Survival of The Premiership?

[Teromaafan]

21 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

Doubling up is a curse of British Speedway but the riders need to race for two teams because of the very limited number of fixtures each team races. The only way to solve the problem is to form one big league with teams running a home meeting every week meaning the rider races in the same number of meetings as at present but they are all for the same team. If we have to run with five man teams it will mean the riders get more races in each meeting which is a good thing from the riders point of view as they can make more from each meeting they race. 

As I have mentioned in a previous post, ideally, riders would only double up if they had been kicked in the b*lls, but it would appear that doubling up is here to stay due to a shortage of riders and what they can earn per meeting in the UK.

[Daniel Smith]

Here's a thought. 

Would 2 leagues with the same teams work. 

Championship is every club on any race day but has a race format for 5 man teams. 

Premiership is 7 man teams in the regular format, including the Championship clubs original 5 riders + 2 "World Class" rider's just running home & away once a season on Thursday's. 

An idea, could it work?!? 

[arnieg]

21 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

Here's a thought. 

Would 2 leagues with the same teams work. 

Championship is every club on any race day but has a race format for 5 man teams. 

Premiership is 7 man teams in the regular format, including the Championship clubs original 5 riders + 2 "World Class" rider's just running home & away once a season on Thursday's. 

An idea, could it work?!? 

The minute you do that Championship attendances plummet.

[FishersGate]

To put it like this the doubling up doesn't bother me that much really , not ideal but since going to speedway as a youngster that's all I've known really.  What annoys me more is seeing the same teams every week. Leicester have got Ipswich on Monday AGAIN. 3rd time already and no doubt in the play offs were gonna see a team at Leicester 4 times! It's too much and it's boring. I ain't bothering going Monday as it's on the TV so there's already the faffing about plus I've seen doyle & Emil too many times already. I probably won't go Sheffield either, again seen them at Leicester before so it loses its spark. That's 42quid the club has lost due to its rubbish format and league. We need one league asap with the big riders sodding off and blooding the kids. Crowds would drop but so would rider costs and British youth will improve. 

[truthsayer]

It's not the 'league's' responsibility to develop new riders.

Of course they are stakeholders, and it is in their interests, but the current structure as a pro sport means the responsibility of promoters is to lay on a show for the audience.

Separation of 'British Speedway' and the 'British Speedway League' would be a start, but there's no money for a development programme so that's that.

[ch958]

10 hours ago, Chris116 said:

Doubling up is a curse of British Speedway but the riders need to race for two teams because of the very limited number of fixtures each team races. The only way to solve the problem is to form one big league with teams running a home meeting every week meaning the rider races in the same number of meetings as at present but they are all for the same team. If we have to run with five man teams it will mean the riders get more races in each meeting which is a good thing from the riders point of view as they can make more from each meeting they race. 

And also, heat leaders would prosper because top riders wd be spread out like they were in the early BL days which is how some blokes ended up with 10 and even 11 averages. That wd make up a perceived drop in earnings

[arnieg]

1 hour ago, truthsayer said:

It's not the 'league's' responsibility to develop new riders.

Of course they are stakeholders, and it is in their interests, but the current structure as a pro sport means the responsibility of promoters is to lay on a show for the audience.

Separation of 'British Speedway' and the 'British Speedway League' would be a start, but there's no money for a development programme so that's that.

That may be true of sports with extensive amateur participation and low entry costs but neither applies to speedway so unless the professional speedway as a whole takes some responsibility then they are acting against their long term interests.

Best example of this is the dropping of the Rising Star from the  Championship.

[IainB]

3 minutes ago, arnieg said:

That may be true of sports with extensive amateur participation and low entry costs but neither applies to speedway so unless the professional speedway as a whole takes some responsibility then they are acting against their long term interests.

Best example of this is the dropping of the Rising Star from the  Championship.

Trouble is there seems to be 3 distinct entities involved, Neil Vatcher develops the youth up to a point and then hands them over to the BSPL, who put them through the rinser, mess them about, drop them because somebody else's points don't fit when they want to make a change etc. and then if by some miracle they're still riding Speedway, after being dropped multiple times throughout a season, they progress through the the GB Speedway team, who the BSPL seem to almost completely ignore unless there's some kind of victory bandwagon to jump on... Only on Thursday or Friday last week the BSPL were plugging the British Final on their Socials... this with a World Cup Final only days away which they're almost ignoring

[truthsayer]

1 hour ago, arnieg said:

That may be true of sports with extensive amateur participation and low entry costs but neither applies to speedway so unless the professional speedway as a whole takes some responsibility then they are acting against their long term interests.

And herein lies the problem at the core of British speedway.

Name me another sport which is overwhelmingly 'professional'? Maybe horse racing, maybe, but its a bigger industry with a totally different structure and purpose.

Every sport needs to be fundamentally amateur, with only the top few percent actually being semi-professional, let alone fully professional. Sport is about participating, and only at the very top is there a product for the entertainment of the public.

I sound like a broken record, but there is not really a grassroots of speedway - an amateur system where people can pay to play.

It's a truly weird sport. In every other form of sport, a high percentage (lets say in the 90%s) people actually pay to participate because they enjoy it. There are little to no facilities to do this with speedway. It's all about the professional team product and it will be the death of speedway as we know it.

