AndyJ

Agreed- but in all seriousness would any promotion advertise along the lines of "we're fielding 2 juniors and R/R instead of 3 of our best riders" and honestly expect many paying customers? Totally agree with the ethics but it'd be financial suicide.

Totally disagree. Contempt would have been shown had the (hypothetical) meeting taken place with a severely weakened side. The bulk of the paying public would have been Belle Vue fans and we'd be the ones out for blood had we paid £17 to witness a complete mismatch.

Isn't the point here that the rules do not facilitate such a course of action?

I feel your pain Brock. A decade or so back (in the days of the one big league) I took a 500 mile round trip with a mate to watch the Aces at Glasgow, paid to get in only for the inclement weather to prevent the match from starting. In the belief that the established protocol, of re-admission for the next 3 matches or the re-run of the same fixture, applied we drove home with the only proof of admission provided (the meeting programme) safely tucked away. Later that year we returned to Glasgow for the re-run of the fixture and presented the programme expecting free admission- only to be told that Belle Vue fans had apparently been reimbursed after the rain-off and that the programmes could have been bought from a track shop. Given that we'd travelled on our own and stood near the start line, rather than looking for a group of Aces fans, we were oblivious to these arrangements. Annoyingly we had insufficient cash with us and had to drive around Glasgow trying to find a cash-machine, missing the first 2 or 3 races. Despite our protests and attempts, personally and then via Stuart Giles, to obtain a refund we hit a brick wall of stubbornness and remained out of pocket. It did leave a sour taste and, in my case, meant that I had zero desire to make a return visit but, as rare visitors from a distant club, our absence didn't leave too large a gap in the Glasgow financials. I guess the point I'm trying (poorly!) to make here is that many of us have endured the wasted time and money associated with abandoned meetings. Many of us have also paid good money only to discover that one or both teams missing key riders and replaced by juniors; knowledge only shared after we'd already parted with our cash. Obviously, if it is proven that the meeting was abandoned under false pretences there will be uproar. However, bearing in mind that the Belle Vue promotion apparently subsidise the club losses to the tune of £70K every season and the fact that fielding an understrength side would cause untold damage to the goodwill of the regular paying customers, if faced by the same situation would any of you have allowed the meeting to proceed...? Fingers firmly crossed that the flood damage is proven, that the dark shadow can be lifted from the Belle Vue promotion and a lot of humble pie can be eaten!

Personally I'd say that attempting to race with a weakened side (typically a situation that spectators discover after parting with their entrance money!) would be scenario most harmful to the sport -or at the very least most likely to cause people to walk away and thus harmful to Belle Vue. IF there is any substance to the allegations being leveraged then it would appear that the BV promotion, caught between a rock and a hard place, chose what appeared to be the least damaging option; calling off the meeting early enough to avoid having to pay stadium rent and preventing the majority of their paying customers wasting time & money. Understandably those travelling a great distance and arriving at the (closed) stadium will be feeling most aggrieved by the situation and, like Posh Red says, it's a shame that a goodwill gesture hasn't been made to try and address this.

The hyperlinks to the Chart Wizard appear only to work for the person creating the survey....

Nobody tempted to chuck a few quid, at 101-1 odds, on Belle Vue's (as yet) un-named septet claiming the honours? Right now, and based upon recent history, it is perhaps more likely that a can of dog-food will win the 2013 Grand National -BUT- stranger things have happened....

How very true. Perpetually squeezing the pockets of the (dwindling) hardcore does look to be a rather doom-laden strategy. It'd be intriguing to know the equivalent inflation for competing entertainments- such as Football (probably Division Two/Three most appropriate given the comparable crowd sizes), Cinema, etc.

I think that or is the link Tsunami referenced (electric bike demo involving Muller and Smolinski)

Sky package finally cancelled after raising sufficient enthusiasm to endure the expected lengthy phone conversation. Surprisingly the call only took 10 minutes (although suspiciously was terminated whilst on-hold awaiting the operator to complete the cancellation). Also surprising was the fact that no further questions were asked after I cited the reason for my cancellation to be the cessation of the Speedway GP coverage. Maybe enough have cancelled to warrant this now being a recognised reason? Either that or this particular operator couldn't be bothered fully qualifying the reason..

There is always good old British Speedway Sliders (link as per my signature)- an overhead racing game that works on PC, Mac and Linux and allows people to race online against each other. Now in its 7th season we still have over 100 active fans regularly racing- with ages ranging from teenage to 50-something..

40 minutes?!?! Was that 35 minutes of on-hold music, bouncing around the various options, listening to pre-recorded messages, etc, and then 5 minutes of negotiating with the Sky employee trying to persuade you to remain? Or more like a full 40 minutes of full-on negotiation? I'm likely to be making the same call tomorrow (with very little interest in retaining the package- no matter how big a discount) and intrigued to know the size of the upcoming chore...

I understand that a colleague of mine has endured pretty much annual 'cancellation' calls with a favourable outcome each time. Perhaps if you have the inclination to do this their cancellations dept are still empowered to negotiate repeated sweeteners. Personally i detest how difficult Sky make any reduction in package- whereas additions can easily be sorted online. This may well be effective for maintaining profits but it doesnt half leave a sour taste.

Cancelling Sports imminently as a direct result of dropped GPs (until the discussion arose the full Sky package of £65 pcm was departing my account without any serious thought). Only got movies due to associated price so may as well cancel this also. With only basic package remaining (plus HD and Sky+) very tempted to cancel the job lot and go with YouView or similar.

You mean you actually managed to jump through all the hoops to actually reach the solitary cancellation line?!

Got to consider that they pay a reputed £1,000,000 a year to the BSPA for the rights to televise the EL. They then spend quite a large amount for filming/editing each meeting. Advertising revenue when Speedway is televised is probably relatively low too. They'd need to lose well over 1,500 full-fee paying subscribers per year before any decision to drop EL Speedway would have any adverse business impact. EDIT: just realised this topic is specific to GP racing Oops

I'd never really considered the Sky monthly payment to be too bad until, with Speedway's future in question, I took a proper look at the bill and actually thought about it. £65pcm = £780 per year = Not that Twitter is the most trustworthy of sources but methinks the onerous task of trying to cancel Sky will soon be attempted....

Looks to be a wealth of information on defunct tracks such as Barrow at http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk Holker Street : http://www.defunctsp...o.uk/Barrow.htm Park Road : http://www.defunctsp...w Park Road.htm

Hmm.. so using something like http://www.wristbandconnection.com you ordered 100 of these for approximately £100? If you've sold 30 already @ £4 then you're already in the black (which in Speedway terms is pretty impressive!)... Thanks but no thanks...

Have you tried using Google Chrome? It is great for auto-translating foreign websites..