IainB

I'd say that England was more of a "home" to the likes of Mauger, Olsen & Crump etc than Poland is to Woffinden, Lindgren & Madsen due to the language barrier and different cultures. The riders are only based there the last 2 years due to Covid and now the imposed league restrictions by Poland. Let's look at the contenders: Janowski: 6 home rounds, 2 home tracks Laguta: 1 home round, Laguta has only gone to Wroclaw this year so not really a home track like it is to Magic & Woffy Zmarzlik: 6 home rounds, 0 home tracks Sayfutdinov: 1 home round, 0 home tracks Lindgren: 1 home round, 0 home tracks Woffinden: 0 home rounds, 2 home tracks Madsen: 1 home round, 0 home tracks How is that fair? I'd rather have seen the double headers at the non-polish venues and the one nighters in Poland. Would Zmarzlik be pulling some of the moves he does if he wasn't pumped up by a hugely partisan crowd?

Havvy's qualifying route: Cradley Heath, Coventry, Kings Lynn, Coventry, Bradford, Final in Wroclaw Didn't even have to leave these shores to qualify for the final Maybe a different comparison would have been... would Jerzy Szczakiel have won in 1973 if the final hadn't been held at Chorzow, or Egon Muller in 1983 if the final wasn't at Norden? PC's qualifying route: White City, Coventry, Wembley, Final in Chorzow... Maybe one of the easiest ever For what it's worth I do think Havvy would have won regardless of where it was in 1992, it was certainly his year, can't comment on PC as I never really saw him in his prime. As fun as these what ifs are I still think 6 out of 11 Grand Prix rounds in 1 country is too many, especially as they could have easily doubled up on all of them.

Not sure which one you're referring to there PC in '76 or Havvy in '92? Either way it's not really a true comparison, pre GP the "Continentals" always had a far easier progression to the World Final be it Continental Final (76) or World Semi-Final (92) and I'm sure had there been internet forums back then it surely would have been a hot topic of debate. It is almost an impossible comparison to make... but I'll have a go. Would PC or Havvy have won their world championships if 4 of the British Semi-Final, British Final, Commonwealth Final, Overseas Final, Intercontinental Final/World Semi Final & World Final rounds been held in Poland with Polish riders (just for the sake of comparison)... possibly not

but a few newcomers were going in the opposite direction to see what all the noise and crowd was about

The race format was changed a few years back where all of the top riders used to meet each other more often, I really liked this and found the racing generally to be a lot closer, as with a lot of things in Speedway it only lasted 1 season before being changed again. Personally I still think you need 7 man teams to bring on the yoof. We, at Leicester, won the Championship league in 2019 and are current reigning champions... you wouldn't know it though, it's not been mentioned since October 2019 Used to love the Easter Triangle at Oxford on a Good Friday morning, happy days

To be fair to Birmingham they are doing quite a bit extra this week on top of the "gun to the head" style of promotion... http://www.birmingham-speedway.com/news.php?extend.3029 Not all of it my cup of tea but probably begs the question of why they haven't done this before now, that's one for another day though. Also, while this has come up in the Extortionate Admission Prices thread, at £16.50 Birmingham must be one of the cheaper Speedway nights out in the country.

No that wasn't OK, not when it was being held on a riders' home track (when Wembley were riding in the league for example), but with a one-off world final attracting a crowd of around 100,000 people you wouldn't be holding it at Cradley Heath would you? The GP's are a different matter, they were introduced (rightly imo) to find the best rider over the course of a season on a variety of tracks to be staged in a variety of countries. Like I said it's not just about tracks it's also about environments, surroundings and crowds. Why do you think all of the double headers are in (or near) to Poland? Partly down to the crowd numbers and economics but also so the riders can be riding Ekstraliga the next day. I don't mind a double header, in fact I've been quite enjoying them, all I'm saying is to be holding over half of the events in a "World Championship" in 1 country is just not fair to the riders. Why not hold all 11 rounds at 1 track? Gorzow? Wroclaw? Torun? Just how many GP's in 1 country is too many for you? For me this years and last years World Championships will always have an * by them. In the mean time I will continue to enjoy them for what they are as they do provide great entertainment and the Speedway is generally a cut above anything you'll see anywhere else.