[IainB]

2 hours ago, truthsayer said:

And herein lies the problem at the core of British speedway.

Name me another sport which is overwhelmingly 'professional'? Maybe horse racing, maybe, but its a bigger industry with a totally different structure and purpose.

Every sport needs to be fundamentally amateur, with only the top few percent actually being semi-professional, let alone fully professional. Sport is about participating, and only at the very top is there a product for the entertainment of the public.

I sound like a broken record, but there is not really a grassroots of speedway - an amateur system where people can pay to play.

It's a truly weird sport. In every other form of sport, a high percentage (lets say in the 90%s) people actually pay to participate because they enjoy it. There are little to no facilities to do this with speedway. It's all about the professional team product and it will be the death of speedway as we know it.

Amateur level Speedway used to be Grasstrack had it not? Technically another sport I know but there weren't many British riders ridingi n the past that hadn't come through the Grasstrack ranks, with the decline of the Grasstracks this seems to have been replaced by the junior Speedway programme and moto x riders making the switch

Edited July 29, 2023 by iainb

[castrolargh]

6 hours ago, ch958 said:

And also, heat leaders would prosper because top riders wd be spread out like they were in the early BL days which is how some blokes ended up with 10 and even 11 averages. That wd make up a perceived drop in earnings

I think that " back in the day " the no1's only met once, in heat one, and apart from 1and 3 or 2 and 4 there was no restriction on gate position,  so nearly always picked the best gate  .This made quite a difference to averages too

[mikebv]

2 hours ago, castrolargh said:

I think that " back in the day " the no1's only met once, in heat one, and apart from 1and 3 or 2 and 4 there was no restriction on gate position,  so nearly always picked the best gate  .This made quite a difference to averages too

A huge difference...

As did bonus points counting to the average..

As did the "gimme" tac sub ride against the No2 and 7 from the opposition in (I think), Ht 6...

The World Class riders rode against each other twice in the main at most, and had two 2  point riders in the match to race against too.. 

4/5 rides per match off the best of the two gates your team were allocated...

A lot more competitive now..

 

 

 

 

[ch958]

3 hours ago, castrolargh said:

I think that " back in the day " the no1's only met once, in heat one, and apart from 1and 3 or 2 and 4 there was no restriction on gate position,  so nearly always picked the best gate  .This made quite a difference to averages too

you are quite correct

[ch958]

53 minutes ago, mikebv said:

A huge difference...

As did bonus points counting to the average..

As did the "gimme" tac sub ride against the No2 and 7 from the opposition in (I think), Ht 6...

The World Class riders rode against each other twice in the main at most, and had two 2  point riders in the match to race against too.. 

4/5 rides per match off the best of the two gates your team were allocated...

A lot more competitive now..

 

 

 

 

correct - which puts pressure on their averages and earning potential. In the past beating a top bloke was an event - Mauger, Briggs, Wilson, Ashby et al used to be virtually unbeatable by anyone other that other top blokes. Ashby in a heat with, say, Munday, Cole and Wakefield Swindon v Cradley , would win at a canter usually with only maybe Persson or Trigg to worry him

[Cynergy]

I’ve monitored and read the SF for years. The time has come for me to post, mostly out of anger as to how the sport that I’ve followed for years is slowly imploding. As yet this year I haven’t been to a single meeting, (usually 6-8 a year) living in North Essex gives me the opportunity to visit KL, PB, IP, MFT and formerly RH. My suggestion would be to scrap both the Premiership & Championship (I know it’s been previously suggested) I’d have a North and South league, I’d leave the NL as is.  

A reduction in costs is now the number one priority. I’d make the riders use standard engines only allowed to change the fuel jet and gearing. All I want to see is 4 riders having a race, if it means better riders leaving for Poland and a like then so be it. Reducing riders costs would hopefully benefit the paying public and help them return. 
Here’s hoping that all the promoters have the guts to change, but I seriously doubt it.

[Speedtiger]

8 hours ago, mikebv said:

A huge difference...

As did bonus points counting to the average..

As did the "gimme" tac sub ride against the No2 and 7 from the opposition in (I think), Ht 6...

The World Class riders rode against each other twice in the main at most, and had two 2  point riders in the match to race against too.. 

4/5 rides per match off the best of the two gates your team were allocated...

A lot more competitive now..

 

 

 

 

Agree with you Mikeb, we can not compare the clubs ‘back in the day’ with now. The sport has had some really great opportunities but wasted them, speedway has never evolved and move with the times and attracted new fans and investment. Speedway is THE original extreme sport that promoted properly and inclusively should have attracted young fans and main line media and major sponsors. New modern stadiums that fans enjoyed watching racing in comfort, rider role models that young fans associated and interacted with. But the clowns in Rugby have screwed it up. 

[szkocjasid]

On 7/28/2023 at 4:16 PM, Deano said:

One more “ How come we’ve lost almost every match, yet commentator keeps saying we might make the play offs?” 

Now in the lads defence as a Brummies fan, it does feel a bit strange.

That's due to their being 4 weak team in the Champ - one if them has to qualify.

Before the Berwick vs Edinburgh fixture I thought Berwick were big favourites for the play-offs, despite only having won ONE match! After Edinburgh won, thought they were big favourites for 6th despite not having won a match at home at that time!

For the Premiership it's been a very dull fight for the top 4.