4 more years of Gorzow GP

[eric i]

Unfortunately Eurosports Events have done a deal for 4 more years of the Gorzow GP, I guess money talks. This probably means a continuation of 4 Polish GPs in the World championship as I can't see them dropping Torun, Wroclaw or Warsaw.

[racers and royals]

2 hours ago, eric i said:

Unfortunately Eurosports Events have done a deal for 4 more years of the Gorzow GP, I guess money talks. This probably means a continuation of 4 Polish GPs in the World championship as I can't see them dropping Torun, Wroclaw or Warsaw.

Source ?

[customhouseregular]

2 hours ago, eric i said:

Unfortunately Eurosports Events have done a deal for 4 more years of the Gorzow GP, I guess money talks. This probably means a continuation of 4 Polish GPs in the World championship as I can't see them dropping Torun, Wroclaw or Warsaw.

No country outside of Europe is interested. As far as I can see from forum posts, the majority of non-Polish tracks are not up to scratch. If an 11 or 12 round championship is the desired format and they all have to be in Europe, where, if Poland stage a maximum of 3 would 8. or 9 rounds be held?. Cardiff is an obvious choice but I have seen very little enthusiasm for the other tracks staging GP’s, now or in recent years.

[eric i]

1 hour ago, racers and royals said:

Source ?

https://sportowefakty-wp-pl.translate.goog/zuzel/1008232/zuzel-to-juz-pewne-w-gorzowie-podpisano-wazna-umowe?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

1 hour ago, customhouseregular said:

No country outside of Europe is interested. As far as I can see from forum posts, the majority of non-Polish tracks are not up to scratch. If an 11 or 12 round championship is the desired format and they all have to be in Europe, where, if Poland stage a maximum of 3 would 8. or 9 rounds be held?. Cardiff is an obvious choice but I have seen very little enthusiasm for the other tracks staging GP’s, now or in recent years.

There are better tracks than Gorzow all over Europe......ok you won't find a better stadium. This comes down to business/money, the Gorzow local authority support the staging of the the GP(put cash up), I doubt you would find the same level of support outside Poland. I was Ok with Poland having 2 gps because it was the biggest market, I thought 3 was too many but 4 is just a joke(over 1/3 rd of a World series in one country).

[chunky]

10 hours ago, eric i said:

https://sportowefakty-wp-pl.translate.goog/zuzel/1008232/zuzel-to-juz-pewne-w-gorzowie-podpisano-wazna-umowe?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

There are better tracks than Gorzow all over Europe......ok you won't find a better stadium. This comes down to business/money, the Gorzow local authority support the staging of the the GP(put cash up), I doubt you would find the same level of support outside Poland. I was Ok with Poland having 2 gps because it was the biggest market, I thought 3 was too many but 4 is just a joke(over 1/3 rd of a World series in one country).

Funny how times change... Had we had a GP series 50 years ago, all the British fans would have wanted/expected the majority of the rounds in the UK - and it would have been considered "fair"...

Edited July 1, 2022 by chunky

[customhouseregular]

10 hours ago, eric i said:

https://sportowefakty-wp-pl.translate.goog/zuzel/1008232/zuzel-to-juz-pewne-w-gorzowie-podpisano-wazna-umowe?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

There are better tracks than Gorzow all over Europe......ok you won't find a better stadium. This comes down to business/money, the Gorzow local authority support the staging of the the GP(put cash up), I doubt you would find the same level of support outside Poland. I was Ok with Poland having 2 gps because it was the biggest market, I thought 3 was too many but 4 is just a joke(over 1/3 rd of a World series in one country).

I agree, but as I posted, where are the alternatives?.

[customhouseregular]

3 hours ago, chunky said:

Funny how times change... Had we had a GP series 50 years ago, all the British fans would have wanted/expected the majority of the rounds in the UK - and it would have been considered "fair:..

Probably split UK/Poland/Sweden 

[iris123]

Tbh 50 years ago was another world

The UK was the centre of speedway. Access to fairly good stadia, good crowds and tv interest. Half of the speedway world was behind the iron curtain with little money for the sport and fan access from outside was restricted. Even in the west things have improved. For instance since i started going to Denmark Esbjerg and Holsted have made major improvements to the stadium and Vojens less so. But the major change is Poland is for all to see. Stadiums are great and sponsorship to match i'd imagine

The UK has been left behind without a doubt. That can't be denied and the centre of garvity has moved east 

Commonwealth riders had to qualify through British rounds and ride for the British team and US riders had no route into anything. That is how unfair the speedway world was back then 

Edited July 1, 2022 by iris123

[eric i]

2 hours ago, customhouseregular said:

I agree, but as I posted, where are the alternatives?.

 I think the problem actually stems from the FIM, when they put the tender out they should have specified a limit on how many GPs could be staged in anyone country. It would not surprise me if there is even more GPs in Poland in the future because its far more profitable than alternatives in the rest of Europe. 

[customhouseregular]

6 minutes ago, eric i said:

 I think the problem actually stems from the FIM, when they put the tender out they should have specified a limit on how many GPs could be staged in anyone country. It would not surprise me if there is even more GPs in Poland in the future because its far more profitable than alternatives in the rest of Europe. 

2 each: GB, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Czech, Germany. How does that sound?.

[iris123]

There are many problems and maybe more meetings in Poland is one of the few options open

For one, travel is most probably going to become very expensive in the near future. Which could rule out meetings being held outside of Europe. Will anyone want to take the risk of moving the whole thing down under, to the US or the mooted meeting in Argentina at this time ?

