The Pedaler

FIM - BSI - FIM Europe - SEC - SGP - OneSport = a broad ranging topic, one fermenting as we speak, one that goes to the heart of the sport and one in need of some investigative journalism to delve into the facts and figures to tell us what is really happening, and what it could all lead to. Great potential story don't you think? The question is whether Philip Rising and his staff will risk upsetting BSI, FIM, etc, etc, and having their SGP free-passes revoked for doing their journalistic duties and publishing the truth? Or is it like Jack Nicholson said in "A Few Good Men" - "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

What a fantastic wind-up posting! Excellent. Everyone doff your caps to SS for this brilliant bit of comedy prose. So the whole world has to be run around British race days does it? ha ha. A part of every speedway track will forever be British will it? Chortle! This is like the Parks Football League telling FIFA and UEFA to avoid Saturdays and Sunday afternoons when they organise their tournaments. because in world terms, British speedway really IS the parks league when compared to where the power is today. For that reason, this post simply can't be taken seriously and has to be viewed as a simple wind up. Well done Steve. Top form again. It has to come from somewhere. Those eggshell walkers at Speedway Star won't have the guts to investigate and publish the hard hitting facts about the issue.

One minute it's complaints that British Speedway Promoters can't promote for a toffee...the next is a complaint that someone else wants to give promotion a bash! Just like all the complaints about "Poles coming over here and taking our jobs" - what it really is, is that those jobs that the British can't or won't do, the Poles are prepared to try their hand at. And just watch, they'll probably be very good at it too!

Interesting...the SEC will now unashamedly be better paid than the SGP by the looks of this article - http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/418001/dodatkowa-motywacja-dla-uczestnikow-sec-sponsor-daje-100-euro-wiecej-za-kazdy-pu

Is there an internet forum like BSF in Poland? I'd love to see what they have to say on the matter. I'm sure that there will be plenty of people willing to do 15 x 5-minute rounds (of debate of course) with Mr Appleby!

When FIM Europe and it's predecessors ran the European Championships (for at least the last 12 odd years) no-one in Britain cared about it, if they even knew about it. It was considered by the authorities as a "Mickey Mouse" competition, in the same way as other European events are treated as "Mickey Mouse", why? Because they had no bearing on (speedway) life in Britain. Now, an promotional organisation grabs the European Championships by the scruff of the neck, puts serious money into it, and attracts riders to it, and everyone is up in arms. Why? Because it's happening in Poland. Plain and simple. How dare they? Much of the sponsorship money for international speedway comes from Poland, or at least before Fogo and Nice pulled out, it did. Many of the competing riders are Polish and other East Europeans, Why on earth should the Poles NOT benefit from their investment in the new competition? Why should the Poles be happy that BSI (Bellamy's Speedway Investment) demand millions of Zloties from the cities of Gorzow, Torun and Bydgoszcz, in return for the SGP being run there? Why should Polish (amongst others) TV companies pay royalties to a British company to show the racing that's happening in their own back yard? Why should Polish riders, if Emil Sayfutdinov is to be believed, be treated like cattle by Bellamy & Co and be made to travel to far off places like New Zealand for little net benefit? And who can blame Emil Sayfutdinov for choosing a competition that has a round in his own country when BSI don't? Now say for instance if Barry Hearne had got control of the SEC instead of OneSport. Would there be any of this xenophobic claptrap then? Everyone in Britain would be saying that it was a great thing that Hearne was going to be able to promote a speedway tournament, It would have been seen as the best thing since sliced bread. My god, someone who knows something about promotion would have been out there promoting speedway. Fantastic, There's another thread lauding Barry Hearne up to the heavens. However, apart from being British, which would have made everything alright, does anyone really think he would have done anything much different to what OneSport have done?

Well it's certainly not very British is it? Maybe that's the British definition of a Mickey Mouse event - one that's not governed by a British organisation. After all, we won the war! Two of them in fact. And a World Cup! Who has the right to argue against the British? How dare these Polish upstarts start up another tournament. Who the hell do they think they are? Bah!

