uk_martin

Not right for who? It works for Poland. It could work for Great Britain if junior riders were "protected" more in the reserve berths instead of burning them out too soon. Just look at the number of young riders who've jacked the sport in these past few years. I've never known anything like it. All we're left with now are budding young British Champions blossoming to fruition in their mid-30's. It wasn't that many years ago that a certain Patryk Dudek and Bartosz Zmarzlik spent a few years at #6 or #7 for their respective teams. It didn't do them any harm, and when Poland won the last SWC with effectively an u23 side, it shows that it doesn't do the national team any harm either. As I said, it could work in this country, and I think it should be made to work in this country. If your club uncovers a British gem of a rider, then why not let that club benefit from their discovery, and whatever investment they make in that rider? That should be the team's reward for doing something in the national interrest. But instead look what happens. As soon as a budding young British rider starts outscoring an old foreign crock, then that crock gets the benefit of an easy life in the reserves whilst the young British rider gets a hard time in the main body of the team. And then you get the headlines about young English riders "taking time out" from the sport...(never to be seen again)

How do you measure "richness"? Capital assets? Revenue? Share holdiers personal wealth? As PolskiZuzel said, there's a wage cap that binds the clubs, in the same way as happens in American Football's NFL. So that then levels out the playing field for how much of a clubs "riches" can be spent on riders. How much more in the way of capital assets and/or revenue a club has or gets after that doesn't come into it. The biggest difference between who can afford which rider and who can't is in the addtitional sponsorship packages that they are able to arrange on behalf of the riders. And that comes down more to how good your efforts and abilities are to attract sponsors, not how big your bank balance is. And that's one of the major differences between Polish and British speedway clubs. Here, on the whole, the clubs look for sponsorship for themselves and leave the riders to get their own sponsorship. As PolskiZuzel says, in Poland, the clubs arrange a riders sponsorship for them to at least a major degree. Obviously, riders will get additional approaches by sponsors over there, but a good base line is arranged by the clubs, in order to make their contracts attractive. Another major difference is the kind of sponsor that Polish riders get. Piotr Protasiewicz has had a long term sponsorship deal with a multi national company Pentel. You've probably used a Pentel pen yourself at some point. A British rider would be lucky to get a sponsorship with Penny's Pen Shop in Penns Lane. That sort of thing makes a difference.

Neither of them ride for a team owned by the chaiirman of the BSPA though, do they? That's the difference.

They are investing a lot of time and effort into doing things to attract kids in, so in about another 10 years when all these kids are old enough to pay adult admission, there'll be at least another 15-20 paying customers every week. Many a mickle makes a muckle, as Glasgow and Edinburgh fans would say.

So Will Pottinger is out of the running for being a Yam Yam

Will Pottinger got his job as a result of him starting life as an active fan in the campaign to bring Cradley Heathens back into existence. So if one fan can do it, and do it well, why rely on any of the other established names? Why not let fans have a day in the hot seat? What have the Brummies to lose this year? So how about ProudtobeaBrummie being given the reins for one of this years home meetings? In fact, to all those fans who fancy it, wouldn't it be fun to see the management running a "Speedway Apprentice" event. Now that's something that I suspect Graham Drury would come out of retirement for, to play a Lord Sir Alan Sugar role, ably assisted by Denise Drury and Arthur Browning in the roles of Karren Brady and Claude Littner. That'll sort out those who have the questions for the forums from those who have the answers to put into practise. Lets see how the would be managers deal with real life events like the phone call from the rider who's van has broken down en-route, or the track curator who's reported that the track tractor has broken down or the shale supplier who's run out of shale.

Does anyone know why there's a black rectangle on the chests of the Falubaz riders? Was there supposed to be a sponsors name there that's been blacked out or is there another reason? Genuine question, as it looks odd.

Dunno about Scorpions v Brummies, this thread is all about The Met Office v Speedway Fans.

How many days do you have to ride for the Brummies now, to earn yourself a testimonial?

I didn't say it had to be in the stadium... Half a mile up the road there's a pub serving beer at £3.50. 8 Zlotys a pint is VERY findable, and for all the usual brands, Tyskie, Lech etc. Even in the town centres of places like Wroclaw Poznan and Torun, the three most recent big towns I've been to. All you are doing by pushing the price up is to prove my point even more. Suppose it's £4.50 a pint, then you are comparing UK speedway admission at the equivilent of 4 pints to Polish speedway admission at 6-8 pints. It makes UK speedway even more reasonable in comparison. Which has the implication that if it can't draw the same crowds in, that it's so much worse value for money than what the Poles get.

