Kevin Meynell

The bottom line is that despite the hype, BSI have changed little in terms of making speedway a globally, marketed sport. It remains focused on a small handful of countries, and even within those countries, it is not mainstream at all (and that includes Poland). To be fair, I don't think this is entirely the fault of BSI because speedway has always been a working class sport that hasn't been able to leverage patronage in the way (say) cricket has. I will acknowledge they have been far more successful than the BSPA in terms of obtaining television and sponsorship money, although it's nothing like in the same league as some other 'minority' sports that had similar followings to speedway in the past. At the end of the day, speedway really only has an substantial audience in Britain, Poland, Sweden and possibly Denmark. There may also be a possibility to better exploit the likes of Australia, Germany and Russia, but that really is about it in terms of marketing potential. Many grand plans for a full-time SGP were postulated years ago, but I feel they have never come to fruition for precisely this reason.

I heard that ten years ago.

For what end though? To enrich BSI/IMG? The top-level of practically every other sport is run by the national federations for the benefit of the whole sport, and even where it isn't, they usually accure substantial licence fees from the commercial rights holders. Great, so BSI/IMG are bringing-in GBP 4 million in sponsorship and television money every year, but so what if the rest of the sport sees none of it? Yes, because it's a completely different sport to speedway, not to mention that it actually undermines your argument. NASCAR runs a whole host of competitions, from the Nextel Cup down to grassroot events, recognising that it can't just skim the cream off the top of motorsport without investing in driver development as well. Yes, because undoubtedly little will have changed in terms of the inequitable set-up.

Unless of course they find they've been sold something of a turkey. Time will tell I guess... Personally, I believe individual speedway racing will prove to have a limited market, but I certainly have no problem if IMG can leverage the SGP into a full-time self-financing series. It's the current setup to which I object.

Much bigger crowds and good, errr.. sponsorship. I could be wrong, but don't many teams run in municipally-provided stadiums as well?

And again I ask, in what way would British speedway giving-up its prime race nights for the benefit of the SGP, be beneficial to the sport? It gets nothing from the SGP in return, so why should it run on days that are inconvenient for its fans? I'm talking about if all major national leagues (British, Polish, Swedish) gave them the ultimatum, because none of them make any money out of the SGP.

Because that is the prime day for running speedway in Britain. So they do it for love, do they? No doubt it does, because at the moment they can have their cake and eat it. I wonder though, how many would prioritise the world championship if they were told they have to choose between it or league racing?

The choice of race day in Polish and Swedish leagues is a happy coincidence, and was settled upon years ago (long before the SGP was even thought of). Sport in Catholic countries is traditionally staged on a Sunday, which explains the choice of raceday in Poland. In the case of Sweden, midweek sport is more practical because of the very long daylight hours during the summer in northerly latitudes, and Tuesdays (for the Swedish Elite League) were settled upon because that was the one day when most Swedish riders didn't compete in the British leagues. It was probably luck that Poland raced on the one day when no BL track rode, and perhaps is one of the contributory factors towards it's success after the fall of the Iron Curtain. It was able to recruit the best riders precisely because they didn't have any commitments on its traditional race day, whereas had it traditionally run on (say) a Saturday, it might well have been a different story. As it happens, the SGP will start to cause problems with Polish leagues if it expands much further. The reserve day is scheduled for Sundays, and a Saturday GP rainoff could potentially devastate a round of the Polish League. And again I ask, where do those riders who compete in the BEL earn most of their money? The SGP or the BEL?

The main problem is that the World Final was run into the ground during the latter years, thus justifying the case that GPs were needed. If you hold a major event in the middle of nowhere, it stands to reason that you're going to limit your audience. However, the last World Final held in a big stadium was Munich in 1989, and even that got 50,000 fans in an era of declining speedway attendances. I think the 1991 and 1992 World Finals held at Ullevi and Wroclaw (medium-sized stadiums) respectively got around 25,000 fans each, but then we had Pocking and Vojens which were 10,000 capacity venues in out-of-the-way places. Had the Millenium Stadium been around in the 1990s, then perhaps a World Final there might have got 40,000 fans as well.