Cash & CC, 50p charge for CC

It's not just home track advantage though, a lot of the Poles will have done many more laps around their own tracks than, until recently, fly in foreigners. But then there's also other factors like home crowd, language, food, just general familiar surroundings etc. To me it does matter, the odds are stacked in the Polish riders favour, it's just not a level playing field. 6 rounds in an 11 round World Championship is too many for me. There's a reason why home teams usually win in most team sports and especially in Speedway.

Underpants? Lol No, it was just that my original point, back on the Leicester thread, was that I saw that LCFC FA Cup Winners t-shirt being worn by a guy when I was down the supermarket, and I thought what a great idea, why haven't Leicester done something similar to not only promote the club but also to cash in on their success. Shield Winners in the front with the winning fixtures and results on the back for example. A simple heat transfer shirt... £22 ker-ching! Then as the discussion has gone on a lot more has come to light, mainly the fact that Leicester merchandise is produced by your good self.

Must be! It's been years since they won it!

I didn't count no, as there were many shirts being worn, the Leicester fans do like their merchandise it must be said. The were a few different types of the "fancy" shirts that were being worn so really I was just looking for a prominent mention of double winners or championship winners or something like that... couldn't see anything that mentioned it. Same story with the caps... everything in fact. Have a look at the Leicester City shop for FA Cup winners for a different take.

But the seller, selling those t- shirts is not doing them at a loss, you wouldn't be buying them from him, you'd be producing your own. Merchandise is not just clothing, it's also a promotional tool, when for example a team achieves success they do a run of shirts that celebrate that success. You could even get a local company to contribute to the production costs for having their logo prominently displayed. And you wouldn't be printing in bulk, you'd be printing to order onto the blank stock of t-shirts you did hold. I made special effort at Leicester on Saturday night to look at people and the merchandise they were wearing or had to see if I could see anything that had any recognition at the championship and shield success of 2019... I saw 1 item, a fleece with "champions" written on the back... and when he turned round it has a Sheffield Tigers logo on the front! So I honestly don't don't know who you sold all that gear to?

I disagree, I would say most people prefer heat transfer t-shirts judging by merchandise stalls at music concerts and the people I see wearing them. It's not a life time purchase, a t-shirt is only going to last a year or so with regular wear and washing. If that seller above is producing and selling them at £16.02, I suggest you would sell them for around £16-£20. But, while i wish you success in your business and with all respect to yourself, I'm more interested in how clubs can produce their own merchandise cheaply and keep the money within the sport and the club. Order a load of cheap t-shirts, buy a heat press machine for a couple of hundred pounds, knock some decent designs up, get a few examples printed off and off you go, it's not rocket science.

It devalues the competition for me, 6 is too many, it's over half of the GP's, 3 should probably be the maximum in my opinion. I think any national or international competition should be run on neutral tracks, it devalues it for me when Somerset kept winning the pairs, Peterborough kept winning the 4's and Cov riders kept winning the British Championship. They're already holding GP's in Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland & Russia to hold 6 in one country is almost farcical in my opinion (as a World Championship). If you're going to hold double headers, they should all be double headers, not just the ones in Poland (and Czech Republic), just doesn't seem very fair to me.

By "every" do you mean the first 16 World Finals between 1936-1939 & 1949-1960? I'm not sure of your point?

Do they do a "it's all over after the start" tee?

Looks like good race night wear. Made by the Polish dispeed merchandise company.

I'm not sure why speedway would be one of the few sports where those that attend wouldn't buy merchandise. Maybe its because outside of a speedway arena you probably wouldn't be seen dead wearing it. Looking on the redbubble link I posted earlier it's the kind of stuff you'd wear out and about town, well I would anyway. Yet there they are, selling their stuff, no minimum orders, probably with just a load of blank t- shirts that they print up as and when needed.

Yet, there they are, for sale

https://sportgangshop.pl/sklep/ ... still no underpants, although I think I can adapt one of those face masks!

There's some interesting, and dare I say it, fashionable and funky stuff available from here: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/?query=speedway&ref=search_box https://www.redbubble.com/people/Port-Stevens/shop It's all a bit generic, I don't know who/what redbubble are it looks a bit like a bit of a design marketplace

His last bend move was reminiscent of Gollob & Jimmy Nilsen. I'm not sure I like 6 of the 11 GP's being held in Poland.

Not so sure about Ippo... if there is a link it's not very visible (to me at least)

That's a shame because it maybe only needed another hours work because it certainly came alive after the interval