Will BSkyB be offering discounted subscriptions for their SkySports packages that include speedway for the next 5 years to the elderly, disabled, disadvantaged or vulnerable? It seems from reading their web site that their pricing policy is somewhat different to the York Barbican Theatre. Is anyone going to criticise them for the morality of their position on the matter? As for the matter of free travel on buses, that's a matter of Government policy, paid for out of taxation, because they think that getting around is one of life's essentials. Speedway isn't one of life's essentials, it's a choice that the individual makes. It's very sad if the price of admission stops people from going as often as they would like, however it's also very sad for the people who work night shifts that they can't go either. Whilst arguing vociferously over who the compassion king is on here amongst people who can't do much to change the situation, has anyone written to Len Silver, Matt Ford, Jon Cook, Terry Russell, Alex Harkess, Alan Philips, David Gordon, etc etc, asking them to dig deeper into their pockets to subsidise the disadvantaged more...because they can afford it, can't they? Speedway is flush with cash, just waiting to be spent on spectators subsidies, isn't it? On another thread people are arguing that speedway is only worth a tenner, and that's for the able bodied adults. God knows where the clubs that have a 40%-50% aged and infirm supporter base will get their income from if everyone and their carers are supposed to get in on free or discounted admissions below that £10 mark. I'd love to know how some fans think that speedway will ever be made to pay with these ideas. Sad fact of life is that in these harsh times, it's not just the disadvantaged that can't afford everything that they want, but those who are trying to make a business out of speedway can't afford to hand out the subsidies that maybe in an ideal world they would want to. Sad but true.

The one thing that most disabled people that I know share, is an ambition or a desire to be treated equally as "normal" people. They don't want pity or sympathy, just dignity and respect for them as human beings as much as anyone else gets. I think that all this "compassion wars" where everyone on here tries to impress everyone else by how charitable they are (with other people's money) and how outraged they can be by others not sharing their so-called values, shows no respect whatsoever to the people who they are debating about and is nothing more than an ego trip to try to impress others on here of what "nice" people they are. Well if you are so nice, then maybe instead of pontificating about what is a decent thing to do or not, in an effort to shame your promoter into discounting their prices for the disabled, why don't you stand outside the turnstiles of your track and pay these people in out of your own money? That'll be real charity. And don't worry, I think you'll find that most disabled people will decline your offers as they will have more dignity and self-respect for themselves than the respect that you are showing them. So you won't be too far out of pocket!

EXACTLY, not only should kids get in for a quid but their accompanying adult should get in FREE too! Of course they should. No doubt everyone else on here who agrees with that line in thinking will mock promoters for trying to make a business out of speedway, for trying to get some money into the bank to pay the bills with, and ye gods, if they should even dare to do so, to actually make a profit!

In the EL, only Kings Lynn, Wolverhampton and Lakeside offer "concessions" admission to registered disabled in the pricing structure on their web sites. NONE of them mention carers, or other helpers. Not looked at PL / NL web sites. As for the rights and wrongs, short sightedness or other emotive language, that's up to the individual to decide. One thing's for sure though, whatever discounts the promoters offer will come out of their own pockets. No Local Authority will be providing grants from their Social Services budgets, to finance the discounts, nor will the promoters be getting anything off any charity to fund their generosity.

And that's all it's about isn't it? "me...me...me..." The sport can go to hell as long as you can still put a fiver on something at the bookies, can't it? All that glitters is obviously 24 carat gold in BWitcherland...especially when it shines out of Terry Russell's backside.

Or take yourself back to the days when on the way back from Cardiff you stopped off at Newport for the Welsh Whateveritwas.

Nice commission earner for Terry Russell trading as GoSpeed for the future isn't it? Does anyone think that this will pull extra people into match nights at the stadiums? In other words, whilst Terry Russell trading as GoSpeed does well out of this deal, and that is whether or not a new stadium is built at Swindon (promises at Reading come to mind) what will be the fate of the other tracks around the country? Terry Russell has done well out of this. He has his future earning assured whether or not Swindon are in existence after this season. As for the rest, what does he care? Attendances won't be his problem will they?

