Humphrey Appleby

I think 'The Know' is actually someone who gave John a lift.

Aside from the fact that without the leagues there would be no SGP, the same riders riding against each other over-and-over again in individual competition is not speedway to me. It might as well be a separate sport, I think calling people luddites because they don't subscribe to the golden but hollow vision that it is the SGP, is a bit uncalled for. Just where is the SGP going? In the 10 years or so since BSI took it over, it's still trawling round the same old venues in front of mostly small crowds, is using the same old tired format, and has failed to make any real breakthrough on the corporate side of things. The one success is that it gets reasonable viewing figures (by satellite television standards), but I bet the figures for league racing aren't that far behind either. It would be also interesting to compare this with viewing figures for the Polish and Swedish leagues as well. More fool them for helping line the pockets of a private company that puts little or nothing back into the sport as whole.

I'd rather do neither.

I'm sure that could still be done without sponsoring a GP, and probably for a significantly less money. If you feel you're getting a nice (albeit expensive) day out then that's great, but I'm not convinced mates scratching each others backs is the way forward for the sport. On this I agree with you. Personally I wouldn't buy anything from a company that splashes it's name around, because I think products should stand and fall on their merits rather on the basis of whether they happen to sponsor one's favourite sport. That would explain the GBP 250K recorded as being spent on fixtures and fittings then.

Just what are the benefits? Who going to a GP thinks 'goodness I must get my lift serviced' or 'I've just remembered I need to hire an industrial compressor tomorrow'? Most other sports are in the main sponsored by companies whose products can be purchased by the average fan the next day. SGP sponsors come across as a handful of eclectic companies whose Managing Directors happen to be fans, or who're otherwise providing sponsorship in some sort of kind.

QUOTE (Rob B @ Apr 28 2008, 07:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> A few years ago the Grand Prix series use to have some really good sponsors around the air fence and on race jackets such as Castrol, Coca Cola, KFC, Fiat, Egg etc. Now the only two sponsors they have are Speedy Hire & Meridian Lifts. The rest of the airfence is taken up advertising upcomg GP's like Cardiff and the speedwayworld website address. Very poor, thought things werer going to get bigger with IMG. I've always thought the SGP to have a limited market, which is why it's continued to be run on the cheap and has never expanded as much as envisaged. I think Postlethwaite knew he was starting to see diminishing returns, which is why he sold out to IMG. I fail to understand though where it fits in IMG's portfolio, except as cheap filler programming for their sports television programmes.

That used to happen before fixed gate positions were introduced, although it could be done when six points behind as per tactical substitutions.

It looks great, but that's not the point. Eskilstuna also has a great little stadium, but it's in the middle of a Swedish forest nowhere near anything else (although at least Stockholm is a hour or so away). Same with Daugavpils and Krsko, which are quite far from major population centres (although in the case of Krsko, I suppose you could say Zagreb is within striking distance across the border in Croatia). What's good for domestic racing is not necessarily good for the premier event in the sport. I well remember going to the World Final at Pocking, and sleeping in my car in a muddy field next to the stadium. It was a decent little stadium, but I somehow can't see the hordes of Cardiff faithfuls tolerating the lack of facilities around it.

Even though the Telstra Dome is dwarfed by the MCG down the road, it's still a big stadium. Close to 60,000 if I remember correctly, so even if you got 30K fans they'd still be rather lost in there. Mount Gambier as a venue for a GP - is someone being serious here? Although I suppose it Togliatti is being considered then anything's possible.

It's not a case of being happy to do so - I think they have to do so if they want anyone to stay there. To obtain a visa, you either need a letter of invitation, or some sort of documentation from a tour company or hotel. Total bureaucratic nonsense, and one wonders how far we've come since Soviet times.

According to the Russian embassy website, it's 'only' 45 pounds for a single entry visa. That's still a significant cost though, quite aside from the pointless bureaucracy from a tourist perspective (recognising that European countries probably reciprocate the favour for Russians). My general rule is not to travel to countries that insist on visas. It's just a racket, and I refuse to jump through hoops to spend my money in another country.

Yes, but speedway in Russia is popular in a limited number of places, as indeed it is in the major speedway nations as well. I'd certainly put Russia high up in the second tier of speedway nations, but population and geographical size isn't really much of a qualification for staging a GP somewhere. It makes no difference to them at all. The local promoter, except where IMG/BSI promote the event themselves, assumes financial responsibility for a GP. IMG/BSI get the same sponsorship and television money regardless of how many fans turn up. Yes, but how much is each fan paying? It's all very well getting 15,000 fans, but if they're only paying the equivalent of 1 pound each, then overall revenue is still the same as 1,000 fans paying 15 pounds each. The physical ability of Russia to stage big sporting events is not really in question. It's the financial and logistical arrangements that are much more complicated than if you stage events in an EU country, as anyone who has ever done such a thing knows. For starters, unlike Latvia and Slovenia, everyone travelling to Russia needs a visa, then you have to make 'arrangements' to ensure your equipment isn't indeterminably held up at customs until after the event. And so it goes on...

Russia is not an enormous speedway nation. It has a handful of tracks that stage a relative limited number of meetings. You still don't get it then? IMG/BSI do nothing out of the goodness of their hearts, or to popularise the sport around the world. It's all about finding a local organiser willing to take the financial risk of staging a GP, and/or paying IMG/BSI for the privilege of doing so. Clearly no mug, erm.. I mean promoter has been found in Russia until now. I wouldn't disagree that on the face of it, Russia is as deserving as some of the nations that have been awarded GPs. However, do not underestimate the difficulties of organising anything there. Until recently, it didn't even have a convertible currency, and there are no doubt still all sorts of legal minefields to negotiate as well.

Except that not much team racing is involved. The SWC basically uses an individual format dressed-up as a team competition.

That format was used for the WTC for a couple of seasons in the late-1990s I think. The problem was that teams didn't ride in every heat which allowed teams to contrive results for their mutual convenience.

Perhaps my memory is failing, but doesn't speedway have a World Cup tournament now? Scotland and Wales could barely scrape enough riders together for a team, whereas Ireland doesn't have any speedway riders (and are you talking about an all-Ireland, Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland team). The point though is, that the FIM stipulates one representative team per national federation, and at the moment the ACU is the national federation for Great Britain. I think you'll find that in those days the ACU represented the whole Commonwealth. Originally there was one Commonwealth team riding as Great Britain, but in the early-70s the ACU started staged a qualifying round between English, Scottish, Australian and New Zealand representative teams to determine which side would represent them in the WTC 'proper'. There were separate England and Scottish teams in the World Pairs rounds, but I think liberties were often taken with national teams in that competition.

Where does it end? Why not have a separate national team for Bavaria as well? So national teams would end-up being contrived rather than truly representative? A bit like the NZ Maoris in the Rugby League World Cup.

The figures are likely to be largely made-up anyway, as they're suspiciously rounded in most cases.

Because there would only be about four or five countries strong enough to track competitive sides. The other problem is that most of the meetings wouldn't have any home interest, so would be a financial disaster. Even if you went for a home-and-away format, it's impractical for the like of Australia and the US to ride home meetings.