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It would not surprise me if Darcy Ward is now called up after seeing that Poland are not fielding the strongest team also I am sure IMG would be very pleased as could possibly add another few hundred fans on the gate with more Kings Lynn fans and neutrals coming over

I think they should book a big name act but only release the name of the artist on the local radio stations on the day I would say if could get Stereophonics or Tom Jones you could add 20,000 on the gate i remember when Radio 1 arranged a secret gig in Leeds with Oasis only announced the location and artist on the day and tehy had 25,000 turn up

The Polish selection all comes down to money if Poland qualify straight through the final the everybody is missing out on a good crowd on Thursday at Leszno for the race off as I dont feel without Poland in the race that many Polish fans would go to watch the meeting and there will not be that many fans from Russia,GB,Sweden,Slovenia or Germany that would go to the meetiing so I am sure the selection has been done on a commercial thing but shame for British fans not getting to see Holta. The Aussie selection does make sense but personally I would not have gone for the expense of bringing Sullivan over and would have used Davey Watt or Darcy Ward as Sullivan didn't really go that well last year when he came over

If it was a choice between the two I would choose Cardiff but I would like to see what a GP would be like at Wembley but I have heard that BSI are looking at using a football stadium for a future event in the UK and have done noise tests at a couple of venues. I think the most likely places would be Coventry Ricoh or Manchester city ground

Looking round on internet and most hotels are very expensive or are not available to book yet. I have tried the Mercure lodge but site says they are full as does other hotels just want to get it booked and sorted

Well just looked and rooms dont seem available at most hotels yet and the ones that are have caught on that its GP weekend with £150 per night for Mercure/Ibis hotel

That does seem a little strange to stage it World Cup final weekend as if by any chance England make it that the attendance will be well down I would have thought. Another thing they have to consider is you are getting close to peak holiday season so kids will start breaking up from school and families going away. The date suggested has now been mentioned to me a number of times so I suspect this is correct and will be the date announced this evening. I know Sky are keen to know as BSI would not even tell the production team the date for next year The other thing to consider I wonder what is going to happen to the world cup speedway as that is going to have to be moved back a few weeks

Well the hotels seem to have covered any weekend in June just in case they go earlier in the month im hoping Boggle is correct and the GP is in another month other than June and that people can book the hotels at a reasonable rate and be charged stupid prices for the weekend away I mean £150 per night is far too high for Travelodge,Ibis premier inn type hotel I do think there was less people staying over this year due to the chnage in start time and if the hotels proceed in trying to rip speedway fans off I may just go down on the day meet up with the team and do another GP abroad instead

I have just had a quick look to see about booking some hotel rooms for next year and quite a lot of hotels have already blanked out every weekend in June for example just looked at the Mercure as quite a few people say this is nice and every Friday and Saturday is unavailable the same with Travelodge and Ibis. I really do think the hotel chains are being greedy now as was stated in the Cardiff programme this is the longest running event now apart from the Rugby internationals and with Cardiff losing quite a few events I thinks the hoteliers see this as a high profit weekend. Here's hoping that BSI shock us with a date change and dont go for 26/06/09 or any other weekend in June

Just a quick note to any Sky HD customers you should have the British speedway GP preview show available in HD on Sky anytime on TV service. Alos dont forget to set your boxes for Sky sports annual coverage of speedway in excellent high definition with some more new camera angles to be used for the first time.

If BSI/FIM stick to those prices I think they will make a huge mistake with a very small crowd that is far too much and with it now being on a Friday night most people will not go the prices for the WTC at Peterborough are about right. This meeting is also very likely to be broadcast by Sky sports this year for the first time as there is broadcasters around the world who have requested coverage so I would be very surprised if they film and produce the programme but dont show it themselves.

