopening venues that attract large crowds, such as sports grounds, "may only be fully possible significantly later depending on the reduction in numbers of infections".

It seems to me, therefore, that a resumption of speedway with crowds is unlikely for some considerable time, possibly not at all the season so I am putting these basic suggestions forward to see if our combined brains can come up with a way for speedway to restart.  I am quite happy for the suggestions to be pulled apart and perhaps ridiculed as long as, between us, we can come up with something sensible. First I think that Speedway is a sport that can be held behind closed doors and that the necessary social distancing measurers can be put in place to protect riders, mechanics, officials etc. Even Rob Godfrey concedes this. The big question is where is the money going to come from to pay for this. Unlike most major spectator sports speedway relies mainly on income from spectators and sponsors. Assuming that the sponsors continue to sponsor then we would have to set up a system for televising meetings and asking fans to pay to watch on T.V. I think that all tracks have a firm that records meetings and sells the subsequent DVDs to fans. Could these companies do live streaming via YouTube or, if not, show an edited version a day or two later on YouTube? I would be quite willing to pay what I normally pay to watch live. To make things easier could we take a leaf out of football’s book and only use a few tracks that are owned by promoters like Scunthorpe, Redcar and Somerset or are on long leases like Leicester and Plymouth and who do not have too many restrictions on the number of meetings that can be held or which host other sports. All meetings could be held on these ‘neutral’ tracks with the proviso that no team races on its home track. If a recording system is used then several meetings could be held each day during daylight hours at each track thus reducing costs. Football for example is talking about holding three televised matches a day behind closed doors.

Over to you!

[The White Knight]

A very interesting Post with some good ideas. I certainly would not tear your Post apart.

[iris123]

I don’t know if it is possible in the UK, but I have already mentioned elsewhere the plan that one club in Danish football have if putting up big screens in their car park and having spectators turn up in their cars. An idea that has also taken off in Germany with drive in cinema and even discos. You pay online so it is all contactless and you have to alert an attendant if you need to go to the loo. 
The problem of medical attendance will still remain for speedway though

Edited May 11, 2020 by iris123

[Hacksaw Jim Duggan]

Nah. 

Speedway crowds in this country are crap. 

It isn't a sport that merits going on behind closed doors for the entertainment of so few for such effort (track prep, track staff, medical staff, etc) . It would never meet the overheads to afford this either. It can barely sustain its self with people paying into stadiums. I would also expect this would break TV contracts signed in terms of this particular idea in relation to the live part.  

Things are more important, a lot of things, and of a lot more importance. 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Hacksaw Jim Duggan

[BWitcher]

For sports with spectators to resume we have to reach Alert Level 1.

The condition for Alert Level 1 is "Covid-19 no longer present in the UK".

If they stick to that, there is no speedway this year.. or next year... in fact in reality... I'll let you fill in the rest.

[iris123]

19 hours ago, iris123 said:

I don’t know if it is possible in the UK, but I have already mentioned elsewhere the plan that one club in Danish football have if putting up big screens in their car park and having spectators turn up in their cars. An idea that has also taken off in Germany with drive in cinema and even discos. You pay online so it is all contactless and you have to alert an attendant if you need to go to the loo. 
The problem of medical attendance will still remain for speedway though

Seems the idea is coming to London and the burbs

https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/attractions/drive-in-cinema-uk-a4437951.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1RAts6zagR460p1B3yrjOlBrmsXZ-wCclSJjSWpZ4gDZobUxFOMRB6Xag#Echobox=1589271945

[mikebv]

Maybe they could run behind closed doors similar to the Greyhounds?

Could Speedway get betting companies involved? 

Could run several meetings a day on different tracks owned by the Promoters (subject to any restrictions obviously)..

Eg One meeting circa 230pm on tracks that can run at this time and one meeting from a track in the evening  that has restrictions to run on their usual night..

Maybe even could get those tracks like Buxton and Rye House out of 'moth balls' to run too?

Plenty of rides for the riders..

Obviously there would need to be governance but theres plenty of betting markets on Speedway now so that shouldn't be difficult to control...

And social distancing can't be too difficult to maintain for 16 riders and 20 or so track staff, officials. Even in the smallest of stadiums...

There must be thousands of gamblers just waiting to throw more good money down the drain after so many reduced opportunities to do so, so why not let them do it each afternoon and evening via Speedway..

[waytogo28]

On 5/12/2020 at 5:13 PM, mikebv said:

There must be thousands of gamblers just waiting to throw more good money down the drain after so many reduced opportunities to do so, so why not let them do it each afternoon and evening via Speedway.

Should we really be encouraging them? We have had riders throwing races and matches before. Match fixing is bad enough with doctoring tracks to suit home riders.

[mikebv]

10 minutes ago, waytogo28 said:

Should we really be encouraging them? We have had riders throwing races and matches before. Match fixing is bad enough with doctoring tracks to suit home riders.

