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racers and royals

Polish Extraleague/Nice Polska promotion/relegation play-offs Sunday October 13th live on TV

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Congratulations Leszno. Even though they have pumped everyone again in 2019 I still enjoy watching then.

Other than Drabik Wroclaw were terrible. No idea what is up with TW. Looked awesome in the semis but has been awful in the finals and in the last couple of sgp

Funny old sport speedway. You ride at Cardiff and look like you've never seen a bike before. Following day you're chalking up another max in the play off final. 

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10 hours ago, racers and royals said:

Of course i know what you meant. They are the best league in the world and  at the moment are doing very nicely thank you. I seem to remember they did try it some years ago but quickly dropped it.

Spot on..

Sponsors put big money in to be associated with the best and are obviously happy that they are dealing with a clearly well respected brand..

This standard then delivers great TV coverage and means Polish Speedway can actually auction their meetings to the media, rather than take any meagre pickings thats offered by a single interested party..

That great blanket TV and audio coverage then helps engage a new generation of fans, as well as delivering great coverage for the sponsors to the right demographic they wish to engage with..

It also makes means big money to the riders, which makes being s speedway rider in Poland a truly aspirational career which can bring huge rewards, therefore training schools are full and a conveyer belt of talent is pretty much assured..

This money coming in then means realistic admission costs which encourage families in particular to attend as it remains firmly within their budgets, meaning younger fans start to take notice of the sport to hopefully maintain a strong future for it..

As you say, doing very nicely at the moment...

I am sure though being very forward looking, they will still be contemplating how they can improve their current operation further..

Winners never stand still,  because they know that  if they do they will effectively fall behind competitors who are moving forwards..

Maybe to improve things going forward, they will think of dropping the weekends and run on those 'traditional' family leisure nights of Monday and Thursday's?

And maybe consider inserting a rule that lets every rider ride for every club in the league on an ad hoc basis whenever there is a gap in any team? 

Two ideas both sponsors and TV executives would love to see brought in I am sure..

Or maybe they wouldn't... :rolleyes:

Edited by mikebv
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6 hours ago, Trees said:

Are Leszno the richest club in the league?

Hard to tell- but i wouldn’t necessarily think so- they have been so good because Smektala and Kubera at 6/7 have been so dominant for a couple of seasons now. Next season is a different matter altogether as Smektala and Drabik to name 2 have to move into the top 5. 

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A couple of years ago the PGE Ekstraliga website used to list the budget for each club per season.  I can''t imagine that Leszno team is anywhere near as expensive in terms of wages as the Zielona Gora team.

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3 hours ago, Col said:

Of the four teams that made the play-offs Leszno are the least well supported in terms of paying spectators - https://speedwayekstraliga.pl/en/stats/frekwencja/

Doubtful the crowd numbers have much influence on the overall budget.   I have read on this forum that entry to a league match is less than £8.    An extra 1000 people is nice but with the money riders are earning it's a drop in the Atlantic.      TV money and sponsorship will rule the budget.

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Certainly two people can watch Czestchowa for £15 this year, not sure about other teams entry prices.

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On 9/20/2019 at 10:28 PM, racers and royals said:

N Sport have successfully won the tender to show both legs of the Gorzow v Ostrow match. 

times announced

Sunday September 29th  Gorzow v Ostrow  6pm UK time

Sunday October 6th  Ostrow v Gorzow 5pm UK time

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13 hours ago, Trees said:

Are Leszno the richest club in the league?

They don't have to be :-) 

The thing is that clubs, as such, can only pay so much to individual riders, but on top of that there are individual sponsors (arranged by each club) who pay whatever they feel is appropriate and acceptable to each rider. This system can create problems as some riders experienced. Apparantly Russian rider Kulakov, the top rider from the Polish First Division, is moving from Tarnow to Torun because Tarnow is lagging behind with paying him sponsor money.

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5 hours ago, Col said:

Of the four teams that made the play-offs Leszno are the least well supported in terms of paying spectators - https://speedwayekstraliga.pl/en/stats/frekwencja/

British fans who follow Polish speedway must be aware that In many respects, the realities in Polish speedway are somehow different from those in the UK. And as already explained by others, Polish clubs are not necessarily supported by the paying public alone. It is also wrong to compare admission cost in Polish speedway to that in the UK. For a start an average income of "a working" man in PL is not even nearer of that in the UK. If it was there would not be so many of them in your country.

