Humphrey Appleby

Sure, and I'd doubt any calendar could be formulated unless the FIM had already received hosting offers. However, you might potentially have two or more offers for the same meeting, so I'd guess nothing is formally confirmed until the final calendar is approved.

I don't think they decide these things until the FIM Congress right, so I'm not sure how anyone could say where a particular meeting was going to be held.

I'm surprised there was anything there in 1983 as Lelystad as only recently been developed into something approaching a town. The Flevopolder is still a pretty dull place though, but luckily quite close to Amsterdam.

I'm not sure why the 'playoffs' keep ending-up getting discussed every year. Most other sports have them these days, and they're hardly the worst thing that speedway has introduced in the past few years. My main objection to the 'playoffs' is that you don't play at speedway. I do think you need to have a system whereby teams get more of an advantage for finishing higher in the league, either in terms of a double chance or points handicap in their favour, but provided teams know they're part of the process of winning the championship, then I don't see the problem.

Yes, but that's a cop out as I'm sure you're aware. BSI and the FIM were collectively making a couple of million quid in profit, and the riders should be insisting on a bigger cut of that. They are the show and in other competitions typically receive 20-40% of the revenue, whereas they get about 6% in the SGP.

FIFA is the sport's governing body, so whilst it runs the World Cup at a profit, those profits (in theory) directly benefit the game. Okay, its officials have been on the take for years, but it still subsidises the running of things like the Womens' and Youth World Cups. BSI is a private owned company that effectively pays a flat rate to the FIM for 'rights' and keeps everything else as profit.

Only thing I can really think the FIM insisted upon is having a few token qualifiers rather than allowing BSI to handpick all the riders. They overlook plenty of other things. The average jobbing pro-golfer still has nothing like the costs of an international speedway rider. Yes, but you were saying that riders would still ride for no money. If he's a pro-sportsman then he's being paid something, even if it doesn't cover all his costs. My point though, is that amateur speedway riders would not be able to commit to riding somewhere like the Australian GP if there was no financial support. What are they then? They are not all run by commercial organisations. F1 is an exception, but most/all football competitions are run by the governing bodies of those sports.

Would have thought it's something the Spar should be investigating and reporting on, but if Tel and Rosco say everything in the garden is rosy, that's all they'll print.

The Welsh 'national anthem' is the best of the home countries, although I think Jerusalem would surpass it if it were actually the official English anthem. However, it has to be remembered that the British National Anthem is the oldest in the world (although the Dutch anthem is older, it was not officially adopted until early in the 20th century) having been written in the early 18th century, and as such inspired the writing of ever other national anthem in the world, as well as being adopted in its own right by other countries (e.g. Liechtenstein). As with all national anthems, I think you need to take a circumspect view of the words and not take things too literally. The German national anthem includes some pretty irredentionist and sexist words, the Italian anthem is somewhat anti-Austrian, but it doesn't change the fact they can be quite stirring.

I don't know the Council could mandate such a thing as it's not within their's or Belle Vue's gift to decide where international speedway events are held. They can certainly insist the circuit is built to international standards to facilitate the hosting of such events, but unless they're prepared to stump up or underwrite the staging costs then it's difficult to see how it could be insisted upon.

Yes, but he makes some living and even if he's actually losing money on tournaments, can probably do a few golf lessons or whatever to subsidise it. There's plenty of young pros in the lower echelons of golf and tennis who'll effectively be subsidising their own participation in the hope of making it big, but they won't be doing it for more than a few years unless they have rich backers. A golfer also only has to buy a decent set of clubs and throw them in the back of a car or the hold of a plane to get to a tournament. A speedway rider has substantial equipment costs and needs a van to get around, before even considering how to get somewhere like Australia. Participation in speedway could not be sustained on an amateur basis, at least not beyond riding occasional weekend meetings at local tracks. Certainly not, but they're nearly all paid something to subsidise their racing. They are also not racing at World Championship level with the commitments and costs that entails. I consider mercenary to be a descriptive rather than derogatory term, but okay, call them journeymen instead (although journeymen has connotations of mediocrity, whereas you can be a mercenary superstar). There are virtually no riders who're able to ride for the same team throughout their career (not least because of the points limit), and most will ride for umpteen teams. I therefore think it's very difficult to have any loyalty to any employer, and neither should they as they can be dumped at the drop of a hat if they're injured or lose form. Moreover, no matter how much loyalty a competitor may profess to a particular team, if someone offers them more money to go somewhere else then 99% will take it if they can. I doubt many riders actually thought too deeply about it, but under the old World Final system the profits from the staging would effectively have gone back to the sport that employed them. Furthermore, riding in the World Championship involved less commitment in terms of time and less potential loss of other paying meetings, whilst becoming World Champion probably leveraged a pay rise from their teams. So whilst riders undoubtedly competed in the World Championship for a pittance, it was at least a symbiotic relationship. What we have now is a private corporation running a competition masquerading as a World Championship for its own benefit. It expects a substantial commitment in terms of time and expense, effectively expecting riders to subsidise the costs of running the series they're making profits from. No doubt they'll argue they provide a televised showcase for riders to leverage sponsorship from, but most people wouldn't go to work for someone on the basis of having to find third parties to pay their salaries whilst their employer reaps the benefit of their labour. Top Rugby Union players were not true amateurs. If they weren't outright being paid boot money, decent jobs with benefits were arranged for them by their clubs. In addition, I don't think the administrators of the sport were making much money in that era either. There was no World Cup and not even any proper leagues, with pretty much everything outside of the Five Nations being played on a 'friendly' basis. And of course Union players also had the option to go to Roogby League.

