CHAMPIONSHIP PLANS FOR ’23

[ragdoll64]

5 hours ago, iainb said:

Not really commenting on a 36 point limit but with all due respect to the riders you've mentioned, I don't really think they are attractions. The last riders to put my bum on a seat were Tai Woffinden at the Peter Craven Memorial and Dan Bewley at the British Final

All riders put my bum on a seat……..I am a speedway fan……..

[Lefty]

5 minutes ago, ragdoll64 said:

All riders put my bum on a seat……..I am a speedway fan……..

Great quote... but stop these riders wearing 'xyz' different 'team' suits in a week!

[Falcon1983]

This is the issue and its not fans fault

Championship level fans are used to seeing a few bigger names in their sides, if they are removed you alienate that type of fan 

[ragdoll64]

7 hours ago, Falcon1983 said:

I don’t personally believe there is a desire for weekly speedway anymore, looking back at when the sport was seen more of a main player in UK sport compared to now being a minority sport, there are just so many things to do in life I think Speedway needs to find its place but the promoters are still trying to push the sport like it’s the 70’s/80’s

 

Less can sometimes be more

 

8 Team Premiership – Home & Away Once Top 4 into play offs
8 Team Championship – Home & Away Once Top 4 into play offs
All meetings run between May – August, Play offs only in September.
 

You could even with a reduced calendar work more closely with Sweden/Denmark to fix more fixtures so that you could see Prem clubs being able to run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursdays.
 

The main event of British Speedway should not be league racing anyway, it should be a major part of it like the above but the main event should be an individual series, I would put something together like the “Super 12 Championship” where the top 12 British Riders who don’t race in the polish top flight race over 10 rounds and this replaces the British Championship as we know now

 

1 Round in April, 2 rounds in May, June, July, August and the final round in September after league play-offs.  12 riders, 4 heats each, top 4 to the final at each round that’s 13 heats, add to the program a “Super 8 series” for riders U24 which will be our equivalent to what Poland are doing with their U24 league – they ride 4 heats each and a final, that’s 9 races so 22 heats of racing per championship round, make these rounds events, practice, meet the riders, have entertainment etc.

 

The individual series on Eurosport, the rest of British Speedway on a Pay Monthly stream like Netflix where its £9.99 per month they get say 4 meetings a month, interviews, behind the scenes, nostalgic meetings, you could even have a feature presenting each club side throughout the season

 

Premiership built to 42.5 limit with a minimum average of 3.00 and maximum average of 9.00 for team building so for example a rider can get an average of 11.00 during a campaign but it resets at 9.00 why penalise a rider from having a good year? Championship built to 36 limit minimum average of 2.00, that takes away the bigger names in the championship and effectively they race in the individual series.

 

Issues that I have seen mentioned

-          Riders losing money?
too many riders are professional riders in a non-professionally run sport, the individual series if you had prize money of £3k, £2k £1k per round to the podium finishers then had a £50k prize pot to the top 3 in the series overall the top 12 riders in this series would not have to double up/down, with 10 rounds guaranteed on Eurosport they would get more sponsorship to cover costs etc.

 

The sport is here to survive for future generations not to give current riders a professional career, doubling up and down only benefits a smaller % of riders, Covid showed us that riders will go and get jobs if they have to, if the sport can’t offer a fulltime wage they will get part time jobs.

 

-          Landlord issues

Simple really if some clubs have to run X amount of fixtures, then just hold some individual rounds, say Glasgow/Edinburgh/Berwick could host a round each of the “Scottish Open Championship” these can be run in April before the season opens up in May-August, other individual meetings can take place when fixtures are cemented and free weeks are available, you could get Ipswich, Lynn and Peterborough doing a “Star of Anglia Championship” etc.

Also with no promotion or relegation in speedway what is to stop on a reduced calendar a premiership side entering a championship side? You then get 14 home and 14 away meetings

 

I would invite someone like TalkSport to become title sponsors of the leagues, AT NO CHARGE, and use their massive social media following to promote the sport, doesn’t mean it will feature much on the radio itself but their social media platforms are HUGE and could generate more interest in the sport

 

For the individual series I would encourage Monster to get involved plus speedway stalwarts such as Tru Plant, ATPI, Adrian Flux etc. to sponsor it to generate the funds for prize money

Well personally, I DO have a desire for weekly speedway along with everyone I stand with at Glasgow. 

