Grand Central

Actually not true. Standing tickets at Odsal were £7.50 and seats (less than 5000) in the Stand were £15, £17.50 and £20. Nothing over that. I'm not decrying your point on the value you had at Western Springs as £29 sounds a decent price. I presume market forces led Mr Buckley to set the prices keenly. But the vast majority at the 85 Final had £1 change from a tenner after paying to get in and buying a programme. .

Really? People with no 'proper' Speedway watching history? It's just that I didn't see so many people without some form of 'branding'. Or ex-regular fans? Who just go this once a year. Having been to Cardiff every year, and sat just about everywhere, I've never felt like I have been sitting among the uninitiated. Everyone has seemed to be 'Speedway', one way or another. Have you found it different?

Well, those nice people at BSI have the database on the Cardiff ticket holders (except those that buy from touts, SCB) - and have done for the past 13 years. They have certainly made use of it; though purely for reminder cards that get routinely sent. I'm sure they would charge only the smallest fee tor the BSPA to have access to it for marketing research purposes. I wonder if anyone has asked? The extra numbers at Cardiff could probably be explained by three main groups, though. 1) The dragged along spouses (and other family). It does seem quite easy to pursuade them to go to Cardiff for the weekend. HiEdge Raceway is a more difficult ask. 2) The overseas fans. There were quite a few there. 3) The Fans-without-a-team-to-support. Those from Bradford, Reading, Oxford, Exeter, Wimbledon, Cradley, Hull, Newport and the rest. They may still go, occasionally, to their nearest track without becoming regulars. Some were in evidence at Cardiff. And, on top of all that, from what you read on here 'regular' fans themselves are just not 'as regular' as they used to be, anyway. I blame the diet. .

Thanks for that info. I did not realise that. Yes when you have a look around the world, as I have just done via google etc, at some of the god-forsaken places that have APDs (when so many British Premier League tracks still don't) then it is quite an eye-opener.

Good point. And as this is an edict originating at FIM level then the rest of the world will be looking for APDs as well.

Speedway promotions are all registered for VAT so they will have all set the input tax on an air fence against the output tax it collects on behalf of HMRC at the turnstiles.

My 'take' on this sort of valuable information is Polish Speedway is doing something sufficiently 'right' that not very well paid people are prepared to pay a reasonably high proportion of their take home pay to go and watch regularly and still in quite high numbers. Whereas British Speedway does not seem to be achieving this. I presume, from what you say, Pawel, Speedway in Rzeszow 'feels' like a 30zl Sport. I just maintain that, to me, a Speedway watcher of 40 years plus, British Speedway 'feels' like it is worth £10. Right now. But we are paying up to £17. Just in dwindling numbers. Whether the costs can ever be reduced to anything like the £10 price point I really do not know. I suspect that none will actually try and we will have to continue to considerably pay more than £10 but still get just £10 of product. And numbers will dwindle further..

I tried this in my business, the other week. A customer came back with a grotesquely faulty product I was producing. He said 'This product is crap, it's not fit for purpose; it is so bad it is almost laughable' My reply was along your lines 'And you're fully thought out solution is what?' I still cannot walk properly after the custumer took this as a signal to ram the said faulty product right up my backside. I cannot work out where I went wrong. .

I went to the bar at the Stadium because I wanted a drink during the meeting. I went to enjoy myself. Surely that is not too difficult to understand. .

I'll have to politely decline your kind invitation. I cannot put my money where my mouth is at the moment as I am a little over extended. I made the comment that I thought RBS were not performing well so have had to put all my savings and spare time into running their company; and that comes on top of my previous commitments to Syria, the G8, the EU and the promises I made to Michael Gove to sort out his GCSE problems. The thing is I keep forgetting that whenever you express an opinion on any subject in the world you always have to be prepared to take on the running of the whole thing. Otherwise you are meant to be silent. Silly, silly me. I think I would agree with a great many of the cost cutting points you make. I fear that others may attack you on the basis that the figures may be a little off. Each club gets quite bit less than £100,000 for sure. There is the GoSpeed cut for a start. .

