paulr

Lets face it there are a few 'camps' wrt the Cardiff GP and whether Wembley is a better alternative 1) The ones that make it a social event - staying over on (at least) the Saturday night - therefore hotel, food & drink prices have a big impact 2) The ones that go there just for the event and use public transport 3) The ones that go there just for the event and use their own means of transport My thoughts re the above : 1) London offer more hotels but (going by my quick search on Laterooms.com), London is more expensive - almost certainly the tourist areas of London are more expensive for grub & bevvy 2) More flexibility & choice for London - though reliance on the Tube to get from the event (both Wembley & O2) to the main line stations - my experiences at Wembley were the Tube was a real hassle and you could easily wait 50-60mins before getting on a train - though Ive heard the stations have got better for the new Wembley - does this make the service better though ? 3) M4 or M25 ? - both as bad as each other at times- though while there was a slight hold up on the M4 on Saturday it wasnt for long, getting into the city was easy hardly 'jumping through hoops' - satnav helps as well though - M25 and North Circular when there is an major event at Wembley is a different kettle of fish - it took us over 3 hours by car from Wembley to Wokingham after Euro 96 So all in all about even, maybe a lean towards Cardiff, depending what camp you sit in. However one of the 'buzzes' of Cardiff is that you know by being in the city there is an event on, the horns, the flag sellers etc. In London this would only be obvious near the stadium. For me this adds to the sense of occassion, that Im going to be part of something, that by going into pubs and eateries in cardiff that they are populated by speedway fans who on the whole are a friendly bunch. If people were all dispersed across various parts of London & Middlesex then I think the sense of 'occassion' may be lost a bit.

Dont lets get facts or good ideas get in the way of a whinge, eh ??

yep but give yourself plenty of time - the queue last year was pretty long - took about 40mins to get in !!

And did anyone deliberately trip you up on your way to the table ?? But the reason for the poor quality fries could be that it was a temporary BK and nowhere near as good as a permanent BK ?? - especially those in Poland....

I used to be uncertain too, but now Im not so sure.....

It was from a newspaper article so a bit of journalistic licence was employed - youre right Derwent he doesnt actually say they were a disgrace but their actions were disgraceful... I can see the argument/inference that "being disgraceful" = "a disgrace" from both sides....depends how pedantic one wants to be...

Shazzybird in sober moment during Cardiff weekend ???

Cheers Mick - shame that cost cutting prevents a better track. So one rider complains and all the 'shale' has to come off ?? - do we get to guess the nationality of the complainer ?? Hi Paulc - pity you couldnt get a more original forum name and I hope you support a better team than Paulco (speedway and football)

i never got stopped - and I had a backpack as well - nor did I see anyone at gate 5 entrance get stopped. Maybe it was just in the sections where they knew the troublemakers would be.......

AKA good cash flow management - good business practice Its never a sell out so if you dont want to line the pockets of the organisers pockets - dont buy them now. Lose a 10% discount to get 5% interest from the bank ? - buy them now so you get the seats where you prefer to sit - its a free country - you have the choice.

Well we seem to be getting in the realms of personal taste and with music (as with every other art form) this becomes futile - you like what you like for whatever reason and no degree of debate from anyone will change your personal likes. If there were 45,000 people at Cardiff then the ability to please all of them all the time was an impossibility. I personally have an obscure taste in music (dont know how this happened but thats how it is) and dislike pop, heavy rock and tripe such as aga flippin doo - but I accept that my tastes are very much in the minority and that the types of music I just mentioned are more popular and that music selection to entertain 45,000 people of various ages from a wide cross-section of the British and European communities would have to be based on the more popular tunes. I didnt go to Cardiff to expect to hear my fave music (and I wasnt dissapointed ) but I did observe that lots of people near me were enjoying it (Block U19 at the top seemed to be having a mass party and having a great time) even a couple of notable forum members were cutting loose - so on the whole I would say it worked. If it worked for most people around me then I assume it was a success. I didnt know 'Born in the USA' was anti-american cos I cant stand it and only understand the words on the chorus (the rest sounds like the slo-mo soundtrack of a cat being strangled - IMHO), but the bit that was used was the chorus which was relevant to the rider who was born in the USA, maybe not everyone reads politics into it either. As for Hope & Glory - a masterstroke IMHO - is it a Tory anthem ?, is it British or English ? - who cares, it got the crowd going (and maybe even helped Bomber a bit too) and was a memorable site to witness - and Im not a Union flag waving type at all - far from it !!! If I were to sum up what most criticisms on here seem to be about : 1) The use of music as the riders were at the tapes (and sometimes after the start) 2) The use of snippets of music that were attempted to be relevant to the winning rider 3) The volume and general PA quality 4) 'Party' music - hokey cokey etc Im not one of the forum chums - I know Superbarts presentations (but not him personally) from his days at Brandon (including the IMHO cringeworthy version of '500 miles') and he does try to do something different.... for that I say well done !! Maybe we can use this topic for suggestions as what to play for a mass audience (ie not your personals faves) when a couple of tractors are going round the track in the opposite direction taking all the shale off (oops I said no politics didnt I ??)

What was thet Elvis Costello song ??? - "I cant stand up for falling down" - were the lyrics

Yeah damn Eastern Europeans and NP fans causing all the arguements...!! - (please note the winks before I get hounded by the legions of "Nicki is god, he can do no wrong, how dare you criticise our hero, hes really cute you know" brigade)

Yeah but speedway fans would know how to behave........

God no please no !!!! - see its all about personal opinion and you cant please everyone......or is late 70's formula 'heavy metal' in line with the streotype of a speedway fan ??

Make sure its the ones with the soothing balm in them

Some very valid points from BP there - though I suspect his comments on Saturday night (if asked) may have been more heated. The problem is, are the powers that run the GP series listening to any of this ?

Well amongst all the anti referee, the anti-track, the anti-Olsen comments, the anti-music choices and suggestions that 1 or 2 people may have been a tad miffed by a certain Danish riders performance, a GP was actually completed and won by Jason Crump. So WELL DONE JASON - you rode superbly and fully deserved the win in a near faultless display. Always a joy & pleasure to watch live on a track - even though it cost me a few bob.....

I totally agree with your sentiment as you were responding to a totally out of order quote which wished a speedway rider an injury... but.. lets be clear they do it for the same reason as most of us who work - to earn a crust. If its something they love then even better for them but adrenalin doesnt pay the bills.

It wasnt Superbart on one of his off days was it ??

Brilliant post

Totally agree with those comments - the music at times really added to the sense of occasion. Dunno what the people at the top of block U19 were on but boy did they enjoy themselves - Im sure if the right music came on for a conga they would have got one going !!! As for Shawns attempt at the Hokey Cokey...... ah the wonders of video record on a mobile phone ..........

I dunno - most people would have attended yesterday whether he was there or not - but if the referee continues to get away with making appalling decisions and NP continually gets away with his gamesmanship then I think people will begin to consider whether they want to financially contribute to the GP. I can only hope that someone, somewhere in the upper echelons of the sport is reviewing yesterday with a view to doing something to avoid repeats of last nights farcical decisions

Nah - sad but it was nowhere near close to capacity - the back straight was pretty full while all along the start straight the top tier was very thinly populated. Im not sure if there was a great price differential between similar positions on the back & home straights - but I found it interesting that the back straight was so full as ive never seen it as the most popular positions at EL or Pl meetings that Ive attended A Polish member has posted some great photos today on one of the British GP threads on this forum and you can dissapointingly see huge area of empty seats - then again another 25,000 people blowing air horns and there would have to be a search party for the stadium roof !!

probably better today than it was yesterday...