Part 3 we're looking at having 1 Professional League, Looking at the Calendar, The League & Competitions Layout and The National League. 

Structuring the Calendar 

We need to structure the British Calendar to suit our needs, forget Grand Prix superstars for the minute. Now is the time to build the League based on our economy. There are plenty of talented riders around who could do the job, but we need to create a support structure.

 The League 

All professional speedway clubs will enter one professional British League, the 'premiership' if you will. I'm fully aware of the shortage of riders and the number of matches needed for riders. I'll come on to that! Considering all the current members, a single league allows 34 matches for each team and 34 matches for the club riders. The season will start at the beginning of March. We aim to complete league matches by mid-August, allowing the playoffs to be completed in September. This allows all clubs to get 1 home and 1 away match every week. There are 22 weeks from March to the first week of August, so we have a few weeks wiggle room for the inevitable rain offs and other meetings such as testimonials or test matches. 

Top 6 go into the TV-friendly playoff system, it doesn't matter how it's structured as it's for TV, but I would suggest 3rd v 6th. 4th v 5th in a one-off match. 1st then picks their first opponent, 2nd get the remaining, then 2-legged semi-finals and finals to decide the champions. The romantic in me would love to see the traditional 'winner takes all' league system from before the playoff era, but I acknowledge this system works well for television. We're trying to build this League to appeal to a broader audience; therefore, it must suit TV demands.  

Once most league fixtures are completed, we can start a new competition, It doesn't matter what it's called, but I'll call it the Fours Trophy for this exercise.

 The Fours Trophy (i.e. The Rendition of the Fours)

Once the League has started to rap up, we can create a second competition. You can call it whatever you want, but I've always liked the 'Speedway Legends Trophy' idea, celebrating riders of the past. Remember the carnival atmosphere we used to get at events like the fours and best pairs? Even in 2018, the fours at Peterborough was well received and had a bumper crowd. This is what we want to recreate.

The League can be divided up into 5 groups, and each club hosts the other 2 teams in their 'home' matches in a new format designed for 3 teams at once. 3 Matches, team with the most points after the 3 matches progress to the final.

The final will be contested by 5 teams and a bumper 30 heat contest to crown The Legends Trophy Champions. The 2022 Trophy could be in memory of Colin Pratt and Alan Graham, a tribute to the men who lived a briefed the sport.

Knock Out Cup

 If teams want to bulk out the fixtures, you could re-introduce the traditional Knock Out Cup.

Divide the Nation into 5 Groups, winner of each group goes through plus the best-placed second club.

Another two groups, North and South. Winners of each group go through to the final.

2-Legged winner takes all final.

Other Meetings 

The British League Riders Championship

Focus on the fans, get the crowds back in, have pre-match fan zones and post-match events. Try to recreate the buzz we were once accustomed to at prestigious events like the British Final. Make it a Saturday afternoon, say 4 pm, to encourage the attendance of families and long-distance travelling supporters.

The Best Pairs (36 Riders, 2 from each Club)

We all remember this at Somerset on the Friday before the GP. That option has gone out the window for two reasons, Somerset isn't there anymore, and SGP2 will take place on the Friday before the British Grand Prix (Since writing this, I found out SGP2 will take place on the sunday after the Cardiff SGP). The pairs could be contested by 36 riders, two from each club. You could even stage it over three meetings, two semi-finals and a final.

The National League 

The first thing we need to do is bring down the barrier to entry and make lower League racing affordable for riders. We probably won't be able to do much in the first year as it might be too quickly. Still, in year two we could introduce a cheaper version of modern speedway bike used specifically for National Development Standard Speedway, alongside the SGP4 youth machinery. The bike could be a version of the old upright engines with cheaper tuning requirements.

BSL could purchase bikes in a job lot and essentially lease this machinery to the NDL riders for their matches, keeping the cost down for the prospective riders and giving BSL more autonomy over the costs of the bikes. You could call it the BSL Rider Community Scheme. This will give riders access to a central machinery pool, especially for the National Development standard speedway.

If BSL can store and move the bikes in the future, Riders who only ride solely in the National League could turn up in their mum's car without worrying about vans and trailers. All they would need is their riding equipment. Once they go into the professional League, they can decide to commit and purchase the required machinery.

As technology and availability evolve, we could introduce F2 or electric bikes. Tracks could host training days using electric technology without worrying about noise issues! I do believe Electric Bikes have a place in speedway. That place could be streamlining the pathway into the National League on the upright engines, then into the full laydowns used in professional racing.

