MattK

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.

Do you honestly think that if Mick Horton was offered a six figure sum to surrender his lease, he wouldn't snap their hand off?

Damn, that doesn't sound good at all.

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.

What a week that would be!

In the report to the Executive it states: "Recommend to the Council that the Capital Programme is increased by a total of £10.38 million; financed from £0.714 million external grant, £4.5m MCC (Manchester City Council) resources for the National Speedway Stadium which will be repaid from stadium rental income..." "The National Speedway Stadium £4.5 million build costs will be funded from Prudential Borrowing." The other parts of the Sports Village, such as the Basketball Centre will be funded by "MCFC stadium rental income", but this suggests not the speedway. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/14932/11_belle_vue_sports_village

Let's be honest, the stadium will never get built. I see they have started work on the housing aspect though.

Can they? I'd have thought that some track may make themselves available, but many, especially the bigger clubs wouldn't. How is this different from the UK and our availability of training tracks and other places to ride?

Wouldn't speedway cost proportionally more for youngsters in Poland (same costs, lower average salaries) than it does in Britain?

What did he say?

Yes, I, along with most other British fans presumed we would stroll past Latvia and USA and be challenging Australia for the bronze medal. The fact that we finished last suggests there is something very wrong. It's too simplistic to say that we lack world class riders. Latvia and USA don't have world class riders (with the exception of Hancock) yet they beat us, due to being better prepared, having a greater team spirit or simply wanting it more. I agree that we lack the quality young riders like Denmark, Poland and Australia have both in their teams and in the pipeline, but we should be able to easily see off the likes of Latvia and USA.

The fact is, we're not miles behind USA or Latvia, in fact 9 times out of ten you'd expect the English riders to beat their Latvian or American counterparts. However, for some reason we massively under-performed on the night. Either they weren't prepared or they weren't up for it. Unlike the Latvians and the Yanks. One way or another the management have to accept at least some of the blame for last night's performance.

I think its fine as it is.

Where does it state that in the regulations though?

This is the same for any "elite" sport, tennis, golf, cycling, F1 (in fact any motorsport). I agree that I think is it mainly a lack of ambition among the "middle tier" riders who prefer the safety of the British Premier/Elite Leagues, rather than taking a risk and trying to compete for a team place in the Swedish and Polish leagues.

If we are serious about trying to win the race-off and finish third then I think we must go for Nicholls and King. Otherwise you may as well bring in Worrall.

Isn't it a bit strange that people are supposed to find an affinity with other people who were born within an arbitrary boundary created hundreds of year ago?

Would you think its acceptable if you went to a restaurant and they served up day old food that they hadn't sold the previous day? This is another example of promoters taking the piss out of their paying customers.