Humphrey Appleby

And a very good columnist at that.

What would be the point of having a wildcard rider in a qualifying meeting who couldn't qualify?

A women's basketball game, I think...

Pioneered? There was a World Pairs competition back in 1969, and I'm sure pairs competitions themselves must go back even further than that. Whilst I like pairs meetings, this is just a series of glorified open meetings masquerading as some sort of official competition. If there's demand for such a thing, then organise it as an official championship with buy-in from national federations.

Yes, but why did Gollob withdraw, and relatively late in the day at that?

Someone in the States would need to put up the money unless BSI are prepared to take a bath. Polish venues were reputedly paying a lot to host GPs, and a US round would have higher costs on top. After the experiences of Bill Buckley, I wonder how many promoters around are willing to lose money for fun?

Primarily entertainment occasionally masquerading as a sport. Most sports started out with public schoolboys rolling around in the mud, initially eschewing spectators until they realised they could start charging and make a living out of it (unless it was rugby union of course). Speedway was akin to circus entertainment from day one - charging spectators and paying its competitors.

Doubt there are that many places they can still milk for the same amounts of money. Probably only a concern where BSI promotes itself anyway. I'd guess they've already got their money from the local promoters and city councils of the other GPs.

Well of course the Polish fans have also been subjected to a lot of propaganda from the OneSport camp, but I think it ultimately does come back to BSI over-cooking the Polish goose. Not that the Star wants to jeopardise its programme contract by saying it though...

Shureley shome mishtake? LOL

China's dropped off then?

Running a 12 round series with the pick of dates and exclusive use of riders is also different to running weekly speedway meetings. I don't think anyone would suggest the BSPA collectively does a good job, but perhaps there are still individual promoters who could do as good as a job with the SGP if they were able to do it full-time and under the same conditions as BSI. I'd imagine there are possibly promoters in Poland that could too. If the will was there though, professional organisers could be hired in, and I'm sure there must be consultants who can go out and sell television and sponsorship packages. I'd agree the track preparation at the temporary tracks is a reasonably big logistical exercise, but it's really just about being organised. There's indeed skill in laying a speedway track, but again that expertise should have been built-up by now. I think forced to sell. Not sure the SGP was doing that well at the time, and there were substantial losses in other enterprises.

Those who run speedway at all levels, often for little reward, week-in and week-out. Those who actually provide the professional riders with a living wage. As I've always said, BSI saw a business opportunity in what was a badly-run sport that clearly didn't grasp how to maximise television and sponsorship revenues, and which allowed the rights to be sold off for relative peanuts. I've actually no problem with them for doing that - good luck to them - but one can still question how the sport allowed this situation to develop. Yes, organising the SGP and SWC is a reasonable logistical undertaking, but it's by no means as big as some other sports, and there have certainly been more cocks-ups with respect to the track preparation than there should have been. Secondly, it's well reported over many years that local promotion tends to be non-existent, so attendance remains over-reliant on a hardcore fan base. There was some financial investment to start up the SGP, and there will be some financial risk involved with the BSI-promoted GPs. The initial financial investment does not appear to have been huge though, and would appear to have largely come from a re-insurance company who appear to have written it off at early stage, so one wonders how serious they were about the whole thing. I actually was referring to the apparent lack of independent analysis on the part of all the speedway media - not least the OneSport 'journal of record'. However, the 'basketball' was obviously not something you just made up yourself, just as the 'scientifically controlled' shale storage turned out to be a pile of shale covered with a leaky tarpaulin. Rightly or wrongly, the impression is that it's spin texted directly from BSI towers to create a 'social media' buzz... I appreciate your participation on here, but I don't think they're entirely your opinions.

Yes, over the 18-year period of the agreement, but these payments are linked to revenues. Without knowing the financial structure of the FIM, it's impossible to comment. There might be more officials needed at GPs, there could be cross-subsidisation of the costs of less prestigious meetings, and the running costs of the FIM may be higher in Geneva than those of FIM Europe in Italy. Whatever the reasons, it's a matter between BSI and the FIM. How many riders would be coming from the non-European part of the qualifying system, and more to the point, how many wouldn't be based in Europe anyway? Would it be economical to run non-European qualifying rounds, as even in the heyday of the sport they were few and far between?

