Humphrey Appleby

It's clear there were several failures along the line, possibly down to unfortunate circumstances as well as ineptitude, but once again speedway shoots itself in the foot. What should have been a triumph for the sport in an otherwise depressing downward spiral, has turned into yet another damage limitation exercise, but one that even manages to alienate remaining fans. A case study in how not to run a professional sport.

The bottom line is that Belle Vue are responsible for putting on the meetings and deciding to take the money of paying punters. In hindsight it was too optimistic to run a high-profile meeting with such little testing of a new track and facilities as well.

Did nobody check the specifications at each stage of the work?

The Polish subsidiary of KFC was a SGP sponsor a few years ago, but apparently didn't want to pay up.

Quite, but then neither did I take up smoking because F1 was a procession of mobile fag packets during my formative years. I guess it's down to nanny statism that thinks people can't make adult decisions for themselves, but then many can't...

The sport will never improve whilst speedway fans continue to apologise for the incompetent way in which the sport is run. There are undoubtedly several parties that have screwed up, but the bottom line is the promotion is ultimately responsible for the project management and ensuring the track is fit for purpose. They are certainly responsible for attempting to go ahead with a meeting when there were known to be significant problems with the track and possibly other things as well. The fans pay their money to the promotion - that's all we need to know. Speedway promotions seem incapable of taking responsibility for the meetings they put on, and only that, genuinely seem to believe they shouldn't be responsible. Witness all the buck passing over the GP failures over the years (and BTW - is Speedsport doing the track at Warsaw again after all the talk of legal consequences).

I'm sorry you've been affected by cancer, but I think you missed the point of the post. Speedway couldn't even tap in the big evil money of the cigarette manufacturers, but only the a**e end of tobacco products - namely Skoal Bandits. Jaw and mouth cancer is especially unpleasant as it's disfiguring and in the worst cases leaves people unable to feed themselves.

It somehow sums up speedway that it got sponsorship from domestic coal products at a time when nobody had coal fires anymore...

That was all good clean cancer though...

The bottom line is that the onus always has to be on the host track to produce a track fit for racing. The SCB may ultimately have to sign off on certain aspects, but they don't really have anyone experienced in preparing or riding a track, and they're not the ones that will ultimately carry the can for an unfit track. If the SCB signed off on a track that's subsequently required substantial remedial work, then that just sums it all up...

Mickey mouse organisation of a mickey mouse competition.

It's not a very interesting competition though, is it?

It's not really arbitrary. 7 riders means that heats can be programmed so that no rider has two programmed on the trot, but more importantly, so that riders usually have more than one heat in between their programmed rides as well. You can do it with 6 riders as well, but then you leave yourself short in the event of in-meeting injuries or when having to operate R/R. It also means that extra rides taken by reserves and (in the past) tactical subs could mean riders have 3 or more rides in a row. Actually 8 riders would be a better number for a 15 heat meeting because it would allow for more balanced heat permutations, but you're paying the travel of extra rider that isn't strictly needed.

Pretty arrogant and disgraceful attitude that came over in the interview. There are undoubtedly better promoters than others, but some also have geographical and economic disadvantages. All promoters are ultimately reliant on each other to make for a viable competition. Even more so when speedway is at death's door, particularly the Elite League. If Ford hadn't worked this out after years of promoting, then you really have to despair for the future of the sport.

Don't see how a private monopoly authority can make demands like that of professional riders, regardless of what they might put in their terms and conditions for a licence. There might be rules saying that, but I doubt they're legally enforceable.

The difference between the NFL and speedway, and indeed most other professional sports, is that it's really the only place where players can turn professional and as such has no real competition for players. It also has a huge underlying feeder system - namely college football - from which to draw the best talent. British speedway has none of this, and is in competition with other leagues for riders. It's also more important in speedway to have a 'star' rider of which there are relatively fewer than in the NFL. An unmodified draft system still has the potential to allow teams to accumulate a number of stars, and does not force teams to release them to other teams in need. I once toyed with some ideas of how to make a draft system work in speedway, but came to the conclusion it's basically unworkable in speedway given the structure and economic conditions.

I don't doubt there's a rule. I simply don't believe it would stand up to any legal scrutiny if a rider decided to challenge it. Riders have to have a licence to work, issued by a monopoly authority. Yet that licence dictates who they have to work for and when - hmmm.... As I said, different if a rider has accepted to ride in a meeting and withdraws.

I very much doubt that mandating a competitor to race in a particular meeting as a condition of issuing a licence, would ever stand up to any legal challenge. If a competitor has agreed to take part in a particular meeting then that's another issue.

They'd leave themselves wide open to being sued for restraint of trade, and rightly so. At best they might sue the riders for breach of contract or something, assuming they'd formally agreed to ride in the meeting, but unlikely to be worth the effort or expense.

Football is a much more popular sport than speedway and also has a broader economic demographic. There is evidence though, that it's pricing itself out of the younger market, with the average age of fans getting higher and higher.

The Spar arrives the same day on my iPad...

Yep, but even if they had, only one rider could have got the seeded place. It should be there in case a good prospect is injured, not because they want to go off and ride somewhere else.

£25 a point is still a lot less than the 'top boys' will be on.

Maybe, but it may also be the difference between speedway and no speedway.

It's not just that, as after all British speedway doesn't have to participate in these events, and can't afford the 'top boys' anyway. I think allowing private promoters with little or no connection to the sport to run officially sanctioned made-up corporate teams is ultimately not good for the established competition structure in any of the countries where the sport is substantially professional. It's irrelevant whether F1 and MotoGP runs corporate teams - they're different sports with entirely different structures.