April 26: European Fim Speedway Grand Prix (bydgoszcz, Poland)

[Humphrey Appleby]

Who is 'speedway as a whole'?

Those who run speedway at all levels, often for little reward, week-in and week-out. Those who actually provide the professional riders with a living wage.

 

Love or loathe BSI even you should at least acknowledge the huge year long operation they mount to run these events. They don't just turn up on Friday afternoon and expect everything to work like clockwork.

As I've always said, BSI saw a business opportunity in what was a badly-run sport that clearly didn't grasp how to maximise television and sponsorship revenues, and which allowed the rights to be sold off for relative peanuts. I've actually no problem with them for doing that - good luck to them - but one can still question how the sport allowed this situation to develop.

 

Yes, organising the SGP and SWC is a reasonable logistical undertaking, but it's by no means as big as some other sports, and there have certainly been more cocks-ups with respect to the track preparation than there should have been. Secondly, it's well reported over many years that local promotion tends to be non-existent, so attendance remains over-reliant on a hardcore fan base.

 

There was some financial investment to start up the SGP, and there will be some financial risk involved with the BSI-promoted GPs. The initial financial investment does not appear to have been huge though, and would appear to have largely come from a re-insurance company who appear to have written it off at early stage, so one wonders how serious they were about the whole thing.

 

As to your last sentence... just another dig at me? I come on here not as a journalist but as poster just like you to voice my own opinions.

I actually was referring to the apparent lack of independent analysis on the part of all the speedway media - not least the OneSport 'journal of record'. However, the 'basketball' was obviously not something you just made up yourself, just as the 'scientifically controlled' shale storage turned out to be a pile of shale covered with a leaky tarpaulin. Rightly or wrongly, the impression is that it's spin texted directly from BSI towers to create a 'social media' buzz...

 

I appreciate your participation on here, but I don't think they're entirely your opinions.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Humphrey Appleby

[PHILIPRISING]

Those who run speedway at all levels, often for little reward, week-in and week-out. Those who actually provide the professional riders with a living wage.

 

DO you honestly think they could run a series like the SGP? Those in Rugby cannot even run an ELRC. I am very surprised that you of all people do not understand and appreciate the scale of the work done by BSI in staging a 12 round series and particularly events in Cardiff, Copenhagen and Stockholm.

 

 

As I've always said, BSI saw a business opportunity in what was a badly-run sport that clearly didn't grasp how to maximise television and sponsorship revenues, and which allowed the rights to be sold off for relative peanuts. I've actually no problem with them for doing that - good luck to them - but one can still question how the sport allowed this situation to develop.

 

Yes, organising the SGP and SWC is a reasonable logistical undertaking, but it's by no means as big as some other sports, and there have certainly been more cocks-ups with respect to the track preparation than there should have been. Secondly, it's well reported over many years that local promotion tends to be non-existent, so attendance remains over-reliant on a hardcore fan base.

 

There was some financial investment to start up the SGP, and there will be some financial risk involved with the BSI-promoted GPs. The initial financial investment does not appear to have been huge though, and would appear to have largely come from a re-insurance company who appear to have written it off at early stage, so one wonders how serious they were about the whole thing.

 

LET'S not forget that it wasn't BSI who started the SGP. The FIM spent sometime trying to find a company to purchase the commercial rights as they had with Dorna and MotoGP. Eventually along came John Postlethwaite who sold the idea to the re-insurance giant Benfield who had Chelsea fan (cannot recall if he was or wasn't a director) Matthew Harding at the helm. They did indeed underwrite the early investment which in relative terms was quite substantial for speedway. They were serious but their initial thoughts were more along the lines of F!, where JP came from, and MotoGP in that it would revolve around teams rather than individual riders.

 

Where JP was spot on was that speedway is tailor made for TV in that all the action takes place in front of you, races are short and do not require extensive viewing and they are natural breaks for commercials.

 

Eventually John cut his ties with Benfield but when he thought he had taken the series as far as he could with his own resources he sold the rights on to IMG.

 

I actually was referring to the apparent lack of independent analysis on the part of all the speedway media - not least the OneSport 'journal of record'. However, the 'basketball' was obviously not something you just made up yourself, just as the 'scientifically controlled' shale storage turned out to be a pile of shale covered with a leaky tarpaulin. Rightly or wrongly, the impression is that it's spin texted directly from BSI towers to create a 'social media' buzz...