And of course you believe everything they tell you, just like you believe everything our government tells you? They also said they'd dropped big venues (such as Ullevi and Stockholm) because of the problems of preparing an artificial track in bad weather (what excuse did they have for the covered Hamar stadium then? ), but it's far more likely those venues just weren't paying. Of course they're going to put a positive spin on things, but that doesn't mean their explanations aren't largely b***ocks. I seem to recall the riders didn't especially want the knockout format when it was introduced, but that didn't stop it being used for several years because BSI apparently considered it more exciting at the time. Why was there suddenly a reversion to a format that had previously been denounced as old-fashioned and boring, but just conveniently allowed the participating riders to get a pay rise for the first time in years, without actually having to increase the overall amount of prize money being paid-out? Now I happen to prefer the current format, and I'd have done exactly the same as BSI if I were in their shoes, but neither would I have been shameless enough to have pretended it was some wonderful innovation either.

I'd say that was the main reason, although there might be an argument that television and sponsors didn't like the possibility of their favourite riders going-out of a GP after just two rides. A while back, BSI were taking legal action to recover money owed by one of the sponsors of the Polish GP, which was indicated as being about GBP 91K.

I actually don't disagree with you, and it is indeed easy to knock, but let's not pretend that any of the major SGP sponsors are bluechip companies. Whilst companies are only in it because they happen like going to speedway, rather than because speedway helps them sell their products, I can't really see how the sport is really going to hit the big time. If I watch something that is sponsored by (say) a major brand of beer, it might well remind me that I fancy a pint of that. However, I don't watch the SGP and think I must have my office lift fixed.

Errr.. like Malilla, Daugvapils and Lonigo? Not for BSI it wasn't. It was the local promoter that bankrupted himself. They changed the race format to make it cheaper to stage the GPs. 24 riders cost too much, and the riders hadn't had a pay rise since the SGP started. The new Eskilstuna stadium was funded by the sale of the old stadium in the town centre, and was planned to be a purpose-built facility years before BSI came along. Except it undoubtedly won't be Fiat proper. It'll be a local dealership I'd imagine. Dansk Metal is a workers' union, so hardly likely to be a major sponsor (I'd be pretty annoyed if I found-out my subscriptions were being used to subsidise a multi-millionaire), and it's difficult to tell the size of online companies. They could be pretty small in reality. I'm not suggesting that BSI haven't done anything good with the SGP, but you can spin their supposed achievements either way.

You could technically win a traditional individual meeting with just 8 points (after a runoff), and without winning a race. With respect to the SGP, unless you award for 1st place in a single GP, more points than for eleven 2nd places, then it will always be theoretically possible to have a world champion without actually winning a GP. Why is it actually necessary for world champion to win a GP anyway, if they're more consistent than any other rider over the course of the season?

In fact, it's a shame they haven't made much more of this competition.

And as a matter of interest, what sort of publicity do you get for your sponsorship?

Undoubtedly not, although they'd lose a few grand in rights fees. Is it any fairer that the SGP takes the plum dates from the national leagues (and particularly the BEL)? In any case, there would always be some sort of world championship, even if the national leagues ran it themselves under their own auspices. There's no obligation on any employer to allow an employee to have another job if it means they're unavailable for work on the days they're contracted to work. There is undoubtedly a lack of vision on the part of the national leagues, or they have been 'placated' in some manner. However, there is absolutely no reason in principle why they couldn't collectively run the SGP themselves, with any profits divided amongst themselves. BSI don't do anything especially clever, and certainly now the sport has demonstrated there's a television audience for it, there's even less reason for them to be involved. In sports such as cricket, it's accepted that domestic competitions are disrupted by Test and ODI matches because these are run by the national boards and bring-in the money that is used to subsidise the clubs. However, I struggle to think of any other sport that allows its domestic competitions to be disrupted without any recompense whatsover, and particularly not to enrich a private organisation with no other links to the sport. They attract big crowds to about three GPs, and moderate crowds to a couple of others. The other GPs are no better than some domestic league audiences. As for the big sponsors, precisely who are they? Even your average county cricket side probably has bigger and more recognisable names.

