Humphrey Appleby

Would of thought that would be a concern to BSI who've gone out on a limb with a NZ GP, only to find the main broadcaster isn't interested in screening it live....

Well not that easy. Quite aside from the fact that the reserves would then have 5 rides whereas everyone else would have 4, what happens if one or both reserves get injured during a meeting? Didn't think it was that bad, and that silly format that had nominated riders in certain heats was worse. The main problem was that matches were dragged out longer than necessary, the interval was after Heat 15 before the three nominated heats, and the reserves didn't have enough competitive races. However, it was nothing that couldn't have been fixed by tweaking the format and reducing the hanging around between heats.

Except it's highly questionable whether SGP crowds are increasing, and even television audiences have reportedly declined in the past 2 or 3 years. People shouldn't take everything they're told at face value. I also don't really detect any more SGP adherents than in the past. The SGP has always had its supporters, but it's equally as much the same individuals slavishly justifying the repetitive closed shop that benefits virtually no-one but a private company that'll walk away from the sport as soon as it's milked dry. Many of the adherents have also been predicting a full-time series held in prestige venues all around the world for the past 10+ years, yet with the exception of Cardiff and Copenhagen we're still waiting... It has little to do with the fanbases. Take a look at the SGP sponsors and you'll see several are local governments or tourist boards who pony up cash to bring the GPs to their cities. Aside from the GPs they organise themselves, BSI's main concern is how much it can raise in staging fees from the host clubs/promotions, which in turn is often dependent on some sort of local authority support. It's somewhat irrelevant to BSI whether anyone actually turns up to the third-party GPs, and once a host has 'done their wedge' (as in Australia, Slovenia and Latvia), there's always another locality to move onto. In the case of Britain, the only really viable permanent track for staging a second GP is Coventry, and I'm guessing Coventry City Council or the Heart of England Tourist Board isn't interested in using a speedway GP to get people to visit the city.

And of course in Poland, the councils are more willing to throw public money at BSI.

It also doesn't have an 850K sweetener either, which I suspect is not an insignificant reason the GP is in Cardiff...

Yes, but it's rather preaching to the converted isn't it? Would a London GP attract more than 300 people to the Methanol Club lunch? Well let's ask the question directly... It's known that IMG were interested in running the Olympic Stadium after the Olympics. If they'd been successful rather than losing a fortune on the venture, were there any plans (tentative or otherwise) to move the British GP there?

Why then have the FIM (apparently) stopped publishing the attendances for all rounds?

I can understand why promoters might want to do it, but a supposedly independent media should be more circumspect. On this basis, it also might lead one to wonder how accurate some of the reported GP figures are, especially given the round numbers in some cases. Although the FIM/IMG seem curiously reluctant to publish the attendance figures for the other GPs these days. They used to publish an annual summary on the FIM website, but I haven't been able to find this in recent years...

Everyone will have died of boredom long before then...

This topic seems to come around almost as frequently as the Nigel Pearson crap-or-not ones...

Latvia has a very high percentage of ethnic Russians, nearly 50% of the population I think. However, although most have lived there for two or three generations, Latvia refuses to grant citizenship unless they can speak Latvian, so they're effectively stateless. Daugavpils is where many of the 'Russians' live, although I'm not sure whether is actually a Russian Russian or a Latvian Russian.

I don't fundamentally have a problem with one wildcard per GP to guarantee a home rider if they're of sufficient quality. What is unpalatable to me is the selling of nominated places; either through outright cash transactions, or through the hosting of GPs and the associated licence fees. Yes, I understand the commercial reasons, but the SGP ceases to have any interest or meaning for me when it becomes just another financial commodity.

For me, the equation comes down to whether my 'employer' is making money or not. If yes, then I'd want a just cut of the proceeds. If they're running the enterprise as a labour of love, especially if it costs them money, then it comes down to whether I do it for fun or in the hope of getting a better job on the back of it. The reality of the NL is undoubtedly that there's little money in it, and if riders have to be excessively subsidised to race, then there simply won't be tracks to ride at.

I'm not familiar enough with MotoGP, but you can't drive in F1 without a Super Licence and that requires you to be a successful driver at a high level of competition. Regardless though, speedway never has been the same as F1, and regardless of whether the top 16 actually are or aren't in the SGP, the 'selling' of places lacks credibility.

I can fully understand why the Kiwis don't wish to be represented by an Aussie...

The Welsh Executive doesn't have any taxation powers, so it's actually British taxpayers money... I'd be surprised if whoever's funding the NZ GP actually insisted on having a 'NZ' wildcard in the field, but there isn't really any credible choice from the NZ ranks. At least Bunyan can be marketed as the 'NZ Champion' or similar, and I guess that's why it was done. What's Mitch Shirra doing these days though? He could probably still put a leg over a bike and trundle round for four laps, and he's actually a Kiwi...

Yes, quite. BSI certainly wouldn't be seen for dust...

It was, but I'm afraid it's been ruined by the proliferation of low brow tourism and rip-off prices. You can go just outside the centre and pay a quarter of the amount for the same beer.

edit: quote re court case removed...just as bad to quote it, pot and kettle?? You've gone and mentioned the 'D' case, which surely means a +25% warning and a 7-day suspension...?

Hardly worth it for the 3 riders that might make it to the SGP.

Errr, where does it have this coverage? Sky Sports still has a limited number of viewers compared to a mainstream channel, and I've hardly ever seen speedway shown in a pub when it's actually on. The national print media virtually ignores speedway these days, and even the local press which used to give good coverage is in terminal decline.

I think the Polish season normally starts in late-March, so it's going to have to be delayed in 2012 and possibly in future years as well. I suspect things are eventually going to come to a head between the FIM/BSI and the Poles.

Yes, but how does a British Speedway GP equate to the Olympics?

Doesn't seem to be a problem to arrange flights out to New Zealand during the season, nor worry about whether riders will be back for domestic fixtures. Equally, riders seemed to manage Russian League fixtures in even further flung places when silly money was being paid. If it's really logistically impractical to stage WC meetings in Togliatti though, they shouldn't be held there.

It's not for the FIM to persuade the Russian authorities of anything. They simply say either the visa situation is sorted, or rounds will not be staged in Russia. I do have experience with organising things in Russia, and it's perfectly possible to arrange visas at short notice if the Russians want you there. A sporting federation should certainly know a person in the Russian government to facilitate this sort of thing, so the fact there have been so many problems simply suggests deliberate bureaucratic obstacles are being placed in the way. In fact, I think you can even get a tourist visa in under 48 hours for Russia, and whilst riders probably need some other sort of visa, the problems should not be insurmountable. In addition, most EU citizens can travel to other EU countries on their national identity cards, so relinquishing passports should not necessarily be a problem. The difficulty of Russians getting visas for the UK is not especially relevant as the UK is visa free for virtually all European countries these days. It's Russian (and Belarus) that are the odd ones out in this respect.