ITEM: The Polish news site, Sportowefakty, last week ran a feature entitled, "British Speedway In Crisis!", the crux of which was that our speedway is a mess. They came up with several reasons for our "crisis", chief amongst them being a lack of stars in the league. They also highlighted a restrictive points limit, problems with stadium availability, too many fixtures, and low salaries. They also asked their readers what they thought the biggest problem with British speedway was, helpfully including a "British Speedway has no class" option - their readers, incidentally, thought that low wages were the big issue.
Most, if not all, are explained away with the simple answer that British speedway operates under clearly different conditions to speedway in Poland, and in Sweden. British clubs do not operate in the same way as clubs in Poland, nor can they, and from that starting point the rest is pointless. Polish clubs are fortunate to be in receipt of sponsorship and philanthropy from companies and individuals working under (how shall I put this politely?) more lax conditions than their British counterparts, race in stadiums built by or with the support of their local councils, and are largely situated in areas where speedway is by far the number one sport - Britain is unique in the world in the extent to which football pervades society, and even Poole - the club held up to be most in control of their sporting location - will be coming under competition for sponsorship and fans from Bournemouth, Southampton, and the traditional big clubs.
And that's before you consider how much money is owed by how many Polish clubs to how many riders! The same is true in Sweden, with the financial stability of many of their clubs far more parlous than any of ours. You also might want to consider how the Polish season ended last year, with their play-off final abandoned because one side refused to ride, before you allow that particular speedway nation to begin throwing stones from their glass stadiums...
In the spirit of proving that article to be misguided, if not completely inaccurate, it's perhaps time to look at some of the positives about British speedway - things we can be proud of, building blocks for us to stabilise and progress the sport beyond any thoughts of a crisis. There are so many good news stories, even if the salacious tidbits are more fun to rake over, and they sometimes slip through the net, and certainly go without fanfare. So here, in a rare moment of not moaning or pointing out the obvious faults, are the things that make me optimistic about the future of British speedway:
*** We have a thriving amateur scene. In previous years this allowed weekend hobbyists the chance to live out their dreams, with sliding experiences provided by the likes of Olle Nygren, or retired riders to carry on doing something they were probably not going to be paid to do anymore. Recently, however, it has become the first step on the ladder for prospective talents, with training schools and practice days at Buxton, Scunthorpe, Northside, Rye House, Leicester, Coventry, and Iwade feeding talent into the Midland Development and Northern Junior Leagues, and beyond into the National League. Scunthorpe even promote a well-subscribed and well-attended Winter Series, and will fill their 2014 National League side from the best of the unsigned competitors from the series, and on recent evidence it would be no surprise to see some of those riders become Elite League regulars by the end of the decade.
*** We have 32 clubs competing across three leagues, more than any other speedway nation. Despite the (hopefully temporary) loss of the Isle of Wight over the winter, we actually have one more team coming to the tapes in 2014 than in 2013. With Plymouth and Scunthorpe re-entering the National League, and Leicester and Peterborough switching places, it's a solid foundation to once again be proud of. The overall number of clubs has held up well in recent seasons - we've lost 9 (Exeter, Hull, Isle of Wight, Newport, Oxford, Reading, Sittingbourne/Iwade, Weymouth & Wimbledon) but gained 7 (Berwick, Birmingham, Cradley [sharing at Wolves], Kent, Leicester, Plymouth & Redcar), but increased the number of "non-league" tracks from 1 (Lydd) to 3 (Northside & Iwade). Poland had 22 tracks in 2005, and still has 22 today, although it has been has high as 24 teams (albeit with the help of clubs from Latvia, Ukraine, Hungary, and the Czech Republic). Sweden had a high of 23 tracks operating in 2008, but will go into 2014 with just 18 (and one of those is in Finland!)
*** Whatever you think of him and whether, as Leigh Adams spitefully suggests, he owes his success to the Australian junior system, we have the World Champion! Plenty of young Australians go through their junior programmes and don't make it to our shores. Fewer still break into club sides, and you can count those that make it to the very top level on one hand. I would argue that Woffinden's success owes more to the opportunities afforded by racing at all three levels in this country than the start he got in Western Australia - how many come over fully-formed? None, and that's because a racing career in Britain is paramount to succeeding at the highest level for the majority of the world's stars, whether they be Australian, Swedish, Danish, Polish, or - whisper it - British. And now, just like once in a blue moon, that's paid off and its British speedway that can boast the world champion.
*** We're going into a brave new world this season, giving youth a chance at the top level for the first time in a generation. This builds on the good work that the National League has done over the past dozen years to turn itself into both a nursery for emerging talent and a competitive, commercially-viable league in its own regard. The twenty riders taking to the track next month for their Elite League teams will not all make the grade. Most likely, 75-80% of them will find their level is more Premier or National League but for the sake of progressing four or five decent talents a season, the fast track draft is an exciting development in British speedway. Sweden, too, is embarking on the same path, and Poland has been doing it for years. Are we late to the party? Yes. Is that a bad thing? Not if we do it right from now on. It's a massive positive and the majority of fans have treated it as such.