 

If you have read earlier posts you will know that the 'basketball' conflict was in fact real. Your comments about the storage of shale isn't accurate either but we won't go down that road again.

 

I appreciate your participation on here, but I don't think they're entirely your opinions.

 

SORRY they are my own opinions. Aged 68 and with 50 years involved with speedway I am capable oif making up my own mind and resent any suggestion to the contrary.

Edited April 28, 2014 by PHILIPRISING

[Humphrey Appleby]

DO you honestly think they could run a series like the SGP? Those in Rugby cannot even run an ELRC. I am very surprised that you of all people do not understand and appreciate the scale of the work done by BSI in staging a 12 round series and particularly events in Cardiff, Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Running a 12 round series with the pick of dates and exclusive use of riders is also different to running weekly speedway meetings. I don't think anyone would suggest the BSPA collectively does a good job, but perhaps there are still individual promoters who could do as good as a job with the SGP if they were able to do it full-time and under the same conditions as BSI. I'd imagine there are possibly promoters in Poland that could too.

 

If the will was there though, professional organisers could be hired in, and I'm sure there must be consultants who can go out and sell television and sponsorship packages. I'd agree the track preparation at the temporary tracks is a reasonably big logistical exercise, but it's really just about being organised. There's indeed skill in laying a speedway track, but again that expertise should have been built-up by now.

 

Eventually John cut his ties with Benfield but when he thought he had taken the series as far as he could with his own resources he sold the rights on to IMG.

I think forced to sell. Not sure the SGP was doing that well at the time, and there were substantial losses in other enterprises.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Humphrey Appleby

[Ghostwalker]

The article with Armando said BSI were unhappy with situation but didn't say anything about BSI wanting a ban on riders so for it to be said that they did & using article makes no sense.

It did say that they didn't want situation as in boxing where there are a number of championships

 

Armadno said that Speedwayracing that they were squeezed from two directions, from BSI who thought that the FIM did not full fill

their part of the contract if the FIM allows a second transcontinental championship series The other side was European labour laws.

So there is no doubt IMO that BSI wanted FIM to act, otherwise Armando would not have said what he did.

 

And to squeeze something you need to apply pressure.

But if Bellamy states he thinks the SEC should be a junior event what conclusions are to be made from that?What he isn't saying is riders should be banned.

What he is saying is some riders shouldn't be allowed to enter.Same thing in the end,just he is trying to be cleverer than the FIM

 

In the end I don't think it matters which phrasing they use, It would still be against EU-labour laws especially since the riders are not employed by FIM/BSI/One Sport

 

I think the SGP needs a major overhaul, there haven't been much changes to it since it started. The only change is heat schedule and that all points count.

[f-s-p]

M.How many riders would be coming from the non-European part of the qualifying system, and more to the point, how many wouldn't be based in Europe anyway? Would it be economical to run non-European qualifying rounds, as even in the heyday of the sport they were few and far between?

When I heard of this, my first reaction was that it's not going to happen. So havent given it a second thought.

[f-s-p]

Why was Ward allowed to ride in the rerun of heat 15? Cant spot him doing the rounds after it was shown on tv that he had slowed down... Thought he was not under power whhen Mitsinski went down.

[waiheke1]

Why was Ward allowed to ride in the rerun of heat 15? Cant spot him doing the rounds after it was shown on tv that he had slowed down... Thought he was not under power whhen Mitsinski went down.

That was my first thought, but one of the replays did show him riding past miedzinski

[theknow 2]

What a good Gp with some fantastic racing. It was a pleasure to Sponsor the event and work with BSI/IMG again.

 

Pity the fans did not really turn up but thats their loss

 

I will be placing on ebay the winners bike front signed by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd placed riders for charity if anyone would like it to hang on there wall

[f-s-p]

It was a pleasure to Sponsor the event and work with BSI/IMG again.

 

It's all gone mad... Where's the door?

