RobMcCaffery

I expect it's a last-minute decision on a reduced fee. Great news though - I love watching the Swedish League. Much prefer it to Poland. Let's hope for a drier start to the season and better scheduling by Eurosport.

More to the point, Ford found he couldn't make money from it. Joke competition, created only so the Polish teams have a strong chance of declaring themselves World Champions to please their sponsors.

And there we have one of the key factors why Poole Speedway has such an appalling reputation outside Dorset. What an attitude to have!

They always have an excuse, don#t they? It's not a case of 'hating' Poole - very little in sport is worth 'hating', despite the attitudes of too many football fans, but having a strong dislike for the arrogance of so many of those involved with Poole Speedway. They in turn try to shrug it off by describing any criticism of their actions or attitude with the term 'Poole hater', trying to discredit such criticism by suggesting that such critics are just following some standard line instead of being able to see and think for themselves. It doesn't work. I've enjoyed my trips to Wimborne Road over the past forty years but under the current regime it's become an arrogant, ruthless business which treats outsiders with contempt, as in Ford's sanctimonious utterings in the local rag. "Why wouldn't any club report emphasise their own club?? Its only likely to be read regularly by the club's own potential fanbase." It does rather treat their own fans with contempt - that they are too feeble-minded to be given anything other than a distorted report.

The last population figures show: Birmingham 1.01 million Scunthorpe 72 thousand

I think economics is a little beyond the heads of the likes of the poster. I doubt he even knows that there are steelworks in Scunthorpe or that thousands of jobs have been at risk through the town.

You have an excellent race track, a very impressive team and a good grandstand to watch it all from. Sometimes it's just best to sit down.

Steering quickly away from politics, it has to be remembered how much of a fight it must be to run speedway in both towns.

In a town like Scunthorpe it's impossible not to see the huge reliance on those steelworks. They really dominate the town, I do wish them well. The fact that a small town like that has had three tracks shows how much fight there is to keep the sport going there.

Like I said, best avoid the petty, childish squabbling that blights the BSF (even if some of the points raised are highly valid ) Sadly, as ever, once we get an interesting, positive discussion going someone has to post with the clear intention of provoking others which inevitably gets responded to. Perhaps Gresham, the best way to enjoy the sport is to keep away from the BSF and some of the sad cases who live to abuse the chances offered by it. Carry on enjoying your return to the sport and bear in mind we've always had these types in the sport - the internet just gives them an easier way to annoy people for their own dodgy, rather sad needs ;-)

I expect many potential customers were at home, worried sick about the future of their jobs at the Tata steelworks. Thankfully it looks like they still have hobs, albeit not so well-paid. In a town like Scunthorpe which is so dependent on one major employer it is a vital factor in getting people to spend money on leisure. Hopefully with greater certainty people will be able to think about spending money on non-essentials such as speedway. It's such a great speedway track and I loved my visits there.

If any group of people in sport deserved their dreams to be fulfilled it's Cradley having their own home again. It's remarkable how the flame still burns.

I'm delighted you've returned to the sport and are giving valuable insight into the experience. You are right that some knowledge is important to understand the context of what we are watching but the knack is not to look to far 'behind the curtain'. I did and it didn't help my enjoyment of the sport. The worst part was having things that I enjoyed being revealed to have an unacceptable side. Silly things like split monies in second halves, what some riders got up to away from the public gaze and the petty skullduggery going on between promoters. Seeing badly injured riders also didn't help. My first-ever match report assignment saw a rider killed. It's hard to get over that. It all gets in the way of what is so often a wonderful sport. Enjoy, try to ignore the childish, petty squabbling here and don't look too closely and you'll find that what you loved before is still there, even if the crowds aren't. I have severe reservations about what goes on in certain areas of the sport but I don't let it stop me watching as many meetings as I can. I spent last night watching Pila race Gdansk on Polish TV. It was four riders racing over four laps several times - and while not all were thrilling it didn't stop me loving every race. Don't fight that urge. Welcome back.

There's always one 'expert' who knows better....

I've long argued for an amalgamation of the leagues but when you read an interview like this you really don't want the Poole promotion anywhere near the Premier League. There may be one set of rules but success doesn't come from following those rules but by manipulation of them, stretching them to breaking point and ensuring that there is always a fresh supply of riders on suspiciously false averages who miraculously blossom back to their known form when they arrive in Dorset. The accuracy of the heat leader and fast track reserve lists have been rightly called into question and, amazingly their errors have favoured Poole. So, having twisted the sport, within its poorly thought-out and expressed, often contradictory rule book Ford then adds to the insult by coming up with this sanctimonious claptrap. You may operate within the letter of the rules but not their spirit. The ruthlessness is killing speedway and to try to dress it up as an achievement for others to follow is an insult to sport, natural justice and anyone who has a genuine love of the sport, and not just whether their team is winning. When Ford finally kills off the Elite League perhaps he can put Poole in the Ekstraliga and leave us to enjoy a uncontaminated sport of our own, on a lower but worthwhile and more enjoyable level?

