Tampere Gp

[PHILIPRISING]

... until after practise the day before the meeting BSI/FIM takes control of it. Which also makes a huge difference to the charasteristics of the track material. As seen last year.

TRUE (it's the FIM RACE Director who assumes control )but any rider will have told you that the biggest problem was the shape. Long straights and narrow corners never work well.

 

Further to Tress comment about BSI just taking the money ... they are as keen as anyone to see an entertaining event, not just live but on TV. It's not in their interests to have a processional GP although in speedway there are no guarantees no matter what the track outside of probably Torun and Bydgoszcz (now a dead duck sadly).

[f-s-p]

TRUE (it's the FIM RACE Director who assumes control )but any rider will have told you that the biggest problem was the shape. Long straights and narrow corners never work well.

Yes. Hopefully though, the lesson learned with watering last year will be remembered.

[Humphrey Appleby]

TRUE (it's the FIM RACE Director who assumes control )but any rider will have told you that the biggest problem was the shape. Long straights and narrow corners never work well.

So it's patently obvious the shape isn't conducive to good racing, yet the venue gets approved for a GP and we're told with a straight face that BSI care about entertainment.

 

As far as I can make out they were keen to reshape it this year but have been stymied by the placement of the drainage for the soccer pitch will will stage Finland's major soccer internationals this year.

So which 'major soccer internationals' would these be, given that I don't see any listed in Tampere during 2015? Maybe the women's under-17s have a game...?

Edited April 6, 2015 by Humphrey Appleby

[OveFundinFan]

TRUE (it's the FIM RACE Director who assumes control )but any rider will have told you that the biggest problem was the shape. Long straights and narrow corners never work well.

 

Further to Tress comment about BSI just taking the money ... they are as keen as anyone to see an entertaining event, not just live but on TV. It's not in their interests to have a processional GP although in speedway there are no guarantees no matter what the track outside of probably Torun and Bydgoszcz (now a dead duck sadly).

 

Have I missed something ??

[iris123]

Yes. Hopefully though, the lesson learned with watering last year will be remembered.

You know how this works......the locals get the blame BSI get the dosh and if by any chance it is a good GP then BSI take the credit,otherwise its the FInns,Latvians,Czechs(delete as applicable)fault Possibly the worst example seemed to be the love in with the NZ promoter until it became clear there would be no more NZ GPs then a hail of criticism came.......

Edited April 6, 2015 by iris123

[f-s-p]

You know how this works......the locals get the blame BSI get the dosh and if by any chance it is a good GP then BSI take the credit,otherwise its the FInns,Latvians,Czechs(delete as applicable)fault Possibly the worst example seemed to be the love in with the NZ promoter until it became clear there would be no more NZ GPs then a hail of criticism came.......

I do have an idea, yes. Though it's not quite what your after.

[New Science]

SADLY because of the drainage and the soccer pitch requirement there won't be many changes to the track from last year.

Feel sorry for the fans who have bought tickets on the back of this hollow promise !

[Humphrey Appleby]

Feel sorry for the fans who have bought tickets on the back of this hollow promise !

I think I'd have more tolerance if there wasn't the (semi-)official pretence from the shills each year that something is going to be done about the tracks.

[Humphrey Appleby]

Have I missed something ??

Bydgoszcz has been bankrolled by its city council, but the city council has finally tired of the financial mismanagement at the club and pulled the plug on the funding. I suspect this also means no subsidies for GPs.

[Trees]

Oh Phil Rising, I wonder what your opinion would be on everything BSI if you weren't involved with them .....

[PHILIPRISING]

Oh Phil Rising, I wonder what your opinion would be on everything BSI if you weren't involved with them .....

I AM quite capable of making up my own mind thanks and certainly don't agree with everything they do. But, in general, think the SGP has been a huge flag bearer for speedway, taking it an an audience that otherwise wouldn't care less, and if the rest of the sport went about their business as do BSI we would all be better off.

 

But that's just my opinion... certainly don't expect everyone to agree.

[SCB]

I AM quite capable of making up my own mind thanks and certainly don't agree with everything they do. But, in general, think the SGP has been a huge flag bearer for speedway, taking it an an audience that otherwise wouldn't care less, and if the rest of the sport went about their business as do BSI we would all be better off.

While I do agree with that, thats in part because those running the sport at league level are pretty inept. So to better them is not too hard.

 

It gets annoying we we're told every Prague is going to be fixed, we're told Tampere is going to be fixed (as soon as most of us saw photos last year we said the track was wrong), we're told the Cardiff shale is stored in some technically advanced environment.

 

And thats before we move onto the two GPs that have been cancelled and replaced by GPs in other cities (Gelsenkirchen and Riga).

