I need some help!!! I dont understand the first thing about speedway - who are the top teams? do they have home venues? how do they make money? do the riders get paid by the club? why isnt it as popular as it used to be? Im doing some research into sport - and speedway could be a part of this. cheers
Naps...in a nutshell, Speedway involves 4 riders (2 from the home team and 2 from the away team) riding around a shale track (usually between 250 - 400m in length), anticlockwise, on bikes with no brakes or gears, and which are fuelled with methanol. The acceleration is similar to that of a Formula 1 car. Riders finishing first, score 3 points; second place receives 2 points, and third place scores 1 point. You get nothing for finishing last.
In Britain, there are three leagues. The Elite League has 10 teams, and is the top level of racing. The Premier League has 14 teams and is the 2nd tier, and the National league has 10 teams and is effectively used as a feeder league for the top teams, and a proving ground for younger riders.
In terms of the traditionally larger teams, many have fallen by the wayside in recent years due to being turfed out by Landlords and/or being financially unsustainable in a climate where sponsorship is lacking, and promotion of the Sport is woeful........at present however, you could probably look no further than Poole, Coventry and Belle Vue (from Manchester) as the bigger names in the UK.
Every Club in the Elite and Premier League has a home track, but most of the Clubs in the UK do not own their stadiums - they are typically tenants within greyhound or stock car tracks. The critical issue with this is that with no primacy of tenure, and no control over the condition of the often crumbling stadiums, unlike football, they have zero ability to make non-matchday revenue....not of any significance anyhow. Also, many tracks are located out of town or are only accessible by car given the planning restrictions surrounding noise.
The only Club that could be seen as a viable financial concern are probably Poole, as they are the Town's principle sporting brand, and have a strong following for UK Speedway (probably an average crowd of circa 3,000).
As for riders, like football they are usually owned/contracted by a parent Club, but unlike football...more often than not, they will be loaned out indefinitely to other Clubs. Riders can also 'double-up' between the lower leagues and the Elite league, and the top riders will often have 3 or 4 Clubs, as they supplement their British income by riding for a club in Poland, a club in Denmark, a club in Sweden, and possibly even a Club in Russia.
Riders get paid for the Club they are riding for at the time, and generally get paid per point they score. Top riders ('heat leaders') in a team will be expected to score decent points consistently, and are rewarded accordingly....theoretically if you were riding for 3 European Clubs in a week, and you scored, for argument's sake, 30 points in total, you could rake in about £3k or more.
The reasons behind the failing of the Sport are largely due to poor promotion from the Sport's Governing Body, and the lack of ownership/contol of facilities. I have written a number of articles/blogs about this, which are on my website -
http://www.thespeedwayrevolution.co.uk
I am also part of the management committee taking forward a new UK Supporters' Association, designed to give the paying public a voice and build bridges with the Governing Body - imho, a key step in the fight to raise the profile of the Sport, and ensure we do not lose another generation. You can find out more about that at
http://www.speedwayfansunited.com
Finally, if you are new to the Sport, why not give it a watch - Sky Sports have a live British league fixture every Monday fron 7.30pm, and we are now entering the Grand Prix series, where the top 16 riders in the World battle it out in some of the best stadiums accross Europe -
http://www.speedwaygp.com - these are all also broadcast on Sky...usually on Saturday evenings.
