Humphrey Appleby

That's the big question, and if there was an easy answer then it would have been done. I think it's going to be a very difficult task as the sport has become so under-capitalised, has a very low media profile, and a difficult audience demographic. It also isn't entirely the master of its own destiny as it doesn't own most of the venues where it's run, and its perceived un-environmental image makes it difficult to find alternatives. However, I do think an important factor is people knowing well in advance when things are going to happen - namely getting fixtures out for the following season by the end of the calendar year. There also needs to be more certainty that meetings are going to be run, so less calling off meetings at the drop of a hat and ways found to make tracks more rideable in inclement conditions. I think teams need to be riding on days that suit their paying spectators rather than their riders, which I imagine would primarily be Fridays and Saturdays. And teams should absolutely not be having off-weeks during the summer months when the weather is likely to be at its best. Then I think you need to ensure that more-or-less the same teams is going to turn-up for each meeting, and promotions also need to be provided with incentives to build and develop teams without them being ripped apart just because they finished in the top half of the table. Riders should possibly be centrally contracted though, putting an end to the ridiculous asset system, but allowing pay rates to be controlled at affordable levels. Meetings need to be better value for money, and seen to be better value. I think you need to be putting on a programme of around 20 heats run more swiftly so you're not hanging around for ages with nothing happening. Consideration should be given to including some sort of novelty like an 8-rider handicap event for some sort of meaningful competition. There also needs to be far less silliness with respect to team building and replacement regulations - more use of junior riders in general, but more flexibility in terms of which can be used. In-season decisions should also be made by an commissioner, appointed by but independent from the promoters. The sport is currently probably no more than a 10-12 pound price point, and should be structured with that in mind. There's a still a lot of other things to answer - how can the (social) media profile be raised, what sort of things would attract a younger audience, how can the venues be improved, but these things needs to be answered by people with more relevant expertise in those areas.

Health and safety has brought tremendous advances in reducing workplace accidents and deaths, particularly in industrial and construction environments. Employers and workers themselves could be terribly blasé about these matters, so it's no bad thing to be thinking about. It does go overboard in some office environments, but that's because it's usually the responsibility of junior employees who have limited perspective on what's actually important, and are scared about the consequences if they don't cover their arses. The reality is that employers are never going to get sued for half the things they believe they could be, and by going overboard on the silly stuff, it just undermines the message about the important things.

In the UK, I can't remember - maybe 2-3 years ago but that's because I don't really live in the UK. I've been to meetings in other countries more recently though. However, I'm precisely the person to be having an opinion because I used to go to speedway a lot (for 20 years or more), and then for various reasons didn't go so much which caused me to have a different perspective. My point wasn't whether there are war cries at speedway now, but that some feel that bringing them back would suddenly make the sport more appealing. My point is that the programme should be a thing of the past. People have smartphones now - why not think about selling an app that allows fans to follow the racing online, without the need for biros and tippex?

Promoters are not theoretically the risk takers - they are the risk takers. Each customer is contributing a very small percentage of the overall operating costs, and their liability is limited to whatever they pay to get into each meeting, or at most the cost of their season ticket. If the enterprise is not successful, it's not the customers who are chased for the outstanding debts, and whilst any sensible promoter should be operating as limited company, they'll still have had to front up sizeable monies. The customer's say is whether they choose to buy the product or not. Waitrose or Marks & Spencer don't ask me how their stores are laid out or what products they should sell - I choose to shop there on the basis of price and/or whether I like their products. Of course, sensible companies should do market research to better understand what their customers like, but they're also unlikely to heavily focus on their existing clientele because presumably they're happy enough if they keep coming. And speedway has the complication of having a very low profile amongst the wider public, so I suspect if you asked most people what would attract them to a speedway meeting, they wouldn't even know what you're talking about. You have to raise the visibility of the sport before you can even attempt to find out what would attract a new audience. Okay, there's probably still a sizeable latent population of former speedway followers you might tap into, but that's going to be horribly ageing by now and their views on what they like are likely to be very different to what's going to make for a sustainable future for the sport. As I said, you only have to look on here to see there's virtually no consensus with respect to what supporters really do want. We could probably agree on a few points such as more regular fixtures, more variety of opposition, far more team stability and fewer guests, but there would be no agreement on how to achieve that. Some want to see the 'top boys', some want more British riders, some want lower prices, whilst others think British speedway should bend over backwards for things like the SEC and European Pairs, but all of this stuff is largely mutually incompatible. If the sport is to survive at anything above an amateur level, I think promoters have to choose a particular path and be damned. To me that's pitching it as a low cost sport with largely British-based riders, but also thinking how to make meetings a better value and more exciting package.

