Post-AGM Fallout! (and other things)

Before I finally start this week’s blog – and thankyou for your patience while my real life kept getting in the way – I want to highlight the efforts of my club Coventry, on behalf of the whole sport, at this year’s Motorcycle Live Show at Birmingham’s NEC.

For nine frenetic days, they manned a stall (at their own expense) which promoted the sport – and every club was featured in its promotional backing and handouts – to tens of thousands of bike fans, one demographic oddly absent from our fanbase. If only a fraction of those who stopped by the stall start attending their local track – handily found for them by the volunteers on the stand – then it’s been a worthwhile exercise.

There were even some celebrity visitors – Charlie Boorman stopped by and I’m also going to pretend that Prince William, who visited the show on his way to watch the mighty Villa, left dreaming of skidding a bike around a specially built track in Buckingham Palace gardens.

Coventry’s liaison officer Trevor Randle, and his hardy band of helpers, deserves a massive pat on the back for organising it, as do the riders who gave up their time to help him, and the Coventry promotion should also be congratulated for backing him with whatever he needed to make that splash our sport badly needs. Good work fellas!

ITEM: So the AGM is done for another year, and the dust has settled on what could be The Most Important AGM For Years^TM (see also previous Most Important AGM For Years...). Radical surgery was needed to overturn a steady decline that had resulted in not only the worst Elite League season for quite some time but also the perilous financial state some clubs – in all divisions - find themselves in. When the EL Play-Off finalists are not paying their bills, something is very, very wrong!

What came out of the three-day meeting in Coventry (a far cry from the jolly boys' outing to Spain that used to categorise these end-of-season get-togethers) is a mixed bag. Some very positive changes have been made, but also some things that needed changing have been left alone. Still, it's a time to be positive, so let's look at what they got right...

Top flight reserve berths will be occupied by young British riders: this is not a new idea. Indeed, it was put into practice in 1986, and in the 1990s, with mixed results. However, the state of British speedway – and depth of British talent – at those times was so much greater than it is now, and any positive results from those experiments may have been masked by the general fortunes of British riders. I don't think anyone can argue that we're at an all-time low when it comes to the impact British riders are making on the international scene, and – sadly – in our domestic leagues.

It's been mooted before, but never put into practice for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's basically contrary to EU employment law, which guarantees no discrimination by nationality, although the finer points of that law are for lawyers and politicians to argue. They've been quite clever here, though (or at least I hope they have!), by wording the regulations in that the riders' nationality is not explicitly stated, just that they have to have come through the National League. Which, at the present time, is for British riders only. To challenge the reserves rule would first need a challenge to the National League rule, and so the problem is kicked down the road, for a while at least. I've always been a fan of “seek forgiveness rather than ask permission”, and the decision to take away the British discount in anticipation of a legal challenge was wrong in that regard. It's good to see them taking the bull by the horns and making changes based on what needs to be done rather than worrying about something that may not happen.

The second reason this has not been put into operation before now is that the Premier League, the natural place for such a system to begin, has always been reluctant to do it. I know of several EL promoters who have spoken of their PL counterparts in gynaecological and scatological terms after their steadfast refusal to back British. Some are worse than others – no-one can accuse Len Silver, whatever his motives, of not using homegrown talent – but there seems to be a unitary reluctance to use British riders ahead of (presumably cheaper) Australian, German, Danish, and Argentinian bottom-feeders. Ideally, the progression for the young British riders drafted into the top flight would have been for two places in the Premier League, and one place in the EL for the very best. Some have argued that it might be too far, too soon for some of these riders, and they may be right, but the EL has to be applauded for taking this step when the PL wouldn't. Look at the buzz created by the draft and tell me that the staid old PL couldn't have done with some of the same! But, no, you carry on with filling your league with foreign riders who will never set the world alight...

