Humphrey Appleby

I suggest raising the prices then, and see how many people flock to watch it...

Maybe with the exception of sumo wrestlers...?

It not about dismissing a sport, but actually determining whether it qualifies as one in the first place. I actually quite like darts, but the generally accepted definition of sport is competitive physical activity. There are some exceptions like bridge and chess that are recognised as sports by the IOC, but darts isn't amongst them. Okay, that's not the be-all and end-all of whether something is a sport or not, but I think darts is a marginal call despite it drawing big audiences.

Well up to a point, but I think it as much that the BBC was losing major sports hand-over-fist and were desperate to show some sort of sport that wasn't too expensive. I very much doubt disabled sport would have got anything like the extensive coverage if the BBC still had the major sports to show.

I don't have any great love for tennis either, but I accept a lot of people watch it and the main protagonists are celebrities as a result. Is sailing really a mainstream sport - probably not, but I suspect that a surprising number of people have some interest in it, and it's something that Britain is also quite successful at. Yes, the Americas Cup is just a billionaires' orgy and it's a joke that Ben Ainslie is nominated on the fact of being a technical advisor, but I suspect there are some wildcards amongst the nominees to lead the viewers to the 'correct' choice. At least Britain has some tradition of sailing, unlike cycling. This was a sport with hardly any pedigree or coverage in the UK, and yet two 'British' Tour de France winners later and there are suddenly hordes of lycra-clad individuals on racing bikes causing traffic jams on the country's highways. Yes, but it's tenuous whether darts is really a true sport. Undoubtedly a game of skill, but so are Aunt Sally and Bar Billiards and few would suggest the respective World Champions in those sports should be nominated for SPOTY.

Generally the winner is from a sport the BBC covers, and fortunately for them, Wimbledon is one of them. Even so, I don't think anyone can seriously equate a British speedway world champion with a British winner of Wimbledon. Even if hardly anyone follows tennis outside of Wimbledon, I'd imagine more people physically go to Wimbledon in a fortnight than to speedway in a year. And the global television audience is something like 400 million, which knocks even the best speedway audiences into a cocked hat.

I'd actually say playing on the tennis circuit is more demanding than riding a speedway bike. Motor sport is surprisingly physically demanding, and I'd imagine speedway is especially so, but speedway meetings involve 4 or 5 bursts of exertion for a minute of so, whilst tennis matches can take hours. Moreover, tennis players probably play more matches than speedway riders do meetings over the course of a season. And whilst we can admire speedway riders still competing with broken collar bones and the like, tennis players would simply be unable to play. I'd think you have to be far fitter to be a top-flight tennis player than speedway rider. Yes, speedway riders may have more bravery (or daftness), but bravery is also a relative thing. If you do something all the time and have confidence in your abilities, then it becomes second nature and you compartmentalise the risk.

Frankly, countries shouldn't be allowed to stage world championship rounds if they can't guarantee entry to all selected riders.

Prague is the nicest of the GP cities, although it's getting a bit overpriced and touristic these days. Prefer Stockholm to Copenhagen personally, but you pays your money... Riga might a good outside bet if it comes off - nice city, still relatively cheap, although the 'stadium' would seem to be a shocker.

They're too busy making a living, but the reality is there isn't much interest in speedway in Poland outside the main speedway cities.

It already happens. The reserves technically have easier programmed rides, whilst the nos 2 and 4 meet different standards of opposition. Similiarly, the heat leaders meet more often, especially if you take the nominated into account. I'd agree the 'NL' reserve averages will probably need to be tallied separately or a correction factor applied. The heat leaders and second strings are very much likely to ride against each other though, so any advantage from riding against the reserves will probably be marginal.

And how would that be any different from various times in the past? Not ideal maybe, but hardly the end of the world.

Not really very comparable. I doubt even in the worst times that Heinz is losing money on every bottle they produce, so can afford to maintain quality. I also doubt you spend 15 quid a week on premium ketchup.

I've long thought that riders under 21 or in the first 3 years of their careers should not be subject to the points limit, but only if they start their careers with the team and only whilst they stay with that team. In principle, these riders should also retain this exemption if they ride on loan in either a lower or higher league to gain experience, but aim would be to encourage teams to develop their own riders. Of course, this system wouldn't be possible to introduce next year, but it's something to aim for.

And of course, the Polish League wasn't raced every Sunday either.

I think it more likely it was hurriedly knocked-up on Sunday night when the conference finished. Fans used to moan when no information was released for ages, and then the promoters all leaked snippets of information in the meantime, so at least this is some improvement over the olden days. Would agree the press release is rather terse, but there is at least something to go on.

Of course they are, but what is the alternative? Quite possibly no television money coming to a league that was already over-extending itself, and even the sugar daddies (or should that be a sugar frosty?) deciding to pull teams out. Something has to give if professional speedway is going to have any sort of existence in future, and at least drafting in upcoming riders with protected heats is more positive than nonsenses like double point rides and the like. As I said, I suspect we'll end-up disappointed by the detail, and of course Poole will invariably find a way to replace one of their reserves with a 10-point foreigner within a month of the season starting, but that's the speedway we've come to know and love...

I'd imagine the minimum of $6K per week that lower order draft picks make in training camp.. and then $100K for the season if they make squad softens the blow a bit...

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

You have to wonder how this can be financially viable though, by the time the 'stadium' has been brought up to any sort of standard. Daugavpils already has a neat little stadium and seems to draw reasonable crowds for a minor speedway nation, so what's to be gained from this venture? Yes, Riga is a nice city and might draw a few more international fans, but enough to justify basically having to construct a temporary stadium and track. This is quite before you consider what sort of standard it's going to be...

It would be amazing how loyalty would ebb away if the European Championship (or whatever) started paying big money. Other sports have seen breakaways or threatened breakaways when the top competitions are seen not to be leveraging enough income for the players. There's been no other shop window in speedway up until now, but now there might be an alternative. I don't consider it to be good for the sport, but questioning why the riders take home a relative pittance whilst BSI and the FIM trouser 3 million or so is long overdue.

It's purely a matter of money. GP riders can be injured in league matches or open meetings, but unless BSI are prepared to stump up a living wage so they can be exclusively contracted to the SGP, then that's just an occupational hazard of their business. Of course there's nowhere near enough money in the SGP to compete with the Polish leagues, and frankly I doubt BSI cares that much either. They still get the pick of dates and the best riders for relatively modest sums of money and make a reasonable profit on the back of it.

IMG's UK subsidiary owns BSI, actually through another holding company (BSI Holdings). Presumably this is because the long-term SGP contract with the FIM was originally with BSI before it was taken over by IMG(UK).

AFAIK, the FIM pay out the SGP prize money, presumably out of the rights fee they receive from BSI. However, I think they still keep a large slice for themselves. Both the FIM and BSI could afford to pay the riders more. It's surprising that the riders haven't banded together and demanded a bigger cut of the profits as happens in other sports.

It's not been the same since the top speedway riders did the World Longtrack as well. Maybe inevitable once the SGP came in, but it's hardly even a proper longtrack series any more, is it?