mikebv

I remember 'stevie g' pushing the camera away at the end of the palace game earlier this year when he was trying to console suarez, the last thing he needed was a cameraman putting his camera in his face at that time..... mind you a few weeks earlier at old trafford the scouse git ran over to a camera and kissed it when liverpool scored so sod him!!!! ....

usa beating aussie!!!!!

stopping when he thought he saw a red light happened to nicholls before I believe in the swc??... shame for the aussies...

it would be thirdy two to gread bridain... twendy nine australia... and twendy eighd to the usa... your a gread made kelvin... lot o work for charidee obviously but doesnt like to talk about id....

SOMEONE SIGN NICO F*****G COVATTI TONIGHT FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they'll never shut up otherwise did wells throw that one????

well done nigel.. missed the tapes 'holder' not being moved and thought harris was complaining about batchelor...

seen a lot worse meetings than this to be fair... KL is 'too fast' on the pole line when you get a decent rider in front, but when the weather cools it may get a bit more grippy on the outside... at least gb look like they are 'up for it'.... go steady!!!!!!

sadly you are correct... you can just imagine this fortnights excuse for those fans staying away?? 'people are staying in watching the commonwealth games'......

absolutely agree.. I'd go even further and be more radical and make the sport a 'one make series', all bikes having 'box standard' engines and parts, and any changes to any of the kit other than say foot pegs, handlebars and mudguards, need to be authorised by the governing authority.. The same governing authority would also buy the parts and sell them on to the riders to ensure no 'specials' can be brought into the sport and starting the snowball effect of increasing costs again by everyone else then wanting the same.. In this modern day and age the governing authority could even use video conferencing to watch the parts they have sent being fitted to the bike 100's of miles away!!., Catalogue every part with a serial number and the machine examiners would just need to use a checklist on each bike used at every meeting to guarantee that the bikes are as equal as they could be... You could even, something similar to F1 and other motor sports, have restrictions on work that can be done on the engines with maybe each team only having 'x' amount of tuning sessions per season with each team having to prove clear transparency when they want to do this? Pie in the sky bollox probably but something very radical needs to done as you simply cannot keep paying out 'Football Championship' salaries and costs on attendances that most 'Conference league' teams would find laughable.. Brum?, Eastie?, next please?? Last one out, turn the lights off...

The ten No1's in each of the ten teams roughly between them take £1 million a year out of the sport in this country, with the 'sky money' over the years basically going straight to them.. Combined, do they bring in £1 million a year through the turnstiles?? I would suggest no way near.... Years ago, PC, Mauger, Olsen, Penhall, Carter, Nielsen, Gunderson, Crump etc would definitely put 'extra bums on seats' when they visited your track, this was in the main due to you only having one chance a year to see them unless they rode for your team.. Nowadays on TV you can see all the top riders, via live gb league speedway, live gp's, live euro champs, live swc, live swedish league, bet 365 and loads of streaming channels for danish and polish league racing... On virtually any given day of the week you can now watch the top riders compete where you used to see maybe highlights four times a year on world of sport of the 'worlds best'.... Familiarity has definitely bred contempt to such an extent that surely now it doesnt make any economic sense whatsoever to have such blatantly unsustainable salaries being paid over here and the time has come to part with the gp riders?? And given the fact that often these riders win by the proverbial mile when they gate it could be argued that without them racing may be closer too? I am sure without gp riders then 'inferior riders' will try and raise their salary package as they become No1, however if the promoters have any strength of character they will use this situation to reduce costs in the league by a massive amount... Most fans at the end of the day just want to see four riders in every race of similar ability levels, with all riders belonging to the two teams advertised and the meetings themselves taking place on the same consistent evening every week, maybe losing the gp 'stars' is a price worth paying to deliver this?.. As after all, you will still have them beamed into your front rooms from around the globe a good few nights of the week...

However guests were an 'exception' rather than the 'rule' that sadly it has become, with some matches now having 50% of the competitors on show belonging to 'someone else'.... For me last years' EL play offs were a glaring example of how farcical it now is trying to keep any integrity within League speedway in this country.... Watching Troy Batchelor's Swindon team getting knocked out in the play offs by Poole when a few weeks previous I had watched him on Sky top scoring in a 46 -44 win for Poole against Wolves, really brought it home what a farce it is to run a team sport with such rules.. Basically, by his actions that night Batchelor made a massive contribution in reducing his own, his teams, and his fans chances of winning the EL title as quite simply without his efforts in that match Poole would subsequently not have qualified for the play offs... The sport isn't taken seriously by the national media and many of its own 'die hard' fans have become disillusioned with it and voted with their feet accordingly....... Well, any sport that allows, by its own rules, the delivery of the situation above, can hardly wonder why really can it?...

why do people see bsi as the 'evil empire'?? what they do is simply showcase the sport at its very best and (hopefully) make a few quid though their actions.. nothing wrong with that.. just because those who run speedway in blighty are absolutely crap at promoting the sport to the same level, shouldnt mean bsi get blamed for all of british speedways shortcomings..

wow..... what a sport..................!!! how can anyone not get massive crowds for a sport as exciting as this one...?? to do that would really be an incredible level of incompetence given what you have to work with.. wouldnt it??

as everyone knows, almost circular tracks with wide bends always lends itself to great close racing due to the riders going 'sideways' most of the time meaning track craft is paramount rather than just straight line speed.... makes you wonder why then when new tracks are designed they make them with long straights and tight narrow bends..

