Humphrey Appleby

That's something BSI would have to discuss with the FIM, especially if another organisation is able to undercut them.

Well maybe, but perhaps BSI could also reduce the asking price of promoters who want to hold a GP. In fact, I think it's a nonsense that speedway has World and European Championships when the sport is hardly ridden anywhere outside of Europe. European Championships are effectively only ever going to be parallel competitions, competing for hosts and sponsors, unless they're pitched as some sort of feeder competition. However, it's high time that the relationship between the FIM and BSI was brought under scrutiny, and the irony is that it's all of their own making. It was the FIM who advocated Continental Unions like the UEM (which is now FIM Europe) and it was clear that within speedway in particular, they were setting themselves up with competition. I think it's not entirely unreasonable, nor probably illegal to insist that an employee/contractor also does not work for a rival organisation. Much harder to argue though, if the rival organisation is effectively another department of the same organisation...

If we waited for official confirmation, then we'd be waiting a long time for a lot of things. I can understand why the SGP website won't announce things until they're official, but I don't see why journals-of-record can't make the same educated guesses that the rest of us do.

I don't think anyone disputes that, but I think the modern sport evolved out of promoted-type events as opposed to club organised meetings. In other words, they were deliberately staged to make money for the organiser, as opposed to realising that money could be made from a recreational pursuit. Indeed, but despite the success of speedway at times, it's always had a fragile existence with tracks and teams coming and going. Pretty much the same football clubs exist now as at the turn of the 20th century, but how many speedway teams have had a continuous existence?

Most sports evolved for social reasons and as a result adopted a club-based structure. It only later became entertainment when the clubs realised they could make money by charging spectators to watch. Speedway started as entertainment from the beginning, and was initially promoted in the way that other shows were. That approach has somewhat endured in Britain, although speedway has a club-based structure in Denmark and Sweden. Not really sure how you'd describe Poland, but is probably more club rather than promotion based, although its club owners effectively do behave like promoters. There's no real equivalent to a promoter in football, rugby and cricket - a promoter is a cross-between a chairman and general manager.

I thought you were alright when you were on Screensport...

Given how the sport in Britain has continued to decline during the years of the SGP, then I think it's actual value to the sport is very questionable. Yes, it provides the opportunity of an annual day out for the fans in this country, and there's possibly an argument that the sport would have declined even more without it. What I don't think can be claimed though, is that it's actually increased interest in the sport in any manner that helps the survival of local tracks. In fairness, the SGP did appear to tap into a latent support which was reflected in reasonable viewing figures for a while, but even those seem to have greatly declined to the extent that Sky don't see speedway as a 'must have' sport anymore. I doubt that resulted in any flow of money to anywhere other than BSI and FIM though.

In the past I'd have said it was Wolverhampton as I remember their team averages were quite inflated by bonus points. I'd have said though, it's more a function of the riders rather than track.

I'm not entirely sure that I believe the Millennium couldn't be used for speedway in September and October. There's only a couple of home international football fixtures in that period, approximately 6 weeks apart, and the Autumn rugby fixtures don't start until November. By contrast, Parken hosts FC Copenhagen and the Friends Arena hosts AIK Stockholm, but I don't really see the Millennium being used for much else.

How much do EL teams really leverage sponsorship though? Most sponsors seem to be local businesses that happen to be fans of the sport, and who probably don't expect much/any return on their money.

See, that wasn't so hard! I promised you I'd buy a subscription if the Star came out electronically, so I'll put in an order when it's available.

Why was there a GP series this year without Sky then? The actual staging of the GPs is more to do with leveraging local authority money to get people to travel to obscure places. They also existed before Sky's coverage, and continue to do so now.

There is a bit of a mystery in that the original Go-Speed apparently went into liquidation a while ago. If that was as the result of some agreement with the BSPA being terminated, then why would GSI be involved in negotiating a new contract...?

Nah, that was Matt Ford surely...?

Fairly sure Phil Rising has commented on it, amongst 'authoritative' sources. However, if you go and about Go-Speed's affairs, I think the evidence can be found there... "The company's primary source of income had been through the operation of licensing arrangements for (sic) Britsh Speedway Promoters Association and BSkyB, the contract for which had been terminated" This was from July 2013.

I remember hearing that some years ago, the BSPA took the decision to award a percentage of any revenue brought into the sport by one of its members. I'm not entirely sure TR would have been a member of BSPA at the time of negotiating the contract as I think you had to have promoted in the last 3 years to be one. Was he not honorary president or some such title?

If they played, they wouldn't be riding speedway...

Memory could be failing on this, but the first deal was reputedly for something like 5 million over 5 years, so about a million a year. Take out 20% and that leaves 800K per year. From this, each BEL track supposedly got something like 50K per year, with the rest going in payments to teams shown live (presumably to compensate them for lower crowds). Apparently some promotions were also unwritten for any potential losses in order to encourage them to stay in the BEL to ensure the requisite number of teams. Whether this involved any actual payments or just guarantees is unclear. Don't expect this to ever be explored by the Star though...

I'd say 20% was a fair fee for negotiating the initial contract, but arguably a lot for a straightforward renewal. Yes, if that's what the BSPA agreed to then fair enough, but more fool them... It probably should be pointed out that Go-Speed also appeared to have financially supported some of the ailing BEL tracks, although the television deal was reportedly conditional on having at least 8 teams in the league so there may not have been a lot of choice. The liquidator's report makes interesting reading though.

As others have pointed, it was a different landscape with the advent of multi-channel satellite and cable than when there were just the 3 or 4 terrestrial channels. Okay, someone had to go out and get a deal, but equally far less mainstream sports than speedway got deals too, and probably for more money. Not suggesting that British speedway could have done any better, but it was hardly anything revolutionary by the late-1990s.

I don't disagree, but people will do it regardless of what you and I think. You won't win by responding to vitriol, so you should just ignore it, and if you can't then you're probably in the wrong job. I don't think heckling is anything new - it's just more immediate and visible these days because of social media.

Figures in the public eye will get criticised - sometimes unfairly and vitriolically. It may not be fair and it may not be right, but that's price you pay if you become a public figure and you must just try to rise above it. However, Pearson seemed to have a poor attitude towards Internet fans long before social media was heard of, and before he received any criticism as far as I'm aware. He seemed to resent fans sharing information and undermining the impact of his press releases.

Hardly emergent. There's been racing there for donkey's years and few reasonable riders have found their way to Europe over the years, but there's hard economic times there.

It amounts to the same thing as abolition however it's actually done. Regardless though, I don't ever recall the Star leading any sort of crusade to free riders from what is little more than indentured servitude...

I very much doubt Sky or any other television company particularly care what a few posters on the BSF may say. They'll be basing their decisions on commercial returns in terms of advertising/subscription revenue or the basis of how cheap the sport is to use as filler. I don't particularly care for Pearson's style, although I think he does a reasonable job and isn't deserving of some the vitriol on here. However, it's a strange speedway mentality whereby some seem to think we should simply be grateful for any sort of coverage, or there shouldn't be any sort of critical analysis. Any sympathy for Pearson is also muted by his attitude towards the burgeoning fan network on the Internet some years ago, long before he was on television and people were able to slag him off.