[Trees]

Apart from take the speedway to one or two non speedway stadiums what do BSI do different to any promoter?

[oldace]

Apart from take the speedway to one or two non speedway stadiums what do BSI do different to any promoter?

 

Is that a real question?

 

Just watch a GP then watch a typical Elite league match and you will have your answer.

 

One is a well organised, well presented event in stadia not straight out of the 1950s providing a value for money night out.

 

The other is an exercise in how not to present a sports event at a cost no way commensurate with whats on offer.

 

I am sure even you can work out which is which

Edited April 7, 2015 by Oldace

[iris123]

Despite the criticism it has to be admitted that when they get it right it is a fantastic product.Parken was great when I went.Super stadium,great atmosphere and the racing went along at a good pace with amazing presentation.I was lucky enough to only go to the first Gelsenkirchen GP and it was the same,especially when Hefenbrock came out and won his first heat.What happened the next year was the downside of the BSI story.When they get it wrong,boy do they get it wrong.

 

You do need a decent stadium to get the presentation and atmosphere over though.Vojens just doesn't do it,although I do say being there is always better than watching it on tv.I have come home after enjoying the meeting to see all the criticism on here about it being boring.I personally think they are too pricey though and although it is fairly close,Vojens can be a nightmare to get to on a Saturday(and with major motorway work for the next decade towards Denmark it is only going to get worse in that direction)and can also be a nightmare to get out of the car park afterwards which puts me off going

[Humphrey Appleby]

Is that a real question?

Just watch a GP then watch a typical Elite league match and you will have your answer.

One is a well organised, well presented event in stadia not straight out of the 1950s providing a value for money night out.

You're comparing apples and pears. BSI has to organise a handful of events per year, with the pick of plum weekend dates, and with the top riders in the world who agree to ride for pittances because it's billed as the 'world championship'. The local organisation is also largely outsourced to local promoters who carry the financial responsibility for the events, which are effectively subsidised by taxpayers.

 

Nobody would suggest British speedway is well run, but it also can't be run like the SGP, has to be self-financing and gets no help from government. And without domestic speedway (whether British or otherwise), there would be no riders for the SGP nor anyone paying a living wage to the riders to allow them their flight of fancy every couple of weeks during the summer.

 

Quite aside from this, I think BSI do a very moderate job at running the SGP. Despite the hype and shills telling us how they've raised the bar, in reality they've done very little to raise the profile or more importantly the revenue of speedway, especially in comparison to what other minor sports have achieved through sponsorship, television and media rights.

 

The sport is about where it was in the late-80s - 2 or 3 marque events held in city stadiums in front of similar sized crowds as then. The rest are held in pretty much the same countries and stadia they were always held in (with the exception of Australia and NZ - although there had previously been a World Pairs Down Under), in front of generally small crowds. The sport has not expanded in terms of audience, media interest nor leveraging commercial sponsorship despite at least being on television more frequently. This is even before we get to the fiascos of (nearly) cancelled and relocated GPs which was entirely down to very poor management of the local organisers - simply unacceptable for a so-called global sports management company.

 

BSI has a turnover of about 9 million quid a year, of which about 3 million is profit (although around 1.5 million of that goes to the FIM). Even netball which has almost no media profile manages to do better than that, which puts the achievement into perspective.

 

It would be fair to suggest the sport might be in an even worse state without BSI and the SGP, but let's not be fooled about how wonderful they are. They came into what was one of the worst organised professional sports, organised a bit of television money and leveraged some cash out of a Welsh government desperate to get events into their massively loss-making Millennium Stadium. Fair enough, you need to understand where the opportunities are and get some backing to underwrite your start-up costs, but it was nothing massively clever and not much has subsequently been built on the foundations.

[oldace]

You're comparing apples and pears. BSI has to organise a handful of events per year, with the pick of plum weekend dates, and with the top riders in the world who agree to ride for pittances because it's billed as the 'world championship'. The local organisation is also largely outsourced to local promoters who carry the financial responsibility for the events, which are effectively subsidised by taxpayers.

 

Nobody would suggest British speedway is well run, but it also can't be run like the SGP, has to be self-financing and gets no help from government. And without domestic speedway (whether British or otherwise), there would be no riders for the SGP nor anyone paying a living wage to the riders to allow them their flight of fancy every couple of weeks during the summer.

 

Quite aside from this, I think BSI do a very moderate job at running the SGP. Despite the hype and shills telling us how they've raised the bar, in reality they've done very little to raise the profile or more importantly the revenue of speedway, especially in comparison to what other minor sports have achieved through sponsorship, television and media rights.

