Humphrey Appleby

IMG were interested in running the Olympic Stadium, so would be surprised if the possibility hadn't been investigated at some point.

Then why don't you tell us who you think was ultimately responsible rather than muddy the waters as usual? Yes, things can happen but you can mitigate them. There is no excuse whatsoever for not having a backup starting gate in a GP meeting - something that's critical for running an event. In many years of watching speedway in everything from amateur meetings to GPs, I think I've seen reversion to green light starts on about three occasions, which suggests that promoters everywhere else manage to have serviceable equipment or at least replacement parts. As for 'two separate starting gates', I think everyone but yourself imagined a replacement mechanism that could be swapped in the event of failure. I can't imagine how the organisers could expect to synchronise two sets of tapes to go up simultaneously when they have difficulty with one. LOL

Not really anywhere, beyond continually allowing BSI to screw up. If SpeedSport or whoever are contracted to deliver a track for a GP only a day before the meeting starts and they don't deliver to a satisfactory standard, then what exactly is the FIM supposed to do? Whether or not they're formally responsible for signing off or not, if they don't sign it off then there's no meeting and the promoters will then be liable to refund monies. So they're in a difficult position and you can see why they'd sign off on a track unless it's actually dangerous to ride on. The failure was down whoever prepared the track (including starting gate) and ultimately the BSI who are or should be their supervisors. Yes, starting gates can fail - we all accept that - but it's unforgivable to not have a replacement set at a GP event. It's totally amateurish in fact. To me it's the usual exercise in trying to deflect blame from the sloppy organisation.

The irony of promoters complaining about riders breaking contracts. To be fair, what other leagues were there? The Polish League was behind the Iron Curtain, and the Swedish League didn't allow foreigners and in any case rode on a day when most/no BL teams did. Dunno about the Danish League in those days, but imagine was a fairly amateur affair, whilst German meetings would have been on a Sunday.

Do you have anything positive to say? Yes, but if that was the responsibility of SpeedSport who they had to contract to do the track?

The PZM probably carried the liability from the perspective of the punters as they were the promoters of the event, so probably trying to offer a sop. It's not much of a sop though, if the punters only have a week to redeem their tickets for the free event. I doubt the PZM could really be blamed for the starting gate, state of the track or intransigence of the riders (delete as applicable) which were the responsibility of others. I must have missed all the positivity elsewhere on this forum. So it seems that despite a GP being called off in an indoor stadium just 2/3rds of the way through, everyone is happy with a free open meeting that they have one week to claim their tickets for. And how do they actually physically redeem their 2015 tickets in that one week window?

So last year's fans apparently have just 7 days to buy their tickets to watch some sort of mickey mouse select meeting the following day? Quite pathetic...

It was probably only a rotting portacabin though. You were probably better off outside in the cold...

Certainly an enigma in terms of starting businesses that don't work out, and I'd imagine it's tough on the investors in those. Whilst Stadium Australia was undoubtedly too big, it was at the time a white elephant looking for a purpose, so maybe it was as cheap to hire as a smaller venue. I seem to remember it being reported from Down Under at the time that Lander was unhappy about being charged for things that he shouldn't have been charged for, amongst other things.

Non-league footballers have also played in Sunday League football for years.

The beauty of Twenty20 was that it didn't fundamentally change the game into nonsense. It's better than ODIs in that respect, what with the endless tinkering of power plays and super subs etc.. The one change I'd make is to stop allowing players to play with tree trunks rather than bats. Does the ball really need to be going out of the stadium every over? BTW - they have tinkered with the test match format over the years.

I think the American and National Leagues are still generally considered worth winning in their own right, even if the big prize is the World Series. The Stanley Cup has a more interesting background as it was historically a challenge cup that teams from different leagues could play off for, subject to the approval of the trustees of the cup. As such, I don't think it technically belongs to the NHL and as such other leagues could challenge for it, although there are now none of sufficient standard so it's not happened for years. Aussie Rules has the best playoff system, whether it be the Final Four, Final Five or Final Eight system currently used (the Final Six system used for a while was rubbish though). Finishing higher in the league table (although it's not a full home-and-away round robin) gives more advantages to those sides - whether home advantage, bye or double chance.

I did once, and regularly went for 25-odd years. Like many before me though, I eventually tired of the farcical organisation and found better things to spend my time and money on. I do occasionally go to the odd meeting - I might even have gone to Melbourne if I was in Australia this month.

What did the Spar's sponsorship of the Knockout Cup actually amount to? I seem to recall the sponsorship was quite long lived, so was it just that they bought the trophy one year or provided a couple of crates of beer for the winners each season? Genuine question...

Does anyone else?