The National Development League is so important to the future of the sport. Now we've only got Mildenhall as an NDL exclusive track. The BSL Futures team will need to be bringing more tracks back to for development purposes like Buxton, Linlithgow, Sittingbourne, St Austell, and training specific tracks like what we had at Eastbourne and Sheffield. 

In Summary

Each club (and the riders associated) is guaranteed;

 34 League Matches, 17 Home and 17 Away 

 3 Legends Trophy Matches

 4 Knock Out Cup Group 1 Matches (if applicable)

The clubs can also potentially have;

4 further Matches in the League Play-Offs

 1 Outing in the Legends Trophy Final 

 4 further Matches in the Knockout Cup Group 2 

 2 Matches in the Knockout Cup Final.

2 further matches for top end riders in the Pairs and BLRC.

Clubs can guarantee their riders 41 matches, extending to 52 for successful sides.

Example of the Comparable to Current System (2021)

Scott Nicholls – Current System (Guaranteed Appearances Only) 

 22 Matches with Kent 

 20 Matches with Peterborough 

 42 Matches through the campaign, excluding guest bookings, individuals and finals etc.

Scott Nicholls – New System (Guaranteed Appearances Only) 

 34 Matches in League with Kent 

 4 Matches in the Legends Tournament 

 4 Knock Out Cup Matches

 42 Matches through the campaign, excluding guest bookings and finals etc.

Improving the Sport

Current Issues in Speedway

In Part 2, we're looking at Club Memberships, Match Ticket systems, Club Shops and Digital Media.

British Speedway League (BSL Club Membership)

BSL Club Membership could split some people, as every club will require total commitment to support the British Speedway League as a central entity. The British Speedway League Club will gradually replace the mishmash of different platforms British clubs use for their digital and club merchandise needs. Through this platform, supporters will buy their matchday tickets (in tandem with, not instead of cash turnstiles), club merchandise, and access digital content such as match highlights and interviews. We can also use the platform for premium streaming of live matches, possibly through a pay as you go model. 

Imagine a single place where you can reach any potential fans, helping entice them into this beautiful sport through promotional videos and slick branding to back it up.

Central Match Ticket System

Travelled from Redcar to Poole only for it to be rained off? Never mind, you can redeem your BSL purchase at a Redcar home match!

All British Speedway League Club Membership members get issued a club membership card. You can use the card to gain access to your home track and any other track in the country. Members who use their club card every week can build up loyalty points which, can be used for rewards such as free entry to away fixtures or a discounted home ticket. This way, we can encourage seasoned veterans and new faces to explore other tracks in their area.

One thing to remember at this stage, it's all about encouraging more people through the turnstiles. We will likely see a shortfall in income due to the initial discounts. However, the added value given to supporters will see attendances rise through referral marketing, one of the most substantial and natural resources available to promotors. 

You could put all sorts of benefit schemes in place to encourage loyalty. For example, if you attended ten speedway matches, you can enter one match at any OTHER TRACK for £5 or attend your local club for £10! Use it to discover what else is out there. If you're a Wolverhampton faithful, you can redeem your voucher for a £5 ticket entry to check out Leicester or Birmingham. 

The great thing about this is the rewards can be vast, but it doesn't have to replace cash and card on the turnstiles. If the older supporters want to pay their money and go, let them! We can give them leaflets explaining the benefits of BSL Club, but ultimately, we don't want to overcomplicate their experience. A confused mind doesn't buy.

Suppose BSL can offset the risk of losing your money to rain off's or other unforeseen abandonments. With the central system in place, we can encourage more advance ticket purchases, especially if travelling fans have the safety net of redeeming their credit at a home match due to cancellation.

BSL Club Shop

Allow all the clubs within the league to sell their merchandise through the BSL website. The system can also include Speedway GP and individual riders merchandise if promotions can make a deal beneficial to British Speedway. It's a system that works tremendously well in the USA's NFL. If all your speedway gift needs are in one place, the sport's chances of sale and direct profit increase for speedway. You could sell the usual things like shirts, hoodies, hats, but you can expand that range to BSL club ties, handcuffs, jewellery, phone cases, signed goggles or race jackets. There's a market for this stuff which you can see if you look on places like eBay. Why not capitalise on it for the direct benefit of the tracks.

Plus, fans can keep building their loyalty points. Again, this doesn't have to replace individual club shops, but it will require the respective clubs to either hand over merchandise needs to BSL or work closely with them. Buying power with BSL will increase through the central procurement resources. They'll be able to negotiate better supply costs for merchandise and, in turn, sell the products to the fans at affordable rates.

We could also start offering clubs matchday programs through digital platforms. It won't replace the physical copies bought at the track but gives an alternative option to new fans with a low distribution cost. 

