Humphrey Appleby

Would guess it would be established as a company limited by guarantee, with the track owners as the company members.

That wasn't really my point. Things like the points limit, lack of control over wages, and an engine tuning arms race have forced up costs beyond what is sustainable. Of course you have to get fans through the door as well, but can't reduce prices until you reduce costs. And even if you do get more fans through the door, teams will just spend any extra money on trying to lure riders unless there are controls on this, which doesn't get you any further forward.

Likely to be simplified accounts which won't tell you much.

Rider allocation, centrally-contracted riders, wage control, standardised equipment and procurement thereof are all possibilities.

Would have thought there was always the risk of a rider taking the BSPA to court over the asset system, winning the case, and then getting damages that the promoters (or at least those on the Management Committee) would be collectively liable for. Maybe it wasn't done before because of the need to publish accounts which would open the promoters to financial scrutiny. The law has been changed in recent years though, to increase the amount of turnover before you have to publish full accounts, and I doubt 6.5 million per year is going through their books.

Of course, in a proper sport it would be unacceptable for the same owner to have controlling influences in more than one team in the same team, which is why virtually every (if not all) credible sports competition disallows it. However, speedway is already a joke with teams borrowing riders (guests) from other teams in the same league, that it probably makes little difference in practice. This said, I can see the benefits of running a league as single corporate entity, because that will allow for better control of costs, and better competitive balance. Provided there's a separation of the league ownership and team management once the riders have been doled out, the contracts agreed, and competition starts, then there's no reason why it shouldn't work.

Presumably because those players meet the criteria for being granted UK work visas (which are clearly specified for ice hockey), and Jaimon Lidsey does not. Maybe ice hockey is better at lobbying UK immigration than speedway, not to mention that speedway abused the rules a few years ago and has probably lost the trust of the authorities. However, the visa rules for speedway have been pretty much the same for years, and are fairly generous towards Australians in terms of allowing the top 4 (maybe top 3 now?) in the National Senior Championship or a state championship to qualify. Probably also comes down to the fact that UK population (including many speedway fans on here) wanted to reduce the number of immigrants, speedway contributes little or nothing to the economy or social fabric of the UK, and there's therefore absolutely no reason to give the sport any special treatment. I personally think it's a shame for young Australian riders, but Australia has their rules for Brits wanting to go there too, and it's a reflection of the way our respective wider populations want things to be at this moment in time.

It's actually an entirely different thing. Many, if not most football clubs live well beyond their means, but there's usually another mug with too much money to replace the previous one when they run out of cash. Even where there isn't, there's literally hundreds of others football clubs clamouring to take the place of fallen. Speedway is simply not in the same position. It does not attract rich, and especially super-rich mugs, who're willing to endlessly pour money into a loss-making business, nor does command anything like the television or sponsorship monies that formerly equivalent minor sports are able to obtain nowadays. Tracks are not only not clamouring to get into the top league (which says something in itself), but there's just 24 tracks remaining in the entire country - many of which are leading a very marginal existence. A far better analogy would be ice hockey, which seems to have achieved a relatively stable existence of late, after years of also being a shambolic mess.

That's more there for licensing, regulatory and disciplinary matters - not for the day-to-day running of the sport. It's quite reasonable for those with a financial stake in the sport to be determining how it should be run, but that should be determining the structure and the outline principles during the close season..The day-to-day implementation of that should be handled by a neutral commission or commissioner.

Not really sure what ideas have been taken on board. I suppose he did try to modernise the presentation a bit, but it was typical speedway - done in a two-bob and tacky way. Unfortunately, I don't think the finances ended-up matching the ambition, and the random cancellations and ever changing team really did nothing to encourage fans to come - new or existing. He was really the beginning of the end at Oxford although it wouldn't be fair to put the blame at his door.

Yes - being taken to Belle Vue is mentioned in his autobiography. The Smiths song 'Rusholme Ruffians' also includes the line 'the grease in the hair of a speedway operator'. Would imagine there would have been a fair few 'celebs' who went to speedway in the 60s and 70s though, but the sport is hardly overwhelming patronised by the rich and famous these days.

I notice you don't remember the 'Silver Machine'.

Would only work if costs were cut dramatically. The 'one big league' was a failure because the economic circumstances between tracks were so different, and whilst the reluctance of some teams to release No.1 standard riders didn't help, I think more than few tracks couldn't afford them anyway. That experiment caused several tracks to drop out, and it was only the advent of the 'Conference League' that allowed them to keep running. You're always going to need some sort of two-tier setup however you structure it.

Phillipe will probably tell you that attendances were down due to the women's netball league being on tele or something, but it was obviously not financially viable to run the GP in Melbourne. The Ethiad Stadium was also bought by the AFL in 2016, and that was no doubt a convenient excuse to pull the plug. There's supposedly a proposal to run the GP in Adelaide next year, or more fantastically, at Ipswich. The latter seems pretty unlikely given the remote location, the total lack of track/stadium facilities at the Motor Park, and Ipswich City Council being in big financial difficulties which includes losses on the Motor Park they own.

I do, like to go racing at Ipswich Motorpark...