Then you have the lack of other alternatives 

Germany and Teterow are being criticised. Middle of nowhere, bad track etc. And rightly so

Denmark has the expensive Parken that lost its popularity. Too expensive and far away from the Danish speedway centre. So we are back at the oft criticised Vojens

Then we have Prague. Good city, terrible track and the alternative at Pardubice is as ever a no go because they don't want it

We have had goes in Finland, Latvia, Italy etc that were all rubbish in many peoples eyes

The one option of Togliatti that might have been ok will seemingly be a no go for years to come at a guess

[Shockster]

All the top riders are now based in Poland.  As long as the meetings are well supported, I don't see an issue. No real advantage as I say, as they all ride the tracks regularly.

[eric i]

4 minutes ago, customhouseregular said:

2 each: GB, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Czech, Germany. How does that sound?.

It sounds better, but they could also look at the likes of Finland, Latvia, Norway, France, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia. I doubt they will risk going to the speedway backwaters to make a tiny profit when they know they can make a fat profit in Gorzow.

[customhouseregular]

21 minutes ago, eric i said:

It sounds better, but they could also look at the likes of Finland, Latvia, Norway, France, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia. I doubt they will risk going to the speedway backwaters to make a tiny profit when they know they can make a fat profit in Gorzow.

Apart from France and Hungary they have all been tried.

[enotian]

to be a success the series has to be profitable. I'm sure everyone would like to see a series held across the globe but at this point in time if you made that a stipulation there'd be no series. nobody could make it pay. of course you still have to manage the quality of the product and in that respect Gorzow wasn't too bad. certainly better than the previous two rounds. maybe there's a danger of the series being viewed as Polish centric but how many rounds does MotoGP have in Spain? Nobody calls it the Spanish championship.  They go where they can sell tickets and attract sponsors/subsidy.

the series does need to reach a wider market but it's also limited by the number of nationalities represented. with only 16 riders it's difficult to say promote a SGP round or the series in France with only one wildcard appearance for a French rider.  at this point you can't really look beyond the core speedway territories.

it looks like Discovery Sports have a desire to expand the series, which makes complete sense if you want to increase subscriptions and/or TV rights but how the do it is the trick.  If only there was a Euro wide league in which the best tracks across Europe could stage meetings and build up some resources and infrastructure to be able to host GP rounds successfully???  Then during the winter they could transplant the whole thing to the southern hemisphere/USA.

   

[chunky]

8 hours ago, iris123 said:

Tbh 50 years ago was another world

The UK was the centre of speedway. Access to fairly good stadia, good crowds and tv interest. Half of the speedway world was behind the iron curtain with little money for the sport and fan access from outside was restricted. Even in the west things have improved. For instance since i started going to Denmark Esbjerg and Holsted have made major improvements to the stadium and Vojens less so. But the major change is Poland is for all to see. Stadiums are great and sponsorship to match i'd imagine

The UK has been left behind without a doubt. That can't be denied and the centre of garvity has moved east 

Commonwealth riders had to qualify through British rounds and ride for the British team and US riders had no route into anything. That is how unfair the speedway world was back then 

I don't disagree with anything you say, but my main point was that as far as British fans go, that was perfectly okay. Things have changed, and it's almost like British fans resent the fact that we are only a bit-part player in modern speedway.

5 hours ago, iris123 said:

There are many problems and maybe more meetings in Poland is one of the few options open

For one, travel is most probably going to become very expensive in the near future. Which could rule out meetings being held outside of Europe. Will anyone want to take the risk of moving the whole thing down under, to the US or the mooted meeting in Argentina at this time ?

Then you have the lack of other alternatives 

Germany and Teterow are being criticised. Middle of nowhere, bad track etc. And rightly so

Denmark has the expensive Parken that lost its popularity. Too expensive and far away from the Danish speedway centre. So we are back at the oft criticised Vojens

Then we have Prague. Good city, terrible track and the alternative at Pardubice is as ever a no go because they don't want it

We have had goes in Finland, Latvia, Italy etc that were all rubbish in many peoples eyes

The one option of Togliatti that might have been ok will seemingly be a no go for years to come at a guess

Again, I agree with everything you say. If we want a successful GP series, we have to go with what works.

4 hours ago, Shockster said:

All the top riders are now based in Poland.  As long as the meetings are well supported, I don't see an issue. No real advantage as I say, as they all ride the tracks regularly.

A great point that people seem to forget...

[Midland Red]

On 7/1/2022 at 12:36 PM, Shockster said:

All the top riders are now based in Poland.  As long as the meetings are well supported, I don't see an issue. No real advantage as I say, as they all ride the tracks regularly.

Rename it The Polish League Riders Championship

[Shockster]

18 hours ago, Midland Red said:

Rename it The Polish League Riders Championship

Nah, they have that one already.

[Humphrey Appleby]

On 7/1/2022 at 8:59 PM, eric i said:

 I think the problem actually stems from the FIM, when they put the tender out they should have specified a limit on how many GPs could be staged in anyone country. It would not surprise me if there is even more GPs in Poland in the future because its far more profitable than alternatives in the rest of Europe. 

Why would the FIM or more likely the series rights holders want to restrict how many lucrative GPs they stage each year?

As you say, it's all about maximising revenue and very little to do with sharing things around, quite aside from the fact hardly anyone else actually wants to stage a GP.

[eric i]

9 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

Why would the FIM or more likely the series rights holders want to restrict how many lucrative GPs they stage each year?

As you say, it's all about maximising revenue and very little to do with sharing things around, quite aside from the fact hardly anyone else actually wants to stage a GP.

 I never said it was all about maximising revenue as they don't want the World Championship series to lose credibility hence they attempt to go to the likes of Croatia, Russia and Australia. Bringing the speedway GP to different places brings exposure to the sport in that country, long term this has to better for the sport than making a few extra quid by staging loads of rounds in Poland. Maybe I am wrong though and Eurosport events and the FIM need to have 4,5, 6 events in Poland to make the series pay