I agree, market forces should dictate... However, where speedway makes a balls up is 'trying' to have some equalisation of strength yet the system it uses simply does not deliver it, hence the team who tops the league each season are 50 - 60 points ahead of the bottom club.... Sadly money will always ensure that we get the 'haves' and the 'have nots' however with home wins so important in speedway just to maintain a crowd level, the 'have nots' stretch themselves financially, often to breaking point.. When they still keep losing due to not being able to strengthen up to the required levels to compete due to the abject system used for team strengths, they then end up with still a losing team but now a more expensive one and an ever reducing fan base due to the continued defeats... As a business plan, it could not be any worse... Speedway should either have a 100% water tight salary cap or team strength system or simply not bother with either.. Half assed systems are no use whatsoever..

I seem to remember in the not too dark, distant past (circa 94 - 96 I think) when the bspa imposed a 'strict' points money pay band for the EL that every team had to sign up to, no 'ifs, buts, or maybes', if you were competing the playing field regarding pay was level... If memory serves it was a max of 45 quid a point for heat leaders..(?) I did hear at the time that one world class rider when informed of this told his team that there was no chance of him riding for that, as if he scored the same points as he had delivered the season previous then there would be a 'shortfall' of over 100k in his earnings!!! The club therefore ensured he was sponsored by some company (I seem to think it was one bought 'off the shelf')? and then the said 'company' sponsored him to the tune of... Well I'll let you guess... He then rode for the £45 a point.... As all the other top riders in the world still rode in the UK that year, I presume others were well 'sponsored' too... When trying to create a 'level playing field' you sadly will never stop those who see themselves as 'more equal than the others'.....

great to see someone coming on here engaging with his public and seeking feedback... sadly, it does appear that sometimes when you do that and give people your honest answer, 'one or two' will decide that it's not the answer they want so continue to moan.. of course as a speedway fan simply moving further away from a speaker to what they believe to be an acceptable volume level is for many, beyond what could be considered acceptable, 'I have watched the racing for 30/40/50/60/70 years (delete as applicable) from this spot so why should I move' etc etc..... and to be fair having to remove the tartan blanket covering the knees, putting away the tartan flask into the bespoke (original) 'gola' bag, and folding up your garden chair (with net cup holder) is simply maybe too much of an effort, especially when you are making sure none of your 115 metal badges fall off your sleeveless denim jacket... keep going Chris, from what I have heard you seem to be at least trying to bring an 'evening at the speedway' into the 21st century with regards to 'off track' entertainment,, (and if all else fails mate hit 'em with 'hi ho silver lining' and 'come on eileen', they'll love it)!!

'f'naaar f'naaar mr gimlet'..... 'you may laugh young finbarr, but I saw him pushing his helmet at him three times, if he hadn't kept slapping it away there'd have been a right mess all over his face'... 'gwap, gwap, kwak, kwak, fubble, fubble' etc etc etc.... something to talk about after the meeting has finished? might add 'something' to the next meeting that both are in so attracts a few more '50/50's'..? no-one got hurt, adds a bit of spice to a meeting? never catch on, in fact... 'it's a disgrace, blah, blah, role models, blah blah, young people watching, blah, blah, we're not not football, blah, blah, blah, should be banned' etc etc etc ad nauseam...

must admit when I saw that I had received notification that someone had 'quoted' me I was hoping it had read.... 'they wear them back to front because if they wore them 'peak first' their caps would get blown off'..... still, if they don't get down the thread this far before replying, it may still happen..

BV used to have the riders wearing helmets on parade but I have noticed that they now no longer do so.. I have noticed though that they all wear their baseball caps back to front so maybe that is the new health and safety regs..?

el weathero weekendo au meteorogico paoulo feesh... eastiebourno... scorchio.... ryehouso... scorchio.... glasgowo.... p1ssingdowno....

correct... add in also the seemingly inevitable 'tactical call offs' which seems to blight the sport too and you very easily find yourself with an issue whereby people simply can no longer be bothered as it simply becomes 'not worth the effort' to attend... it is interesting though how when we come to the season's end, and matches need to be raced to ensure teams qualify for the play offs, matches seem to take place at all costs... late september/early october must be a safer time to ride speedway in the wet I presume?! or maybe it's a different kind of rain that falls!?

and therein lies a major issue for speedway in this country... in the 'good old days' (?) if there was a chance of rain or even if it was raining leading up to the start time you would decide on the likely hood of the meeting taking place and if '50/50' was the call you still attended as you felt that the riders, promoters, refs and managers would do everything they could to put the meetings on and a rain off was something they wanted to avoid at all cost... now if its not at least 90/10 in the favour of the meeting taking place you simply (especially away having been turned over more than once) decide it simply ain't worth attending given the costs including fuel that are involved.. . still, those who run speedway can blame the world cup this year for the inevitable yearly drop in attendances rather than wake up and try fix the fundamental operational issues, which are the true reasons people leave the sport annually.....

the sport must have had what? over 10 million quid from SKY over the past 15 years or so? maybe more? yet not one set of track covers purchased among all of the EL tracks..... a sport so effected by the vagaries of the uk weather hasnt developed a way of getting meetings on when lots of call offs happen even though weather at the scheduled start time is perfect for speedway... once again british speedway reaping its rewards for its forward planning and the foresight of its rulers...... foolishly I paid to get in tonight a kirky lane, the track was wet but I have seen worse.. years ago, chuck some sawdust down, don the boiler suits and lets give it a go was the mantra.. simply now as a fan you look at the forecasts and often say 'sod it' if it is anything remotely like an evening that may have a downpour as basically you fear getting shafted..... and a sport with fans (die hards too) who think like that has real problems...