[New Science]

There is a vote about low attendance at this GP on sportowe fakty so fans can vote what was the reason for it as of now 23% say lack of Gollob,50% spat between BSI and SportsOne ,and 27% other reason(might be high ticket prices and that was mentioned in another article)

Interesting that over 50% of Polish speedway fans see the spat between BSI and Onesport as the reason for the pitiful attendance in Bydgoszcz but the Speedway Star fails to even consider this factor in its enquiry into why the attendance was so low.No Gollob,bad weather,basketball (yawn),Bydgoszcz being relegated and now even questioning after one poor crowd whether 3 GP,s in Poland is too many ? Well swerved guys ! To not acknowledge a possible rift between BSI,FIM and the Polish supporters is insulting our intelligence,read the Polish speedway forums it may open your eyes ! Edited May 1, 2014 by New Science

[PolskiZuzel]

Interesting that over 50% of Polish speedway fans see the spat between BSI and Onesport as the reason for the pitiful attendance in Bydgoszcz but the Speedway Star fails to even consider this factor in its enquiry into why the attendance was so low.No Gollob,bad weather,basketball (yawn),Bydgoszcz being relegated and now even questioning after one poor crowd whether 3 GP,s in Poland is too many ? Well swerved guys ! To not acknowledge a possible rift between BSI,FIM and the Polish supporters is insulting our intelligence,read the Polish speedway forums it may open your eyes !

 

Well said New Science !

The thing is that BSI overestimated Polish fans cash-flow. Tickets for over 100 PLN are not for ordinary Polish fan.

[racers and royals]

over 3 hours video here(Polish ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKZOzGJcZds&list=PLLP7YA_mSetHtKi0S5qMBzU2Gcoy2FsoQ

[Humphrey Appleby]

Interesting that over 50% of Polish speedway fans see the spat between BSI and Onesport as the reason for the pitiful attendance in Bydgoszcz but the Speedway Star fails to even consider this factor in its enquiry into why the attendance was so low.No Gollob,bad weather,basketball (yawn),Bydgoszcz being relegated and now even questioning after one poor crowd whether 3 GP,s in Poland is too many ? Well swerved guys ! To not acknowledge a possible rift between BSI,FIM and the Polish supporters is insulting our intelligence,read the Polish speedway forums it may open your eyes !

Well of course the Polish fans have also been subjected to a lot of propaganda from the OneSport camp, but I think it ultimately does come back to BSI over-cooking the Polish goose. Not that the Star wants to jeopardise its programme contract by saying it though...

[theknow 2]

 

Well said New Science !

The thing is that BSI overestimated Polish fans cash-flow. Tickets for over 100 PLN are not for ordinary Polish fan.

Easy way for BSI to respond to this. Run no further SGP in Poland or WTC. Plenty of other places to go and speedway does not revolve round Poland and about time they learnt that. Crowds have been falling since the introduction of all our EU money so just let them get on with it

[Humphrey Appleby]

Easy way for BSI to respond to this. Run no further SGP in Poland or WTC. Plenty of other places to go and speedway does not revolve round Poland and about time they learnt that.

 

Doubt there are that many places they can still milk for the same amounts of money.

 

Probably only a concern where BSI promotes itself anyway. I'd guess they've already got their money from the local promoters and city councils of the other GPs.

[theknow 2]

why the word milk ? They sell a product to the highest bidder or offset the possible loss to the promoter. No different than any company would do right or wrong.

What i am saying is you cant let the tail wag the dog which poland seems to want to do with all things speedway as per the silencer debate.

 

Let them do what they want in their own backyard but move in a different direction. I think there has been issues on both sides and both have valid points but i see no real winner.

[New Science]

Easy way for BSI to respond to this. Run no further SGP in Poland or WTC. Plenty of other places to go and speedway does not revolve round Poland and about time they learnt that. Crowds have been falling since the introduction of all our EU money so just let them get on with it

Can you suggest "some of these other places" BSI could go and receive the equivalent staging fees they get from Poland ?

[markw40]

The silence answers the question. Bring the ticket prices down to just above Polish league meeting costs and you will pack out every Polish GP

[Rob B]

The silence answers the question. Bring the ticket prices down to just above Polish league meeting costs and you will pack out every Polish GP

Price was nothing to do with it

[oldace]

Price was nothing to do with it

 

 

Indeed, Phil Rising already told us the real reason the crowd was down. It was because there was a knockabout basketball game in a school hall somewhere nearby. That seems a reasonable explanation for the best part of 20,000 missing fans to me!!!!!!!!!!!!