The
Future’s Bright the Future’s …………a Challenge
(Issue
24 Winter 2006)
Well another season over and what changes can we
expect for next year ?
No doubt the BSPA think tank will come up with
something wonderful but what is their long term vision – do they even have one
? The GRA (Greyhound Racing Association) have a ten year plan – available on
the web – it all looks very professional – why not
It really comes back to how speedway views itself-
either as a serious professional sport or a good nights entertainment. Yes
speedway can be and should be both but take a look at the rules – Team make-up,
guests, double points etc. its all geared up to try and produce close matches
and close competitions. All very laudable in one way but too contrived - too
stage managed. The whole ethos seems to be of control presumably to produce a
close entertaining match – but whether it works or not is a matter of opinion.
All it appears to do is make it harder for speedway to gain any kind of
recognition.
At the end of the day team racing at any level is the
most likely event a new supporter will see, maybe after watching a GP on TV –
who knows. Will he want to go again – that probably all depends on which track
he’s been to.
Why do we need all these rules anyway ?
What would happen if there were no rules on who you
could include in your team ? How many teams these days could afford to buy up
all the top riders in any event ? If the
worst came to the worst there might only be 2 or 3 top teams and the rest, ok
they would be a lot weaker but they may all be a similar strength and likely to
produce good matches. There would be a top 2 or 3 teams who would no doubt
fight it out between themselves and may well win all their home matches some by
a big margin – but doesn’t this happen already!
A team of top stars appearing at your local track even if the home team
is weaker may well produce an interesting match and is likely to create greater
interest and increase the crowd in any event.
One of the main issues has to be that spreading out
the top riders amongst the whole league tends to produce unbalanced teams and
if a team loses it’s top rider through injury then they resort to using guests –
not good.
If teams were more balanced absences could be more
easily covered. One more outlandish way of balancing teams maybe that teams are
only required to name riders 2 – 7 the number one spot being filled by a top
rider from a pool on a match by match basis. - It could be done by a ballot so
that there is no favouritism. Daft it may be, radical it certainly is but in
reality it’s not much different than the guest situation we have now- except
that the riders are unattached and there would not be the situation where some
teams use a guest for most of the season because they “can’t find a
replacement”. At least the system would have more credibility.
The difference in ability between a team’s no 1 and
its no 7 is one of the reasons we ended up with the guest rule anyway and while
its always good to see top riders do battle the key to most matches is who
comes out on top in heats 2,8 & 14 –heat leaders don’t normally take part
in these races .
Teams should operate a squad system anyway and if
there has to be some sort of hierarchy for riders, what’s wrong with a grading
system similar to that we had a couple of seasons ago.
One rule everybody it seems, apart from the promoters
that is, want to see go is the old double points or “daft hat” as it is known
in some circles. Chances are then it’ll probably stay. What could replace it ? Back to the old tac-sub rules perhaps ? Well
yes it did have more credibility but the old argument about putting a
recognised heat leader out against second strings and reserves for an “easy”
ride is the reason it got the flick, well more to do with money – extra win =
more ££££ double points = same ££££ well
for most riders that is !! Maybe the
Polish race formula is better. They still use tac-subs but there are no races
like our heats 8 and 14 and they have two nominated races at the end of the
match.
What about another drastic move, handicap racing along
the lines of the Olympique at
What is the future of the Conference league – at the
moment it doesn’t look like it’s got one. It’s looking like an amalgamation
with the Premier and some kind of promotion/relegation is the favoured option.
Doesn’t sound like a bad idea but there will be hardly enough teams and it’s
not going to sit well with some promoters. But whatever agreement can be made
that will retain the existing clubs and encourage new ones has to be in
speedway’s best interests. Unfortunately dropping to a perceived lower level of
racing, while cutting costs, could also have a negative effect on crowds and
this will no doubt be a stumbling block. It has to be said that at some tracks
crowd levels are already getting to unsustainable levels and the saving in
costs by dropping to a lower level may improve matters.
Are we going to have play-offs next year ? Well if we
are let’s make sure that the teams concerned still have something to play for
in the last few league matches. Anybody who witnessed the Belle Vue –
Oh and one other thing, when are meetings such as the
fours, pairs and riders championship
going to be raced on neutral tracks ? I read Nigel Pearson’s bit in the PLRC
programme where he gives us all the reasons why they are run the way they are –
I don’t think you need to be a rocket scientist to work that one out anyway –
but really it’s only a short term fix. Keep going the way it is and the away
supporters will begin to realise how pointless it all is – particularly in the
PL. The announcer at
SLIDER