 

The sport is about where it was in the late-80s - 2 or 3 marque events held in city stadiums in front of similar sized crowds as then. The rest are held in pretty much the same countries and stadia they were always held in (with the exception of Australia and NZ - although there had previously been a World Pairs Down Under), in front of generally small crowds. The sport has not expanded in terms of audience, media interest nor leveraging commercial sponsorship despite at least being on television more frequently. This is even before we get to the fiascos of (nearly) cancelled and relocated GPs which was entirely down to very poor management of the local organisers - simply unacceptable for a so-called global sports management company.

 

BSI has a turnover of about 9 million quid a year, of which about 3 million is profit (although around 1.5 million of that goes to the FIM). Even netball which has almost no media profile manages to do better than that, which puts the achievement into perspective.

 

It would be fair to suggest the sport might be in an even worse state without BSI and the SGP, but let's not be fooled about how wonderful they are. They came into what was one of the worst organised professional sports, organised a bit of television money and leveraged some cash out of a Welsh government desperate to get events into their massively loss-making Millennium Stadium. Fair enough, you need to understand where the opportunities are and get some backing to underwrite your start-up costs, but it was nothing massively clever and not much has subsequently been built on the foundations.

 

Not one bit of that explains why British Speedway is presented and promoted as bad as it is.

 

I dont need to go into the politics of it all to know that (in the main) a night at the SGP is is a good night out. It is a well presented, colorful with the right music and the feel of 2.5 hours solid entertainment.

 

None of the reasons above explain why Elite league speedway is like a night at the local Darby and Joan club.The simple fact that so many over 60s like it tells you something is badly wrong. Packaged and presented as it should be to attract the right audience it would very quickly lose its appeal to the pensioers with their sandwiches, deck chairs and flasks

 

The classic (and I know used many times) example is what Barry Hearn did with darts. The old BDO was very like speedway now, old folk knitting in the front row, no noise, no atmosphere, a very much going nowhere sport.

 

Hearn took it by the scruff of the neck and re invented whole package. To most existing fans it was abhorrent and they wanted nothing to do with it. But they were not the audience being targeted and the new, younger audience lapped it up in their thousands. I am aware a sport requiring a hired in venue and a dart board is much easier to re brand but if the Elite league carries on with its policy of just upping admission to account for lost fans then it is doomed

[Humphrey Appleby]

None of the reasons above explain why Elite league speedway is like a night at the local Darby and Joan club.

That wasn't the point that was being answered. No-one denies that British speedway is organised and presented badly (and probably doomed), but the problems are much harder to fix than simply rocking-up and renting the Millennium Stadium once a year.

 

BSI charges a lot more money for what is in reality only a slightly better presented product, where the actual racing is similar or worse standard than the EL, and where the venue may be changed at the drop of a hat. I've never turned up to any British speedway meeting to be told that it's being held 220 kms away the following day, nor to any event in an indoor stadium that's been rained off.

 

The Cardiff GP is the flagship of the whole series and a lot of effort is made to ensure it comes over well, which is fair enough. However, I've also been to a few GPs in 'outstations' where the presentation and entertainment was no better than what you used to get at BSPA shared meetings at Coventry or wherever.

 

The trick is of course, to get people to feel that it's all better than it actually is, whilst paying inflated prices for the privilege. They might have succeeded with some, although the static attendances over the past years might point to the fact that not everyone is so convinced.

[f-s-p]

Story on todays paper says the revamp of Ratina receives 500k € from UEFA and the Finnish FA. They think of buying a big videoscreen. That would be helpful for 2016.

 

Also says that even with the work at the stadium the stadium is open. 5 big events this summer, of which none are actually football. But thats why they are doing the work, to get (think they have already) the big Finnish football matches because the Olympic stadium in Helsinki will be revamped shortly.

 

Writer of the story remembers again tell how many loads of track material have been driven to the stadium for track work. Not one mention of the sport itself. : (

[Humphrey Appleby]

Also says that even with the work at the stadium the stadium is open. 5 big events this summer, of which none are actually football. But thats why they are doing the work, to get (think they have already) the big Finnish football matches because the Olympic stadium in Helsinki will be revamped shortly.

Five minutes of research on the Internet would have revealed there were no 'major football matches' scheduled. In fact, I thought the local football club was currently suspended for money laundering, so presumably there can only be lower leagues football there at best.

 

And if some money is being spent on upgrading the stadium, can they not reposition or temporarily cover a few drains to facilitate a better shaped track? I'm not entirely convinced about the drainage argument anyway, and one would have thought heavy metal concerts would potentially do far more damage. Could see why they might not want to damage the football pitch if a senior team was actively using it, but that doesn't seem to be the case.