Humphrey Appleby

I'd imagine it comes down to having to increase the total prize money if it was done at every round.

But what time did the trains stop running?

Well there’s always the Travelodge and Ibis, and several other chain hotels that showing around £300 for those nights at the moment. At least Manchester has more options than Cardiff, even if you need to travel out a bit.

Visit Wales has had its budget cut by 3.5 million so maybe they want to subsidise events with much better ROI. The Principality Stadium seems to have a cost model based around ROI to the Welsh economy rather than seeking to maximise return on the facility itself, but the financial travails of the WRU and cuts to Welsh Government funding seems to have made more acutely aware of the need to out on money spinning events instead of ‘community events’ - to the point they moved a Welsh rugby international to Twickenham in favour of a pop concert. Which is unfortunately the bottom line.

Not really sure BSI did - think it was consistently around 30-40k in reality, and it seems some cheap ticketing may have been required in later years. Probably not bad given how many people actively follow British speedway, but there’s only so long you can rely on a seemingly unchanging demographic. That pattern was pretty much repeated in the other prestige venues they ran at for a few years.

It is very poor to announce a date and venue for an event and then change that, unless the announcement clearly stated ‘TBC’ or whatever. I think people have every right to be annoyed and possibly even a case for small claims recovery, although this is of course speedway and it’s hardly the first time it’s happened - Gelsenkirchen and Riga come to mind. Non-refundable bookings can save you a fair bit. I tend to do it and just accept there will occasionally be a change of plan. I’m still up on the deal.

Never understood what the big secret is over attendances. The stadium will know anyway, and it’s reasonably easy to estimate if you’re there. The tickets will also only represent a percentage of the revenue.

I stayed near Belle Vue when I watched the Smashing Pumpkins earlier this year. Had to walk to Piccadilly the next day because the trains didn't start running early enough to connect with my Intercity train. I walk pretty quick and it was 35 minutes or so from memory. The city centre must be another 5-10 minutes from there, depending on where you define the city centre.

Yes, I think that's a good insight even with the undoubted pressures of promoting. I'm not sure if anyone can remember the book he wrote about speedway - possibly around 1969. I remember it being quite a decent read and much of what he said then is still more than applicable now!

It was a double grid. As I recall, the 4 lowest scoring qualifiers started at the tapes, with the 4 highest scorers starting further behind (maybe 30 yards). I can't completely remember how the points worked, but I think it was something like 16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2, with the riders starting off the back getting 2 bonus points.

I'd actually disagree somewhat. The ACU/SCB hold a privileged position enshrined in legislation and anyone wishing to run a speedway meeting at any significant level is substantively required to run under their auspices. I appreciate Motorsport UK (formerly the MSA) isn't responsible for motorcycling, but I remember that some years ago they decided to drop the restrictions on non-MSA competition because they were considered liable to legal challenge. And I'd imagine they have a much bigger budget for legal advice than the ACU. However, it's a moot point unless someone actually takes issue with it. Having said this, I'm not sure how anyone can afford to run outside a well established sanctioning body because insurance coverage is prohibitive in my experience. I do wonder whether some of these events are adequately insured.

Having restrictive agreements to prevent track owners from renting out their circuits for non-sanctioned events would, I suspect, be ruled a restraint-of-trade if it were ever legally challenged. Motorsport UK, which deals with 4-wheeled racing, has long since given up trying to prevent unsanctioned events from using MSUK-licensed circuits, or MSUK officials and competitors from taking part in unsanctioned events. As both a competitor and official I'd choose not to compete in unsanctioned events because there are legal ambiguities around the RTA and potential insurance liabilities, but neither do I think sanctioning bodies should have an effective monopoly or be allowed to shut out other sanctioning bodies from circuits.

They can't unless there was some sort of exclusivity contract. Of course, the problem is if the SCB (or whoever) wanted to get heavy over it, it would end up in court where only the lawyers would win.

Don't think the SCB can legally prevent a venue from staging racing under a different sanctioning body or none at all. Would be considered a restraint of trade, and I thought this had been accepted certainly in other motor sport disciplines. There are of course potentially insurance and public liability considerations, but that's a matter for the staging club/promotion and to extent the track owners. So presumably there's more to it than meets the eye.

Not short sighted at all. There only so many fans and their money to go around and a track opening in close proximity could easily cannibalise what little crowds still exist. Of course closer tracks might successfully co-exist in denser urban areas, but can only think of Wolves/Cradley/Birmingham, and the various London tracks where they were all viable over an extended period (and of course Cradley, Birmingham and all the 'London' tracks have variously fallen by the wayside over the years). King's Lynn and Swaffham are located in a fairly sparsely populated area of just over 150k people which hardly seems viable for one let alone a couple of teams.