Humphrey Appleby

I don't know how consultation would have helped in the case of Gelsenkirchen. The meeting was called off and had to be re-arranged somewhere where dry shale could be found at short notice. I can well imagine the anger of the riders at the incompetence of the organisers, and how it played into one rider in particular's hands, but I honestly can't see what else could have been done in the circumstances. Difficult because they can simply be replaced with another 16 riders.

Could be anything. The ousting of BSI by IMG from the organisation of the SGP, a rider takeover (although unlikely due to the long-term contract between the FIM and IMG/BSI), the Poles finally getting peed off with the SGP since the staging of their Golden Helmet meeting was ruined? The only realistic way for BSI to be ousted completely though, would be for the main speedway countries to withdraw their riders from the SGP (by insisting they sign exclusive contracts) , and effectively leave it a worthless shell. Can't see the riders being able to do that by themselves.

I actually wouldn't mind if they did a decent job. If they had turned the SGP into a popular global full-time series along the lines of the MotoGP, then I don't think people could really complain. However, after more than 10 years it's still an effectively subsidised series, running in mostly the same old stadiums in front of mostly low crowds. It's great success has been to get on television, but again, so does karting down at the local track, or vicars rallying old bangers around Ireland (as I watched last night ). With the plethora of airspace to fill these days, I suspect almost anyone could have got the sport on television these days, and it's hardly like Sky pay that much compared to rugby and cricket. Believe or not though, I'm not even totally critical that BSI haven't really advanced the series. It's a relatively expensive sport to stage, has little relation with real-world motoring, has always had transient popular appeal, and a limited geographical interest base. Perhaps it simply isn't possible to do with it what the organisers of the MotoGP or World Rally Championship did? I suspect Postlethwaite ended up realising that which is why he sold out to IMG. Having said this, I think for an organisation of around 10 full-time employees which only have a handful of events to organise each year, to not only stuff up the organisation of a GP, but also to ignore the paying punters in such a manner, is pretty a poor show.

I don't see why anyone but the FIM and IMG/BSI should be expected to subsidise the SGP. They run it as a commercial business, so it's up to them to find the money to pay for the riders. I'm sure also if the BSI CEO took a slight reduction in his ridiculous salary, it would easily pay for proper reserves at each round.

Personally, I think reserves should always be those riders that just missed out on the main line-up, and in the case of the SGP, should runoff at the start of each GP with the bottom 2 riders from the last GP. I see no problem with having qualified reserves, as opposed to track reserves.

No-one would deny that British speedway (and speedway in general) has not been the architect of much of its own downfall, but many of the problems were caused by the SGP. In particular, the loss of the most lucrative racedays. If the SGP was the biggest payer, or even provided a filter down effect in money or interest (as test cricket does), then I don't think there could be any objection to that. However, why should British speedway be the one to give up its race days to an organisation that has been able to leverage the arcane structure of the FIM, and the powers historically delegated to it? Of course, it's too late to argue about such fine points now the SGP has been established for years. The clowns running the BSPA should have put a stop to it years ago when the SGP needed their riders, or at very least insisted on a better deal out of it all. I wouldn't disagree that top flight speedway in Britain is now probably doomed, but the SGP will never be speedway as I knew it. I don't think that would help, because the Swedish Elite League falls in between. If you're going to settle for a couple of days, they need to be adjacent to each other (e.g. Wednesday and Thursday) so that riders only have to turn-up once a week. In the long-run though, I think the British speedway needs to largely forget the travelling troupe of riders that it can't afford anyway, and just focus on using UK-based riders even if that means BPL or BCL standard. I don't think the SGP has any affect at all on domestic attendances. Plenty of people know about speedway, as either they or their parents once went, but who just don't see it as being part of their lives anymore. The basic issue is that it's just become too expensive, and not worth taking a punt on anymore. There are ways of doing it, but fundamentally British speedway can't afford to strengthen at the moment. Neither do I think it has much to do with attendances anyway - the fact that some BPL tracks do better than BEL tracks is surely evidence of that. If people are able to watch regular speedway between line-ups that are much the same from week-to-week, and at a reasonable price, I think that's actually more important than the inclusion of so-called stars who no-one outside of the diehards has heard of anyway.

That's the way it used to be, but obviously that's more expensive than paying local riders to turn up.

That would cost them more money, which they're obviously not going to be in favour of. They went back to 16 riders to fund a pay rise for the prize money that had never increased since the start of the SGP (even before BSI came along). Anyway, even if you had 24 riders, there would still be arguments about how you picked them. Frankly given some of the riders out of their depth in a 16-rider line-up, you're going to really scrape the barrel if you expand the field by 50%.

