1 valve

And it’s so easy to pass at Belle Vue even if you miss the gate as the riders in front are rubbish!?

All NFL games are shown live without regional restrictions across the whole of the USA via either CBS, Fox, ESPN, NBC & ABC. The TV companies will be paying a combined annual fee of just over $10billion until 2033. There are varying degrees of local restrictions on games via streaming channels but this amount of coverage/subscribers is tiny in comparison to the views via the television channels.

He doesn’t (didn’t) like nor can he ride the Leicester track.

Shame. Although will be interesting to see how heavy the rain fall will actually be. A nearby airport is expecting low cloud and around 3.5mm of rain in total between the hours of 3pm & 10pm.

Indeed. Latest forecasts for this afternoon/evening not very promising at all.

Quite a few intriguing nuances involved in this latest message from the Council. Whilst not yet (publicly) known if the stadium has actually been sold or only used as collateral to cover a loan it does beg the question, what would GI need a loan for? given they actually haven't purchased anything significant over the past few years. It could be worth speculating that GI have borrowed money to fund a new stadium "somewhere" which would be positive news. However, on the downside should they fail to find (or look for?) such a place and then be able to refinance that particular project then L&G would take over The Abby stadium, leaving GI with their hands washed of the current stadium and a wad of cash. One further consideration (for now) The value of the Abbey would be significantly different if housing could not be built on it so one wonders if, by engineering a circumstance where another stadium was built "somewhere" would that in turn mean that the council/planning/etc altered their views on the future of the Abbey as a place zoned for leisure use. After all Swindon may need one such facility, but does it need two?

In the case of the current football Premier League The sequencing was first the rebranding of Football League Division one to "Premier League" together with Sky Sports investing into TV rights/sponsorship. This money allowed (then and now) clubs to attract the best of foreign players. Since then the Premier League TV rights has increased from its first deal of £191 million per season to £1.67 billion per season (across multiple TV companies not just Sky). Clubs have not only invested in Players for the first team but also academies and stadium and training ground facilities. Of course the growth of the Premier League in terms of global TV coverage also generated significant sponsorship agreements large commercial organisations. Whilst all this appears great...and far beyond comparison to speedway in the UK - A sobering fact is that in the 2022/23 season only three Premier League clubs actually made a profit! (2023/24 not yet fully known but will not be greatly different)

To be fair. The plan was working very well last year (top of the league including wins at Sheffield & Ipswich), that was, until a certain Australian rider failed a drugs test. After that, what didn't work were the changes made to try and cover for the lost points capability of the subsequently banned rider.

The players are employed by the two competing teams which are not based in UK. Work Visa are only required if a person is to be employed/paid by a UK based entity. Similarly, if a UK based team were to play in Germany or Spain, visas would not be require for players of that UK team. However, in a sport like Tennis. all visiting foreign players competing at Wimbledon are required to have a valid work visa as their earning/prize money would be paid by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (a UK entity) and of course may finish up only playing in one match should they lose in the first round. The above tennis example is similar to the reason why foreign speedway riders require a Visa is they are to be employed/paid by a UK based team.

In the case of Vic, a long standing servant to Leicester speedway both as a rider & promoter. I remember after he had retired from racing he made a return at one of the end of season 2nd half "fun" events racing against other past riders...Unfortunately for Vic he fell off on the first bend. Think that was the last time he actually "raced". condolences to families of both Doug & Vic. RIP

"No" He hasn't walked away? "No" He's simply unavailable?

When a suspended sentence is passed down then the "sentence" associated with the charge/verdict is known. Given that the penalty this time around has been announced as a two point deduction, then the previous penalty must have been a "warning on future conduct (or similar) if not then the penalty now being applied would equal one point for each offense - somewhat lenient to say the least and something that will not affect Chapman one bit.

“HARD” but not dangerous.

Should be of no surprise if he has already implied that type of threat in the belief that UK speedway cannot do without him. However, in todays climate and profile of speedway promoters and officials, it most certainly can. So if Chapman does want to take his bat and ball home so be it. Put simply, one person is nowhere near being bigger than the sport and as such Chapman cannot be allowed to hold any part of it to ransom.

It’s just weird or even bizarre that Chapman “postpones” meetings that are capable of being run. Ok, he’s the one who has to deal with the short term cash-flow challenge but he simply cannot be allowed to be the tail that wags the dog. The BSPA need to hit him where it hurts the most which is a financial penalty (fine or fixture awarded to Lions) and be informed clearly that such similar actions will not be tolerated in the future.