You only have to read this forum to see there's little consensus on how to move the sport forward, and some of the suggestions would quite honestly bankrupt the sport in five minutes. I don't anyone would claim the BSPA does a great job, but ultimately it's the promoters' rather than fans' money on the line. In any case, the speedway is now down to an ageing hardcore of fans who're rather set in their ways. If the sport is going to survive, it really needs to appeal to a completely new and younger audience, and they're not going to go along with riders marching out to Imperial Echoes, war cries, and programme boards.

There's issues with ownership and development of the stadium because the owners decided that speedway wasn't worth the bother any more. Speedway also has such a low profile that local governments have little interest in protecting its facilities from development. Compare and contrast with the Ricoh Arena, and the subsequent fiasco surrounding that. The council even paid to build a new railway station there, only to discover that it couldn't be used on match days due to capacity reasons...

When the future of a track like Coventry is coming under question, then I think that says where the sport is at. It might survive in a few outposts where there's not much else around and the costs can be kept low, but unfortunately I'll be surprised if it's still a professional sport in 10 years time.

Don't be deliberately obtuse. Obviously if you promote some teams then you have to relegate others if a league is at its maximum practical size. You know the point I was making - speedway struggles to make a viable top league as it is without forcing out teams willing to ride at that level. Until the Elite Premiership, or whatever it's called these days, reaches 16 or so teams then there's no point relegating anyone unless they voluntarily want to drop down.

There are more teams wanting to play in the English Premier League than can be accommodated, which is why promotion and relegation works in football. The opposite is the case in speedway which is why it's never worked. It's absurd to potentially be forcing teams that want to race at the top-level, and replacing them with teams that don't.

My guess is that football and cricket teams are run by clubs, and therefore considered to be a not-for-profit community thing. Obviously more of a stretch for football clubs nowadays that are owned by investors and the like, but in the 1950s and 60s the ownership would have been more entrenched in the local communities. County cricket clubs remain membership based as far as I know. Speedway is run by promoters, then-and-now, and ostensibly for profit.

All this arguing about programmes just sums up the old fashioned thinking in the sport. Other motor sports have moved to live timing and apps to follow the action. Whilst I used to like filling in programmes, surely it's possible to develop and charge a few quid for an app that can download team lineups and then show the results? F1 charges a fortune for their app, and people pay it.

I'd agree the sport has basically become too expensive for its main audience, but speedway crowds were declining even throughout the last economic boom. I don't think it is, and that's the problem. The irregular fixture list, unstable team line-ups, daft rules and manipulation thereof combined with holding meetings in less than salubrious surroundings, certainly doesn't help things, but even the SGP which doesn't suffer from these issues in quite the same way is hardly pulling in the crowds either.

You should never allow competitors to run their sports - most haven't got a clue about the financial and administrative side. However, paying riders more than the sport can afford is the fault of promoters. Professional riders have little or no guarantees and could be injured or dropped tomorrow without sentiment, so of course they're going to take whatever they can get. Most people who work for money would too.

Who's the John Hyam mentioned on Page 3?