Now I hope you're feeling as positive as I am about British speedway in 2014, maybe we can address Sportowefakty's specific concerns?
*** Restrictive points limit: by this they mean any points limit, because the Polish EkstraLiga has just abandoned theirs for the 2014 season, leading to the ludicrous prospect of a Torun team (the very same club that walked out on the play-off final last year, incidentally) with Holder, Ward, Gollob, Sayfutdinov, and Miedzinski as their top 5. A points limit of any kind is essential when there is a league of unequals, financially-speaking, and while Poole have dominated in recent years (through fair means and foul) but 8 clubs have made the play-offs in the last 4 seasons (only Belle Vue, absent since 2005, have been truly cut adrift but hope springs eternal). Furthermore, despite some close calls, only one top flight club has closed down for financial reasons in the history of the Elite League - it remains to be seen what effect abandoning the points limit has in Poland at season's end...
*** Problems with stadium availability: I presume they mean we can't get together and agree on a single raceday for our league, ignoring two very good reasons why we probably wouldn't even if we could. Firstly, when would we have that raceday? Speedway was traditionally a weekend sport, with the top flight when I first started watching racing on Friday and Saturday (and two Monday tracks), but Sundays are the Polish raceday and the majority of Fridays and Saturdays taken up with FIM competitions. League speedway on any other night would be a non-starter, at least in my opinion. Secondly, Polish (and Swedish) clubs also seem content to promote only a handful of home meetings a season - a minimum of seven but scarcely many more - and that's because they are sporting clubs, and always have been/ By contrast, British speedway grew out of promoters (retaining the title) staging speedway for commercial gain, and to restrict them to a handful of meetings across a viable season of 7-8 months is folly (well, for anyone other than Bob Dugard). If clubs do have a problem with stadiums, it's that they are tenants, not owners, and this is something that needs to be addressed by all promoters (even those happy with their current arrangements, because things can change in a heartbeat) but I don't see it as a stick to beat us with. As I said, Poland is fortunate in that its culture is of providing municipal arenas for its sporting clubs - we no longer have that, if we ever had it at all...
*** Too many fixtures: the simple answer to this is, "for whom?" Because I don't know about you, but I want weekly speedway at my local track, and I'm fortunate enough - with the addition of National League speedway last season - to get it. Sportowefakty estimated a top racer would get 30 meetings in the UK (a very conservative estimate - upwards of 40, more like) and thus struggle to fit them in with the SGP, Poland, and Sweden. As I explained above, there's a good reason why we have so many fixtures - they expand to fill the calendar. There is the possibility that an Elite Elite League could be formed, with a handful of fixtures by a handful of teams, who run regular Elite League fixtures the rest of the time, but that plays into the hands of those looking to pick their meetings and all kinds of other associated issues.
*** Low salaries: clubs (should) pay what they can afford. If a rider wants more than they can afford, the club says no, or finds a sponsor willing to make up the difference. To inflate salaries to the level riders are getting in Poland, where there's no guarantee they'll actually receive it, is stupid. No, it's worse than stupid, it's suicidal. While their should be some wiggle room within a budget, to completely abandon it because riders can get more in another country is not the act of any competent promoter. Despite claiming their budget for 2013 was comparatively low, it was clearly more than Birmingham could afford, and the future of the club was at risk for nothing more than runners-up - best loser, as I call it. Far better to keep British speedway sensibly budgeted, and if that means paying far less than the fantasy speedway of the Polish leagues, so be it. Riders can still make a very good living from riding in Britain, and those that can't should perhaps consider whether "full-time speedway rider" is a title they can afford to give themselves. After all, when British speedway was at the top of the tree, in the 1960s and 1970s, only a handful of top flight riders in each team were full-time professionals...
*** A lack of stars: All but one of the 15 regular Grand Prix riders will ride in the EkstraLiga this season, with just 6 riding in the Elite League. However, all but two of those SGP riders have ridden in the EL in the past three years, and there are nine EL riders who have ridden as SGP regulars in that same time period. It's undoubted that certain SGP stars put bums on seats - witness the reaction to Emil Sayfutdinov's appearances for Coventry in 2011 - but equally the visits of Peter Karlsson, Przemyslaw Pawlicki, and Craig Cook will be just as keenly anticipated by EL fans this season. The concept of "stars", when you are dealing with a minority sport such as speedway, is entirely subjective - it shouldn't be beyond the ken of the collective brain of the BSPA to create new stars from the putty they have to work with, and the first step towards that is to stop fetishising those who, for whatever reason, we don't see every week.
There you have it. This year's reasons to be cheerful. British speedway isn't perfect but I'll take Birmingham versus Swindon over Torun versus Czestochowa any day (although Lakeside versus Eastbourne might be a different prospect...). If we had an equivalent of Sportowefakty (and how I wish we did!) I would like to think that we would be above taking potshots at our rival leagues. British speedway, despite what 18% of Sportowefakty's readers think, definitely does have class!
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