You certainly seem to be appeasing those who feed you your press releases. Without them, where would you be now? Certainly lost the art of unearthing "news" of your own, or digging beneath the surface, or looking in dark corners to see what else you might find.

So if Speedway Star can't be compared to Pravda, maybe it should be compared to "The Watchtower"? Another publication that's oblivious to the truth and current affairs in it's zeal to spout out the "Good Word" to appease the higher power? Anyway, who needs Speedway Star when the Bournemouth Echo is leading the way with decent speedway journalism? - http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/10981713.Speedway__BSPA__have_to_take_responsibility__over_Havelock_says_vice_chairman/?ref=twtrec

So, no interviews with the riders torn between the two potential bookings then? No interviews with Havvy over how he feels about being shafted? No interviews with the guy who cocked up the fixtures then? Could it have been the same guy who programmed in a Lakeside fixture on the Friday before an FIM event on a Saturday, only to discover when all the arrangements had been made that three of his own Lakeside team were needed in the FIM event, including the Friday practise/training day? Let's just sweep everything under the carpet shall we and carry on as if nothing has happened? Isn't it in everyone's interests to investigate why these so called cock-ups occur in order to expose the truth so that things might be able to improve. Can't you see that SS could be a catalyst for improvement that would be in everyone's best interests? Instead all we get are excuses for why every issue that raises eye-brows amongst the fans is a "non-story". No doubt the BSPA will be relieved that they won't be having any awkward questions to answer, and will feel that it doesn't matter if they don't take the care needed to avoid similar cock ups again in the future, because their favourite speedway magazine won't be bothered next time either.

Good, so we can expect some interesting and investigative and insightful reporting on the goings on over "Havvygate" and the new SkySports deal then can we??

Why not re-name Speedway Star - "PRAVDA"? If all you want is good news stories and announcements of record production figures by the state tractor factory... If that's the sort of thing that you really want then let's go back to Speedway Star just being an official mouthpiece for the BSPA.

And another one for the Speedway Star to get their teeth into...

I can't wait to read those. The one with Terry Russell especially. The BSPA press release today TWICE mentioned that the deal was done between Sky and the BSPA. The spokesman for the deal for the BSPA was Alex Harkess...no mention of Terry Russell or GoSpeed International Ltd anywhere. Maybe you can ask why GoSpeed have been cut out of the loop. Was it a BSPA economy drive or was it GoSpeed deciding that 40% commission of nothing wasn't worth getting out of bed for? Maybe you can now ask Terry Russell what value GoSpeed places on the world rights to Polish Speedway now. Will it be worth them paying to keep the rights if they earn nothing from them and have no product to protect any more? Maybe you can ask Terry Russell what leverage GoSpeed now has over the BSPA over other media rights, and whether it is fair that GoSpeed should dictate what media is or isn't allowed - e.g YouTube Should GoSpeed be able to dictate how things are done in return for NOTHING of substance? Maybe you can ask Terry Russell what commission he things he is entitled to keep if GoSpeed ever secure a sponsor for British Speedway, in the way that they have singularly been unable to secure sport-wide advertising so far in their existence? You could arrange to make that a very interesting interview. Or, on the other hand, maybe you can perpetuate the image of being a toothless magazine, that just regurgitates press releases, as has been the topic of another thread on here. You won't want to upset your mates in the establishment do you? The choice is yours.

My god, Mary Whitehouse is not only alive and well, but is a speedway fan too.

The other clubs are also in BSPA controlled territory.

Nice defence of GoSpeed there. The thing is, by GoSpeed acquiring the rights, NOBODY else could show Polish Speedway. That was always the intention. Stifle the opposition. Hide the better product from public view. Preserve the illusion that British is best. PROTECT THE RUSSELL'S COMMISSION EARNINGS. That bit about Sky not being interested is nothing more than a smoke screen.

Shame that they were late onto this thread...it means that you won't have seen my questions on the previous page.