Humphrey Appleby

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.

Well I suppose we know there will be at least 4,000 there...

I can't believe that you're seriously saying this. There are at best 28 weekends during the British speedway season, so 13-14 SGP and SWC dates take out half of those. Just how are BEL promoters supposed to fit a full league programme around this, even before you consider that 3-4 week gaps between league matches would be commercial suicide? I thought you said the tickets were selling well? The event is barely a month away.

And some people believe in pixies and fairies as well....

One word 'money'. Whether or not the Swedish League has any more of it, it's paying it...

Not really. Wembley to Charing Cross is 11 miles, Parken to Nyhavn in Copenhagen is only 2, so well within walking distance. The Friends Arena is about 4 miles to the old town, so maybe an argument for it being too far away. Equally though, Stockholm is close enough to the main speedway fanbase that it can't be the entire reason for the poor attendances.

Sure, but why does Copenhagen and Stockholm not replicate that?

I'm sure it must have happened, but I don't remember (m)any world championship qualifiers held on awful tracks. World Finals also didn't get abandoned, even though 1992 must have come pretty close after the torrential downpour it got. However, the Poles just sucked the water off the circuit and it was perfectly raceable (except by Tommy Knudsen who'd won his first couple of races before the rain, and only managed another 3 points).

There's not even a bridge to blame in Stockholm, and I'm not sure how popular womens' basketball is in Sweden either. I think Cardiff works because there's no alternative to seeing another GP in Britain. If you had another round on a permanent track (e.g. Belle Vue), then I suspect the novelty of watching usually poor racing would wear off, plus there would be less incentive to actually make a specific effort to attend that GP. I'm astonished that British speedway can still conjure up 40,000 fans (even The Fall have more, allegedly), so I'm afraid I struggle to believe that a second GP at Belle Vue would find much more of a new audience.

That wasn't really my point. Yes, the CCP may have decided where the World Finals went, but as far as I understand, those sorts of decisions have to be ratified at a higher level - either at Management Council or General Assembly level. It stands to reason if there are potential financial and legal implications for the FIM, as I'd doubt Commission members have legal responsibility for the organisation. The Management Council is also specifically empowered to take decisions to safeguard the organisation, so if the out-of-court settlement was awarding a World Final to the US, then I fail to see why any sort of deal needed to be done with Germany to hold the subsequent World Final in a field. It seems very odd that a legal dispute would be settled by decision of a lower level Commission. I can well understand that Germany may have been agitating for a World Final, and given that it was a source of significant earnings for many professional riders at the time, it was probably not an unreasonable desire. Equally though, any hosting award should have been made on the condition of them coming up with a venue suitable for a World Final, with a fallback somewhere else if they couldn't. It all seems like very poor political management though, and the start of the trend towards the tail wagging the dog. Perfectly fine to take World Finals to other countries if they had the facilities (which ironically many do now), but taking them to Norden and Vojens just started the rot, although maybe that was the intention so it justified the establishment of a GP series. Of course these days, the SGP organisers would bite the hand off of any promoter who wanted to run a GP in the US, and clearly Germany as well judging by the willingness to go to another field.

I query everything because speedway is full of nonsense. If the FIM was genuinely being threatened with being sued in a US court, and to be honest I suspect there's a lot more to this story than being reported, then I'd imagine the FIM Executive Board (or whatever it's called) could simply decide to settle by awarding a World Final without recourse to any horse trading in the CCP. It's more than few bob though, isn't it? Because in many international sports, revenue from the premier events is disbursed amongst the national federations, and maybe the PZM have finally worked this out. Indeed - nothing at all wrong with the principle of going to Finland, but nice to see the buck once again passed to the locals. Did nobody actually go and inspect the venue and evaluate whether a decent track could be put in? Does BSI take responsibility for anything?

Seems a weak reason to approve a World Final in Germany, especially one in the middle of nowhere. Couldn't the award have been made conditional on finding a decent stadium, as after all the Germans did manage to pull Munich out of the bag only 6 years later? With the greatest of respect to Teterow, it's an absolute joke to be holding a GP there. It would just about be understandable if someone wanted to take a GP to minor speedway country and that's all that was available, but whilst Germany is not really a major speedway country, it's certainly not an insignificant one and surely should be able to come with something better. Of course it matters, because aside from it being disingenuous to state that GP has made a profit without including all the hosting costs, if the GP is not making a profit overall then it's only sustainable whilst the council is willing to subsidise it. The decision to host the GP is not really down to the club at all. The people who've actually been and reported on here. Why are the PZM stamping down? Perhaps they've cottoned onto the fact that someone is making money, and it's not them. Anyway, it wasn't just Poland where all these tracks were apparently lining up to host a GP. It was erm.. Finland and New Zealand etc..

Yet you say with a straight face that Teterow can be good venue? Bydgoszcz can't justify stumping up the asking price - it's that simple. Or the local council won't support the GP any more, whereas Horsens (under a different council) will? A profit taking into account the staging fee paid by the local council? Teterow is universally agreed to be a crap track (I think Kelvin must have been referring to the grass track next door ), and we can see with our own eyes how incredibly basic the stadium is (plus it's in the middle of nowhere). Germany constantly disappoints with its promised venues - what happened to Berlin (again)? You told us not so long ago that tracks were queuing up to stage GPs...

Why do you want two rounds in Britain? There's already too many GPs, and it's Poland and Sweden who should be getting less, not Britain getting more. Denmark normally only gets one GP though - it was only in 2012 it had the two rounds from memory. Well yes, but is 6,000 fans really what the SGP should be striving for...? And to think people complained about declining World Finals attendances.

Guess would be the Annual Return was overdue, as the striking off was cancelled the day after it was received. The company revenue is apparently too small to have to file detailed accounts, and there's very little detail you can glean from abbreviated accounts. At a guess, GSI is just a vehicle for collecting and paying El Tel's fees from the deal. The money may have been unpaid for the year at the time of doing the accounts. And entertaining reading that made...

How does that make it a national stadium any more than any other training track? That remains to be seen, and depends on how you define the 'best'. You'd certainly expect it to be the least decrepit speedway stadium, but looking at the pictures it doesn't seem as well appointed or as big as some other speedway stadiums. What is there to be jealous about? Good luck to Belle Vue and very happy if there's a recognised venue for major speedway meetings in Britain. Doesn't change the fact it's nothing more than a marketing exercise though.

London is the capital of the country, and football internationals and cup finals have historically almost always been played there (even in the pre-Wembley era). By contrast, London does not have a single speedway track, nor has staged a World Final for nearly 40 years. I've personally no problem with Manchester staging major meetings, but let's not argue it's centrally located speedway-wise. Yes, because FIM events have to be on FIM licensed circuits, and as far as I know there are virtually none in the north. I seem to remember that Quirky Lane was at one point but let it lapse, but I think Sheffield is only other northern circuit that ever was. Nothing, but someone was arguing it was geographically central, which it isn't speedway wise. I think it's great that a purpose built speedway stadium is being funded, and I hope it will be used for many major meetings. On what basis is it a 'national stadium' though beyond its own self-promotion?