When I see these kind of stupid, obnoxious comments from Polish fans I think of the TV pictures of many of their supporters on the terraces behaving like vile football thugs. You soon realise where the mentality comes from. It's not speedway supporting as we know it. Best just to enjoy the racing - they're not worth the effort of telling them to get back under the stones they came from. It's sad, the international section used to be so enjoyable. Now, let's hope for a good day's racing today and tomorrow. It all makes it so much more pleasant when Zielona Gora use and their thugs go home to their empty lives devastated ;-) Why do we care about their league? Because we love speedway. They wouldn't understand that. Sad really.

I suspect the rider was given the choice of making progress in the SGP through the year or making a fortune in Poland. The ruthlessness of the Polish clubs is surely obvious by now? They're doing the paying and in turn expect that they are put first, no matter what principles or agreements exist.

You're quite right. I was appalled at the volume of the supplementaries that referee showed me and that was over two decades ago. It shows how the sport constantly ducks and dives, closing loopholes, clarifying mistakes and adapting to change. In some ways flexibility is a virtue but not on that scale. If they got the rule book right in the first place their use would only be to cover urgent, essential changes.

Meanwhile, away from the Fantasy League...................... Clueless. And in those two posts we have very adequate proof that there is no point in trying to have an intelligent discussion in the BSF. Simplistic answers based on guesswork and gut feeling to what are complex issues. You could put the world's best on a EL track and I would doubt whether you could get enough people in the various stadia bar Belle Vue or maybe Coventry to even think about covering the cost. Thanks to Poland the cost of hiring the 'elite' is way beyond British ability to pay now, I suspect. Yes the crowds would be bigger, but it's pointless if you can't get enough people in there to pay the riders without hiking the price to ridiculous levels. Anyway, one very strong argument against merging the leagues is that you stop these blinkered EL 'superior beings' 'supporters' from ruining the fun in the PL and NL. It's probably best to just leave the EL to its problems and focus on the sane side of the sport. It's like trying to discuss finance with someone whose expertise doesn't go beyond playing Monopoly....

Because in Britain you can't demand that the local authority build you a nice new stadium or get the local mafia offshoot to do it. Belle Vue is a unique case, based on Manchester City FC's money going into sports facilities in east Manchester. Naturally the city council backs it and manages it. There are also considerations of the high level of home ownership rather than rental in the UK which means there are a heck of a lot of people protecting their property values. Any mention of a speedway track plan and they soon kill it. As ever, it's all a little more complex that it can appear to some....

You clearly don't understand the point I was making. I could have a sports team with an annual income of say £500,000. My costs may come to £600,000. I find £100,000 to cover the loss. Suppose my star performer cost me £100,000 a year. I could hire him for 12 years by subsidising my business. It doesn't mean that my business can afford him, just that I can prop up my business. Now, that's all well and good if I can do that but it doesn't mean that the star is affordable BY THE BUSINESS. As for outside funding being justified it's all very well if you have a rich sugar daddy to 'sponsor', but not a sustainable long-term position nor is it fair on other businesses behaving responsibly. Speedway appears to have been paying more than it can afford for years. I remember one promoter over 20 years ago telling me at the end of a meeting "That's another grand I've got to find personally to give to the bank tomorrow". Sport, especially football gets away with murder financially, relying on sentiment and tradition to get it through. Sport carries on trying to buy rather than build success - and it works, for now. I suspect the truth will hit home when Belle Vue's first meeting at the wonderful new stadium turns out to be a 75-15 win against the weakest EL side in history, Leicester on Friday. What a fine, positive contribution. The point has been made about the difficulties of having certain current Elite League tracks running in a merged PL due to their economic power being so much higher than the lesser PL teams. There are risks. In 1985 three BL (D1) tracks followed Hackney's move the previous year into the NL (D2). The immediate response was the then extremely marginal promotions at Barrow and Scunthorpe didn't make it into the summer. Whether they would have survived in any case is open to discussion. The moves worked and did not destroy the league though, Ellesmere Port won the 1985 NL after all. Eventually ambition did see one track force a ruinous amalgamation for their own needs and ambitions but for several seasons they were a welcome part of the old NL/Second Division. They were successful but not overwhelmingly so and did not become deeply unpopular with other tracks and their supporters. Readers may heard of them.....Poole.