[Cast1rn]

5 hours ago, Falcon1983 said:

 

If the championship falls to 36/38 then obviously admissions should be around £10/12 but it would be more cost effective for promoters if its a semi pro.

 For sure, because when you lower the standard of riders, more people will flock to the stadium, plus think of the cost savings :

• only need to power half the floodlights since it’s a lower standard of riders hurtling round the track, they don’t need to see so well.

•no need to maintain or replace air fences or high impact foam fences, these can be replaced with all weather footballs held together with cello tape, cause we all now lower scoring riders crash far softer.

• no need for those expensive ambulances we can just have “ Big Dave the brickie” who completed a 1 week first aid course when he was 13 in the sea cadets and will provide the required medical care  for 20 quid a night and a pie.

 

for those who geographically live 200+ miles from the nearest Premiership club we’ll happily keep the likes of Sam Masters, Chris Harris, Nick Morris etc and pay the extra 5 quid to see them race.

 

[Fromafar]

6 hours ago, Falcon1983 said:

I'd go no higher than 38 points, the riders mentioned shouldn't be riding in the championship

The 2nd division really should be a semi professional division anyone really averaging near or above 8 shouldnt be in it

 

The idea behind an extended british championship is to give british riders who may never make poland some form of goal domestically and those level riders should be riding in the prem and doing the individual series 

Some of the aussies will miss out not being able to double down but again what is any riders purpose for riding in the UK is it not to make it to Poland? 

British speedway cannot subsidise any riders shortcomings in not making it and at the same time we need to make british speedway attractive firstly to British riders to even take up the sport

 

You could i guess if you are doing a stream service provide some PPV meetings where you do a minim 3-5 round British Commonwealth series

Or promoters needing meetings, trying and work with other national bodies and do some U24 international fixtures Great Britain vs Denmark/Sweden/Germany meetings that will progress what is needed, future stars

 

If the championship falls to 36/38 then obviously admissions should be around £10/12 but it would be more cost effective for promoters if its a semi pro league

Riders will want to climb the ladder to ride in the prem and the british super 12 series 

 

In MMA athletes pay for training, they dont get paid for amateur fights, the first dozen pro fights you'll be lucky to get £500 on average a fight, the goal is to fight in the UFC where the money could be very high depending on success

 

Speedway seems to feel it has to hand out all the time, its clearly not sustainable 

Crowd levels at NDL suggest the sport would not survive at a lot of tracks,therefore lowering quality of riders is not the answer.IMO.

[Bandit59]

9 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Championship 36.00 that’s NDL standard,what would you charges for admission.No way that will work.

You'd need to pay people to watch Championship at 36 points no way I would be going to watch that has to be 40.

[Fromafar]

37 minutes ago, Bandit59 said:

You'd need to pay people to watch Championship at 36 points no way I would be going to watch that has to be 40.

I’m afraid lowering points limit will have negative effect for the sport IMO.Admission prices will certainly not come down,I for one is starting to lose interest given the shambles the sport is in.Don’t know the answers but certainly seems to take the fans for mugs at times.When you can’t organise a fixture list for a league of approx 10 teams there has to be something fundamentally wrong,easy to blame the weather though.Starter for me would be to tell the riders their priorities if the want ride in GB ( not the other way round).Then work with what’s left.

[Falcon1983]

And over the past page or two there is the fundamental issue of the sport 

Championship supporters want to see premiership riders compete for their clubs (nothing wrong with people wanting it) but it does not progress the sport, it does not progress british riders as the championship is then too strong for riders who come up from the NDL (apart from a very select talented few)

 

So in 10 years time there will be limited British riders to fulfil team spaces, the end of Speedway 

[Fromafar]

24 minutes ago, Falcon1983 said:

And over the past page or two there is the fundamental issue of the sport 

Championship supporters want to see premiership riders compete for their clubs (nothing wrong with people wanting it) but it does not progress the sport, it does not progress british riders as the championship is then too strong for riders who come up from the NDL (apart from a very select talented few)

 

So in 10 years time there will be limited British riders to fulfil team spaces, the end of Speedway 

Your 10 years behind with your comment on British riders.Plus NOBODYis going to pay £20 to watch NDL level speedway it’s £10 at present at most tracks and crowd levels are small.