The problem is that the situation should never have arisen where two competitions ostensibly administered by the same organisation essentially end-up in competition for riders, venues and revenue with each other. Perhaps the FIM or FIM Europe didn't initially have any great expectations from selling off SEC, but I can well understand why BSI are miffed after shelling out for presumably what they thought were exclusive rights to a GP series. If there's unhappiness over prize money, staging fees or how the SGP is promoted, that should be addressed with the SGP organisers or replacement promoters found. That said, the FIM are stuck with something like a 20-year deal, which was surely ridiculous for such a low-key sport that rents rather than builds stadia. Commercial competition is generally good in most industries, but not in sport. All it does is bankrupt the protagonists because there always needs to be a clearly established hierarchy of competition (although boxing is maybe an exception). I've been pointing out for a long time that crowds beyond a handful of prestige meetings and Poland were actually never very good, and clearly it's proved difficult to sustain GPs at the smaller venues for very long. There are those with far closer connections to the SGP then myself who've consistently pointed out over many years that BSI's promotional abilities are over-rated, but speedway is generally so poorly promoted that it's not as obvious as it might be. I'm maybe more circumspect these days about the realities of what can be achieved with speedway, and it may just simply be that it's just its reached limits. However, questioning where all the money has been going and how speedway benefits is a different matter, and one that Poles are starting to ask.

How could you have European Championships being qualifiers for the *World* Championship? How would the Australians, Americans, Argentinians etc.. qualify? The best option would be for the speedway as a whole to take back control of its premier competitions and run them for its own benefit. If that means a breakaway from the FIM then so be it, although I'd prefer an F1 constructors' style coup. It would also be good to see some independent and critical journalistic opinion for a change, rather than the thinly disguised SGP and SEC party political spin.

They don't pay 'millions'. They pay around 1.5 million per year to the FIM, which the prize money comes out of. If FIM Europe can afford to only charge 1.5K for inscription fees, then you have to question why the FIM needs to charge 20K. Although FIM Europe may well be getting some sort of contribution from the FIM towards their running costs.

No idea, but his unhappiness is a matter of public record. It's something that only BSI can weigh-up, but if it would have put a few more thousand on the gate... Not at all - much of it is a matter of public record. It's not a question of what you or I think though, but what OneSport and possibly other promoters believe right or wrongly.

Gollob rode in the SGP before he was sponsored by Monster, and he's currently riding in the SEC. I think it more likely his withdrawal was influenced by OneSport and his stated unhappiness with BSI. Of course attendance at Bydgoszcz would have been higher if he was in the line-up, but was a failing of the organisers. He's not retired and he could still have come in as a wildcard, but BSI apparently choose not to pursue that. Well we've also heard a different angle on that. I have no real interest in who did or said what, but the whole SGP vs SEC thing is utterly farcical and frankly something that the Star should be critically analysing. It comes back to the fact there's dissatisfaction with BSI, whatever spin is put on it. There's clearly unhappiness about the fees being charged and none of the revenue coming back to the sport (or the Poles at least), there would seem to be unhappiness about the promotion of the series, and increasing grumbles from riders about the money. If BSI were doing a fantastic job it would be easier to sideline the criticism, which is why Bernie Ecclestone managed to fend off critics and breakaway movements in F1 over the years. I don't think OneSport are so fantastic either, and it may well be that speedway is just not very marketable. However, maybe it is time that someone else stepped up to see what they can do...

I really hope you're being paid to write this stuff... Why is Gollob not in the SGP in the first place? It has everything to do with the spat between BSI and OneSport no matter how much basketball is blamed. Incidentally, I looked up the basketball fixtures and as far as I can see Bydgoszcz were not playing on Saturday - unless you're talking about the women's' team! They already tried to do that, and obviously realised they'd get sued. Boo hoo. Perhaps they'll now understand what it was like to be a British fan...

But the SGP is shown in a 100 countries, isn't it...?

Notwithstanding that Sportowefakty is the Pravda of OneSport, it looked like a bit of a tall order to turn that 'stadium' into something half-fit for a GP.

A different perspective than what we've been told by the BSI's unofficial official.

Why would they? All they need to do is fulfil their contractual commitments with respect to the FIM and television, so why speculate on risky ventures and risk their profit margins?

If that's the real attendance then sadly a NZ GP is unsustainable, and a shame that the figures of the previous GPs have apparently been exaggerated so much. Another antipodean promoter to have 'done a wedge'.