Having the option of either would be great. I travel a lot for work so that's when I mostly read stuff, and it's much easier to do that using an iPad or Kindle than carting books around. You need to give people the option. The sales of ebooks have been increasing year-on-year (except 2016 which seems to have seen a small decline), so clearly there are those do like them and see the advantages of having their libraries on a tablet instead of gathering dust on bookshelves. I think it's foolish to ignore any potential sales channels.

The last time I looked, audited circulation was 12,000 or so, but that was a few years ago and apparently didn't include subscriptions. The Speedway Star doesn't seem to be listed anymore, so presumably it's no longer participating in the auditing process? All the more reason to be making the case for better organisation of the sport. Yes, you're right. I forgot there was no VAT on printed magazines, although there is on digital publications as far as I know. The point is the readership of the magazine is increasingly ageing. Whilst business wise have to cater for the core audience and presumably try to keep things going until the editorial staff retires, I think it's reasonably to ask where the magazine will be in 10 years.

I seem to recall Philippe claiming a circulation of 18,000 a few years ago. I'd be surprised if that's increased and may well be lower now. Given a high percentage of readers are also claimed to be subscribers, you could maybe assume GBP 2.04 minus 20% VAT x 18,000 x 52 weeks = GBP 1.6 million or so in revenue per year. There's probably also some advertising to throw in, plus programme publishing. I think the price of the Spar is reasonable considering it's covering a niche sport, but I think the demographics of the readership would have to be a worry for the future. As a journal of record it's reasonably fine (although not without inaccuracies), but it's never going to compete for timeliness in the Internet age so really needs to add value in terms of colour pieces and critical analysis. Okay, I think most people would accept that given its position as the solitary journal with probably something of a precarious existence, it can't afford to be the National Enquirer. However, it's ultimately not really serving the sport by glossing over things that should absolutely be called out when they damage the sport's standing and reputation (such as it is anyway). It doesn't need to be repeated what we're talking about, but the journalism hasn't really been very objective or rigorous. This said, I do think there have been some improvements since Philippe decided to engage with the Internet, despite the on going slating of it within the pages of the magazine. It seems less of a regurgitation of press releases than in the past, and there are actually times when the Spar does publish some interesting articles. I can personally take or leave the ramblings of some of the more popular interviewees, which often seem lazily put together articles, but I suppose there's always room for comedy pieces... I do also wish that seemingly every letter wasn't prefixed by "I've been watching speedway since the 19xx". It just makes the magazine seem like the Oldie.

I'm not convinced that younger people are particularly great readers nowadays, and if they do it would be electronically. Having said this, how many books are there on the likes of Hans Nielsen? I was a bit surprised to hear the John Berry and other books 'only' sold around 2.5K copies though. No criticism intended of the publisher as I think your books are generally excellent, but I think it does show where the sport is nowadays.

They're marketing geniuses though, because they know you'll know when the date is, even if they don't...

Depends on the class. I'm not a fan of the sealed classes as you're charged a premium for a service agent just to even look at the engine, and everyone knows some of the engines are still more equal than others. If it's not agents putting selected parts in the engines (which is perfectly legal), then it's the outright cheating some have indulged in for favoured drivers. I also can't check someone hasn't whipped the decent parts out of my engines to put in a favoured client's. The alternative is building engines to a fiche, but still doesn't stop putting selected parts in.

You get plain old criminality in most places, and it's a matter of weighing up the relative danger. When the state endorses it though, that raises things to a different level. As you say, the ice racing doesn't seem to have any problems, but there's been several problems with speedway meetings in Russia down the years.

Poland is fine for organising things and getting people and stuff in and out - the same as anywhere in Europe. Russia is very much if they want you there then nothing is a problem. If they don't, then expect every obstacle to be put in the way. For anything substantive you usually need some sort of fixer who'll be close to the 'administration'. Russia is a great country with some nice people when you get to know them, but its government is totally dodgy.

They must have exceedingly thin skin if they take exception to the mild criticisms that occur on rare occasions in the Star.

Will there ever be a day when you know anything?

I doubt that 'supremo' would ever be an official job title.