It's an entirely different thing, and your unbridalled praise of all things BSI in the face of the Gelsenkirchen does you no credit. I have no problem with anyone enjoying the SGP, or believing that it's the future, but equally others are entitled to point out things that are not rosy in the SGP garden. Personally, I've never thought BSI has done that great a job with the series, and only looks good because the rest of speedway is such a shambles. People have come to expect low standards from speedway the over the years, which is apparently why they're prepared to make apologies for a rained off indoor GP, which would be laughed at in any sport. All this aside, when all the local tracks have gone (yes, the ones only getting 500-600 people), and the last 16 riders have retired (and let's face it, most of them are well into their 30s now), where will the great BSI get its riders from then? When only one meeting is staged in a handful of countries (or possibly only Poland by then) per year, will you consider the sport has progressed?

BSI obviously want freedom to ensure the right 'mix' of riders, and not have some sort of Andy Smith sneaking back in every year. There's obviously going to be at least one, if not two British nominees next year, simply because Britain has the 'prestige' GP and is one of the biggest markets for television. Unfortunately, whilst Nicholls underachieves year-after-year (I'm starting to sound like Subedei here ), there really isn't any other British rider who's better at the moment. I suspect BSI would like to be able to handpick all the riders every year, but the FIM and the SGP riders wouldn't stand for that. I suspect Britain will get two nominees, simply in case one of them gets injured during these season.

Ice racing is usually held on speed skating tracks, and there are none in Britain as far as I know. There is little interest in conventional speed skating in Britain, so not worth investing in the necessary facilities. The little interest in speed skating there is, is in the short track form which is held on conventional ice rinks (e.g. ice hockey rinks) that are too small for proper ice racing. Weather doesn't come into the issue. The Netherlands has a 400m outdoor speed skating track in nearly every town, and the weather there is similar to the UK. Sometimes the track is covered (although open in the middle) as in Assen, but it's by no means necessary. The tracks are usually open from about October to April, but speed skating is almost a religion in that country (particularly in the north).

The top placed rider in what? Nicki Pedersen was the top placed rider not already in the Super Prix, by total points scored over the 11 rounds. How would sticking in Hans Andersen, a rider who 'only' managed fifth over the course of the season have made the situation any better? Why are people getting so worked-up about this? The Super Prix is a gimmicky distraction from the finale of the season-long World Championship anyway.

And for once I agree with you, even if the Super Prix is a daft concept in itself.

Or even the top 4 riders in the world.

I thought it was more embarrassing that Bellamy was handing over a trophy that looked like it had been made in a CDT class.

Then why are they getting peoples' hopes up by pretending it's going to happen, or have they found another sucker to lose bundles of cash?

Next you'll be calling him a beggar!

I haven't a clue and neither do I much care, as I find it ridiculous that a rider can win as much prize money in a one-off race as from winning all eleven GPs over a whole season. All I'm saying is that Pedersen didn't look that bothered at 'missing out' on the jackpot through a tapes exclusion.

QUOTE (Rob B @ Oct 18 2008, 08:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Anyone get the impression like me that Hancock was saying in his speech that he was thinking of retiring. Hopefully retiring from promoting that damn drink of his, which I wouldn't even try on principle now

Well Pedersen didn't seem too bothered about touching the tapes.

Is it any great mystery? The last time round, I think the Aussie GP organisers paid for shipping the riders' equipment from London, but the riders had to get it there are their own expense. Normally travel expenses for a rider and his crew also have to come out of the prize money, but obviously the crap prize money wouldn't hardly cover the air fares out to Australia. I seem to recall that some additional allowance was paid last time around, but again there were whinges this was insufficient.

Errr.. no, it could happen in any sport unless you award more points for winning a single round than you could gain by accumulating all second places, and I'm sure most would agree that would be farcical. It's admittedly unusual to win a series without winning a round, but I'm sure it must have happened at some point (and there have certainly been F1 champions that have only won a single GP in a season).

No, the website is pretty poor at the best of times, and there's barely even a mention of the cancelled GP mixed in amongst other trivial news items. Piss poor really. The BSI corporate website is also pretty superficial and hasn't been updated in yonks either.

But it's a bit 'if' isn't it? How much notice did the organisers have, and how quickly could the machine be shipped out there?

It's because BSI they don't promote the other GPs themselves. Those are licensed to local promoters who pay BSI a fee for the privilege, but who then get to keep the gate and programme money. They'd therefore no doubt expect to be compensated by BSI for those fans they let in for free.