G the Bee

If Darren Bent wanted to leave Aston Villa this January, would Villa be unfair asking for a transfer fee?

A little simplistic an answer. Sure some overseas riders become assets through default. However, tell that to Poole. They paid over £28,000 to sign Darcy Ward. How much money have Bees spent on Schlein, Kennett, Harris, Nicholls? A little more than nothing!

Perhaps I should have said 'through choice' which is what your preceding post was inferring - riders averages not fitting etc. As you can see, I have edited my post. All I know about the Peterborough situation is what I have read on riders twitter posts and the response by the Peterborough promotion in the press, I think the Panthers promotion raise a number of good points. Namely: Hans Andersen was offered terms twice but turned them down. Another club (Coventry) was prepared to purchase him and he turned them down too. Is it surprising they want a transfer fee for him? Swindon seem prepared to buy him and I suspect arbitration will be involved. Troy Batchelor is alleged to have made public statements about his desire not to return to Peterborough. Again, are the Panthers promotion being unfair asking for a transfer fee for a rider who, it would seem, does not want to ride for them? NKI has said he will ride for Kings Lynn or no one. Is it surprising they want a transfer fee for him? To be honest, I find the BSPA decision to allow Kings Lynn to loan him baffling and inconsistent as Iversen has also stated his desire not to ride for his parent club. In Bjerre, Andersen, NKI and Batchelor (don't forget they also have Ryan Sullivan) Panthers have a number of top-level assets, most of which I suspect they have purchased themselves at some point. If they do want to sell the ones that clearly wish to ride elsewhere, I can't say I blame them.

That's completely over the top. These riders, whoever they ride for, will be compensated very well for riding for their respective clubs.

This is what happens now. Riders not used by their parent club are always available on loan. Has the asset system ever prevented a rider riding in his chosen league or prevented teams who don't have assets putting teams together. I just can't see this. For example, do you honestly believe NKI, Andersen, Batchelor and Barker will not be lining up in the EL this season? I'm not saying it's perfect. And certainly I feel that when a rider signs a contract it should be for a set period rather than indefinately. However, I can also see the huge disadvantages (much more than short-term pain) abandoning the asset system will cause the more established clubs who have through longevity and investment a greater stake in the asset system than other clubs. Surely, for example, you are not suggesting that Poole should have the substantial fee they paid for Darcy Ward rendered obselete.

Just watched the full replay and a couple (or three) of observations: 1) I was very impressed with the quality of the internet broadcast. This was a full multi-camera production and ran absolutely fine through my laptop connected to my tv through a HDMI lead. Even though my internet connection is not particularly quick (less than 4 MB/s) the picture quality was good and there was no jerking, buffering or sync problems. For anyone who was able to watch the internet feed of the ELRC from Swindon, this was a far superior offering. It was just like watching the tv. 2) The meeting itself was interesting and I enjoyed it. Out of the European riders, Lindback, Nicholls and Kennett showed up well and the 'top level' Americans (all of whom I expect are very familiar with the Industry Raceway) provided stiff opposition. Andersen was solid, if unspectacular. The only issue for me was there was a big gulf between the semi-finalists and the rest of the field (with the exception of Andersen). The Polish riders were disappointing and Lindgren also (though a heavy fall in an early ride may have affected his performance). A good amount of heats were spaced out with riders straightening up in the turns as they struggled to turn the bike as sharply as they needed to or picked up grip. Perhaps race-rustiness came into it. 3) The internet feed had no commentator as such simply because the track announcer is more of an 'MC'. He simply talked from the beginning to the end of the meeting, stopping only for rider interviews which were carried out after many races by another announcer with a radio mike. Both announcers were clearly passionate about their speedway. Going back to the internet feed, I certainly think, should a UK broadcaster not pick up the rights for the SGP, that this is the way for BSI to go as a temporary measure. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the broadcast. A big well done to all at Industry Speedway.

If I cancel Sky Sports I lose Elite League coverage too. So I won't be cancelling this year, but will next year if the EL contract is not renewed and they don't pick the GPs up again. Cancelling Sky altogether is a more difficult one. I subscribe to Premier Sports for Swedish league speedway and they have renewed for another two years. As far as I am aware, at the moment Premier Sports is only available through Sky. I was really hoping Premier Sports might pick the GPs up. Of course, this means more subscriptions for those who don't pick it up already, especially if those posters (and I suspect most will) wish to retain Sky Sports, for this season at least, for the Elite League coverage.

Well I decided to purchase this for $9.99. Only about £6.50 so thought it was worth a go. It was easy to set up through the streaming company's website (www.gfl.tv) which is linked to directly from the link posted above. Registering took two minutes and payment was through PayPal. Even better, it said on the Industry Racing website that the full show is uploaded to the streaming server after the live race and my purchase allows me to watch a re-broadcast with no additional charge. So I thought to myself, rather than get up at 3am I'd simply watch the re-broadcast 'as-live' when I got up in the morning. Everyone's a winner! So I get up this morning, log in and find that the event is nowhere to be seen on the streaming server. I assumed that the show would be available to watch straight after the event. It would seem this is not the case. I've just checked on the streaming server's website and it says videos are uploaded 24-48 hours after the event. So it seems I'll get to watch it... eventually. I think it's really forward thinking of Industry Racing to provide a live internet feed but I wish their website had been a little clearer about when the re-broadcast can be watched.

But Sky don't have the contract and it looks more likely it isn't going to be picked up by them either. I can't cancel Sky because of EL coverage. If it is pay to watch a website feed of the SGP or nothing then people would at least have the choice over what to do. I would pay.