I've argued before about the longer-term benefits of creating local heroes, and they're certainly going to be more valuable to the “brand” than the Lubos Tomiceks, Henning Bagers, and Todd Kurtzs of this world. I only ask that EL fans who are unfamiliar with the great majority of these riders give them a chance to show you what they've got, and also for patience to see this thing play out over a season (and in future seasons). Those of us who've seen these boys at National League level know they're not novice wobblers, and James Sarjeant – way down in the list graded by Phil Morris and Neil Vatcher (no poor spotters of talent) – was on the pace in Coventry's late-season challenge at Leicester. The benefits outweigh the negatives on this one, and I'm excited and encouraged that it's happening in my league in 2014.

For more on the actual draft, see below…

More meaningful fixtures: Both leagues have recognized that this is an issue, and not before time. For the past three seasons, as a direct result of the Winter Of Discontent (and speedway promoter Bob Dugard’s reluctance to promote speedway meetings), the Elite League has operated a lopsided fixture list, with some teams meeting home and away just once, while others meet twice. Left to the promoters to choose, some odd choices led to anomalies like local rivals Swindon and Poole, and arch-rivals Coventry and Poole, meeting only once in recent years, robbing both promotions of much-needed gate money. In the Premier League, a small reduction in team numbers was met with a League Cup that was more league, less cup, and what should have been an early season filler competition stumbled on into late autumn.

This time around, the top flight has gone for home and away, twice. It means each team will have eighteen meaningful home fixtures, up four on last year, and clever manipulation of the fixture list should ensure that teams are at home three weeks out of four. People so easily get out of the habit of going to speedway when its not a regular thing – when there are weeks between fixtures, or fixtures are squeezed in on off-nights, crowds suffer. The one saving grace of Coventry’s awful 2013 season was almost-weekly speedway, with the National League Storm filling the gaps left by the Bees. And we’re carrying it on into 2014, if everything goes to plan. We needn’t be alone – with young assets being ever more valuable as a result of the fast-track draft and a rumoured new priority system, even clubs unable/unwilling to commit to a full season of NL racing should stage challenges, like Birmingham did with the Bulls in past seasons. Everything to gain, very little to lose.

Down in the Premier League, they’ve gone for the odd format the EL has just ditched, with fourteen home league meetings per team (and only eleven unique opponents) but haven’t yet explained how the extra fixtures might work. The obvious system to me would be geographical, with the league split into three sets of four, and the extra home meetings coming against teams in your group. So, for instance, Glasgow would race Edinburgh, Berwick, and Workington twice, and all the other teams once. But common sense and speedway don’t often pal up so, you know.

Quite why they’ve chosen fourteen meetings is odd. And leads me to wonder whether they’re there as a safety valve for late entries into the league. The future of the National League looked decidedly ropey a few weeks ago, with doubts over the Isle of Wight’s feasibility (doubts that are still there, sadly), and questions over whether Mildenhall, Dudley, and Kent might take a step up. The 2014 National League looks much more viable – and, indeed, even healthy – and at the league’s AGM on Tuesday they should announce a league of anywhere between eight and twelve teams. But there was a real possibility, tied in with the speculation that Ipswich and Rye House would take a step up into the top flight (which I can confirm they did consider, even going so far as to sound out the EL, but chose not to follow up on), that those three sides would step up. As it is, Dudley decided that the Premier League hasn’t reformed itself sufficiently for them to take that step at this point, and so they – and the “junior” partners of the Witches and Rockets – remain third-tier sides in 2014. Of course, there’s the hope that Peterborough might ride PL next season, and they could take one of the empty fixture slots, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

New blood in the EL: Although we had to lose Peterborough to get them, it’s nice to finally welcome Leicester into the top flight. As I’ve written before, they applied last season but were rejected when Peterborough objected on the grounds that a good chunk of Peterborough’s fans came from the Leicester area. The Panthers threatened to withdraw from the league if Leicester were elevated last year, and the other EL promoters chose to placate Rick Frost. Come this year’s AGM, and Leicester are up, and Peterborough are gone. Read into that what you will.