How is it any different now, except the promoters (assuming it's the Ethiad themselves) won't have the stadium costs> They manage to fill it for NRL matches during the winter, and nearly 90K made it for the NRL Grand Final last week (which was also live on TV), so it can't be the whole reason. If indeed the Sydney GP did pull 32K fans (although I seem to recall the figure reported at the time was 25K), then I'd have said that was pretty decent as I can't imagine there are many more speedway fans than that in the whole of Australia. The sport has gone into even further decline since then, and Melbourne isn't a speedway city (or at least hasn't been for many years), although conversely flying around Australia is cheaper than it's every been and Melbourne is at least a destination. It will be interesting to see how Melbourne does, but more specifically how long it lasts... Not sure why it wasn't staged in the (new) Sydney Showground next door in the first place. Interesting how both Lander and Buckley both ended-up falling out with BSI, albeit under different leaderships.

The ubiquitous chap at work, eh...? I don't think the NFL, MLB, NHL or NBA do? The UEFA Champions League? I think that's pretty difficult to quantify. You'd imagine 1 out of 7 would have a bigger impact than 1 out of 11 or even 1 out of 45, but it really depends on the position. You'd imagine losing a star quarterback could have a big impact, whilst conversely a speedway team could be strengthened by having a star guest rather than having to rely on another squad member.

How many paid though?

As I said, without full access to financial and logistical information, it's not possible to advance any meaningful solutions. BSI are also looking to maximise their revenue from hosting fees, which likely rules out a number of suitable and even better tracks from the equation even if it might otherwise be financially viable to run a GP there. They have shills to do that. Do they? I think many have pointed out that other than Cardiff, local promotion of GPs is pretty poor to non existent. Okay, Philippe will come on here and big up the merits of venue X or Y, despite it being apparent to everyone else that the track is the wrong shape, is totally undeveloped, or is in the middle of a field. But then just as quickly make all manner of excuses when it all goes pear shaped, and move on the next one hoping that it'll all be forgotten in a week or two... We can all have our wish lists, but it comes back to the first point. I think a couple of GPs in smaller speedway countries is fair enough, and Latvia is as deserving as most. There's a small but apparently thriving speedway scene there, and Daugavpils is a decent enough stadium even if in a provincial town, but certainly no more provincial than Krsko. Riga could potentially have been an even better venue, but was another one stuffed up by BSI incompetence.

Without fully knowing the costs of running at particular venues, how much money BSI want/need to extract from the hosts, and a number of other factors such as stadium availability and sponsor/television requirements, it's almost impossible for the casual observer to suggest the best approach. In a perfect world I think you'd want to run most of the rounds in general purpose stadia in bigger cities, but clearly that's not currently sustainable cost wise, and there remains a big question mark over the quality of temporary tracks. So I think the SGP can realistically only run 3 or 4 'prestige' venues with the rest held at regular speedway circuits. However, they should be held at reasonably well appointed speedway stadia and not in what are effectively fields in the middle of nowhere. Nor do I see anything to be gained by hosting GPs in non-speedway venues in provincial towns if they're completely non-conducive to putting in a decent track. I do actually support trying to take the odd GP to places like Australia, but it should absolutely be where there's some sort of speedway scene already. In conclusion then, I don't fundamentally have any issue with the mix of venues that BSI are using, although some lame ducks (e.g. Tampere and Riga) have certainly crept in through lack of proper oversight and no doubt some greed as well. Similarly, Warsaw could have been a magnificent development, but that was stuffed-up through the sheer incompetence of the organisers. What I actually rail against is the parroted fiction that the SGP has been this wonderful success story. Some sort of new dawn was promised 15 years ago, and whilst I'd agree Cardiff has been a reasonable success, there's never been more than 3 or 4 of 'big city' venues in any one season and none of them other than Cardiff have ultimately lasted. This does suggest there's not just a case of 'build it and they will come' even in speedway strongholds. Personally, I do think speedway is a hard sell these days, and it's also an expensive sport to stage with middling crowds. In reality though, the SGP is not any further forward than the old World Championship was 25 years ago in terms of attendances, and only marginally better in terms of being held in one or two venues which simply didn't exist in the old era. For all the hype, does it actually make any difference to the amount of money coming into the sport or the numbers of fans who follow the sport? I have little doubt that riders would love to ride in big stadia in front of packed audiences, but I'm sure they'd also like to ride on billiard smooth surfaces, have a working set of tapes, and earn a million pounds into the bargain. I'd also like to earn a million pounds a year, but I'm afraid it's just not going to happen...

Erm... they're flocking to Stockholm and Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Auckland before them? Even the 'big city' Polish tracks haven't been sell-outs I don't think. Sure they'll pull more than tracks in the middle of fields because travelling fans can more easily get to city venues and there's more to do when they get there. However, you've got to offset that against the undoubtedly higher staging costs. It's basically Cardiff that pulls a decent crowd. Warsaw did as well, but BSI mucked that up, and Melbourne is as yet unproven.

Or a women's basketball tournament...

Thought it was reported there were only 1,000 tickets left...

I believe Slough is close to Windsor though...

The 2002 host lost a packet which is why it only lasted a year, and the NZ host also decided enough was enough. Nothing to do with a lack of coordination but a lack of promoters willing to lose money on an ongoing basis. It's not really up to 'Australia' and 'New Zealand' (whoever they may be) to coordinate anything anyway. That should be BSI's job as series organisers, although the cost savings of doing an Antipodean double header may not be as much as people imagine.