Ps 

Its the Premiership that is that weak that it needs Championship level riders to even run.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Fromafar

[1 valve]

14 hours ago, iainb said:

I agree... I'd slim the pay offs down to 3 though

It's not economically sufficient to run the "home" leg of your pay off final 2 hours away from where all your fans live

Agreed. Unfortunately two wrongs don’t make a right. 

[Fromafar]

4 hours ago, Falcon1983 said:

This is the issue and its not fans fault

Championship level fans are used to seeing a few bigger names in their sides, if they are removed you alienate that type of fan 

GB Speedway is just a travelling circus of the same riders racing each other on various nights of the Week for different Teams.That’s the Bottom line for me.

[Trees]

5 hours ago, Fromafar said:

GB Speedway is just a travelling circus of the same riders racing each other on various nights of the Week for different Teams.That’s the Bottom line for me.

Not for me, have you not got your local team still?

[Trees]

15 hours ago, iainb said:

Not really commenting on a 36 point limit but with all due respect to the riders you've mentioned, I don't really think they are attractions. The last riders to put my bum on a seat were Tai Woffinden at the Peter Craven Memorial and Dan Bewley at the British Final

With all due respect I think they are attractions in the Championship BIG TIME, they're number ones!

[GiveusaB]

If Prem/Championship are riding each other 4 times in a season, then why have 2 divisions? (unless I'm missing something?)

I'm guessing that there's not enough riders to make 16/17 teams ?

Solution:

Have a main body of 5 riders and each team have 2 reserves (with 3 reserve races in each meeting)?

Edited November 9, 2022 by GiveusaB

[IainB]

13 hours ago, ragdoll64 said:

All riders put my bum on a seat……..I am a speedway fan……..

 

3 hours ago, Trees said:

With all due respect I think they are attractions in the Championship BIG TIME, they're number ones!

Agreed! You're both right of course, this is a Championship thread after all. I think because I'm fortunate enough to be able to regularly attend Leicester & Peterborough, I am able to see a lot of Speedway (also being a fan) and the lines between the 2 leagues are quite blurred at the moment. I see the same riders turning out in both leagues and while Nick Morris (picked at random) may be a draw in the CL, he's probably not so much  a draw in the PL.

[IainB]

9 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Your 10 years behind with your comment on British riders.Plus NOBODYis going to pay £20 to watch NDL level speedway it’s £10 at present at most tracks and crowd levels are small.

Ps 

Its the Premiership that is that weak that it needs Championship level riders to even run.

Personally, I think I'd like to see the NDL done away with and all clubs should be required to run a 4/5 man team in a 8 or 9 race "2nd half" event.

[mc131]

18 minutes ago, iainb said:

Personally, I think I'd like to see the NDL done away with and all clubs should be required to run a 4/5 man team in a 8 or 9 race "2nd half" event.

The ndl before it got messed about with was a good league needs to go back to that instead of getting pushed aside for prem and champ.

There can't be second halfs 1-2 crashes it's game over then just look at so called prem junior thing from this season.

[GiveusaB]

1 hour ago, iainb said:

Personally, I think I'd like to see the NDL done away with and all clubs should be required to run a 4/5 man team in a 8 or 9 race "2nd half" event.

Good idea if the main meeting went back to the old 13 Heat formula...which is/was the best IMO.

[ragdoll64]

1 hour ago, iainb said:

 

Agreed! You're both right of course, this is a Championship thread after all. I think because I'm fortunate enough to be able to regularly attend Leicester & Peterborough, I am able to see a lot of Speedway (also being a fan) and the lines between the 2 leagues are quite blurred at the moment. I see the same riders turning out in both leagues and while Nick Morris (picked at random) may be a draw in the CL, he's probably not so much  a draw in the PL.

Quite blurred ianb?……totally blurred I would say. Agree with your point but they shouldn’t be trying to unblur it by weakening the Championship League and denying us the top riders we’re used to seeing.