As I've stated elsewhere, you can't rely solely on the rule book. You have to also consider the supplementary regulations, one of which no doubt states that TRs are allowed in PLC group matches. I well remember in my announcing days a referee pulling out the rule book then showing me the sheaf of supplementary regulations that were filling the rest of his briefcase. Because it was getting too expensive to give certain star riders extra rides. Alarm bells should have rung at that point. The Polish and Swedish leagues still use the old TS rule - only we have this farcical compromise.

Of course any rider who is prepared to give full commitment to British Speedway should be allowed to compete. How many at the highest level bar Chris Harris are prepared to follow his lead? If more riders at the top level were like Chris our problems would be greatly reduced. Just one other point, can Coventry afford him? They may find a way to pay but does can the business itself sustain employing him? I certainly don't know - do you? It would actually help this debate greatly if the lurking promoters and officials, either current or past could let the rest of us know if there is a real BUSINESS case for employing the stars or is it just another irrecoverable cost of playing the power game?

A very welcome and reasoned post from someone who has his own record of success to fall back on. I have long advocated the formation of one large league but strictly on the current PL model rather than the disastrous attempt in the nineties where the old second division was expected to operate at first division costs without having free access to the necessary riding talent or revenues. It is time to let go of the riders whose priorities, both in hardware and commitment, are elsewhere and to stop squandering the Sky revenue on a hopeless escalation of rider pay that is not backed up by the necessary increases in attendances. My chief concern is that the ills of the EL should not be allowed to pollute the new, unified league. Johnathan refers to the perceived manipulation of rules to favour an 'elite' few and it would be disastrous for the PL clubs to also have to suffer this cancer in the sport. Sadly, there are still supporters who cannot grasp the concept that you do not need the world's greatest (and expensive) riders to stage great speedway. 25 out of 33 teams in Britain work successfully with this model and while there are still financial pressures that nearly cost the sport Plymouth this year it has to be the way forward. You could say that the days of seeing the world's best have already gone from the EL. A regular, ideally weekly schedule of matches with a regular seven against a regular seven, allowing for absences for injury or FIM events is what has always worked in the past here and we must seek to return to that ideal. Crucially, we must reclaim weekend racing. British speedway is wasting too much time and effort in trying to persuade riders to compete here who really have little interest, will charge the earth and show little interest or commitment. They have to go. Those 'fans; who say they will only watch these stars have to ask themselves if they really are supporters of speedway or the illusory glamour of fame? It dazzles easily but you soon see the reality behind that glare. We cannot continue to pander for this expensive, I hope, minority. We cannot afford it. I strongly suspect that the attendance increases brought by hiring the stars do not now cover the increased expense. If that is not the case then I welcome expert comment on the subject, ideally from those that know, not hope. We need stability, to know that when we pay our money we will see our team race another full team, not a haphazard compromise of guests. We must offer value for money, free the sport from the publicity straitjacket relating to social media and rebuild in a sane manner. Flying riders in from all over the continent to compete in front of crowds counted in the hundreds rather than thousands is insanity. We have to sell four riders doing four laps of RACING, and let the world know how good it can be. Yes, the sport needs an American-style commissioner. There would have to be an enormous shift in attitudes amongst promoters to accept it. The most effective government is by consent. Is the sport mature enough to put the needs of the many ahead of the individual? Sadly, I think not. I love speedway, despite all that it's done to me over the years and grieve at the sight of the modern-day EL. I saw some very successful days for the sport and while you cannot turn the clock back, the Polish and SGP genies are well and truly out of the bottle, we must adapt and rebuild, trying to recapture as many aspects of those successful days. A varied, regular fixture list of affordable matches, with teams composed of riders who will be there for almost all meetings, build a bond with the supporters and hopefully give and earn loyalty in return is essential. The sport will always survive but right now it needs an attitude change throughout, from promoters and officials through riders to the 'fan' saying that if they don't see the world's best they'll hold their breath until someone does what they want. The reward is enormous - a healthy, affordable and most of all wonderfully enjoyable sport!

Who the hell cares! It's totally irrelevant, except for obsessive idiots to make crass, petty points. EL teams are generally assembled to the rules relating to the EL and PL according to their rules. It's pathetic to see supporters of the dying EL taking some kind of twisted solace out of their weakest team in the history of the league being stronger than a PL team,. IT DAMN WELL SHOULD BE!!! So, we now have the realistic prospect of Belle Vue's superb new track opening to a total whitewash of the opposition - well, all but the reserves. Even the threat of rain now sees Sky ditch TV coverage. One of your most important tracks is closing at the end of the year. Most teams struggle to field more than one heat leader while another has four. Aren't these things that you should be concerned about, not trying the act the big 'I am' because your team is in the EL, thus making you some kind of demi-god? So Leicester could beat the top PL teams. BIG BLOODY DEAL! Speedway's got real problems enough without this petty idiocy. "Crisis, what crisis"?