SGP

WONDER if Drury will still be there with just one year left on his contract, or will he leave and work on his special little book.

NOTHING in terms of TV deal though.

GSI can offer BT Sport (and others of course) the Polish League rights too - they've had them for a while and nothing has come of it, so far.

GREAT idea in theory, but Birmingham's website couldn't cope with 26 visitors during a televised meeting...

INTERESTING times! Wouldn't say SKY have washed their hands with the sport, but clearly the product has to change. Whilst SKY are involved I expect the play-offs to remain. Hopefully a deal can be concluded. There is one large company that is keen to sponsor / be involved with the 'top' domestic league in the UK, so hopefully there are options.

BIRMINGHAM Speedway's Official Website has today been indefinitely suspended. For all future official news including tonight's Grand Final 2nd Leg please follow us on this Official Facebook Page or via our Official Twitter Feed @BhamBrummies end. Watch this space...

THERE has been other things too recently. I noticed a BSPA-approved photographer the other week, publicly on twitter tell a former photographer of the sport that they, "wouldn't p**s on them if they were on fire". To date, that photographer hasn't been told off - yet, Chris, who said something out of passion not hate, finds himself in the bad books.

DON'T even think they invited Loram when he won back in 2000 either, but I could be wrong.

FOR those that missed it, here is a photo from the studio. http://i43.tinypic.com/2dmcry0.jpg

MONDAY night is the most important date on the fixture calendar for the Selco Birmingham Brummies and all of the clubs fans for many many years. The club are delighted to have secured a major sponsor for the evening in Heartlands Ford and look forward to welcoming their party to Perry Barr. The team are preparing for the battle of their lives as they go into the second leg of the Sky Sports Elite League Final against the Poole Pirates. The Pirates secured a 21 point advantage in the first leg so Birmingham will need to be on top form from Heat 1 through to the final race if they are to secure their first ever winners trophy. The format of the league saw the Selco Brumies finished top of the pile, the top 4 then go into a playoffs battle to determine the overall winners. 2013 has been a breath taking season for Birmingham with win after win taking them to the top of the table. Their Perry Barr track has become somewhat of a fortress for victories and that’s exactly what the team will be racing for on Monday night. Birmingham Team Manager Phil Morris said “no one was happy with the amount of points we went down by at Poole in the first leg but history can repeat itself, and if we can reverse that plus only one point then the trophy will be ours”. Birmingham are devastated that they are not permitted to use their popular presenter Chris Simpson for the final as he has been suspended facing an SCB Court appearance. Co Owner Alan Phillips said “Chris is the voice of Birmingham Speedway and I know he’s gutted to be denied the chance to present our most historic meeting ever, we will miss him greatly”. However, keeping with the clubs red and yellow theme Birmingham have booked Leicester’s Chris Popple to present the Season Showdown and are sure he will whip the crowd up into a frenzy to help with a final push to glory. Birmingham have a real party night planned to end this terrific season and there will be lots of attractions on the night. One of these is the Andy Meredith Speedway Academy, who will be in attendance in our Fan Zone pre meeting with a Beat The Starter Simulator. Fans can test their reflexes from the tapes on a real speedway bike and the person recording the fast time on the night will win a date at the academy to race a bike with expert tuition. Birmingham ‘Selco’ Brummies: 1. Martin Smolinksi 2. Jason Doyle 3. Danny King © 4. Ben Barker 5. Chris Harris 6. Nico Covatti 7. Josh Auty Poole ‘Coastal Aluminium’ Pirates: 1. Darcy Ward © 2. Thomas H Jonasson 3. Greg Hancock 4. Rohan Tungate 5. Maciej Janowski 6. Josh Grajczonek 7. Kyle Newman

VIEWING figures are better than last year, and have been good all season. I am sure Flagrag will also confirm this. As for SKY sticking with it, I did make it clear that in my view it depends very much on what the BSPA do. SKY can sign very late on, like for example when they signed-up the NFL not too long ago.

SKY were very pleased with how things went. They ran several live interviews during the day on SKY Sports News, including live interviews with the Poole manager. They proposed upwards of 5,000 fans at the stadium and it did come across very well on the TV. It's clear the fans are still out there, though I accept the play-offs to have an affect on crowd levels. I am confident SKY will stick with Speedway if they [bSPA] can make the product more attractive.

AGAIN, even more the reason to make it clear AP Media and the BSPA have done nothing wrong. Nobody should receive such threats! Also, if AP Media are contracted to supply clubs' websites via the BSPA then, at the very least, they should be issuing and apology and reassurance that the same wont happen again [outages].

AGREED, a new TV deal you would've thought would've been a greater priority. If the sport's own fans can see the problems and are trying to help without success, then seriously, who can look forward to the future? THIS is why it is (in my view) important for the BSPA and AP Media to issue a statement and quash any talk of wrong-doing... We know for a fact 'they' come on here, they can see what's being written, so why not issue a statement and remove themselves from any alledged involvement...

STRANGE, if that is the case then why haven't the other two parties - the BSPA and AP Media - issued a simple and brief statement to quash any suggestion of wrong doing? Also, they should be doing their utmost to ensure there is no further outage in the coming weeks because I am pretty sure the Brummies website may get 27 hits again.

AS I suspected, it appears true that Chris has been banned in some capacity. Please see the below from Chris' Facebook. "Many thanks for all the pm's, texts and calls today from everyone. For now I'd prefer not to comment on what's gone on but I can confirm I will not be presenting at Coventry Speedway tomorrow and it's looking doubtful I will be allowed to present Birmingham Brummies Grand Final a week on Monday. The only thing I will add is I have received support from several Speedway Promoters and I hope all is resolved asap."

SHOULD Chris be unable to come on here and confirm/deny, then I guess we'll know for sure if he isn't presenting at the Brummies for the final.

GUESS Chris himself can confirm, or others connected to the situation. However, as an 'insider' I am 100% sure it's true.

IF you're referring to the statement issued by the Birmingham Press Officer in relation to the website outage, then I think you will find that this was approved by the Birmingham management.

THINK you missed the point of my post, I was trying to give a little info on what SKY would like. You can't compare just one week, as you can make the facts work however you wish. When SKY visited the PL tracks, am pretty sure the crowds there were more than what Belle Vue got on the same night... My point is, SKY can cope without 'big names', it's the product and entertainment that works for them, aside from the financial side...

SLIGHTLY off-topic, but is it true that Birmingham and BikerFM's Chris 'Bart' Simpson has been banned from working Speedway in the UK by the BSPA for posting his earlier statement online??

SKY wouldn't say no to more big names, but what is important to them is better value for money... They want closer racing, better presented venues and fuller crowds. For me, the Premier League can offer much more of this than the current Elite setup.

BT SPORT'S Marc Watson is keen on gaining new customers, especially from SKY so if the rights to 'Elite' league Speedway did become available then I know they would be keen.

DID the BSPA pull the site down, or did AP? I don't understand what happened. How can there be not enough bandwidth? Surely the BSPA didn't pay for a cheap package??

WONDER how much the BSPA website would appreciate a DDoS attack on their website...?