For those of you who haven’t been to Leicester before, I can tell you that the club has a great set-up. For a stadium built from nothing, it’s a super place to watch speedway, and will only improve as the years go on. The car park is a fair walk away from the track, but the stadium was (still is?) supposed to be just one part of a multi-sports facility, and the empty land between them will presumably be filled one day. But the track! Oh, God, the track! I think they were going for a Wolves when they built it, but they got it very wrong – staggering considering they had a blank slate. It has improved a little since the early days but passing is still at a premium there, and anything more they can do to it would be very welcome. Having said that, it’s still a better track than Belle Vue or Lakeside, so one shouldn’t moan too much.

As I mentioned earlier, Leicester were not the only early applicants for promotion, and it’s a shame that – for whatever reason – Ipswich and Rye House chose not to take up their option. The top flight needs more clubs, if for no other reason than it would finally be able to outvote its lesser partner at BSPA meetings, and get real progress happening in our sport. Still, if the draft works out, and Leicester have a good year, there’s always 2015…

The return of the British League: I hope I’m not jumping the start on this one, but it certainly seems to be the plan that the Elite League will revert to its pre-1995 name (a title used successfully for thirty years before that). There are some that claim the Elite moniker is tied up with Sky, forgetting that the EL existed for two years before Sky came on board, and I’m led to believe that when the new TV deal is announced that retaining the name shouldn’t be a condition of that deal. However, things change, so excuse me if I look a fool down the line.

The term “Elite” has always been contentious. Yes, it contains the Elitest riders willing to ride in this country, and is undoubtedly the top league in British speedway, but as the years wore on it became less and less Elite, and thus open to ridicule. I can understand why it was changed, and as a rebranding exercise it seemed to pay off (securing that Sky deal in the first place) but it’s worn out its welcome now, and I hope we’ll be watching BL action once more in 2014.

So what to do with the Premier League? They kept the 1995-96 title when they reverted to being a second division once more, but it’s always been a ridiculous title. Premier means first, and if there’s a stronger league above you it’s hard to argue that you are premier. Some football leagues have Premier divisions, but they also have first, and second, and third, divisions beneath them. The PL doesn’t even have that. In an ideal world, the PL would call itself the British League Division 2, but I can see how promoters trying to sell speedway to a local public largely ignorant of other leagues might not want to appear inferior, even when they are. Perhaps a midway point might be British League Division 1, with an understanding that the top flight is the BL Premier, but that would mean a level of co-operation and compromise that is probably beyond some members of the BSPA these days. Still, what’s in a name, eh?

No teams lost (well, one, but we'll come to that later): There were, as always, serious doubts over the future of some speedway clubs this year. Birmingham and Swindon struggled to pay bills in the top flight, Glasgow lost a huge amount of money, and Sheffield are up for sale. However, Peterborough apart, we didn’t lose anyone (touch wood – Newport is still fresh in the memory), and may even gain on some “reserve” sides in the National League.

Keeping what we’ve got is vitally important. The threatened clubs are either geographically isolated, or situated in big cities in which it is paramount we keep a presence. Ideally, we need to expand the sport into other areas, but doing that from a base of twenty-eight clubs is easier than from much less.

So what did they get wrong? Well, not much inasmuch as they didn’t really make any bad decisions. The negatives come out of what they could have done and, indeed, what had been proposed by various parties to be tabled.

There was serious discussion leading up to the AGM of requiring riders to sign an agreement to put British speedway before any other commitments, which may have seen the back of some overseas commuters, especially the Poles. It would also have curtailed some disappearing acts for odd competitions, and may have also impacted on Grand Prix riders. Tai Woffinden’s win in Torun in October put paid to that, and so we still left with the parlous state of inter-federation agreements and the FIM calendar, both of which the Swedes and Danes ignored in 2013 (the Poles, as always, do what they want).

There was also thought given to restricting the number of riders per team flying in from Europe, a backdoor way of reducing costs and giving team places to British riders (and the colonials that base themselves here). I think that is happening in a de facto way, even if it is not mandated, but we’ll see how long it lasts when teams look to quick fixes for mid-season slumps.