There are many fantastic benefits for fans just for signing up, but we could offer even more incentives for people who sign up for British Speedway League Club Premium. Here are some examples of what could be done for premium members. 

• Get early access to match highlights (ahead of public release on public platforms like Vimeo and YouTube.
• Discounts on match tickets and programmes
• Annual membership packs - Including things like a pin badge, annual booklet with the fixtures and team line ups, a British League program board, Car Sticker etc. 
•  You could partner with Speedway Star and create a joint membership, the possibilities are vast.
• BSL Annual aimed at younger supporters, with rider profiles, history, full-colour images. Crosswords, paint by numbers, colouring, all that good stuff.  
• Potential for a central streaming service, pay per view for full matches or allow premium members access to some live streams, promoting the service even more.
• Keep live speedway on TV, interlace the youth races with the central meetings, keep the crowd entertained and give the TV coverage time to do interviews and ads.
• Put together a weekly speedway highlights package, covering every match with two riders giving their opinion to a head anchor, for example, someone like Steve Brandon.

Speedway Live Streaming 

• We would need buy-in from the companies filming the league matches to work—Clean Cut Sports, Speedway Portal, Re Run Videos etc. 
• We want BSL members to have access to digital streaming of matches and the license carriers for each venue to commit to highlights packages after EVERY MATCH. We don't just want to see single camera angle video footage of the racing. We want to see an exciting collection of shots from multiple angles, action in the pits, and the crowd's reaction. Show us something that will keep us interested alongside the action on the track.
• Make the highlight packages available within one day for members on the BSL Portal and three days to the general public.  

The International Test Stream was £14.99 from Glasgow; this gives you an idea of the current value placed on speedway from promotions.

I've mentioned loyalty points and rewards multiple times. It's a key part of building the fanbase and retaining new fans. When marketing is discussed, it's often referring to new customers, but maintaining your current fanbase and extending from within is far cheaper and more cost efficient. Members can earn loyalty Points through;

• Regular Attendance of your Local Track 
• Regular attendance of other Tracks 
• Merchandise Purchase
• Live stream Purchases 
• Social Media Interaction 
• Competitions

Bringing the Fan-base Together

The BSL Club can bring our fan-base together through a centrally managed system, giving promoters the ability to access all the fans with promotions, news and event details. Promotors could give reward vouchers to volunteers at the tracks, the lifeblood of the sport, with credit on their memberships to use on merchandise or tickets for away trips. We could put a referral scheme in place once the platform is established. Referral marketing is the most efficient type of marketing out there. Entire businesses are built using this system. It's cheap, easy to use, and provides supporters with an easy way to recommend the sport to their friends and family.

We all support our teams, but most of us support the sport just as much, if not more! The British Speedway League club will be the place to go if you're a speedway fan in the UK.

Improving the Sport

Current Issues in Speedway

In Part 1 we'll be looking at the British Speedway League's Structure, Governing and administration System.

Introduction

If you haven't looked at it yet, then you need to read the 'Current Issues' section of our Future of British Speedway series. Otherwise, some of the explanations in this section might not make sense. There have been many suggestions on repairing the sport, some good, some not so much. What we all agree on is changes need to be made to the fundamental way Speedway is operated.
The suggestions in this article will need the sport to change drastically behind the scenes. However, very little will need to switch on the track itself. It will also take a massive commitment from everyone involved. It's not a short-term fix. We are looking at the long-term future of Speedway in the UK.
We may lose a few hardcore fans in the short term, but the long-term must take precedence if Speedway is to not only survive but thrive.  
We've seen cricket revolutionise the sports following with the 100 series and 20/20 cricket. We've seen Ice Hockey turn their fortunes around through the essential matchday experience envisioned by Sheffield Stealers owner Tony Smith, pulling in average crowds of 7'000 per game.
Speedway needs to change, but it doesn't need to start from scratch. Ice Hockey and Cricket are essentially the same game but presented and managed differently.

British Speedway has found itself in a new position in the European market. It's no longer the place for world championship riders and isn't an essential part of aspiring world champions CVs. For years now, we have been resisting the gradual shift of our position within the world speedway marketplace. Maybe it's time to embrace it, not fight it.
We need to create a speedway experience that attracts fans, sponsors and the media. If we concentrate on the foundations of our house, we can then build the sport into a place where world champions feel compelled to ride once again.

We're not just talking about changing the leagues' names here, a new logo, different race format. We need a complete overhaul of the way Speedway is managed and published. Gone will be the win at all costs attitude of any rogue individual, invariably leading to poor decisions for Speedway as a sport and entertainment. We can see droplets of progress in Speedway today, but it needs more vision and direction.