Well, I genuinely admire your hope and your faith in the people charged with handling all this. I really, really don't want to be one to quash that optimism.

Yet again who could disagree? If only we were talking of an entirely different business or sport. But the only people we have are Speedway promoters. The use of words such as plan, agreement etc along with 'Speedway's best people' can only make me repeat. All hope is lost.

I do not disagree with any part of your last post. But if we highlight the two most important sentences above. All hope is lost. And again. Who could disagree. But whence will it come? .

Undeniably true for the two gentleman you have picked. But their linguistic abilities are rarely quoted as reference points.

Thanks for all that extra insight. One could be forgiven for expecting all the commentators to have have made some effort to try and pronounce a name the way the person themselves says it. Or at least to change their version as soon as they find out they have been doing wrong in the past. But sometimes you can just expect too much. But in the current case it is more about continuity and consistency. Eurosport, themselves, are well versed in the job of putting a continuity voice over the joins in the commentary provided down the line. One would have thought their methodology would be 'lets say things the same way as the commentary people' Their experience in the business should have already let them know how jarring it is to have bizarre, conflicting, variations used. .

Not listening to the commentary could explains things. But why would someone to choose to do that? But I think I remember him making reference to a couple of things that Nigel and Kelvin had actually said during comms at a couple of points. So perhaps not.

Yes, well done. But it is spelt differently, so it's pronounced differently. Sort of like Dean and Deanne

No, you are. I was responding to the chap who WAS blaming his wrist!

" I ... DID ... IT.. MYYY ... WAYYYYY"

The funny thing is that it was so simple. Why hadn't the guy just been listening to how the names were said in the previous segment by Nigel and kelvin. How did he manage to summarise each heat WITHOUT noticing the pronunciation. or did he think he knew better? or is he a bit subnormal? I mean. Tatum. How can you say TaTTum? Who in the world has ever been called that?

When one is looking to help an Alcoholic recover, it is essential that you reach one critical point Where the person, themselves, 'admits' that they have a problem. Until this recgonition is reached then treatment will be impossible. In British Speedway so many people within the sport are swaying in the alleyway, one arm against the wall for support shouting 'we don't have a problem'. They push away the offers of help from the sober folk that can see the mess they are in. And after one more drunken rendition of 'I Did it My Way' they stagger off home. Only to repeat the whole sorry process when they next get paid. I am no councillor who can offer a proven panacea. I just wish that my old friend would wake up tomorrow morning, have a big gulp of black coffee and agree. Something needs to change.

I think we are all getting a little hooked up on comparisions with a totally different sport. With very little help towards answering this sports questions. I saw, on a different thread, that Philip Rising was quoting a current promoter as saying that British Speedway was a £10 sport. I just think that feels true. Whether any form of product can be put together at that price point that still feels like something akin to, say, the Premier League. I genuinely don't know. But if it can't I dare say I will continue to pay £17 to see a £10 product, occasionally. Every now any again I may go home thinking it was £17 well spent. But more often I won't. Is there a realistic future going on like this?

YES That's what I thought too As yet I haven't see a quote from Nicki but I would be surprised if he blamed his broken arm for dropping the bike. If it was 'his fault' that his arm was too weak to hold the bike upright wouldn't he have been the primary cause of the stoppage? That is, 'race stopped because the rider in yellow is too badly injured to make it round the first turn'. Or are you saying that the referee took pity on him for his arm injury and allowed him back in the rerun out of sympathy? .

I couldn't agree more on everything you say. He has an ability to weigh matters up in an instant. In a split second he knew that there were zero points in that race; get a stoppage and the three points may come up for grabs. And he got an extra 2. He really is brilliant at it. There is not one other person in the GP field who can pull it off.

Ooh, you can't have an opinion on Margaret Thatcher. Not unless you've been Prime Minister yourself. Then I would listen