I think we should. Empty stadiums earn Greyhounds hundreds of thousands of pounds as all round the world, millions watch six dogs run around a track at all hours of the day..

Speedway could run races the same using four riders..

There will always be match fixing/cheating going on in any sport at any given time so you will never eradicate it. Sometimes you just have to accept it may happen and believe that there is enough integrity in those who participate to allow it to take place..

And the biggest opportunity of course is that the Green Helmet cover could be brought back so we could all bet using our TV remotes..

[Hacksaw Jim Duggan]

23 minutes ago, mikebv said:

I think we should. Empty stadiums earn Greyhounds hundreds of thousands of pounds as all round the world, millions watch six dogs run around a track at all hours of the day..

Speedway could run races the same using four riders..

There will always be match fixing/cheating going on in any sport at any given time so you will never eradicate it. Sometimes you just have to accept it may happen and believe that there is enough integrity in those who participate to allow it to take place..

And the biggest opportunity of course is that the Green Helmet cover could be brought back so we could all bet using our TV remotes..

Christ, what a load of nonsense. 

 

[mikebv]

13 minutes ago, Hacksaw Jim Duggan said:

Christ, what a load of nonsense. 

 

If you disagree it therefore must be a great idea..

[Hacksaw Jim Duggan]

7 minutes ago, mikebv said:

If you disagree it therefore must be a great idea..

No, what are you posting will be leaving most cringing that you are still pushing on it,  let alone that you thought it was a good 

 

idea

 

in

 

the 

 

first place 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Hacksaw Jim Duggan

[Chadster]

The probability is that by the time speedway gets back, the dogs, horse racing and possibly even football would be back and in that case I feel there'd be little interest in speedway by the bookies.

[IainB]

On 5/12/2020 at 5:13 PM, mikebv said:

Maybe they could run behind closed doors similar to the Greyhounds?

Could Speedway get betting companies involved? 

Hasn't RobGod already said that Speedway behind door is a non starter?

And didn't Speedway dabble with the betting companies in the past? I don't know why it wasn't sustained... maybe Speedway was just too predictable 

[MattK]

Clean Cut who produce speedway DVDs do live stream hockey, therefore technically it isn't an issue.

The challenge would be costs. People won't pay more than couple of quid and therefore riders would have to take an 80% pay cut or clubs would lose their shirts.

[mikebv]

4 hours ago, iainb said:

Hasn't RobGod already said that Speedway behind door is a non starter?

And didn't Speedway dabble with the betting companies in the past? I don't know why it wasn't sustained... maybe Speedway was just too predictable 

You could have a "first out of the gate wins" in running cash out?

 

[Shrimmy]

Surely with the size of most speedway crowds if people stayed 2 metres apart at the venues maybe everyone could still attend..I’m pretty certain with scunny’s attendances everyone could still watch speedway with plenty of space around them. 

[Fortythirtyeight]

Here's some reasons why speedway should not run , particularly behind closed doors.

We are supposed to be avoiding putting any excess pressure on our NHS. Most tracks medical cover are usually NHS employees ( Doctors and paramedics ) doing a second job for extra money. They should not be asked to cover ANY form of Motorsport events whilst we are in the current pandemic situation. Sports injuries are classed as ' self inflicted ' by the NHS for a reason, let's not add to their stress.

Money : no crowd means no income. One track I know of needs to find in excess of £35,000 annually just to keep the stadium running even without holding an event with rent, bills and maintenance costs . Then you need to find riders wages which are usually covered by turnstyle income, no crowd equals yet another financial loss. 

Sponsors want coverage, they get it via programme adverts, mentions on the track announcements and rider sponsorships, they won't be getting that sort of coverage with no crowd as there will be none of that. Most large sponsorship deals are paid in instalments. I doubt most clubs have been able to gather in their full quota of sponsors money.

The majority of speedway crowds are elderly. They are the most vulnerable and should not be expected to attend any event whilst the threat of Covid is still around. They are also the least likely to have access to watch ' streamed ' speedway meetings or pay to watch such an event.

Travel. Putting on events means adding to traffic on the roads again putting added pressure on our NHS with the increased possibility of traffic accidents. About 25-35% of riders are currently out of the country so are faced with not only the travelling issue they then face added lockdown isolation periods .

I could add more but I think I've said enough. In my opinion NO SPORT should take place till this is all over even if that means we lose clubs through it then sorry but lives are more important than entertainment.

 

 

 

[DBP]

The Swedish league due to start in June will now start in July due to current corona virus restrictions banning mass gatherings. They cannot afford to race behind closed doors

This means they will race in front of spectators.

[racers and royals]

14 minutes ago, DBP said:

The Swedish league due to start in June will now start in July due to current corona virus restrictions banning mass gatherings. They cannot afford to race behind closed doors

This means they will race in front of spectators.

That`s not what`s been said in Sweden- our Swedish correspondent Ghostie has said that the  start date for the season has been postponed indefinitely.