As I’ve written above, Rye House and Ipswich, and a couple of others, were interested in top flight speedway, but decided in the end it wasn’t for them. For this to have happened, the top flight would have had to have weakened a little more than it did (a 10% reduction was made, by my calculations), and also the Premier League would have taken a step backwards (with a further knock-on to the National League). For whatever reason, the Premier League have decided that they want to stay as they are, despite some of their clubs struggling with finances, and them losing more teams than they’ve gained in the last few seasons (from 16 to 12 in five seasons). Some of their clubs are charging EL entrance money for a much weaker product, with little ambition (and some geographical difficulty) in actually moving up. But what do I know? I’m not a promoter, never will be, and it’s not for me to tell them what to do. Except I will – fall in line, PL!

Overall, they did a fair job this year. The top flight will have a brand new coat of paint for 2014, and with a bit of patience from promoters and fans alike will pay dividends down the line. The second tier will do what it will do. And the third division may have an injection of teams which will help the progression – and geographical spread – of young British talent as we move into the “Woffinden era”, when every man and his dog – carefully corralled by Nigel Pearson – wants a piece of the champion.

I spent the first few days after last year’s AGM horribly disappointed, because they’d seemed to be willing to take some steps to solve some problems and chose not to. We were left with the same old thing and it gave us the worst EL season for many, many years. This time around I’m brimming with confidence – perhaps more than is natural or realistic – and it’s a good feeling. Positivity!

ITEM: What to do about Peterborough, then? To be honest, I’ve never felt comfortable with the Panthers being a top flight side – they weren’t when I first got into speedway, and have never seemed to have the fanbase to support it. A competitive EL side needs to have a core attendance of over 1000, minimum, or a wealthy benefactor willing to subsidise those missing fans. If that benefactor grows tired – as Rick Frost seems to have done at Alwalton – that side is no longer sustainable at its current level. We don’t see it happen so often in speedway, but it sure as Hell happens all the time in football, and this is a reality check we probably could have done without.

With a core fanbase of around 500 fans, and a floating attendance of about the same (drawn by the attraction of second division speedway and one of the best racing tracks in the country), the Panthers can certainly be competitive at Premier League level, if an agreement can be made with their landlords at the East of England Showground. They need to go back to basics, however – a solid, locally-based team (your Kevin Hawkins and Ian Barneys) and a fixed racenight (just pick the one with most free dates throughout the year), and they could be golden.

There are reported to be five interested parties, and the PL is holding open a spot should one be successful (and, you presume, the NL would do the same if the new owners decided to start there) so all is not lost for Panthers’ fans. Fingers crossed.

ITEM: So how about that draft! Were you following it on the day? Exciting, wasn’t it? Okay, so whoever was tweeting the picks from ACU House got a bit carried away and splurged them all at once, but it was a lot of fun seeing teams being constructed in front of our eyes. The US sports do their drafts live on TV, and I’m told that if (when!) it happens next year it will be done like this, even if that TV is a YouTube channel rather than Sky Sports News. I can only hope that the Premier League – who really should have been doing this instead of the EL – saw the buzz and want a piece of the action. Imagine two drafts… double fun!

As for the results, I think it’s a pretty even bunch, which was certainly the intention. The original system – a complicated list of 26 riders slotted into three groups (graded A, B and C) and with some picks precluding others – was smoothed over by Phil Morris, who not only came up with a more workable formula but also gave a little introduction on each rider to unfamiliar EL promoters and gave advice based on knowing those riders and their styles, preferences, and personalities, and I don’t think too many EL management teams are unhappy with what they’ve got in reserve for 2014.

Looking at it purely on paper, Wolves, King’s Lynn and Coventry look to have gotten the best pairings, while Swindon, Belle Vue, and Birmingham didn’t do so well. But speedway meetings are not won on paper, and if the clubs back their new recruits with advice, coaching, and proper equipment, none of them will let their sides down.

Whatever the results, and whoever chose who, though, the simple truth is that each team will give at least 288 rides to young British riders in 2014, and that’s why there are no losers in this. One – or two or five – of these riders will join Tai Woffinden at the top table one day, and while we may not be able to point at this draft and say, “that’s why!”, it certainly will have played its part. Get behind the draft, get behind the boys.