Because the residents might object if racing was regularly allowed on more nights a week. You can still apply for planning permission to run one-off events.

Would he draw any more fans, or more to the point, enough to offset his increased appearance fees and those of all the other riders who'd start wanting them too? Why do BSI care anyway? With most of the GPs, the risk is taken by the local promoter and BSI will get their money regardless of who turns up, whilst at Cardiff you could put out 16 juniors and probably the same number of fans will turn up. Of course they could and should, as the SGP is/was basically making over 2 million quid in profit. Whilst 16 riders are prepared to turn up and ride for the money on offer though, then nothing is going to change. [Philippe will of course again say that it's the FIM who pay the prize money and the riders should take it up with them, but frankly that's a bit of a cop out.]

What does a professional sportsman do it for if not money? Sure they probably started out with the love of the sport, and might still compete up to a point if they weren't getting paid, but I very much doubt they'd commit to riding umpteen meetings around Europe and the World as an amateur. People couldn't afford to do it unless they were independently wealthy. Professional sportsmen are mercenaries with very few exceptions, and rightly so as their employers show no loyalty either. The World Championship in speedway is also a commercial profit making exercise regardless of how it's dressed up, and I don't think it's at all unreasonable for those riding in the show to expect to not do it at a loss. Does everyone want to be World Champion in their chosen sport? I've never had that ambition, but then I always realised I'd never be good enough. I'd personally also not be willing to risk physical injury and lose money so those not sharing those risks can be paid fat salaries,

Why would they do that? Provided that 16 riders turn-up to every GP then they've fulfilled their contractual obligations and get their money regardless. If they start handing out extra money here and there, then all riders will start demanding it. Do people not get the fact that OneSport want to take over the SGP and are not going to do anything to cooperate with BSI?

They're hardly going to say Swindon is doomed, or at the very least going to miss the 2016 season.

CEOs of minor sports are only paid 40-50K per year. You'll probably only get a youngish person for that, and you won't keep them for long if they're any good, but they might bring enough enthusiasm and ideas to improve the sport. It doesn't have to be someone unassociated with the sport - merely someone with no current ties to any particular promotion. It could be a former promoter, referee or even rider if they have the right attributes.

And what's wrong with that? If Emil's sponsors want him to ride in SEC as opposed to the SGP, or he weighs up the financial consequences of doing one or the other and thinks SEC is better for him economically, then he's entitled to make that decision as a professional rider. Why should riders be expected to effectively subsidise a competition run by a private profit-making company, regardless of whether it masquerades as the world championship, and maybe he's actually right and all the others are wrong (although he's not the only rider to have made that decision). Personally, I think it's ridiculous that the FIM should have ever allowed competing competitions to be sanctioned, and OneSport come over as little more than bunch of gangsters, but if I were a top-level professional rider I'd certainly want a better deal from the SGP. Auckland, Copenhagen and Bydgoszcz off the top of my head.

Indeed. BSI apparently don't bother too much about drainage at tracks staging GPs such as Riga..

I doubt it would be the salvation of the underlying structural issues afflicting the sport, but it may remove the parochial self-interested decision making of the BSPA Management Committee. An independent perspective might also influence certain rule making for the better. More and more sporting bodies are adopting independent representatives on their main decision making boards, precisely because it's recognised that team representatives acting as directors are unable to see the wood from the trees.

Maybe, maybe not. The Czech League is only a handful of meetings each season, so can easily be squeezed in for a bit of pocket money, but I don't think really features many of the top riders anyway. The Danish League races on 2 or 3 different days, including Fridays, so the 'one race day' argument doesn't really hold up there, and I'm not convinced the money would be so bad in that league either. The Danish League is also set-up around a club based structure with basic purpose built stadiums that are either supported or leased at very low cost from the local authorities. So they can get away with running a short league programme on convenient dates, not least because most Danish riders are very much part-time, whilst the others are close enough to other European speedway countries to pick up other paying meetings. The longer summer nights in Denmark may also influence attendances at midweek meetings. What works for Denmark cost-wise, cannot be assumed to work for Britain which is starting from a different economic and geographical basis. Maybe Britain could consolidate top-level racing on a couple of days per week, but to what purpose? It can't afford the top riders anyway, and neither did they draw the crowds even when they were riding in Britain.

And you don't think the stadium owners might be bigging it up in any way at all? As it happens, I don't think trying out the Ethiad is a bad development and I'd have probably gone myself if I wasn't back in Europe in October. However, I think if they get 25,000 (paying) they'll be doing well.

Everyone used to get a 2 point average just for turning up.

GP riders would amazingly find the extra energy to ride in Britain if they were paid the daft amounts they are in Poland. However, virtually all the top riders used to ride in Britain until about 10 years ago, and attendances were on a continual downward spiral then. British speedway can't afford these riders and shouldn't even be attempting to afford them.

Who is 'they'? Anyone who knows anything about the Etihad will tell you that Melbourne people generally have complete disdain for the stadium due to its ripoff pricing, lack of standing areas (which are common in Australian stadia), over-zealous stewarding and poor environmental conditions (apparently fog forms with the roof closed). The AFL clubs that use it also hate it because of the poor deal they get, and the awful playing surface. There have been umpteen articles in the press about the problems, which are easy to find online. Well they were hardly likely to fill it.