Dont forget taht quite a few riders and their teams are staying at the Mercure lodge as well as well as other riders and mechanics not involved in the GP

Sad to hear about the young german lad good luck to him I agree I probaly didn't word my last post like how I wanted to say. I should have said if GB had a full team it would have probaly been a different meeting but the lads that went did the best they could. I think it will be between Sweden,Poland and possibly Denmark

This is the thing if it wasnt for injuries the British team would have probaly walked it as would have lined up as Bridger,Woffinden,Barker,Roynon and then between Mear and Auty Im sure that team would have seen off the Swedes and Aussies it just wasnt meants to be the Brits year likewise for the Brits lads in the U21 ind

Anybody know of any Polish coverage as that feed keeps breaking up

I think there will be a few more rooms become available at this hotel shortly as this is the FIM suggested hotel and im told told they have 20 rooms on hold but various delegates will probaly stay in better class hotels

Can any Polish fans confirm whether Canal+ Poland are showing this in HD on TV ?

I understand Ben has flown home to the UK this evening to get treated and to get a 2nd opinion on the injury as I am told the Drs in Germany said it required an operation hopefully the UK drs will have a different view. I know Ben is quite gutted on how this happened and how he is likely not to progress any further in his last year in the U21s as by all accounts he was flying and probaly the best rider on the day and he had bike trouble in his 3rd ride when his number one bike wouldnt start so went out on 2nd bike which was just not as quick as number 1 bike so he dropped a point which in the end would have got him through to the next round.

But a long way to go to Sweden or Hungary with no definite chance of a ride not to mention the expense and possibly having to miss a coventry meeting as Hungary is a Sat afternoon. I'm not sure if there is any wild card places for the semis although I'm sure Bridger wold get that as British U21 champion it is looking like a broken leg or ankle rather than foot.

Ben Barker has qualified as reserve looks like a broken leg or ankle

Not sure what has happened Ben Barker had 8 from 3 rides then a massive delay in updates and now Ben was not in his next ride so may have crashed there are comments on the speed DE website but my German is not good hopefully not injured doubt 8 would be enough

How do you get the Polish matches for free is there a set feed on Justin tv ? I just did a search for speedway but nothing comes up how do you find it on Sunday afternoons ?

Hi I am after some help from our Polish,Swedish and Danish posters can anybody please confirm whether their local GP tv coverage is shown in HD/High definition. At present Sky sports have some issues with a lack of HD equipped studios for sport where the presenters and panel are not at the venue this is mainly preventing Sky sports GP coverage being in HD and is affecting others sports as well Nascar,A1 GP,Golf night and Spanish football. I am just trying to determine other broadcasters plans for the 2009 season and below is an article in Polish which hopefully some kind person can translate for me. Tylko w CANAL+ widzowie będą mogli obejrzeć na żywo relacje z wszystkich zawodów Grand Prix w sezonie 2009. Część transmisji zrealizowanych będzie w technologii High Definition. CANAL+ od kilku lat jest producentem wykonawczym międzynarodowego sygnału telewizyjnego z zawodów żużlowych. Obraz jest przekazywany do wszystkich zagranicznych telewizji, które posiadają prawa do pokazywania zawodów. W Polsce transmisje te można zobaczyć jedynie w CANAL+.

Speedway is still one of the top five most watched sports on Sky behind Football, Rugby Union,Super League and then sometimes cricket depending on the type of match. It has been proved that Sky viwers like fast action sport as the 20/20 cricket gets on average 20,000 more viwers than 2 day games One thing that Sky doesnt like about speedway is it can decide to run on alternative days to suit their programme schedules and also they would like to upgrade the Elite league coverage to HD but they can not get the tracks to invest in the new lighting required for this as most dont own the stadium I am all for Setanta taking on the Polish speedway but I think they may have cooled on this chance now with the change in the money world

Sorry I should have read it properly before posting - What I meant to say is that Sky are one of three key host broadcasters for the GP series along with Canal + Poland and Canal + Scandinavia the money these 3 brands pay for the GP rights means that they get a certain amount of input into the series including full time wild card places. Especially now IMG are the owners money and contracts mean more than the riders