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8 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

NO doubt we would all like to see SGPs in Auckland, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Stockholm, etc but the fact is that these venues are simply not viable. Imagine if Tony Rickardsson, Erik Gundersen, Hans Nielsen, Jason Crump, Leigh Adams and their ilk were still riding. Bums on seats would not be an issue. Poland have overcome the loss of Tomasz Gollob not least because speedway in northern Poland at least is so high profile. 

Whether it is BSI/IMG or Discovery/Eurosport who are the custodians of the World Championship going forward run 2022, new venues will remain a problem.

What a bizarre comment ...  Four riders who quite demonstrably couldn't 'put bums on SGP seats' any better than the 2019 guys. 

Edited by Grand Central
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1 hour ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

Not really. The Gulf countries are trying to diversify their oil-dependent economies by attracting tourists, wealthy tax exiles, and sponsors who might invest in other sectors, but they're after the high-spending types and/or those with something invest. Speedway's audience sadly doesn't tick any of those boxes, is small and even worse is confined to a handful of countries rather than being global.

I'd be amazed if hosting a speedway GP hasn't been investigated in some of these countries, but the rulers of these places aren't completely stupid. 

Handball is hardly high profile, nor attracts high spending fans from what I have seen and also centered around a small number of countries

It is though fairly inexpensive and easy to introduce and obviously there were a good number of players willing to change their nationality. And probably unlike in speedway with a couple of years experience and training a few locals  were in the National team

Edited by iris123

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8 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Handball is hardly high profile, nor attracts high spending fans from what I have seen and also centered around a small number of countries

For wherever reason, Qatar apparently picked upon handball as a way to win something at the Olympics - a bit like Britain did with track cycling and skeleton. Speedway isn't an Olympic sport, not a mass participatory sport, and sadly winning something in it wouldn't even get noticed by most of the world.  

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17 hours ago, falcace said:

I'd love to know what work has been done in these areas.

Of course, it's very easy for me and others to say "they should be doing this and that" and there may well be perfectly good reasons why the SGP hasn't broken new markets. I don't doubt some efforts have been made. But on the face of it, I would think a place like Qatar where they don't mind losing money on sports events and have a herd of white elephant stadiums-to-be hosting the 2022 World Cup would be an obvious port of call.

Ditto, somewhere like Majorca or Malaga; very reachable for all budget airlines and in a country where the locals like bike racing, decent football stadiums that might be convertable? Surely worth a go?Or Ireland? There's an established scene of bike racing and an international series like the SGP could be welcomed. Who wouldn't fancy a Dublin GP?

Or can we even piggy back on the Superbike or MotoGP calendar and offer a Saturday night SGP in the same city as the Sunday's road racing? Happy to shot down on all these of course, but it would be good to know that all avenues are being explored.

Didn't Prince Albert (:rofl:) attend the first Cardiff GP with a view of holding one in Monaco? Obviously never happened. How about a GP on the Isle of Man during TT Week?

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1 hour ago, waiheke1 said:

agreed. they would make zero difference to attendance in Auckland, and I suspect close to nil in Melbourne. tbh even as a speedway fan, Gundersen and Nielsen would be no bigger draw cards for me than Woffy and Zmarzlik. 

As for these changes, what a load of crap. Having got rid of the SWC, arguably the best event of the year, now seems they want to stuff up the GPs as well...

WOFFY and Zmarzlik are not the draw cards in Copenhagen that Gundersen and Nielsen would have been. Melbourne would have benefitted massively from Adams and Crump. Similarly Rickardsson in Stockholm. That is my point. 

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25 minutes ago, PHILIPRISING said:

WOFFY and Zmarzlik are not the draw cards in Copenhagen that Gundersen and Nielsen would have been. Melbourne would have benefitted massively from Adams and Crump. Similarly Rickardsson in Stockholm. That is my point. 

Good God .... That would have been in 1988 or 1989 !!

Get a grip !

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3 minutes ago, Grand Central said:

Good God .... That would have been in 1988 or 1989 !!

Get a grip !

WE are on different wavelengths. 

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To even mention Erik and Hans now though is so backward looking ...  We are thirty years beyond ANY relevance that would be helpful in decisions or understanding. In Speedway terms or the rest of society. 

Despite being closer to 60 than 50 myself I can appreciate that it is just this sort of 'harking back' to pre-history by oldies that must drive anyone born post 1990 absolutely bonkers. And make them switch right off from listening to us on many issues of TODAY.

 

Edited by Grand Central

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5 minutes ago, Grand Central said:

To even mention Erik and Hans now though is so backward looking ...  We are thirty years beyond ANY relevance that would be helpful in decisions or understanding. In Speedway terms or the rest of society. 

Despite being closer to 60 than 50 myself I can appreciate that it is just this sort of 'harking back' to pre-history by oldies that must drive anyone born post 1990 absolutely bonkers. And make them switch right off from listening to us.

 

I think you are completely missing the point Philip is trying to get across, no brainer really!! 

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14 hours ago, racers and royals said:

Lets not forget that BSI/IMG are right in the middle of a tender process for a further 10 years from 2022, so maybe the FIM wanted it and they said yes sir, great idea. ;)

A stupid idea coming from Castagna does seen a possibility :D

I wonder if IMG are also changing the points system in the Rallycross World Championship. It's probably the closest to speedway of other motorsports (heats and then semi and final for top scorers in the heats) and it has a scoring system that can also see the winner of the round score less World Championship points than others.

If that's staying the same we can probably assume that it's not IMG that had issue with the scoring system ;)

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I like the idea of new faces in the GP series but only if they have more talent than the riders they will replace.   The new system may not see this happen.

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5 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

For wherever reason, Qatar apparently picked upon handball as a way to win something at the Olympics - a bit like Britain did with track cycling and skeleton. Speedway isn't an Olympic sport, not a mass participatory sport, and sadly winning something in it wouldn't even get noticed by most of the world.  

Also hosted the world championships...plus we have had a few ventures in the region. Briggo and Mauger took the sport over and I think a decade or so later there was also a meeting or two. 

Edited by iris123

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The points changing doesn't really bother me. It's pretty much the same as 1996 and that went down to the last race of the entire series. The qualification is a little worrying. If anything should be 5 from GP Challenge and 3 wildcards. 

But again I definitely think track/stadia is the bigger issue.

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Again I have to disagree on the Challenge. Not sure what a look back at the top 5 over the past decade would give. But like to bet there would be. few names that would be well out of their depth in for a whole season !!! Just because I remember watching Lubos Tomicek almost qualifying 

Edited by iris123

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25 points for a gp win and everyone else keeps the the points they actually scored in the gp. To me this would of been better. 

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