Humphrey Appleby

Sport England might be able to leverage change in the sports they subsidise, but I don't think speedway receives any form of public subsidy so the SCB and BSPA can happily tell them to get lost. So long as they continue to get their kickback from the SGP, I doubt they really much care about speedway.

That could happen under any points system, unless you award so many points for winning a single GP that even if someone comes second in every GP they'd still end up with fewer points. I think most would agree that would be equally silly. Don't see there's anything wrong with becoming a world champion if you're the most consistent rider. Winning a single GP isn't the be-all and end-all, as surely Chris Harris has demonstrated over the years...

Vojens is closer to the speedway heartland in Denmark, whereas I think there's only Slangerup near Copenhagen. Prices are high in Copenhagen, so perhaps fans prefer the cheaper option in these economic times. I suspect the number of casual fans flying out for GP weekends has also suffered because of the recession, and if they go at all, they'll go to where they can have a cheaper weekend.

Looks like attendances were down everywhere except Vojens and Terenzano (the latter of which was low to start with). However, the roundness of some of the reported figures in venues that aren't at capacity are a bit suspicious. Where are these figures from though, as I thought the FIM had stopped publishing them for some reason?

Crowd wasn't bad for a first effort in a country that isn't amongst the major speedway nations, and one might have thought that could be built upon. I'm guessing that 20,000 still wasn't enough to cover the costs though, and BSI aren't going to be risking their money...

Well it didn't last long - one GP actually staged and another 'rained off' before the plug was pulled.

I'd find it surprising if someone directly involved in the SGP organisation didn't have some inclination about what the asking prices were. However, the Polish media are seemingly more questioning, and it's easy enough to find out what they're saying. Whilst one should certainly treat media speculation with a grain of salt, one can correlate this with publicly available figures to get some approximation. That doesn't really mean too much in itself. If GP staging fees are tuppence ha'penny then there will undoubtedly be more interest than if the fees are several hundred thousand euros

A Finnish GP has been postulated for just about as long as the SGP has been running, so one can only assume the asking price has come down given that it's happening.now. I suppose a GP can potentially give the sport a bit of a push in the smaller nations, although it seems to vary from country-to-country. I suppose it could argued that Cardiff and Copenhagen are also not speedway cities, but the stadium is sufficient attraction. However, it didn't work for Gelsenkirchen, and the Gothenburg GP (whilst held in what was once a speedway city) seems to be dying a death.

Because it's about money. Whilst a British television company provides a significant amount of income to BSI, there will likely always be a (nominal) Brit in the series. I think the problem is that one of the big names could have a bad night/injury and end-up not being in the GP proper which might affect audiences. That happened with Tommy Knudsen in one of the early GPs when the bottom two after each round dropped to reserve for the next one. As result, he was never in contention for the rest of the season. It might work if an earlier meeting was used as a qualifier for the GP proper, but that would involve extra expense and riders having to be away for another day. Can't really see BSI going for that in the current climate.

So there isn't one yet...?

No odder than having three GPs in Poland. Well okay.. who'll be promoting the Warsaw GP then?

Yes, but isn't Gothenburg one of the events that BSI promotes itself? Malilla and Gothenburg have run side-by-side up until now, so it's a bit odd that Malilla should drop out if it's supposedly making money as previously claimed. As promoter, or simply running under its auspices? All GPs run under the auspices of a national federation, but the impression given was that Warsaw would be a BSI-promoted GP.

Not sure what the PZM has to do with Malilla, but why can't Malilla upgrade their facilities over the winter?

Presumably for similar reasons why F1 GPs are held out in the desert and not at proper race circuits where real fans can attend.

What do the PZM have to do with respect to running a GP? More likely that the readies simply aren't there at the moment.

Well, a CCJ appears to suggest otherwise...

No, but everything to do with television viewership. Whilst Sky remain one of the biggest (the biggest?) payers for television rights, then there's going to be a Brit in the series.

They can only choose drivers holding a Super Licence though, which basically means they have to be a champion in a second tier formula.

You mean the solitary media outlet in the case of British speedway?

If a business is on the margins of existence with little prospect of things picking up, then even relatively small investments are difficult to make. Plus of course, even if the promoter could personally afford the money, it may not be justifiable from a business perspective. A rider is potentially retired for 30-40 years though, so even without taking inflation into account, a million probably wouldn't generate more than 25-30k income per year allowing for inflation. Of course riders can go and find other jobs like the rest of us, but what real world job can they honestly do after riding speedway for 20 years? If they've been sensible they'll have developed some useful business contacts, invested in property, and possibly even established some sidelines. That's only for a few though...

He's had a 20+ year career at or near the top, and top riders were reportedly earning 100K+ per year even 10 years ago. A million quid isn't that much these days though, and I'd doubt someone of Crump's age could realistically retire on it.

It might say it, but I doubt taking out a licence implies any sort of contract, and forcing riders to compete would seem unreasonable unless travel costs and potential loss of earnings are covered. Indeed, I suspect none of it would stand up in court if anyone actually challenged it.

Hard to believe the facilities are worse than some GP venues, but maybe "mates' rates" aren't available anymore? Wasn't the Vojens club just leasing the circuit, so perhaps they decided the rent wasn't viable?

No stadium, no money, and not much of a speedway tradition in Riga or amongst the Latvian population (Daugavpils is mostly ethnic Russians). The city already attracts plenty of tourists, so it would seem more like wishful thinking...

Yes, but where is the stadium to hold it?