Welcome back to the 19th century/ There are 2 x 13 amp fuses, 2 x 5 amp fuses, 2 x 3 amp fuses and some fusewire replacement.... it may or may not be enough to prevent a power failure on the night.

Might be sooner than you think, depending upon the outcome of medical tests on Terro Aarnio, who had a bad fall in Poland yesterday. Originally a suspected broken arm, but no breaks were found in the xray, but there's bound to be other damage there.

Interesting to compare to a common product rather than to wages. Take a pint of beer as an example. How many pints of beer would admission be in each country? In the UK, with beer in the pubs at £3.50 (round figures) a pint and CL / PL admission in the order of £17.50 (ish) you could say that that speedway admission costs about 5 pints of beer. In Poland, that "£10 admission" would be about 48-50 Zlotys (depending on how it was rounded up or down) With beer in Poland being around 7-8 Zlotys, you could say that the admission there is in the order of 6-8 pints of beer. By that logic (economists call it "opportunity cost") speedway in Poland is actually more expensive than in the UK.

You have to hand it to the Brummies Spin Doctors, turning a stone cold last finish into "Brummies were knocked out in the semi-final stages" That's as near to a silk purse that a sows ear can ever be turned into.

It's a sad state of affairs indeed that in some walks of life, experience engenders optimism, but in speedway experience engenders cynicism.

That'll have the creative thinkers mulling over how to deceive the paying public again, in another attempt to make them believe that "nothing's the matter". I wonder what they will come up with this time? Well we've had the "run out of electricity" excuse, so can't use that one again...what else will they come up with? A burst water main? It almost worked for Belle Vue, but you never know, learn some lessons from it and do it properly next time. A bomb scare? Could be serious consequences if they get found out pulling off that hoax, so it's doubtful Staff Shortages? What would happen if there wasn't a Clerk of the Course, or a Start Marshall because they got "held up in traffic" or something? A Food Hygiene issue causing the whole stadium to be quarantined? A localised suspected Smallpox outbreak again causing the whole stadium to be quarantined? Suspected Rabies found in one of the greyhounds causing the whole stadium to be quarantined? Take your pick, any of them will be as ridiculous as the next. Well, would you put it past them try it on again?

Will Kyle Newman come back to haunt the Brummies?

Batteries not included?

How many fans would or would not have attended is a matter of speculation. Probably a fewer number but the hardcore that attend would have still been there. The possible lower income would have been offset so some degree by the lower appearance money needed to pay for a 3 point NL rider compared to what would have been paid to a CL #1. OK a short term financial hit, but one that could be recovered from. What the long term financial hit will be of losing the trust and confidence of the paying public will be, only time will tell. But when the public lost confidence in Gerald Ratner, Perrier, and others, history tells its own story. As for resigning, the Birmingham promotion is made up of The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost...if one resigns, there are still two left. And it sends a message to other promoters about the consequences of their conduct too. Consider the alternative...the last time a promoter came up with a "no electricity here" excuse, he was elevated to Chairman of the BSPA. Is that really the precedent that you want the sport to follow??

Thanks Brian. As you say, fans can put two and two together. The fans are also the customer, who in any other business, is "king". Reading the posts above, it's clear that the lesser of the evils would have been to stage the meeting, be honest with the fans and maybe even promote it as has been said before by other people along the lines of "the rules are against us", or "David v Golliath" or "we will never surrender" or any of the other cliche's that invoke a rallying call when the odds are against us. The problem is that the official, and erroneous, policy was to lie and deceive the people who the club counts on as its paying customers. This is playing with fire on a Gerald Ratner scale. There is no "innocent" means of deceit. The fans were lied to, and the very least that is owed now is an official apology, on the microphone, on the centre green, in front of everyone who is left in a position to forgive. And if the person responsible for this shambles has any honour, a resignation should be tendered too.

This is what you call audacity! And somewhat interesting that this post on Facebook comes 5 days before next Wendesday's fixture, but it didn't feature 5 days before Wednesday just gone. In fact the Brummies Facebook page was remarkably quiet all last week.

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A suitable epitaph to adorn the tombstone of the sport.

An electrifying performance!

My guess as to what'll happen...