MattK

You should watch MotoGP. It's been an absolutely amazing series this year.

Precisely. And the FA and other sport governing bodies are often accused of corruption despite being independent of the clubs.

I would have said the equivalent in football is the Chairman, who is often the owner, but not always. Because of speedway's amateur nature, roles such as owner/promoter/team manager are often doubled-up.

You are ignoring the fact that the BSPA are incompetent. If you want evidence of this just look at the KO Cup. This should be the most popular competition after the play-offs, but it is so badly organised and promoted that they didn't even bother with it in 2013. 80% of something is worth more than 100% of nothing.

I agree, but you need the content in the first place and that is where speedway falls down. The other problem is while people don't blink at paying a minimum of £20 a month to subscribe to Sky, they are much more reluctant to pay for content online. I would love to know how many subscribers GoSpeed go for their online offering of the Polish play-offs for example.

That is a somewhat blinkered view. If the likes of Cook, Doyle, Barker and Allen could only ride in one league, which do you think they would choose? The Elite and the Premier leagues need each other. As for putting houses in order, there are plenty of Premier league clubs struggling financially. That isn't a uniquely Elite league problem.

Is snooker a minority sport in China though? I understand it is very popular there.

I'd bring in a rule where both teams have to start the meeting with seven riders.

I wonder if the BSPA will take out full page ads in all the major national newspapers if he wins?

But you are so adamant there foreign riders are preventing British riders gaining experience in the Elite League. I am curious who these British riders are.

OK then, which BRITISH Premier League riders want to ride full time in the Elite League, but haven't been given the opportunity this season?

Which BRITISH Premier League riders have not been given a chance in the Elite League this season?

Arthur, do you not think they may be a psychological boost to the current Premier League clubs that they will now be in the top division? For example, why does Sheffield, with a population of over half a million struggle to get crowds bigger than Swindon, with a population of 180,000?

Is that 38.5 Elite or Premier league points?

According to my calculations, there are 26 Thursdays from April to September. If you fans want regular weekly meetings, without lots of challenge matches, cups and fillers and we want the league to be self-sufficient, then I think we should be looking at somehow trying to fit every clubs home and away once into the fixtures.

Why do people want a north/south split? I'm looking forwards to the prospect of teams like Edinburgh, Scunthorpe, Berwick etc coming to Swindon next season.

Isn't everything in life ultimately pointless, but we do it anyway?

Agreed. Coupled with a regular fixture list, rather than one week on, two weeks off, which seemed to be the norm at the beginning of the season.

The problem with Groupon is two-fold. Firstly you have to discount your product by up to 50% and then give half of the income generated to Groupon, meaning you are effectively only receiving 25% of your usual price. Secondly, does Groupon attract new customers or simply allow existing customers to gain entry at a discounted price?

I think costs rose to meet the income. Agreed. Speedway did nothing to try and capitalise on the exposure. Same now that the GPs are on Eurosport with arguably an even wider audience. Can't argue with that.

In a word, no. There are bumper for this season. For example, Swindon's crowd at home to Wolves was bumper (over 1,500), compared to the crowds at the start of the season (less than 1,000), but still well down on crowds from just three or four seasons ago (regularly over 2,000).

Hopefully Nick Morris can decide if he is British, Australian or whatever and he can ride in the U21s next year. It will be interesting to see how he goes against the competition you've mentioned above.

It's easy to forget that Ward is only 21 and Sayfudinov is 23, as they seem to have been on the scene for such a long time. I think they will dominate the GPs over the next decade. Janowski will make it to the GPs, but I can't see him ever becoming world champion, same with Dudek. Not sure about the Pawlicki brothers and Bech seems to have gone right off the boil since last season. I don't think MJJ will ever be more than a good club rider. Not sure about the Latvians. Will they ever move away from the comfort of Daugavpils to ride in the Ekstraliga?

Terrible GP. I switched off half way through and watched X-Men. I watched the second half this morning on fast forward and there was one decent heat, the second semi final. Can't argue with the result though, Niels was a worthy winner. I bet Zagar is kicking himself that he didn't pick yellow in the final. Good to see Tai close the gap at the top of the table. He seems to be riding with no limitations, whereas Emil seems to be feeling the pressure a little. After a few poor GPs it will be good to see some action back on track in the coming weeks.

I think the biggest mistake was announcing the plans far too early. Most developments don't get media coverage until the master plan is complete or even they have been submitted for planning permission. However, they have only just started working on the master plan and it looks as if planning permission will be applied for towards the end of the year or early next year. As you said, lots of patience required.