Edited by PolskiZuzel

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2 hours ago, PolskiZuzel said:

They don't have to be :-) 

The thing is that clubs, as such, can only pay so much to individual riders, but on top of that there are individual sponsors (arranged by each club) who pay whatever they feel is appropriate and acceptable to each rider. This system can create problems as some riders experienced. Apparantly Russian rider Kulakov, the top rider from the Polish First Division, is moving from Tarnow to Torun because Tarnow is lagging behind with paying him sponsor money.

So are Leszno the richest club in Poland, do they have the best/richest/most generous 'sponsors'?  

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9 hours ago, racers and royals said:

Hard to tell- but i wouldn’t necessarily think so- they have been so good because Smektala and Kubera at 6/7 have been so dominant for a couple of seasons now. Next season is a different matter altogether as Smektala and Drabik to name 2 have to move into the top 5. 

Yes, doesn't seem quite right does it, it's like Kings Lynn having Robert Lambert at reserve all season ..... No doubt the Polish conveyor belt of good young riders will bring another one through for Leszno ....

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7 minutes ago, Trees said:

So are Leszno the richest club in Poland, do they have the best/richest/most generous 'sponsors'?  

How do you measure "richness"?  Capital assets? Revenue? Share holdiers personal wealth? 

As PolskiZuzel said, there's a wage cap that binds the clubs, in the same way as happens in American Football's NFL. So that then levels out the playing field for how much of a clubs "riches" can be spent on riders. How much more in the way of capital assets and/or revenue a club has or gets after that doesn't come into it.

The biggest difference between who can afford which rider and who can't is in the addtitional sponsorship packages that they are able to arrange on behalf of the riders. And that comes down more to how good your efforts and abilities are to attract sponsors, not how big your bank balance is. 

And that's one of the major differences between Polish and British speedway clubs. Here, on the whole, the clubs look for sponsorship for themselves and leave the riders to get their own sponsorship. As PolskiZuzel says, in Poland, the clubs arrange a riders sponsorship for them to at least a major degree. Obviously, riders will get additional approaches by sponsors over there, but a good base line is arranged by the clubs, in order to make their contracts attractive. Another major difference is the kind of sponsor that Polish riders get. Piotr Protasiewicz has had a long term sponsorship deal with a multi national company Pentel. You've probably used a Pentel pen yourself at some point. A British rider would be lucky to get a sponsorship with Penny's Pen Shop in Penns Lane. That sort of thing makes a difference.

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44 minutes ago, Trees said:

Yes, doesn't seem quite right does it, it's like Kings Lynn having Robert Lambert at reserve all season ..... No doubt the Polish conveyor belt of good young riders will bring another one through for Leszno ....

Not right for who?  It works for Poland. It could work for Great Britain if junior riders were "protected" more in the reserve berths instead of burning them out too soon. Just look at the number of young riders who've jacked the sport in these past few years. I've never known anything like it. All we're left with now are budding young British Champions blossoming to fruition in their mid-30's.

It wasn't that many years ago that a certain Patryk Dudek and Bartosz Zmarzlik spent a few years at #6 or #7 for their respective teams. It didn't do them any harm, and when Poland won the last SWC with effectively an u23 side, it shows that it doesn't do the national team any harm either.

As I said, it could work in this country, and I think it should be made to work in this country. If your club uncovers a British gem of a rider, then why not let that club benefit from their discovery, and whatever investment they make in that rider? That should be the team's reward for doing something in the national interrest. But instead look what happens. As soon as a budding young British rider starts outscoring an old foreign crock, then that crock gets the benefit of an easy life in the reserves whilst the young British rider gets a hard time in the main body of the team. And then you get the headlines about young English riders "taking time out" from the sport...(never to be seen again)

Edited by uk_martin
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43 minutes ago, uk_martin said:

. Piotr Protasiewicz has had a long term sponsorship deal with a multi national company Pentel. You've probably used a Pentel pen yourself at some point. A British rider would be lucky to get a sponsorship with Penny's Pen Shop in Penns Lane. That sort of thing makes a difference.

Depends. Robert Barth and Tobi Kroner were sponsored by McDonalds. You've heard of them. They have shops all over the world. One of the biggest fast food chains there is. But do you honestly think they were top earners ? Do you think anyone in a major McDonalds office in Europe, let alone the US had ever heard of them ?

Just noticed Smoli is currently sponsored by Maccy D’s now. Possibly a continuation of the same local deal Kroner had....

Edited by iris123

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