Central Administration

British Speedway is the culmination of 18 (at the time of writing) different single entities pulling in different directions. I'm suggesting we change all that with a central administration. One business, shared between all the club owners, operates as one powerful unit in a collective bargaining agreement. The National Revenue and Local Revenue system isn't anything new. You can see a live example in the United States by looking at the NFL. 

I'm not going to over-explain this because it gets very complicated (setting it up). In essence, each club will become owned by The British Speedway League, and the owners will own shares in the business according to what each club brings to the table, the promotors investment. 

All rider ownership within the UK become part of the British Speedway League. Again initial ownership is compensated with a higher percentage of the company share for each promotor.

This British Speedway League, as a business, becomes responsible for all teams within its custodianship. A central admin team handles most administration needs. British Speedway League is as strong as its most vital member and as weak as its weakest members.

With this part briefly explained, we need to install a new structure that can take the sport forwards.

Structure Overview

Chief Executive of British Speedway League

Speedway has gone stale. Everybody involved with the sport loves the sport with a passion, and that has become a problem. We all believe so passionately that the product is perfect that we are reluctant to make changes. We tinker with rules and move the goalposts but ultimately, nothing significant changes. Every winter we do the dance, each spring, we turn out programme boards at the ready.

Fresh blood with a healthy sized black book of contacts (and cheque book preferably) needs to come in and take the sport by the forwards, a new approach breaking the conventions we've all got comfortable with. It can't be anybody though, we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we do need someone who's not afraid to make the difficult decisions.

In the Speedway Star back in 2019, Peter Oakes mentioned people like Scott Field, Director of Communication at the British Olympic Association, Ann Webber, who masterminded Marks career behind the scenes. Ian Sinderson, Group Chief Finance Officer of ATPI Limited (Formely Director of their sports division). 

Independent Membership Committee (IMC)

The chief executive will put together an independent group of individuals who can make decisions and adjudicate on all issues that arise on track and off. We can't legitimately claim that decisions don't have any biases if promoters of the current club solely make decisions. Let's be clear, most of the accusations about bias are unwarranted, but the constant promise of transparency behind decisions has failed to materialise. Issues are referred to the committee, making the necessary decisions and publishing their findings. The previously mentioned names for the Chief Executive position could also be good shouts for roles in this set-up.

The remaining committee members can be made up of one member from the BSPA to advise but have no vote, representing the club's interests, a representative from the riders again to inform, and one from the British Speedway League Club to represent the supporters, which, I'll come on to shortly.

BSL Future Team

Head of BSL Development 

Cricket and Ice Hockey. 2 sports which have been on their knees and bounced back; how? The futures team will be responsible for going undercover in other sports, seeing what works and why, understanding the mechanics and moving parts, and bringing ideas back to the committee.

We'll be looking to explore all avenues with the end goal to diversify the current engaged demographic in the sport. We want to see new faces, a vibrant community of youngsters enjoying the sport. Fresh ideas from other sports are needed to freshen it up, akin to the Cricket model. 

They'll also be engaging with councils and committee's at potential venues to see where we can bring Speedway back, especially in places where there was once an established following. Exeter, Hull and Long Eaton, for example. They'll be looking at how we can strengthen Speedway's stronghold venues and begin planning for the expansion of Speedway in the UK. 

BSL Marketing & Procurement Team

Head of BSL Procurement
BSL Marketing Manager
Head of BSL Social Media 

Together we a stronger. It's a motto I use in my work all the time. As individuals, we are all doing our own thing and pulling resources from our contact books. What about if we pull our resources out of 100 contact books instead?

The Marketing and Procurement team will be responsible for advertising the sport, bringing in significant sponsorship, purchasing on behalf of the clubs for materials such as uniforms for staff and shale for tracks.

The marketing team will take ownership of all social media through an appointed Social Media Manager. You could outsource this job, put in the long term we want to keep overheads down, so we want to plan for this to come in-house. This team will use targeted advertising campaigns for areas where tracks are located, going after specific demographics depending on what fixtures are coming up for each circuit.

BSL Administration Team

Following on from the previous group, the admin team continue with the idea of central resourcing for the clubs to access. The admin team will be responsible for;

• Club Press Releases
• Social Media Posts
• Club Banking
• Club Accounting
• Programme Publishing
• Communication with Sponsors
• BSL Club Membership (I'll Explain this Later)
• Riders Pay
• Dealing with Stadium Administrative Duties on behalf of Promotors

We can free promotors time to drive the individual clubs' forwards and offer a regulated point of contract for pay discrepancies, deadlines and banking formalities.

Improving the Sport

Current Issues in Speedway