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Bt Minority Sports Person Of The Year


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So, Tai won the minority sports person of the year, so is speedway better off as a big fish in a little pond (best minority sport) or little fish in a big pond (competing against Football/Rugby/Golf/Cricket)?

 

What do you al think?

 

NTO

 

Why is it an either/or choice?

 

Tai's World title win has given the sport coverage on major national breakfast television, He's appeared on the major national sports radio programmes a number of times, his recent re-signing for Wolves appeared on the BBC website with equal billing to Luis Suarez re-signing for Liverpool.

He was invited to the BBC SPOTY and given a mention.

 

I'm sure if the satellite channels which cover speedway do a "SPOTY/review of the year in sport" type programme Tai will feature well.

 

On top of this, a brand new satellite broadcaster, which has invested heavily in football and may be looking for back-up/so-called 'minority sports', has seen Tai voted their winner.

 

Progress seems to be being made on all fronts.

There's still a long way to go, but you can only be going forwards or backwards, and Tai's world title has definitely pushed things forward

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So, Tai won the minority sports person of the year, so is speedway better off as a big fish in a little pond (best minority sport) or little fish in a big pond (competing against Football/Rugby/Golf/Cricket)?

 

What do you al think?

 

NTO

I'm pleased Tai won it and hope he and Bomber finish in the top two positions in the 2014 GPs, but I think the very idea of a minority sports award is ridiculous, you might as well hand out trophies for entering an event. It's as daft as the black police officers association or these music awards that nobody can quite explain what the boundaries are. Sorry for putting a negative spin on it, I know how you like to dream up these obscure questions to start a thread, but to be honest I don't give a **** what awards he gets, as long as he enjoys what he does and is successful.
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I'll bet that's what those who follow diving, squash, mountain biking etc said about Tai.

 

Whether we like it or not Speedway is a minority sport these days and riders haven't been household names for several generations. Having a World Champion is great and has generated some good press coverage but it won't change much for the sport.

 

So overall I would say better a big fish in the small pond than a little one in the small pond which are the realistic alternatives!

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I'll bet that's what those who follow diving, squash, mountain biking etc said about Tai.

 

Whether we like it or not Speedway is a minority sport these days and riders haven't been household names for several generations. Having a World Champion is great and has generated some good press coverage but it won't change much for the sport.

 

So overall I would say better a big fish in the small pond than a little one in the small pond which are the realistic alternatives!

My main participant sport is Squash, and Nick Matthew like Tai, is the 2013 World Champ. I'd have been in a dilemma who to vote for, but I would have voted for Tai. More important to try to get Squash in the 2020 Olympics at the mo.

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I stand by ready for the criticism for daring to ask this question re the BT Minority Sports Person award, but are there any voting figures: (1) Overall votes cast and (2) breakdown for the sports involved?

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I stand by ready for the criticism for daring to ask this question re the BT Minority Sports Person award, but are there any voting figures: (1) Overall votes cast and (2) breakdown for the sports involved?

 

Why not ask BT? They'd have the figures so surely that would be the logical thing to do wouldn't it?

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Why not ask BT? They'd have the figures so surely that would be the logical thing to do wouldn't it?

 

I would have thought the two obvious options were a) filter twitter by the 5 different hashtags and count the votes yourself, or b.) Ask BT if they will disclose the actual figures.

 

Then of course there is the illogical option.....ask a group of people who clearly aren't going to know the answer.

Birds of a feather flock together , so by accepting this award and praising it as something worthwhile , we are accepting that speedway should be grouped along with little known sports such as squash , fly fishing and tiddlywinks .

 

Where were flyfishing and tiddlywinks in the poll? You either misread or are just making things up.

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I have never heard of any of the other nominations in that minority sports award.

Neither had I but now I have. Next time I'm channel hopping I'm more likely to watch a bit of cliff diving knowing we have a World Champion contender. If the cliff diving people do the same with speedway it can only be a good thing. A bit of cross sport promotion can only be good for all the small sports involved.

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Why not ask BT? They'd have the figures so surely that would be the logical thing to do wouldn't it?

That's a good response. It's just that when the SPOTY results were given the BBC gave the figures for viewing and all the actual candidates votes I thought that if this contest was also so prestigious the figures may have been to hand. For all we know the actual voting figures might have just been 200! Or 20,000!

I cannot seem to find a BT Link to contact them, nor am I a Twitter member so cannot use as suggested by another Poster the suggested Twitter filter system for votes cast.

And before I am advised to join Twitter - no thank you, I abhor it as much as I do Facebook.

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No amount of Google research and elsewhere has revealed the number of votes each candidate received. If the result is to have any credence these figures are crucial to show the amount of interest for the BT Minority Sports Of The Year contest.

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No amount of Google research and elsewhere has revealed the number of votes each candidate received. If the result is to have any credence these figures are crucial to show the amount of interest for the BT Minority Sports Of The Year contest.

 

You seem determined to knock this. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you come across as slightly peeved that a speedway rider has actually won some sort of award. It must be hard for you.

 

And of course it's not as prestigious as the SPOTY award. Maybe there's a clue in the word "minority".

 

It's just a small thing from a fledgeling TV channel, so I wouldn't take it too seriously. But it's still great that Tai won it, so let's at least try to be pleased about that, shall we?

 

My guess is that this is the first of its kind, and the announcement looked slightly shambolic, but maybe it will grow in significance in future years if BT Sport gets more of a foothold.

 

It's not a big deal, but it's great that Tai won it.

 

Quite ironic that he wasn't there to collect his award, though, after all the stick some people gave Andy Murray on the "Tai Woffinden for SPOTY" Facebook page for not being there to collect his!

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You seem determined to knock this. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you come across as slightly peeved that a speedway rider has actually won some sort of award. It must be hard for you.

 

And of course it's not as prestigious as the SPOTY award. Maybe there's a clue in the word "minority".

 

 

 

Not so. It's just that facts and figures give credence to things and finally wraps up what has taken place. Producing these would give more substance to the Minority Sports Person event. Facts and figures are the life-blood of these contests - it allows people to see how much interest was shown overall, not only for the winner, but the other contestants involved and what sort of challenge there was for the top place.

Your comment "slightly peeved that a speedway rider has actually won some sort of award. It must be hard for you." Sheer BSF-style speculation on your part.

And I have been around long enough to understand what the word "minority" means.

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