Plymouth Denied Hosting "Conference Fours"

[Deleted]

One Of The Highlights of The Conference League calender is the CL Fours, This would have been Plymouth's second year of hosting this prestigious BSPA shared event. (as we presented it very well last year) It has now been cancelled,news on the BSPA website confirms meeting cancelled and Will now take place at a new venue at a later date (to be announced).

My thoughts on this.......
If they (BSPA) have considered to take this shared event away from us, because 'some teams have complained about the travelling expenses' god help our Premier League application then, this for me sets alarm bells ringing, for those who have not read one of my snippets in the Devils Programme re: Devils Relegation to Division3 heres a paragraph bearing in mind we are talking 1951 here...........de ja vu or what?

The unhappy fate of the Plymouth Devils. Here was a happy smooth running club doing well in Division II. Then out of the blue, with no appeal permitted, a majority of other promoters decide that Plymouth must be relegated to Division III. Why?, Do the westcountry men lack support? No. Is there riding not up to par? No. Are they a failure as crowd pleasers when riding away from home? No. Do they shame speedways good name by dirty tactics or misbehaviour off the track? No. Why then have they been relegated? Because the other tracks have decided that Plymouth is to far off the map, and that fixtures involve too much travelling, most of the other teams being located in the midlands and the north. Is this fair reward for a fine bunch of riders who have given there best and a fine bunch of supporters who have backed them all the way?

[schumi]

If that's the case, I don't hold out much hope of an Exeter revival. I knew the Fours had been put back, but didn't realise they wanted to change the venue. It seems that for every track that wants to succeed, there are twice as many hurdles to get over.

[admin]

It sounds like a disgrace to me.

[Deleted]

Jul 12, 2008 22:56:45 GMT admin said:

It sounds like a disgrace to me.

Me too, one wonders where the complaints have come from - riders/promoters?

Gotta hope this isn't the first bite of the increased price of diesel on the lesser paid riders in our sport. If you were based, say, at my house you are looking at a round trip of 400 miles (assuming you are travelling to just this meeting and no others "on the way"). It seems as though if you don't drive your van like a sports car you could get up to around 30mpg, meaning that you are going to get through 13ish gallons of diesel @ £6 each and you're looking at costing somewhere around £80 to get there and back. Again, I have little idea of the earnings these guys get or whether travel is covered but either way that's a decent amount to cover before you've started earning money from the meeting. Compared to this time last year where diesel was around 97p a litre rather than 131p and you would have paid less than £60.

All hypothetical of course but there must be riders/clubs struggling to cover costs at Conference level

[Deleted]

Jul 12, 2008 22:48:39 GMT @schumi said:

If that's the case, I don't hold out much hope of an Exeter revival. I knew the Fours had been put back, but didn't realise they wanted to change the venue. It seems that for every track that wants to succeed, there are twice as many hurdles to get over.

This was way back in the 1960's though, and travel is far easier nowadays, assuming you don't go via the M25.

Disgraceful decision nonetheless.

[Deleted]

I glad im not the only one who disagrees with the bspa decision for a moment there i thought i was on my own they may have shot thereselves i the foot i believe. One things for sure,They cant have taken it away because of our crowd size, take a look at this video link (im uploading my videos to this crackin new speedway video site, this is our normal crowd!)

allspeedway.tv/video/393/plymouth-devils-v-weymouth-wildcats-11-07-08-heat-05-ko-cup-quarter-final-1st-leg