It's never that simple, despite your attempts to make it so. Except speedway has an entirely different structure to other motorcycling disciplines. The other leagues (particularly the Polish leagues) might get unhappy if the SGP expands and they start losing their riders for matches during GP weekends, or those riders get injured by riding in the GPs. My point though, was that they wouldn't actually lose the riders. It the riders were made to choose between the SGP and league racing, I'd wager 100% of them would opt for league racing because they couldn't make a living in the SGP alone. I'm not suggesting they revert to an old-style world championship. I'm suggesting that with a bit of initiative, they could run the SGP themselves for their own benefit. Well even putting aside the issues relating to the terms on which they have the SGP, I do not think BSI are actually that great at promotion. They are probably better than most of the current shower, but then it could be argued that organising 11 events with the pick of the best dates and riders is easier than running weekly speedway on cold, wet October evenings. I could go on about crappy websites, track preparation, cancelled meetings with fans in the stadium, and total lack of promotion of most of the events, but I suspect you just don't wish to see it (just as I tend to see the downsides of their involvement). The bottom line is that if you enjoy, that's great, but I'm afraid I remain to be convinced.

As I stated earlier, I'm not against the principle of the GPs, just the manner in which they're constituted.

It is not specifically about giving money to British speedway, but to the competitions that do the recruiting and training, and provide the riders with the living wage. When the SGP is a full-time circus from which riders can exclusively make a reasonable living, then your point will be valid. Different sports and different structures. Where are the national (or international) league competitions in other motor sports from which the competitors earn the bulk of their income? Just as you have every right to enjoy the SGP, I have a right to point-out how a private organisation is allowed to profit from a sport without returning anything to it, and arguably to its overall detriment. I don't blame BSI/IMG for it, but the people who sold it off.

Again you miss the point. The multi-disciplinary nature of motorcycle sport means that national federations are frequently represented by non-speedway people, many of whom represent amateur arms of the sport. In the case of the UK, it's the ACU which is dominated by road racing and grasstrack people. More to the point, the constitutional set-up of the FIM gives as much weight to the vote of Outer Mongolia as it does to the Britain, Sweden or Poland. Is it right that countries that don't stage speedway, can vote to make decisions that affect the countries that actually have extensive professional competitions? It could only happen if the major speedway countries got tired of non-speedway people making decisions at the FIM, and decided to run their own competitions outside the jurisdictions of national federations. If the British, Polish and Swedish leagues made a decision not to employ SGP riders, that would be the end of the SGP. There isn't the money to support a full-time SGP circus, and it's only viable because the national leagues effectively subsidise it. BSI do nothing especially clever, and nothing that the national speedway leagues couldn't have done if any of them had any vision (which is of course the problem ).

And who gave them the power? The collective nations of the FIM, most of whom don't stage speedway. More specifically, three of the four countries that have professional leagues voted against the introduction of the SGP, but were outvoted by ten federations that only stage a handful of meetings per year. In addition, whilst I'm not suggesting it happened in the case of the SGP, but you only need to look at the examples of FIFA and the IAAF as to how a constituency can be captured by commercial organisations interested in obtaining the rights to their competitions. That isn't the issue. The issue was whether the World Championship was really the FIM's to sell, given the riders are mostly developed and employed by three or four countries. We shall see...

Yes, but it's not just about them, is it? Why do people feel it's acceptable for them to ride roughshod over the rest of the speedway business? Anyway to the point in question. I undoubtedly had more interest in the World Championship when we had the World Final system. There was just something more exciting about watching riders from your team progress through the various rounds, hoping they'd make the Final. That said, I don't fundamentally have anything against the GP system, although I think there are far too many rounds (8 would be more than enough, and I'd personally prefer 6). However, I do think the way the FIM practically gave-away the SGP to BSI was pretty disgraceful, and what goes back into speedway as a whole? [To be fair, the World Championship circa 1995 probably had little commercial value, and BSI probably generated a fair bit of the income themselves. However, it's just a shame that the promoters of the major speedway leagues couldn't have come-up with the same idea themselves.]

Organising events in Russia is a nightmare. Every last official sticks their hand-out for sort of payoff, otherwise important stuff tends to get 'delayed', or people take inopportune 'holidays'.

Rumour has it that it was some contractual agreement from when BSI took over the SGP. We can speculate why this might be the case, but 'smoothing the waters' may have had something to do with it.