PHILIPRISING

WHAT I am hearing is that the FIM have decided the SEC should become a feeder series for the SGP and that a rider in the SEC will not be "invited" to compete in the SGP.

YET another dig at Speedway Star ... if you actually read it, and considering it is a weekly publication not a website, you would realise that most of the stuff has already appeared, at least as conjecture.

BSI won't release anything official to their own website until contracts have been signed and sealed and ratified by the FIM. It is not hard to piece together the 2014 calendar given the various tickets that are already on sale but, for example, the round scheduled for April 26 has yet to be agreed. If it is Bydgoszcz then the calendar will remain as it currently is but, if not, one or two rounds might be re-shuffled.

SAID before that I would imagine this would be difficult to enforce but it is very much to do with internal conflicts at the FIM and FIM Europe. As for the GP calendar (iris123) the original draft included both Lonigo and Daugavpils. The somewhat unexpected return of Copenhagen, at the express wish of the Danish Motor Union, resulted in Lonigo being jettisoned and while there are lots of rumours about Riga taking the place of Daugavpils in 2014 rather than 2015 that has still to be confirmed.

NEVER pretended to be right all the time ... just tell it as I know it at the time. Lonigo was actually on the draft 2014 SGP calendar at one time, as was or is Daugavpils, but once Copenhagen returned, rather unexpectedly, it was dropped.

NOT as good obviously as Cardiff for example but still much better than nothing. Rather freakish weather conditions there in 2012 left some water on the first and second bends but it was quickly cleared.

I AM currently out of the UK but rumours of Riga are gathering strength. Was certainly being lined up for 2015 but maybe things have moved on quicker than anticipated.

NO ... he is like a civil servant, appointed by the FIM permanent staff.

WOULDN'T bet on it...

IF the Germans actually knew what they were talking about they would have known that Armando Castagna wasn't involved either. It is the job of the CCP Secretary in Geneva to notify federations in cases such as these. Sounds like some sour grapes in there because they wanted their own candidate, Wolfgang Glas, to get the job that Armando has. But, even if the FIM cocked up, it still wasn't the fault of Harris and the fact remains that several others in front of him in the queue did turn it down.

RIDERS negotiate their own deals so, yes, their rates would vary not only from club to club but within the same team There have been rumours of one or two riders on a guaranteed payment but none of these are ever published and are private matters between the employer (track) and employee (rider).

GOOD point

NOT sure the Freedom of Information Act applies in Switzerland...

JURICA Pavlic was knocked out of the qualifying rounds for the 2012 GP Challenge and was then afforded the wild card for the Challenge on his home track in Croatia ... blame the system by all means but why be so hard on Harris? If my memory serves me correct Andy Smith was never given a wild card slot... he was around at the time when those in the GP who didn't automatically qualify for the following year went into the Challenge.

I WOULD estimate anything between £80 and £175 a point...

ALSO, signing on inducements in excess of £100,000 have been quite common

I MAYBE wrong (it happened once!) but have a feeling Elite League Ice Hockey were actually paying Sky rather than the other way round...

I KNOW of one rider who reckoned six points would earn him £10,000 ...

BUT Harris wasn't the first or only British rider to be asked to attend Poole initially as a meeting reserve, which is how he eventually got into the meeting. Had Craig Cook for example said yes he probably would have got in before Harris. It was only because Harris was prepared to go and take his chance should it arise that he is where he is today. BSI had no part in this. Why would they? I am sure they would rather have Zagar in the GP than Harris anyway so why, as you seem to be suggesting, would they push Zagar into withdrawing. And Zagar would have had no idea at the time of his withdrawal who would take his place. Other riders via their federations could have come in but for various reasons (as I'm told by the FIM) declined.

BUT I didn't say only ...

THE CCP Secretary at the FIM informed the respective federations when one of their riders was eligible to ride in the GP Challenge and it was then incumbent upon that federation to contact said rider. As and when the FIM were informed that said rider wasn't able or willing to compete the next federation in line was contacted and so on. This was done. There obviously comes a stage when a line in the sand has to be drawn to ensure that the meeting has a full compliment and then the host federation (in this case the ACU) is asked to nominate a rider or riders. YES ... many reasons but Cardiff alone is sufficient in my view.

YOU contradict yourself ... Andy Smith was only it because he was a Brit although he earned his qualification? I have stated here many times.... the GP Challenge is nothing to do with BSI. It was the FIM's various procedures that eventually saw Chris Harris ride at Poole and their rules which see him as first reserve.

I AM in the US at the moment and will tackle some of the questions raised later. However, what I can say now is that net income from a sale through the App Store for example will actually be slightly less than from a printed mag sent through the post. We heavily discount subs anyway, currently £2.12p per copy and then we pay first class postage leaving us with about 56 per cent of the original cover price. That is also the margin we receive from sales through supermarkets, newsagents, etc. The net income from overseas subs with higher postage charges is also around 56 per cent. Apple take 30 per cent of the cost of mags sold via iTunes, then the company handling the operation for us take 14 per cent of what's left leaving us with, again, around 55/56 per cent. The bottom line is the net income per magazine is pretty much the same no matter how it is sold. We looked at various means of producing an online magazine, bearing in mind that we do not have the time or staff availability to do it ourselves. The first criteria was that it had to be available on a Thursday morning. That means the pdfs need to be sent on a Tuesday afternoon, at the same time as the final files are sent to our printers. We talked with a few companies that could handle that but some charge a minimum of £3 per page, plus the costs of setting up an App and a annual licence fee. For a pre-paid yearly contract that amounts to over £11,000 on our current annual pagination. The best solution was us is what ExactEditions offer. It is all based around subscriptions. They take the final pdf and handle everything from there on a commission only basis. Their income is a percentage of subs sold. No subs sold they make no money and we have no financial downside other than the unavoidable payments to Apple. The lack of a facility to buy one-off copies is something we will examine in the near future but right now the route we have chosen is the one that suits us best.

BECAUSE the only way it is practical and, frankly, affordable for us at present is via a subscription based system which does not allow single purchases. THE cost for an online sub will be virtually the same as for the printed version in the UK. It will not be on the Yudu platform. We are going through a company called ExactEditions who will handle the whole process for us.

SINGLE copy isn't practical I'm afraid. Sorry. It may change but not in the immediate future. Subs copies will work out at around £2.15 per issue as against the cover price of £2.90.