One would hope that if BSI cannot sort out a uk host broadcaster for the SGP they will arrange for some kind of pay-per view streaming through their website for those who want to watch. It would be a travesty if BSI are not able to do something to ensure that the many British fans who have supported their product for so long are not able to watch the sport's premier competition.

I can see it going further than that. Go back to the time of Olsen and Mauger up until the late 80s/early 90s. A rider knew that he had to race in GB to make it at the highest level. That is no longer the case and has not been for a while. Gollob and Holta were the first of the modern generation to prove you did not need GB (althougn Gollob did a couple of seasons over here) to succeed at international level. I can see a time when a young British rider who truly has desire to be the best abandons the UK league network at an early age and goes straight to Poland and works his way up through their league system. Learning the language, learning the set-ups (which we clearly lag behind on) making the contacts etc just as Mauger, Olsen and countless others who followed them did. Just like, I imagine, Emil Sayfutdinov did.

But lets not forget that the Danes didn't just throw random yougsters into the competition. Both MBJ and MJJ have proved that they have the ability to beat the worlds best consistently on the continental tracks. We don't have a youngster anywhere near that level. The biggest problem for GB is that only Harris and Woffinden have stepped up to anything near international level since Scott Nicholls and Lee Richardson made the step up over ten years ago. Tonight showed that once we move away from the confines of British tracks, we have two international level riders and nothing else. If we had two other riders at the same level as Harris and Woffinden it would make all the difference. We would have been there or therabouts tonight. The fact is, we shouldn't be relying on a rider like Nicholls (who is clearly past his best) to score big in these events. Just like the Danes do not need to rely on Hans Andersen any more. Over the last ten years, we have been let down by the inability of riders like Stead, Howe, Allen and, more latterly Kennett, Barker and Bridger to make the step up. Whether this is down to a lack of ability/desire/commitment who knows. Bridger won't move away from his comfort zone at Eastbourne. He tried it for a season, struggled, went back the following year and has stayed there this year. Barker spends half his time pinching proverbial sweets off kids in the PL. Kennett had a poor 2010, is having a dire 2012 but had a good 2011. The problem is, the 'silencergate' events have, in my opinion, put a huge question marks over those results. I would love to see Roynon and Auty in the team next year but they really need to get themselves fixed up on the continent first.

This is the new Belle Vue stadium which they have not even started to build yet. To be honest, I'll believe the hype about the new stadium when I see the construction of it begin. We are a year away from the 2013 SWC and we've not even been given a date when the building of it might start. I'm not being negative or down on Belle Vue. I truly hope it is built. However, how long have we been hearing the line 'It is going to happen...'?

Thanks for reply. Always interesting to hear an inside story!

But why? These are guys you used to sponsor. Why the huge change of opinion? You must have sponsored Hans Andersen for nearly 10 years. Bomber you backed last year, but now you seem to hardly ever have a decent word to say about either of them. Not having a go. Anyone who pumps their money into speedway as a sponsor has my full respect. Just curious.

Who would you recommend if you were still involved with Chris?

When I click on the video box, a box with Danish writing comes up. What does it say? Presume I need to accept something?

Got it on Sopcast. 56947

My AVG does not like that link!

Funny. The TVP link is denying me access for this one despite working fine for the last meeting.

Well I'm just watching heat 1 of the Czestochowa Gorzow meeting on http://sport.tvp.pl/zuzel/enea-ekstraliga/wideo/enea-ekstraliga-polonia-azoty-tauron/5062326

I clicked on the sport.tv.pl link on Soccer Live because I was getting volleyball when I clicked on the Sopcast link. It is the Czestochowa meeting though.

Again, Philip, thanks for your reply - an earlier date is not possible due to availability of the track. Fair enough. Of course it will be possible to work out fixtures - lets not forget how quickly fixtures were arranged when Cov and Peterborough came back into the fold. But, on the other hand, and for the sake of debate which, ultimately, is what this forum is about. Could it be argued that this event (if it happens) is a further example of how the BSI/IMG run events are further impacting on domestic speedway which, it could be argued, is the very lifeblood of their own product. I seem to recall Speedway Star being against the GP's way back when they were first mooted. Was this because of the disruption posed to the domestic calendar? First it was 6 GPs. This impacted on the Saturday tracks, but they worked around it. Then the amount of GP's went up and the SWC was introduced (which took away a week of the domestic season in the height of summer). Saturday EL racing was now not a viable option for many tracks. Now we see a GP taking away GP riders for a further week (not 1 or 2 nights like the European events do) right as the season is due to get underway. Where is the line drawn? What if next year or the year after an Aussie date is introduced after the NZ event.

Thanks for your reply. So dialogue has clearly happened with Poland. Has it with the UK? It clearly will affect the European commitments of GP riders if they ride in GB! Emil, Holder, Ward (assuming he's in), Bjarne P, Nicki P, Lindgren (will he qualify or get a wildcard or neither), Bjerre, Harris (if he gets a wildcard - not beyond the realms of possibility). All of these are GP riders for next season over here at the moment. Could we see Lindback or Jonsson returning? Especially if fixtures are reduced. Will Nicki or Emil be back? The fact is, we don't know how many gp riders will be over here. It could be 'not many' but it could be more than that. Who could have forseen Emil or Nikki riding over here a year ago? Perhaps it's just me, but I'm not sure I would want to go flying half-way around the world just as the season starts. Then again, riders are more used to jumping on and off planes than I am! Like I said, I welcome the extra GP, especially in a country outside Europe, I just question the timing. An early to mid-march date would make more sense to me, as it would cause less disruption to the European fixtures but obviously I don't know the wider picture.